A part of me refuses to believe that after 17 years, you will no longer be the Kairos Worship Pastor. Part of me expects to show up next week and find you leading us in worship like you’ve always done, but I know that God has called you further up and further in.

You’re taking the next step in God’s calling on your life. Your faithfulness in obedience is both heartwarming and heartbreaking because I know you’ll be where where God has been leading you all your life up to this point, but I also know that I will miss you.

You’ve been a good friend. You epitomized the saying about preaching the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words. Your whole life has been preaching the gospel and your words match your witness. You’ve never claimed to be perfect, but you’ve been honest about your failings and shortcomings.

I love how you haven’t been just a worship leader but a lead worshipper. You haven’t just told us to worship, but you’ve shown us how by ushering us into the very presence of God Almighty.

I am proud beyond belief to be able to call you friend, to call you brother, and to say that I love you very much because you’ve shown me the Jesus who loved me so very much. I hope that if God blesses me that I can be as good of a husband and father as I have seen you be to your wife and son.

Thank you, Boggs, for sharing part of your story with me and thank you God, for letting me play a small part in it. I am blessed indeed.

At the end of the day, Jesus will not ask us who we were against or how much we defended our free speech or how we let everybody know where we stand politically. He will ask, “Did you love the least of these? Did you love your enemies? Did you give to those who can’t ever pay you back?” At the end of the day, all that matters is this: did we love well like Jesus loved us well?

I wrote that a long time ago, but I think I’d add a few things that Jesus might ask me:

“Did you love those who sin differently than you?”

“Did you love those who express political opinions that are diametrically opposed to yours?”

“Did you love yourself as much as I loved you when I went to the cross for you?”

“Did your love mean uncritical passive acceptance or did your love mean that you want to see that person become the absolute best version of him or herself?”

“Did you remember today to tell the people you love that you love them? Did you say the actual words, not assuming they know or hoping they’ll pick up on it by your actions, but with the words I LOVE YOU?”

I’ll be the first to admit that knowing God’s will can seem like a daunting task. I mean how do you know what God wants for you in terms of where you work, who you marry, how many kids you have? So many areas in life and so many questions.

But I believe that God’s will becomes more clear the more you obey what you know. There are clear indications in God’s word of what God’s will is. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5 to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in everything, for that is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

If you do those things, I believe you are closer to perceiving more of God’s will for your life. You won’t be as concerned about the details as you will trusting God in each moment and being faithful to follow the next step in front of you as God reveals it.

Above all, you can follow God’s will when you realize that God is way more concerned about who you are becoming than what you do. In other words, godly character leads to good conduct, and a person steeped in the person of God will more naturally follow the ways of God.

So basically start by living joyfully, praying non-stop, and giving thanks in every circumstance, good or bad. And if you ever get that down pat, let me know how you did it.

Sometimes kids say it best. The following is a reimagining (or more accurately a paraphrase) of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s the best example I can think of as to what it looks like to have the faith of a child:

“Sometimes we experience a terrible dryness in our spiritual life. We feel no desire to pray, don’t experience God’s presence, get bored with worship services, and even think that everything we ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is little more than a childhood fairy tale.

Then it is important to realise that most of these feelings and thoughts are just feelings and thoughts, and that the Spirit of God dwells beyond our feelings and thoughts. It is a great grace to be able to experience God’s presence in our feelings and thoughts, but when we don’t, it does not mean that God is absent. It often means that God is calling us to a greater faithfulness. It is precisely in times of spiritual dryness that we must hold on to our spiritual discipline so that we can grow into new intimacy with God” (Henri Nouwen).

I always remember what I heard a long time ago. What you think and feel can and will lie to you, so you go with what you know. You cling to all the promises of God as declared in Scripture.

That’s why it’s so vital to know God’s word inside and out. The more you know, the less likely that doubts can steal your joy. Not that you won’t still have doubts, but you know better how to doubt your doubts and hold fast to what is true.

Spiritual dryness can be a good thing if it leads you away from trusting your experiences and your emotions rather than trusting in the person of God as revealed in Jesus. Just know that seasons come and seasons go, but the faithfulness of God lasts forever.

I’m thankful for Friday. I’m blessed to have a good job with people I like working with. I’m blessed to have a good life where I get to do a lot of things that I enjoy. But I’m still thankful for Friday.

I’m glad that God established a day of rest because I generally need one by this point in the week. We all do. No one was ever designed to go 24/7 without a break of some kind.

So I hope you enjoy your weekend. I hope you can rest and find some kind of hobby or activity that brings you joy. Or I hope you can know the freedom of doing nothing without feeling guilty about it.

And happy Friday in advance!

More and more these days, I love mercy.

As I have heard it defined, grace is getting what we don’t deserve, while mercy is not getting what we deserve. Those qualities don’t really mean much to a culture where right and wrong and truth have morphed into what feels right for me and what my truth is.

But I know in my own life that there have been times when I deserved to be cut off in relationships. I deserved to be dropped. But I saw grace and mercy instead. That’s why I love those things and want to show them as much as possible.

You can’t really have grace and mercy without truth. Otherwise, you just end up with enabling and enduring. But in Jesus, we get 100% grace and truth. We get kindness that leads to repentance and discipline that leads to joy. We find mercy in times of trouble when we’re able and willing to admit that we’re in trouble.

May we always have softened and merciful hearts.

May we be that hungry for God.

May we be more hungry for God than for actual food.

May we be more hungry for God than for the next streaming series.

May we be more hungry for God than for our own spouses and significant others.

May we be more hungry for God than for any of our political causes.

May we be more hungry for God than the next new car, new house, new job promotion, or new pay raise.

May we be more hungry for God than for our own lives.

May we be so hungry for God that we confess that nothing else in all the world will satisfy but God and God alone.

“…everyone you meet today is fighting a battle & needs courage.

Needs help to live ‘in courage.’

Needs someone to encourage with words that give strength for their battle.

‘Gently encourage… & reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.’ 1Thess5:13MSG

Because the thing is: Every breath’s a battle between grudgery & gratitude. Give thanks — & you win joy today!

#PreachingGospelToMyself#GiveThanks#LookForTheBest” (Ann Voskamp).

Really that’s it. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about, as are you. In this life, no one is completely whole. We are all broken in some way, but some wounds and scars are more visible than others. So be kind.

Remember it was the kindness of God that first led you to repentance. Not brow-beating or stern lecturing. It was kindness. Not passive acceptance or permissiveness, but kindness that leads people to be better than they were before. Kindness that brings about a change of heart that leads to a change of behavior. Kinda like repentance.

If you live in grudgery all the time, people around you know. If you live in a constant state of gratitude, people around you will also know. One turns people away from God, while the other leads them to want to know Him more.

So be kind and live gratefully. That’s all.

“The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love” (Julian of Norwich).

It’s not living right in order to win God’s favor and approval but because we already have it. It’s not about living gladly in order somehow to earn God’s love but because we know that He loves us already.

For those who belong to God in Jesus, we can say that we are truly and deeply loved. We can live gladly out of the knowledge of that love. We can inspire and compel others to want to know this love by how deep our gladness is over God’s love.

May we never take for granted that this God, Maker and King of the Universe, has set His affections on us and is truly in love with us.