In case you missed it, you still have a few minutes to get your taco for Cinco de Mayo.

Or you could just wait until the next Taco Tuesday in a few days.

Or you could just remember that if you try hard and believe in yourself, every day is Taco Tuesday.

Now you have 21 minutes left of this Cinco de Mayo. Better get moving if you want that taco.

Who are the people in your life that come to mind most often? Who are the people that when you hear their names, you smile? What is is about them that causes you to remember them fondly and brings them to your mind regularly?

Be the person who you would like to remember. How? You treat them like you would want to be treated. You love them like you want to be loved. You do for them what the people you remember most in a good way did for you.

The best way to show gratitude for someone who’s no longer here is to be to someone else what they were to you. To show the kindness and generosity to another that they showed to you.

Chances are, the people who impacted you most and left the biggest impression on you were the ones who more than anyone else were trying to live like Jesus. So if you want to honor that legacy, you follow in their footsteps by following in the footsteps of Jesus and living like He did.

The way you do that is to let His life flow through you by the time you spend with Him just as those who loved you best spent time with you.

How would you like people to remember you? Maybe the better question is how would you like people to remember the Jesus they saw in you?

“A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.

That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say: ‘I make God visible.’ But others who see us together can say: ‘They make God visible.’ Community is where humility and glory touch” #henrinouwen

We still need community now as much as we ever did. We need each other. That’s why God instituted the Church as His mode of doing the life of faith. And when I say Church, I don’t mean a building of bricks and mortar but a gathering of God’s people fulfilling God’s purposes in the strength of God’s power.

If you ever watch nature shows, then you know that predators go after the isolated prey. They don’t attack the herds and the groups as much as they attack the ones who fall behind. Satan’s greatest strategy in luring you into temptation isn’t in what he offers or even how he offers it but in getting you to fight him alone.

Community is where two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus, because that’s where Jesus promises to be every single time. Community is what drew people to Jesus in those early days when they saw how much those believers loved each other. Community is where God calls people to the ministry, to missions, and to salvation.

“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” (African Proverb)

“A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

Tonight we sent off another longtime Kairos attender and volunteer. He was one that I looked forward to seeing every week for our friendly sports debates. God has called him to a new season in a new place, but he’s another in a long line of people God put in my life preparing me for a future that I’ve only been able to glimpse but only God can see.

It’s amazing how creative God is in the way He weaves people in and out of your story. Sometimes, it’s for five minutes. Sometimes, it’s five years. You never know the lessons you will learn from the most unlikely places if you keep your eyes on Jesus and not on other people. When you stop chasing after people, you allow the right people to catch you.

It’s funny how the people you start off not liking become the ones God uses the most to change your attitude and your heart. You start off praying for God to change them or to change your circumstances but God is more interested in changing you. In time, you might see these people through a new set of eyes and realize that they’re angels in disguise and some of the best people you’ll ever know.

Hopefully, this will be the last farewell for a while, but I’m blessed and thankful to have known these people and to see them following God’s call for His glory and their more complete fulfillment in a new way. I have memories and footprints in my heart that I keep always.

I’m actually not against going to a breeder to buy a dog. I probably couldn’t afford it, but if you can then more power to you. I think that if you’re looking for a dog, the first place you should look is in a shelter. Those dogs (and cats) have lots of love left to give. They’re the most appreciative and grateful for anything that you give them.

If you’ve ever lost a pet, then you know how heart-wrenching it is. It feels like a piece of you is gone. It’s almost like an amputation where you still feel phantom pains in the arm or leg that’s gone. There will always be a void after your beloved pet goes.

But while you can never replace that pet, you can take all the love and pay it forward to the next animal. You can fill the void (even if not completely) by giving another dog or cat a place. They say that grief is just love with nowhere to go, and one way to help the grieving process along is to give your love an outlet.

So many animals in shelters need a home. Who knows what led to them being there, but the point is that they don’t have to stay there. You can be the one to bring one of them home.

Again, buying from a breeder is not a sin. In fact, it’s a very good thing. But please consider a shelter animal first. They need love just as much as any pure breed.

Over a year after we purchased the property at 901 Acklen Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee, we had our long-awaited, much-anticipated groundbreaking for The Church at Avenue South and our new building.

It was a long time coming. At times, it felt like I was a kid again around the holiday season thinking that Christmas would never get here. Fairly recently, I had been having doubts about whether we would ever get that last approval from the city to begin our renovations and additions.

But I’m so thankful that God had this particular day in mind long before it ever entered our minds. I’m sure one day we will look back and see that God’s timing on this was as perfect as it has ever been on anything He’s ever done. One day we will look back and say that this was the beginning of something special that God did in the city of Nashville and in the state of Tennessee.

I kept thinking about Psalm 126 when the psalmist talks about the people of God returning to their homeland after decades in exile. “It seemed like a dream, too good to be true . . . We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune” (Psalm 126:1,2).

It did seem like a dream. Except this was something I could never have dreamed of when we launched almost nine years ago. This was God doing above and beyond anything we could ask or imagine. This was where God had bigger dreams for us than we had for ourselves.

I still hear the refrain from the old song God of This City in my mind from time to time:

“For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this city”

And I want to be there when they happen.

Sometimes for me it helps to have my prayers written down. It helps me focus to read the words that other saints have prayed through the years all over the world. Sometimes, these prayers echo my own thoughts and express my longings better than I can at the moment.

Here’s another short prayer that you can recite when you can’t find words of your own to say to God:

“Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
    Yes. Yes. Yes” (Matthew 6:9-13, The Message).

Sometimes, it’s hard to understand how evil seems to win every day. It seems like good people suffer while those who do whatever they want whenever they want without regard for morals or consequences seem to prosper. It all seems so unfair.

Someone goes into a private school and shoots and kills 3 little children. Another faithful pastor sees his wife suffer the effects of a stroke and watches her painful road to recovery. Still so many others have seen loved ones slip away before their time.

But Jesus promises that one day we will understand. One day it will all make sense. One day, whatever we’ve lost won’t even begin to compare with what we gained in the end.

I read a beautiful verse recently that I hadn’t noticed before:

“The righteous perish,
    and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
    and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
    to be spared from evil.
Those who walk uprightly
    enter into peace;
    they find rest as they lie in death” (Isaiah 57:1-2, NIV).

What seems cruel to us may very well be a mercy. Those taken are spared from the increasing evil of these days. Instead of chaos and turmoil, they enter into peace and rest.

Ultimately, God never promises us answers because He Himself is the answer we need above all others. Apart from Him, no answer could explain or satisfy our longing and desire. Nothing else could sooth our holy discontent in this beautiful but broken world.

Sometimes, you need something in your week to help you along. You need something to look forward to during the week when you’re mired in a Monday and can’t yet see Friday on the horizon.

I’ve started a new tradition. Thursday is when I stop off at Caliber Coffee Company and pick up a specialty coffee. One week, I ordered ahead the day before and got breakfast along with my sugary caffeinated beverage.

It’s not super spiritual or profound. It’s a small way to celebrate surviving the challenges of another work week. It means that I made it to Thursday, or as I like to call it, Friday Eve.

If you live or work near Donelson, I recommend Caliber Coffee Company, located off of Lebanon Pike just past McGavock Pike. It’s got a drive thru, or if you’re old school like me, you can go inside to pick up your order or even take advantage of their unique ambiance.

I definitely recommend having a weekly tradition to make those marathon work weeks a little more bearable. Because sometimes that office coffee isn’t going to cut it.

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.