Yes, that season of sweating has come again at last. That season where my hair goes out of control and my sweat glands go into overdrive has arrived.

I do like summer. I even don’t mind hot weather. I do take offense at humidity. That’s what gets to me.

I wish that Tennessee could be one of those places that has dry heat in the summer. That would really be so much better.

I do prefer fall when the temperatures are much cooler and the air has that delicious crispness to it.

But this time I’m not going to waste my days pining away for the next season.

I’m going to enjoy every day and deal with the humid hot weather (mostly by staying inside where the air conditioning lives).

Every day I get from God is a gift, even those sweltering summer days. Including this one.

“But if Christ is amongst us, then it is necessary that we sometimes yield up our own opinion for the sake of peace. Who is so wise as to have perfect knowledge of all things? Therefore trust not too much to thine own opinion, but be ready also to hear the opinions of others. Though thine own opinion be good, yet if for the love of God thou foregoest it, and followest that of another, thou shalt the more profit thereby” (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ).

I was almost tempted to call the post “Don’t Be a Face Mask Pharisee,” but chickened out at the last second.

I do think that if all you care about are people following the rules and enforcing those rules without bothering to get to know the people, you might be a Pharisee.

Too many people on social media are too busy talking over other people to listen. Too many are too busy thinking up the next clever retort to actually hear the words and get to the heart of the meaning behind the words spoken or written.

Too many of us will insulate ourselves in a safe bubble where we only hear variations and echos of our own opinions, values, and beliefs. We shut down or shout down anyone who disagrees with us at any point and revert to ridicule and name calling over those we deem our enemies in politics and faith.

But Jesus said to love your enemies. Pray for them. Do good to them. Listen to them. You may not agree but you can always walk away with at least one truth from anybody. You might find that your own opinion changes a little or you see another’s point of view.

Jesus didn’t say that the world will know His children by their talking points or how many arguments they’ve won, but by their love. Not the warm fuzzy feel good love, but the love that seeks the best of the loved one over its own, that rejoices for and lays down its life for the one it has chosen to love.

Love is spelled L-I-S-T-E-N.

“…no fears today because your Father is far bigger than your fears. 
‘I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand I will not be shaken’ Psalm 16:8. 
He knows how hard things are. And He knows how *faithful He will be.* 
That’s why He repeats it again & again, 365 times, so we don’t have need to fear any day of the year: ‘Do Not Be Afraid.’
He holds every minute of our day & His grace & timing are perfect. 
So we’re just going to go all out & Trust & Be Brave:
It takes courage to listen with our whole heart to the tick of God’s timing, rather than march to the loud beat of our fears.

#PrayingForOurWorld#NoFears” (Ann Voskamp).

The media wants you to be afraid. The world wants you to be fearful. Fear means you watch the news more, so their ratings go up. It means you buy their products to keep you safe, so their profits go up.

God wants you to know that His perfect love casts out all fear. There is no reason to be afraid for the one who trusts in the Lord, for the one whose hope is certain and secure.

There is no fear in God’s love. There is no reason to fear because God is near to those who call out to Him in faith. There is no fear because the end is already written and the last page ends with God on the throne.

I’m tired.

No, I don’t mean the kind of tired where you need to go to bed and sleep for 14 hours (although that does sound great right about now).

I mean tired as in weary in my soul.

I’m tired of Mondays. Honestly, they seem to crop up every week or so. Don’t they ever stop?

I’m tired of how quickly the weekends go by. It really feels like Mooooooonday, Tuuuuuuuesday, Weeeeeeeendnesday, Thuuuuuuursay, FridaySaturdaySunday, Mooooooonday, etc.

I’m tired of coronavirus and COVID-19 and social distancing and self-quarantining and people getting sick and dying who should have no business getting sick and dying.

I’m tired of all the racial strife that never seems to go away and wonder if we’ve learned anything from the teachings of Jesus.

