Everybody needs a cheery little animal who can fit in their hand. I can’t speak to hedgehogs as pets, but they seem cute and cheery enough if that’s your thing.

Honestly, everyone needs at least one person in their life who will always be an encourager. Everyone needs that someone who believes in them even when they don’t (or can’t).

I know in my own life the difference one small word from one person can make. Sometimes, it has the power to turn a good day into a bad one. But I can testify that one lone encouraging word has the power to transform a bad day into a good one.

I also believe that everyone needs someone who will always tell them the truth. As my old pastor used to say, the first person you lie to is yourself. If you only surround yourself with people who agree with you and tell you what you want to hear, you will go on repeating the same patterns and making the same bad choices. Like those tiny mirrors that fit on your side-view mirrors, you need someone to point out your blind spots.

Powerful people in positions of leadership are most vulnerable to temptation and failing when they don’t have accountability in the form of someone who is willing to ask the tough questions and tell them the honest truth.

Obviously, the idea is always to speak the truth in love for the betterment of the person, not as a weapon to tear that person down. The best way to speak truth is in the context of a trusting relationship where the other has invited you to speak into their life and given you permission to ask those tough questions and say the uncomfortable truths.

But I think even when speaking a word of rebuke, it’s best to sandwich it between words of encouragement and praise. Even then, we still need people who still believe in us when we veer off course.

Basically, be like that little hedgehog.

At first it seems as impossible and absurd as if a whole river served to water one single solitary flower. It seems preposterous that God should love us that much — that God should love you or me that much. But it’s true.

An infinite God’s unconditional love means that God can love each individual as if that person were the only one to receive the fullness of God’s love. It defies any kind of math logic where each person gets a fraction. God’s math means that each person receives 100% out of infinite resources.

That’s a good reason to be thankful. That’s a good reason for a Thanksgiving holiday, whether you ascribe to the original Pilgrim story or not. Actually, that should make you and I want to treat every day like a Thanksgiving — minus the part where we gorge ourselves into food comas.

The Bible commands us to live in gratitude and thanksgiving in view of what God has done for us. That’s like commanding someone who is parched with thirst to drink water or telling someone who is nearly frostbitten with cold to seek warmth. We only have to live with our eyes open to God to find a reason to be grateful and thankful.

Apart from God opening our eyes, we could never see. Apart from God seeking us first, we should never have sought God at all. That very source of thanksgiving to God comes from God and is a natural overflow of all that God lavishes on us each and every single day.

May our thanksgiving lead to thanks-living.

I don’t know what it is about a good fantasy book that gives me all the feels. I don’t mean a Game of Thrones-type book. I’m more into The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings. Currently, I’m reading The Wind and the Willows. And by reading, I mean with an actual book with actual pages that you turn with actual hands with actual fingers.

What is is about elves and hobbits and dwarves that appeals to me? Why am I drawn to talking rats and moles? Is it wrong that I want to live at Bag End with Bilbo and Frodo Baggins? I’d even put in my fair share of washing dishes and setting the table.

I think maybe these days we all need an escape from reality. We need somewhere to go where the headlines aren’t all death and doom. Whenever it’s a cold and rainy day, there’s nothing better than to read about someone traipsing through a meadow on a bright sunny afternoon. Or to imagine the possibility of stumbling on to a door that leads straight out of this world into Middle Earth or Narnia.

For me, there’s always the joy of revisiting a classic along with familiar characters and locations. It’s comforting when you remember what’s coming next and can’t wait to get to that part.

I’m always looking for recommendations, so if you can think of any send them my way by emailing them to gmendel72@icloud.com. May you always find a comfy chair and a good book to keep you company on those cold wintry nights.

Honestly, I’ve never given much thought to the question of why Jesus folded the shroud that covered His face when He rose from the grave. I was focused on other details, as I imagine the disciples were, but in the Bible even the smallest details have meaning.

This is about the best explanation that I have ever seen as to why it was folded and not simply left crumpled:

This is one I can honestly say I have never seen circulating so; if this touches you, you may want to forward it.

“Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection? I never noticed this….

The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed separate from the grave clothes. Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, ‘They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and I don’t know where they have put him!’ Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see.. The other disciple outran Peter and got there first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn’t go in.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying to the side.

Was that important? Absolutely!

Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition.

