It must be hard to be a feline. I mean all these people want to pick you up and cuddle you all the time. People want to stroke your soft fur non stop. Plus, there are so few hours in the day to get in all the prerequisite napping and laying around that cats like to do.

In the cat world, staying awake is apparently a chore. It’s so much easier to just let your eyes close and let the nap take over. Honestly, have you ever seen a cat with insomnia? Have you ever witnessed a cat who couldn’t sleep? Not me.

My cat Peanut would probably get in a lot more napping if it weren’t for all those meddling people — especially me. Sometimes, she’s the Greta Garbo of the feline world — she just wants to be left alone so she can sleep and dream of endless tuna and boneless chickens.

The cat life is so tough.

So apparently sometimes you can go back.

It’s been roughly a year and a half since the last Kairos retreat at Willow Pond, but here I am here again.

This time instead of sleeping on a love seat in the basement, I’m in an actual bed in an upstairs bedroom. It’s glorious.

It’s also an almost entirely new cast of characters this time around. There are very few of us left from the last time. But that’s okay.

The hope is to refresh and renew as we seek God’s heart on the future direction of Kairos. Plus, a periodic change of scenery is good for the soul.

God is good, and I am tired. Good night, everyone.

So apparently sometimes you can go back.

It’s been roughly a year and a half since the last Kairos retreat at Willow Pond, but here I am here again.

This time instead of sleeping on a love seat in the basement, I’m in an actual bed in an upstairs bedroom. It’s glorious.

It’s also an almost entirely new cast of characters this time around. There are very few of us left from the last time. But that’s okay.

The hope is to refresh and renew as we seek God’s heart on the future direction of Kairos. Plus, a periodic change of scenery is good for the soul.

God is good, and I am tired. Good night, everyone.

I didn’t used to like naps. Back in the day when I was a small fry, I used to have to take naps, so I did everything I could to avoid them. I’d fake being asleep so I wouldn’t get in trouble, but I didn’t really and truly nap.

Now I wish I had rollover minutes for all those naps I pretended to take or outright skipped. These days those naps that I had to take but didn’t want to are one of my favorite parts of the day.

There’s nothing like a good nap on a dreary rainy Sunday afternoon. It’s a great feeling when you lie down at first not thinking you’ll really be able to fall asleep only to wake up an hour later like no time at all has passed. I must be getting old because I can pretty much count on my naps lasting just around an hour, even without an alarm to wake me up.

I do think part of good spiritual discipline is the ability to rest. God designed the Sabbath as a reminder that no one was meant to go 24/7 perpetually. Unlike my childhood, naps aren’t required. You can read a good book or listen to music or talk a walk outside or just sit and think.

But in my opinion, nothing beats a good nap when you’re weary.

That’s the best answer I’ve ever heard to the question of why bad things happen to good people. Honestly, none of us are good people. We are fallen people living in a fallen world. It’s not a pleasant or popular truth, but it’s true.

None of us are good enough to save ourselves. None of us are good enough to please God on our own. None of us — including me — deserve anything other than hell.

If we’re honest, we want a lot of what’s not good for us. We think a lot of thoughts that don’t qualify as good. We don’t have to be taught as little children how to be selfish and vengeful and bad. We’re born with a bent toward sin from the very beginning.

But Jesus took all the bad we deserved upon Himself. He actually volunteered to take our place. He took all the wrath of God that we deserved on that cross at Calvary and gave us the goodness that we could never hope to have left to ourselves.

It’s interesting that when the rich young ruler called Him Good Teacher, Jesus response was, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God.” In essence, Jesus was disqualifying Himself from merely being a good moral example and teacher. Either He’s God in the flesh or He’s not good.

And as it turns out, He’s our only hope.

“God is the only comfort. He is also the supreme terror: the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger—according to the way you react to it. And we have reacted the wrong way. . . . Of course, I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth—only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair” (C. S. Lewis).

I think of what Jesus said that in this world we will have suffering and trouble. It’s not a matter of if but when. It would have been so much nicer if Jesus has said something along the lines of how in this world we will have kittens or bunnies or rainbows or perpetual sunshine. But He didn’t.

The fact is that we live in a beautiful but broken world. We live in a fallen society and to be adjusted to a sick society is to be sick yourself. Nothing works like it’s supposed to work, especially us. God wants us eventually to be happy, but I believe more than that He wants us to be holy and whole. And the way to get to Christlikeness isn’t through comfort but most often through discomfort and pain and sometimes suffering.

I guess the closest analogy I can think of is working out and getting in shape. Usually, both of those involve being extremely sore the next day. I never knew anyone who lost weight and got into shape by only doing what made them feel comfortable and good. But the end result is always worth the effort and the pain.

What God is making us into involves the same kind of discomfort and pain, but the end result is so much better than simply having a better physical body that will still wear down and get old in the end. God’s end goal is us looking like Jesus and coming into all that He created us to be. That’s worth any amount of sacrifice or suffering.

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’m ready for Lent to start. I’m ready to begin my social media fast.

