How about this year we have less complaining and less shaming and more giving thanks?

Maybe less comparing and condescending and more gratitude?

If you look around you and find nothing for which to give thanks, maybe the fault lies with you and your perspective.

Maybe the cure to excessive greed and consumerism is simply contentment and giving thanks for what you already have.

Just a thought.

That’s my charge to anyone who’s reading this right now– just be kind.

That’s all. Be kind.

It doesn’t cost anything and pays dividends in the long run.

I see all sorts of people shaming all sorts of other people on social media: people who don’t wear masks, people who wear masks all the time, people who voted for Trump, people who voted for Biden, people who like chocolate, people who don’t . . . I can’t even bring myself to finish that one, people who are solid in their theology, people who are questioning their faith, etc.

It goes on and on.

I challenge you to name me one person who changed his or her mind based on being shamed on social media. Just one.

You can’t do it because it’s never happened.

People are fighting all kinds of battles that you know nothing about. Be kind.

People are struggling to get out of bed and it was all they could do to just be present in the world today. Be kind.

You never know when it will be you one day who needs kindness even though you probably won’t deserve it on that day. So show it to those who deserve it least but need it most.

You know what else kindness is called? The grace of God.

You know who needs it every day? You. Me. Everyone.

So show grace. Be kind. That’s all.

One of my favorite theologians and writers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote a poem in a letter that he sent out not long before he was executed by the Nazis in 1945. The context may be quite different to what many of us are facing today, but the themes and message remain timeless and relevant as ever:

“With every power for good to stay and guide me,
comforted and inspired beyond all fear,
I’ll live these days with you in thought beside me,
and pass, with you, into the coming year.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,
boldly we’ll face the future, be it what may.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
and oh, most surely on each new year’s day

The old year still torments our hearts, unhastening:
the long days of our sorrow still endure.
Father, grant to the soul thou hast been chastening
that Thou hast promised—the healing and the cure.

Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving
even to the dregs of pain, at thy command,
we will not falter, thankfully receiving
all that is given by thy loving hand.

But, should it be thy will once more to release us
to life’s enjoyment and its good sunshine,
that we’ve learned from sorrow shall increase us
and all our life be dedicate as thine.

To-day, let candles shed their radiant greeting:
lo, on our darkness are they not thy light,
leading us haply to our longed-for meeting?
Thou canst illumine e’en our darkest night.

When now the silence deepens for our harkening,
grant we may hear thy children’s voices raise
from all the unseen world around us darkening
their universal paean, in thy praise.

While all the powers of Good aid and attend us,
boldy we’ll face the future, be it what way.
At even, and at morn, God will befriend us,
And oh, most surely on each new year’s day!”

“Wait on the Lord, wait quietly, wait trustingly. He holds every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year in His hands. Thank Him in advance for what the future holds, for He is already there” (Elisabeth Elliot).

This applies to 2021 as much as it did for 2020. And it will be good for 2022 and beyond.

Nothing takes God by surprise.

You can trust that He knows what He’s doing and that His plans for you are always good.

So less fretting and more trusting. Sound good?

Happy 2021!

My one goal for 2021 thus far is to remember what day and date it is. Sounds simple enough, right?

Not so much. With all the cray-cray in 2020, it was all I could do most of the time to remember what month it was, much less the day of the week or the date.

Here’s to a much less dramatic 2021. Maybe no news (or less news) will be good news.

In the meantime, I’m done. I waited up for the new year and now I plan on sleeping in tomorrow (or more accurately, later on today).

May you have a happy, blessed, and COVID-free 2021!

This more or less describes my big New Year’s Eve plans for 2020. Whatever minuscule chances I had of actually going out on the town for December 31 got scuttled by the resurgence of the pandemic. So by the time midnight rolls around and 2021 creeps in, it’ll most likely be me and Peanut toasting in the new year. Hopefully, there will be something sparkling and bubbly.

I’m actually way more stoked at the prospect of sleeping in on Friday than anything related to seeing the new year in. Don’t get me wrong. I’m ready for new beginnings, but I’m just not feeling wild and crazy this time.

