I am Jacob, for I try to manipilate and deceive every person I meet.
I am Gomer, for I whore myself after other gods and do not seek the One True God.
I am Abraham, for I lie when it suits me.
I am Esau, for I am willing to trade things of eternal worth for worthless things.
I am Cain, for my anger gets the best of me at times.
I am Moses, for I do not believe God when He says He can speak through me.
I am Judas, for I am so often ready to betray my Savior for so little.
I am David, for I sin and try to cover it up, rather than confess and be made whole.
I am Forgiven, because Jesus died for me.
I am Beloved, for God has declared me so.
I am a child of God, blood-bought, forgiven, redeemed, set free, chosen, loved.

A friend of mine posed a question: “What if God calls me to do something that I don’t feel adequate to do? What if God calls me to a place or a person or a task that is beyond my normal ability?”

The normal response is that God will never give you more than you can handle. The truth is that God will never give you more than He can handle through the one who is available and surrendered.

One of my favorite sayings is that God doesn’t call the equipped, but He equips the called. The moment you step out in faith, you find you are able. It’s like that moment in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when Indy steps out into what looks like nothing that he can see the pathway. When we show our willingness to obey, God gives us the ability to obey.

My friend pointed out that David wasn’t anywhere near the best fighter in the Israelite army when he stepped out to face Goliath. Moses wasn’t a polished orator when he agreed to lead the people of God out of Egypt and slavery. Noah didn’t have any experience at all building boats before he agreed to build that ark.

God does miracles through those who rely less on talent than on trust, and less on skill than surrender. In other words, we can only do small things with great love. It’s God who multiplies those small efforts like loaves and fishes into something miraculous.

Here’s the link to my friend sharing his heart about those who don’t feel up to God’s calling on their lives:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/617081046991263

I heard somewhere that exercise is the most underutilized antidepressant. I’d add that getting out in nature is key to restoring tranquility and calm after a long day. For me, it was neither depression nor a bad day that got me hiking in the woods today. On a day like today, how could I not?

I got passed by a couple of guys that were doing some serious power hiking, but my object isn’t about speed. It’s about taking it all in and paying attention to what’s around me. I’ll linger if I see a creature like this deer hanging around the path. After all, it’s not a race but an experience.

It’s like the old scratch and sniff, but way better. It’s about the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feeling. It’s about somewhere in the middle of the city of Nashville where it’s like you’ve entered another world away from traffic jams and offices and the daily grind.

My advice to you is to get outside and be in nature. Let the beauty of God’s creation captivate your soul and enrich your senses. Put away your devices and headphones and be silent and just listen to what God is whispering through His world.

“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21, The Message).

If it seems like it’s been a while since I’ve had any vinyl shenanigans, it has. My turntable has been out of commission for a bit for the reason that I couldn’t quite figure out how to put a new needle on. Me with a Master’s degree and can’t put a needle on a record player.

But I took it to a record store and the employee had compassion on me. So now I can play records again. Or I can play my vinyl, as the cool kids say.

I still say there’s something magical about dropping the needle on the first song and letting the music take over. I don’t think that will ever, ever get old.

You know I’m all about heading out on a Friday after work for a wild and crazy night of painting the town beige. I’m all about burning the midnight oil, just as long as that burning takes place around 9 or 9:30 at the latest.

But sometimes, it’s good to stay home with the cat. Especially on a day that’s grey and lonely. As much as I wanted to be out and about and experiencing things, the constant sound of the rain on my windows confirms that I made the right call by staying in.

You can tell by the picture that my cat was also pleased with my decision. She got more lap time, and I got another quality therapy session at very affordable rates.

I like people who like animals, whether those animals are dogs or cats or gerbils or hamsters or whatever. People who like animals are automatically better people in my book because it shows they have at least a little bit of empathy.

Now go pet your dog. Or your cat. Or your chinchilla.

It was before the official beginning. It was even before the soft launch. Nine years ago today, The Church at Avenue South held their very first service on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014. It was right after we agreed to lease the space at 2510 Franklin Pike formerly known as the Acuff-Rose building.

As you can tell from the picture, the building was a mere skeleton. We set up 70 folding chairs in what would later become the children’s educational area known as The Grove. We had dreams of what God could do in the Berry Hill area of Nashville, but little did we know that God would do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything we could ask or think or dream.

Fast forward nine years, and we are on the cusp of moving into our very own building. It will be a new chapter in the exciting story that God is writing through the faithful obedience of His people to reach the city of Nashville. If it’s anything like the last chapter, it will be filled with the unexpected twists and turns but also full of hope. We will see God moving in ways we never could have imagined. I suspect it will be hard at times, but it will be worth it to have a front row seat to watch God change the lives of people and households and neighborhoods. And it all started with 70 chairs.

I was raised in a Christian home, but that’s not why I am a Christian. I know lots of people who had similar upbringings who now have nothing to do with faith of any kind. Being raised in a Christian home and going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than hanging around auto mechanics and car repair shops makes you an expert with car repair.

I am not a Christian because I was smart enough to figure it out. It’s not because I knew the right people. It’s simply because Jesus sought me when I was a stranger, to borrow the words from an old hymn. I love God because He first loved me even before I knew what love was.

I became a Christian by the grace of God, and I remain a Christian by the grace of God. It’s not about my big faith in God but my faith in a big God. When I get to heaven, I won’t get in because I was a superstar believer or a legend in the faith. They won’t say things like “Well, if anyone deserves to be here, it’s this guy” because no one deserves to be in heaven except God the Father and Jesus.

My reason for being in heaven will be the song that I will be singing into eternity:

“When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages:
Jesus led me all the way;
This my song through endless ages:
Jesus led me all the way.”

I was reminded today of a church sign that I saw a long time that make me chortle. That’s when you do a cross between a chuckle and a snort. The sign read “Pobody is nerfect.” I love that.

Nobody is perfect. No one will ever even get close to perfect in this lifetime. God calls for us to strive for maturity and completion, not perfection. And isn’t it telling that perfection is not a fruit of the Spirit. But joy is. So is peace. So is patience.

So much of the life of faith isn’t about getting to a place and resting on your laurels, thinking you’ve finally got the Christian life down pat and can stop working on your life and start “helping” others by pointing out their faults and shortcomings. The life of following Jesus is a daily process of being a little less my sin and a little more like Jesus. It’s a little more of joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and self-control each day.

There has only been one perfect person, and He didn’t spend His time lording it over everyone else. He came not to be served but to serve. He came to give His life as a ransom for many. He came to heal the sick and to save the lost and to break bread with sinners and to wash dirty feet. And He calls us to do the same.

He said that whatever you’ve done to the least of these, you’ve done it unto Jesus. So maybe we need a little less striving after perfection and more serving of the people. And loving Jesus.

“The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of ‘little Christs’, all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented— as an author invents characters in a novel—all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to ‘be myself’ without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call ‘Myself’ becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call ‘My wishes’ become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men’s thoughts or even suggested to me by devils. Eggs and alcohol and a good night’s sleep will be the real origins of what I flatter myself by regarding as my own highly personal and discriminating decision to make love to the girl opposite to me in the railway carriage. Propaganda will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideas. I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I like to believe: most of what I call ‘me’ can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

Wise words, indeed!