I’m in no way fed up with Facebook or done with Instagram. I actually love interacting with friends and seeing all the funny and creative gifs. There’s so much on there that can keep me occupied for hours and hours . . .

And there’s the problem. Lent is when I get my time back. Lent is me having more time to pray, to meditate, to sit still in the silence, to just be. I break my habit of picking up my devices every five minutes to see the latest posts or to see who liked my last offering.

I don’t get nearly as anxious from social media as I used to, but Lent is still a time for me to breathe more freely and to slow down and savor the moments of life more. I can actually pick up those things with pages called books and actually read one. Or two.

It’s where I make margin in my day and room in my thoughts to hear from God. My mind is less cluttered, less frantic, and more filled with peace and joy.

Some people fast from television. Some from sweets. Some, like me, from social media. It’s beautiful to be able willingly to sacrifice for a season to make room for God’s presence and God’s voice. I can’t pretend to understand all the ramifications from fasting, but I know that it is God-honoring and God honors those who honor Him.

Even if you don’t choose to do a Lent fast, I encourage you to take time away from phones and devices and social media and all things electronic. Give your brain time to rest and refresh. Go out in nature and enjoy what God has made. All that Facebook stuff will still be there when you get back.

I confess that I didn’t watch any of this year’s Grammy award ceremony except for the one tribute to Christine McVie and all the other musicians we lost this year. I didn’t see the infamous part where Sam Smith wore a top hat with devil horns on it.

I’ve often wondered why believers get so riled up when lost people act . . . well, lost. Why do we expect people who don’t know Jesus and don’t have the Holy Spirit inside of them to live Christian lives? Do we think that the Christian faith is merely about having better morals and nothing else?

I’m not suggesting that we should endorse music or movies that promote evil. I am suggesting that maybe we also don’t need to promote it by constantly drawing attention to it and going on about how horrible it was and how deeply offended we were by it.

Wouldn’t we be better off to promote the positive aspects of our faith instead? People aren’t drawn to Christ by learning what we’re against but what and who we’re for.

These are just my own thoughts. I don’t speak for anyone else. I admit that I could be wrong and I’m willing to keep an open mind. I know that Jesus loves Sam Smith and Kim Petras as much as He loves me or anyone else. I know that God is not willing that either of them should perish and be lost but that both of them come to repentance and saving faith in Jesus.

That’s what I’m really hoping and praying for.

It’s interesting that most of what I spend my time worrying about ends up not coming to pass. I’d say probably 90% of those possible worst case scenarios that keep me up at night never happen.

Further, most of what I worry about isn’t anything I can really control. Me getting worked up over certain stuff won’t make it go away or help in any way. All it does is steal my joy in the present.

All the time I spend in worry and anxiety could be better spent in prayer.

I get that sometimes it’s hard to pray when your stomach is in knots. But every time your thought leads to a worry, you can turn that worry into a petition. You can say, “Lord, you know how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking right now. Here’s where I am. Meet me in the middle of my worry and give me peace.”

I’ve learned the hard way that the worst way to handle worry is to tackle it alone. The best way is to find people to confide in who will help share your burdens. Even the very act of sharing your worries makes them less scary and makes you less anxious. Even if you feel you’re worked up over something you think is stupid or trivial, sharing it makes it seem less overwhelming.

Plus, the more you immerse yourself in God’s word, the less those anxious thoughts have room to take root and take hold of your mind. But above all, pray. Let God take your burdens instead of you pretending you don’t have them to seem more spiritual. God already knows.

I’m “borrowing” this from a friend’s social media post. It’s a great answer to the question of why anyone would bring up children in these times:

“Don’t feel sorry for or fear for your kids/grandkids because the world they are going to grow up in is not what it used to be.

God created them and called them for the exact moment in time that they’re in. Their life wasn’t a coincidence or an accident.

Raise them up to know the power they walk in as children of God.

Train them up in the authority of His Word.

Teach them to walk in faith knowing that God is in control.

Empower them to know they can change the world.

Don’t teach them to be fearful and disheartened by the state of the world but hopeful that they can do something about it.

Every person in all of history has been placed in the time that they were in because of God’s sovereign plan.

He knew Daniel could handle the lions den. 
He knew David could handle Goliath.
He knew Esther could handle Haman.
He knew Peter could handle persecution.
He knows that your child can handle whatever challenge they face in their life. He created them specifically for it!

Don’t be scared for your children, but be honored that God chose YOU to parent the generation that is facing the biggest challenges of our lifetime.
Rise up to the challenge.

Raise Daniels, Davids, Esthers and Peters!

God isn’t scratching His head wondering what He’s going to do with this mess of a world.

He has an army He’s raising up to drive back the darkness and make Him known all over the earth.

Don’t let your fear steal the greatness God placed in them. I know it’s hard to imagine them as anything besides our sweet little babies, and we just want to protect them from anything that could ever be hard on them, but they were born for such a time as this “ (Alex Cravens)

CarryTheLight