I am ready for a party — if by party, you mean a nap. I think I like the idea of hibernation. Could someone let me know when that starts and how I can get in on that, ’cause I am all about hibernating for a bit.

I don’t know if this is theologically accurate or not, but I wonder sometimes if God doesn’t give us our requests if only for the simple reason that we never asked for them in the first place. I think of James 4:2, which says, “You do not have because you do not ask God.”

Maybe that’s taking the verse out of context, but I think the message is to ASK. Pray for healing. Pray for a miracle. Pray for what seems impossible. Pray for what only God could do so that when the request is granted, all you can do is to thank God for it.

And keep praying. Don’t give up. Be like that annoying widow who finally got what she wanted because she persisted. And I say annoying because the judge was so annoyed that he finally gave in.

That’s all. Just keep praying.

“Put all ‘supposing’ on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing. All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

I’m aware that not all anxiety is a choice and sometimes you can’t just “pray it away” or “have more faith.” Sometimes, you need counseling and medication.

But I also know that worrying is a choice. It’s focusing on tomorrow’s problems before they even get here. And the kicker is that most of the so-called problems and issues you worry about never end up happening. So all that fretting and worrying is wasteful and pointless. Plus, you rob today of joy by always thinking about tomorrow. So says the one who spends way too much time worrying and fretting over dumb stuff.

The key is learning to dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Just like Jesus talked about the branch abiding in the vine. Just like Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus instead of constantly rushing about in a state of panic over a never-ending to-do list. Just like Jesus in the boat, sleeping in the midst of a storm.

Maybe the word for 2021 is abide. If I could ever learn to abide in God, I think I’d worry about stuff a lot less. Don’t you?

I think I finally figured out why I’m always a little sad when Christmas Day is over. It took me 40-something years, but I believe I now know the answer.

Christmas is first and foremost about Jesus, the baby born in a manger to save us all.

But Christmas is also a time of remembering.

For me, Christmas is a time when I think about all the people that I love who are gone. It’s about places and events that live now only in my memory.

Every time I catch a whiff of a burning candle or see colored Christmas tree lights, I turn 10 years old again. All those faces of the ones who aren’t here anymore are just a little clearer and closer in my mind. I can remember some of the gifts, not because of what they contained but because of who gave them to me.

I miss these people a little more around the Christmas season. My heart hurts a little more because I won’t ever see them again this side of heaven.

But the good news of Christmas is that goodbye isn’t really goodbye. It’s more of a “see ya later, alligator.” Death isn’t the end anymore. Because of what started in Christmas in a manger and ended up on Easter on a cross, I have hope.

I will see my loved ones again. They won’t be old and sick and in pain. They will know me and know my name. They will be strong and healthy and more alive than they’ve ever been before.

So I’m a little sad after this latest Christmas has come and gone, but I’m also filled with a little more hope than this time last year. That Christmas spirit of remembering and loving doesn’t have to end on December 26, but can live on as long as I hold fast to the hope I have in the Jesus of both the manger and the cross.

“Why Christmas never ends now — how it is just beginning: 

This day, this night, the Light comes — and whose heart isn’t kindled by this Love that’s a wildfire? 

The world will be still tonight. 
There will be lingering. Longing. We will long for this wonder to all go on. One Christmas candle will flame in the quiet. 

This cannot ­fade—­none of this can ever fade. ‘For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given’ (Isaiah 9:6, NKJV). *God is with us.* 
God *stays* with us. 
The Christmas candle burns hot, Christ gives His Light — ­and the world lights up, and Christmas goes on forever now. 

Christ, the always Gift for all our days” (Ann Voskamp, The Greatest Gift).

That’s why I know that the sadness of the season of Christmas being over will pass. Even after all the ornaments and decorations are packed away in storage, Christmas will remain. When all the radio stations go back to their regular playlists, the spirit of Advent lingers still.

Emmanuel has come not just to visit but to dwell, not just for a season but forever. He Himself has said that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

That’s the hope that carries us through all the darkest days that anything and anyone can throw at us, because we know that the Light of the World still burns brightly. And nothing can snuff it out.