“He demands our worship, our obedience, our prostration. Do we suppose that they can do Him any good, or fear, like the chorus in Milton, that human irreverence can bring about ‘His glory’s diminution’? A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. But God wills our good, and our good is to love Him (with that responsive love proper to creatures) and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we shall in fact fall on our faces. If we do not, that only shows that what we are trying to love is not yet God—though it may be the nearest approximation to God which our thought and fantasy can attain” (C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain).

God really does know how to give good gifts to His children.

I truly believe that if we could see the entire big picture from beginning to end, we’d know that every single event in our lives has been not just for a purpose, but for the very purpose of God’s ultimate glory and our ultimate good.

I know in my head that Thanksgiving is three days away, but I just can’t bring myself to grasp that it’s so close.

In a year when it’s been a challenge to find any reason to give thanks, may our eyes be open to all God’s blessings and our hearts be filled to overflowing with gratitude.

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NASB).

Something my pastor said today has stuck with me all day.

He made an illustration about being seasick during a boating excursion. He said the captain of the boat told him to scan the horizon and focus on a fixed point to alleviate the sickness.

I think a lot of us are sick of a lot of things in 2020. It seems that nothing is certain anymore and no one knows what to expect from one day to the next.

The author of Hebrews tells us to take our eyes off of all the uncertainty and to fix our eyes on Jesus, the originator and finisher of our faith. He was the one there at the start of your faith journey, He’s the one at the end, and He’s the one with you in all the steps between.

My pastor talked about how Jesus commanded Peter to walk on water with Him. He noted that Peter was the only disciple to get out of the boat. It’s actually pretty remarkable that Peter got as far as he did. He only got into trouble when he took his eyes off Jesus and paid more attention to the wind and waves. Then he was sunk, figuratively and literally.

The problem with a lot of us — me included — is that we’ve focused on the storms and chaos and taken our eyes off of Jesus. That’s where fear comes in.

Fear is only false evidence appearing real. Fear is giving too much credit to the wrong things and not enough to the right ones. Fear forgets the faithfulness of God in the past and imagines a future without Him in it.

The only way to fight fear is to change our focus. That requires a deliberate act of the will to look away from the circumstances and to Christ. It’s a bit like swimming against the current since our natural inclination is to give in to fear and anxiety.

My prayer is that you and I will always look to Jesus, and at every moment we feel fear to focus on the Originator and Completer of our faith who will not fail us.

You may be reading this right now, feeling like God’s love is for every one in the world except you. You might feel like God’s forgiveness is for anyone who asks but you.

You’d say, “You don’t know what I’ve done in the past. You don’t know who I really am when I’m alone in the dark with no one else around.”

I don’t. No one else probably knows. But God knows.

Nothing you’ve ever done will shock God. Nothing you’ve ever thought in your deepest secret thoughts will take Him by surprise.

God says to you, “I love you just as you are right now, with all your flaws and scars and sins and fears. I love you as you are but I refuse to leave you that way. My love for you is a consuming fire, burning away all that is not worthy of Me so that what remains is your truest self, who I made you to be.”

Jesus saw you at your worst, in your weakest moment, and chose you. He looked at you in the moment you wish could go way, in the very worst choices you made, and said, “This one is worth dying for. This one is worth all my life’s blood to redeem.”

That’s the gospel. Salvation and grace are for everyone. Even me. Even you.

At this point, I’m ready to turn off the alarm and sleep in tomorrow. Who’s with me?

Well, unless tomorrow suddenly becomes a national holiday, the chances of me getting to sleep in and still keep my job are slim to none.

So, I’ll dutifully set my alarm for 5 am (and that’s not a typo, even for me). I will finish out the week strong even though what I want more than anything is a nap. And maybe some chocolate. But mostly a nap.

Also, as much as I drone on about trying to be positive with 2020, I’m ready for the year to be over as well. But at least there’s Thanksgiving and Christmas to close out the year.

I learned a long time ago not to post any thoughts on social media when I’m tired. Usually, tired posts lead to retractions later. Also, passive-aggressive posts on social media are pointless and very non-productive (even though that statement was kinda passive- aggressive in its own way).

I’m learning that faith holds true to what is promised, even when I don’t feel like it and can’t see it. Courage doesn’t always roar, as I read once. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”

But at least I get to sleep in the day after tomorrow.

“Abraham, at this point, has reached the place where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God. My goal is God himself . . . At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

It is through the discipline of obedience that I get to the place where Abraham was and I see who God is. God will never be real to me until I come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. Then I will know and can boldly proclaim, ‘In all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.'” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

“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).

I think if Jesus had a Facebook, it would be for everyone who has ever been made to feel “less than” or “not good enough.” It would be for those the world has lied to about what brings true happiness.

It would be for those who don’t have value in the world’s eyes because they aren’t pretty enough or rich enough or clever enough or savvy enough.

But Jesus says to those very people, “You are enough, because I am enough, and if I am in You, then you have more than enough and you are more than enough.”

Jesus’ Facebook page would have the simple invitation: “Come to me and find rest, all of you who work to the point of exhaustion and beyond, who never know when to stop, who have listened to the voice of those who glorify busy-ness as next to godliness when Jesus honors those who will simply sit at His feet.

Jesus’ page wouldn’t have endorsements for political candidates or parties or platforms. He would say, “My kingdom is not of this world, and My ways are not Republican or Democrat ways, but the way that leads to life.”

Jesus’ page probably wouldn’t have many followers. He might have lots of likes, but I think that just as people misunderstood Him 2,000 years ago, they wouldn’t “get” Him today. The conservatives would probably think He was too liberal and the liberals would think He was too conservative.

But for those who “got” Him back then and now, it would be like life from the dead. Actually, it WOULD be (and it really is) life from the dead. It wouldn’t be bad people made better but dead people made alive, brand new, and transformed.

This is my first attempt at a lament, so keep that in mind as you proceed. I think a lament is a type of worship that involves crying out to God over a situation or circumstance, like many of the Psalms and the book of Lamentations. At some point, the lament turns to praise. Usually, the key word is steadfast love or lovingkindness (or Hesed in the Hebrew).

O Lord, how long?

How long must your people suffer under this pandemic?

How many people must get sick and how many people die before you turn away this COVID?

Lord, you know there is so much unrest in the world. It seems that those who scoff at your name are the ones who prosper and so many of Your children are the ones who suffer.

O Lord, how long?

Will you only look and not act? Will you not hear the cries of Your servants who plead with you night and day?

But I know Your steadfast love remains.

I know that what I see and understand is so limited. I know that I see but in part, but You know the whole. In Your plan, even coronavirus can be a means for You to turn evil into good.

I and all Your people wait for You with hope. We know you will not fail. We know that Your purposes will prevail. We know You have already overcome all that makes us afraid and anxious.

We know that our present sufferings are not even worth comparing to the glory that’s coming that will be revealed in and through Your people.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Yeah, I get it. The reason cookies don’t get all brown and soggy is because they’re probably loaded with all sorts of preservatives and ingredients that I can’t even begin to pronounce. But they sure do taste better than salads.

That said, I’m still doing fairly well on my quest to get down to around 155(ish) in weight. I seem to be eternally stuck on or around 170, but I hope the breakthrough will come soon.

The key for me isn’t perfection but progress. It’s making food decisions that are a little better than yesterday and not quitting when I mess up a bit. Still, I have a fondness for all things cookie. Especially the chocolate chip kind.

There’s nothing worse in my mind than thinking you have a chocolate chip cookie, only to bite into an oatmeal raisin cookie. That’s probably the main reason I have trust issues.

But I am still making progress. I haven’t quit yet.