I’m tired of people talking at each other instead of to each other. I’m tired of people who shut their ears, close their eyes, and make pouty faces whenever anyone disagrees with or dissents from their opinions, as if they are being persecuted when ever they are contradicted.

I’m tired of people who keep trying to “improve” on the gospel of Jesus Christ and end up turning it into one of those “other gospels” that the Apostle Paul spoke against because only the true Gospel of Jesus has the power to change and transform.

I’m tired of people who claim Christianity who are known far more for who and what they are against rather than what and Who they are for.

I’m tired of EVERYTHING being political and politicized to death. Whatever happened to common sense and common human decency?

I get tired of waiting, but I never tire of hope. Therefore, I wait with the hope that Jesus will one day make all things right and whole and new again.

“We deafen God day and night with our words, ‘Lord, thy will be done.’ But then when God’s will does happen, we are furious and don’t like it a bit. When our will becomes God’s will, that is certainly good; but how much better it would be if God’s will were to become our will” (Meister Eckhart, A Call to Selfless Service).

I remember that Elisabeth Elliott once said that in order for God’s will to be done, my will often has to be undone.

I’m not a fan of that.

I don’t like my will to come undone. I don’t like my plans to fall apart and my dreams to disintegrate. But often that is precisely what must happen in order for God’s will to be accomplished in my own life.

Something else for me to remember is that God’s will is bigger than just me. It’s wider and grander and broader than my two little eyes can see and more than my puny mind can comprehend. It’s about way more than just my hopes and dreams and desires and goals.

God’s will is about all of time and eternity. It’s about so loving the world that He gave is one and only unique Son so that no one should be lost but that all might have eternal life.

Sometimes my priorities need readjusting and my mindset needs rebooting. I need to see outside my little world to the bigger world that God is working in.

God, help me to see people the way you do and love Your world the way You do. Help me to want Your will above my own and may Your purposes prevail in and through me every day. Amen.

In the midst of all the gloom and doom media coverage of all things pandemic (among other issues), I thought I’d give you a brief respite from all the negativity by updating you on my little feline named Peanut.

She’s a very docile and gentle 3-year old tortie who loves her some naps. I mean the person who came up with the phrase cat nap has probably never seen an actual cat napping. It’s anything but brief.

She also likes to rub up against my legs, which I believe is her way of leaving her scent on me and marking me as her property. Like that was a really big secret before, right? She’s owned me ever since she picked me out to be her human at the animal shelter.

She has her manic outburst of energy for the day, usually lasting about 5-10 minutes. She gets out all of her energy and exercise for the next 24 hours so she can devote more time to napping. I think that’s brilliant.

Pretty much her job is to lay around all day looking cute. I’d say she does that quite well. In fact, I think I’ll keep her around for another 15-20 years. That is, if she’ll have me.

“THE HOLY SPIRIT IS PROPHETICALLY WARNING HIS PEOPLE… 

…the only way to thwart a coming dark spiritual season is to heed Christ’s warning and apply His prescribed solutions. Here in the United States the winds are blowing with such hostility and contempt toward Christians that things are said against believers that would never be said against a Muslim, or Minority. 

Even notice the rooster on the weather vain? It is there because Pope Nicholas I decreed in the 9th century that all churches must show the symbol of a Rooster on its dome or steeple, as a symbol of Jesus’ prophecy of Peter’s betrayal (Luke 22:34). It was a reminder that the fixed laws of North, South, East and West will not change or move even when the winds of persecution can cause us to bend with the times.

When the church has no affixed, absolute, biblical truth on which it stands – when it has no ‘line in the sand’ truths, it has ceased to be the force withstanding the gates of Hell on earth. The danger is this – with this mindset the church is reduced to a good will, humanitarian organization with only a weak Christian philosophy. 