When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it…

The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished. Now, if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.

The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, ‘I’m done.’

But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because……….. The folded napkin meant, ‘I’m coming back!’

He is Coming Back!”

“If Jesus had a Facebook page… I think he probably wouldn’t weigh in much on the ‘issue of the day’. This is based on what I read in the Gospels. Just a guess.

Oh, it’s not that he didn’t care about the Big Issues. It’s that he’s the Great Physician, and injustices like the Roman occupation or even racism are just symptoms. The sickness goes deeper.

We want him to force medicine down the throats of our opponents.

He’s telling us to lie down… so he can give us a heart transplant.

But it takes humility to lie on the table. Even then, I suppose most of us would likely drift to pre-surgery sleep while yet mumbling.(‘Yeah, but it’s somebody else’s fault, you know… and what about those people… did you see… what they… did….’)

Mercifully, the Healer lovingly watches us close our eyes, and he goes to work” (Brant Hansen).

It’s interesting how God created us in His image, and ever since then we’ve been trying to return the favor. We try our best to cast Jesus in our image, whether it’s a very moralistic conservative who hates all the sins that we don’t struggle with or the laissez-faire anything goes liberal Jesus who just wants us to love everybody and who makes no demands on our lives.

But Jesus wants our hearts.

He doesn’t want to make us good. He doesn’t even want to make us better. He wants to make us brand new. It’s not that we need softer hearts — we need new hearts. We need a heart transplant.

I love the idea that yes, Jesus loved tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners. He met them where they were and loved them as they were. But He didn’t leave them that way. After they met Jesus, they weren’t tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners anymore. They were disciples who made disciples. They were followers of Jesus from then on.

The goal of the gospel isn’t to get gay people into straight marriages. It’s not to get addicts clean. It’s not to get them to vote a certain way. The goal of the gospel is to make brand new creations whose lives and conversations are a reflection of the power and grace of God to make the dead come alive. The goal of the gospel is to create a people who will stop at nothing for the rest of their lives to know Jesus and to make Him known, growing into His likeness more each day until they are just like Jesus.

“[Shasta] turned and raced for the gate in the green wall which, now for the first time, he remembered seeing. Hwin, stumbling and nearly fainting, was just entering the gate: Aravis still kept her seat but her back was covered with blood. ‘Come in, my daughter, come in,’ the robed and bearded man was saying, and then, ‘Come in, my son,’ as Shasta panted up to him. . . . They were in a wide and perfectly circular enclosure, protected by a high wall of green turf. A pool of perfectly still water, so full that the water was almost exactly level with the ground, lay before him. At one end of the pool, completely overshadowing it with its branches, there grew the hugest and most beautiful tree that Shasta had ever seen. Beyond the pool was a little low house of stone roofed with deep and ancient thatch. . . . ‘Are—are—are you,’ panted Shasta, ‘are you King Lune of Archenland?’ The old man shook his head. ‘No,’ he replied in a quiet voice, ‘I am the Hermit of the Southern March. And now, my son, waste no time on questions, but obey. This damsel is wounded. Your horses are spent. Rabadash is at this moment finding a ford over the Winding Arrow. If you run now, without a moment’s rest, you will still be in time to warn King Lune.’

Shasta’s heart fainted at these words for he felt he had no strength left. And he writhed inside at what seemed the cruelty and unfairness of the demand. He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one. But all he said out loud was:

‘Where is the King?'” (C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy).

You might have heard that the reward for a job well done is more work. If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking something like “Well, if that’s the reward, where can I return it? I’d rather have rest for a reward.”

But when it comes to God’s service, obedience is not a have-to as much as it is a get-to. It’s not so much that I am forced to live by God’s rules and commands, but I get to find the joy that comes from living by God’s design. I get to see God working through my willingness and faithfulness.

Usually, when we’re not hearing from God, it means that there’s something God has already told us to do that we haven’t done yet. Only when we finally obey and live out what we already know will God reveal more. Only when we have stepped out in faith will God show us the next step.

I’d love to say that I always seek God’s will from a cheerful and pure heart, but I can confess that too often there is mixed in a spirit of complaining. There’s a part of me that wants to seek comfort over obedience, to let someone else to the work. But then that someone experiences the blessing of obedience and I miss out.

May we seek the joy that comes from obedience. Jesus said that the way we show love to God is to do what He says. It’s not about emotional and cathartic worship or about the amount of knowledge we possess but simply how willing are we to obey what we know God has told us.

May we always trust and obey, for there really is no other way.

It’s easy to lose heart and live in discouragement. If you look around, it looks like evil is winning.

People are mocking God and seeming to get away with it.

People are mistreating God’s people and no one seems to be able to do anything about it.

So many churches that are supposed to be a witness to the world of God’s grace have become so much like the world that they no longer have a discernible testimony and the true gospel has been sacrificed in the name of tolerance and relevance.

The news is getting worse every day. It seems like more and more the planet is drifting toward anarchy and chaos and away from God’s created order.

But when you read the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, you know that the story doesn’t end with ashes and tears. If you can look through eyes of faith, you can still see God at work even in the darkest of times.

Corrie ten Boom lived through some dark times. She saw some of the worst of humanity and lived to tell about it. She wrote about how when the train goes through a dark tunnel, you don’t jump off the train and throw away your ticket. You stay on board and trust the Engineer.

In the same way, when the news seems to be all bad, you don’t abandon your faith and throw away your Bible. That would be like jumping off of a life raft in the middle of a stormy sea.

You hold fast. You trust that the same Jesus who spoke peace to the waves will one day speak peace to the world. You trust that the Author of all that is good and right will again make all things good and right and whole and new.

If you need a reminder, read Revelation 22. Then you know that the story has a happy ending. Better yet, it has a happy beginning.

Mondays are rude. I’m putting this out there because there you are enjoying your weekend and then bam! here comes Monday. No one asked for Monday. No one wanted Monday, but Monday showed up uninvited all the same.

Mondays can be especially annoying if you’ve been away from the office like I have. Then Monday just feels super long and super awkward and super tiring. Thankfully, Mondays only come once a week.

But in case you’re feeling like you’ve got a bad case of the Mondays, here’s a bit of levity to brighten your day:

I used to think that I didn’t have a testimony. I felt like since I wasn’t dramatically delivered from drugs and alcohol or brought back to life after flatlining on a table somewhere, I didn’t really have a salvation story to tell.

One problem with that kind of testimony is that it makes salvation a past tense experience, as in I got saved back when. The Biblical idea of salvation is that you were saved (justification), you’re being saved (sanctification), and you will be saved (glorification). In other words, it’s a one-time event with ongoing results leading to a final destination.

My testimony is that I got saved at an early age and that God is still in the process of making me a new creation. It’s not once I was lost and now I’m found and life is perfect and pain-free. It’s about putting off the old sinful self, being renewed, and putting on the new Christ-dwelling self.

If you have truly had a salvation experience, there should be a difference. There should be a before and an after. I don’t mean that you’re perfect but that you’re striving and seeking to be more like Jesus because the Spirit of Jesus is in you working in you to want these things.

If you truly belong to Jesus, you won’t look like those around you who aren’t saved. You won’t act and talk like them. If the only difference is that you throw in a nod to Jesus and church in your conversations every now and then, you might want to question the validity of your faith. The Bible calls that working out your salvation with fear and trembling. It’s making sure that you are good soil for the gospel to take root, go deep, and produce a harvest.

True faith means that you want more than anything else to obey Jesus. It doesn’t mean that you never disobey or sin, but that you can’t live in disobedience and have peace. You can’t live in sin and live for Jesus at the same time.

The good news is that God always reward those who seek Him in genuine faith. If you earnestly and honestly want to follow Jesus, He will give you the ability to follow — and most importantly, to obey.

Today is Veterans’ Day, honoring all those who have served in the military, not to be confused with Memorial Day, honoring those who died while serving their country.

I found this prayer from an unknown soldier that beautifully applies across all walks of life, though it seems especially poignant in light of a soldier whose life has been affected by injuries sustained in combat.

This prayer highlights that God often doesn’t give us what we ask for but what we need. He gives us not happiness but joy. He gives us not what we want but what our hearts desire.

The idea of blessing isn’t getting everything I’ve prayed for. In fact, sometimes, God not giving us what we pray for is a blessing because we don’t know what we pray for at the time.

The real blessing is knowing that there is no gift from God apart from God Himself. What we really need more than God’s provision is God’s presence because to have everything apart from God is defeat, while having God and nothing else is victory.