Rick Renner says: ‘It is no secret that the spiritual environment in the world is undergoing a radical change and a great gulf is beginning to divide those who are moving away from established truth and those who see what is happening and are responding by making personal re-commitments to absolute truth. The winds of change are blowing and it is producing a sifting, a dividing — a separation of wheat from chaff. The rift has become so severe that who is wheat and who is chaff may be looked upon differently depending on which group to whom you belong.’

Our job is to recognize these truths, then re-calibrate and upgrade our own lives so to honor Godly principles. A changed Church must start with us” (Lance Wallnau).

I posted the following in 2017. It’s from Tyler McKenzie, a pastor in Louisville, Kentucky. It may be 3 years old, but the sentiments are as timely as ever:

“If we’re not self-aware, there are many ways social media can make us less, not more, social. One way that quietly goes unnoticed (but whose painful consequences are undeniable in our culture) is that it allows us to choose and filter the voices we listen to.

It feeds confirmation bias politically, racially, culturally, religiously, etc. It creates a sort of self-made groupthink bubble in which you can simply screen out people who express any opinion on any thing that you don’t like.

No wonder the States of America are Divided, not United, today. No wonder literally everything feels so polarized – Choose your side! No wonder efforts to find compromise or solutions seem fruitless.

I believe the Jesus follower chooses a better way.

-We have the humility to listen, knowing that nothing about us is perfect, including our beliefs. God had to die for us wretches, after all.

-We welcome conversations that are challenging with those who are different because we know we always have a lot to learn and this may be another opportunity.

-We speak with truth AND love. Love without complete truth is enablement. Truth without love will never be heard because… you sound like a butthead.

-We honor the God-given-Jesus-died-for dignity of every human being, even our enemies, by at least trying to understand their beliefs, perspective, and cultural narrative.

-And we do actually try to understand others rather than just win arguments. The most loving thing you can do for someone with whom you disagree is understand and represent their argument fairly. 90% of frustration in disagreement comes from feeling ‘misunderstood’ or ‘misrepresented’ by the opposing voice.

Boiling it down, what I’m saying is this… The Jesus follower intentionally cultivates diversity in their life. God is an artist, and every person is another portrait that can lend us perspective on Him. #JesusIsWhy” (Tyler McKenzie).

“‘I SHALL NOT WANT,’ the psalm says. Is that true? There are lots of things we go on wanting, go on lacking, whether we believe in God or not. They are not just material things like a new roof or a better paying job, but things like good health, things like happiness for our children, things like being understood and appreciated, like relief from pain, like some measure of inner peace not just for ourselves but for the people we love and for whom we pray. Believers and unbelievers alike we go on wanting plenty our whole lives through. We long for what never seems to come. We pray for what never seems to be clearly given. But when the psalm says ‘I shall not want,’ maybe it is speaking the utter truth anyhow. Maybe it means that if we keep our eyes open, if we keep our hearts and lives open, we will at least never be in want of the one thing we want more than anything else. Maybe it means that whatever else is withheld, the shepherd never withholds himself, and he is what we want more than anything else” (Freerick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry).

I just want to repeat that last line because it’s the truth that we all need right now: Maybe it means that whatever else is withheld, the shepherd never withholds himself, and he is what we want more than anything else.

Maybe what I want more than the gifts of God is God Himself. Maybe what I want more than God giving me answers is to find that God Himself is the answer to all my questions.

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).

In case you needed your priorities reset and rebooted, this picture should just about do it.

How many of us focus on what we don’t have and take for granted what we have?

I read somewhere more than once that if you have a roof over your head, more than one change of clothes, more than one meal in the last 24 hours, access to clean water, transportation, and people who love you, you are richer than most.

In fact, you might be in the top 5% globally speaking.

Somewhere out there someone would give anything to have one of your “bad” days. Your worst days are probably better than their best days.

So if you want the cure for the disease of comparison and complaining, it’s gratitude. If you want to eliminate envy and banish bitterness, the answer is to give thanks.

Measure your life by what you have, not what you don’t.