There’s nothing more calming and peaceful than a sleeping cat in your lap.

When a cat deems your lap worthy of his or her occupation, you should feel lucky and blessed indeed.

If you get the chance, I highly recommend it.

Even though I myself am a cat person, dogs and other furry critters also work.

Just whatever helps you to be calmer in the midst of stress and chaos.

Election season will soon be upon us. Sooner than later, people will start losing their minds. People will forget how to have rational discourses and resort to yelling and name-calling.

Don’t do that.

Be better than that.

Be the one who adds beauty to the world, not more divisive content.

Be the one who reflects God to the world, even when everyone else seems to be acting like demons.

Be the same Jesus to others that Jesus was to you at your lowest and least likable moments.

Lately, it seems to me that we look at the pandemic and coronavirus much the same way many of us look at the devil. Bear with me. I’ll explain.

It seems that for some, the devil doesn’t exist. They give no thought to demons or demonic power. Either they don’t believe in Satan or they just don’t really care one way or the other.

Then there are those who give too much credence to the devil. They see him at work everywhere. Every bad thing ever done or every bad person is a direct result of the devil. Every waking moment is about how to overcome the devil.

Much the same way, there are some who don’t believe there is a pandemic or just don’t care. They will live however they want like there’s no such thing as coronavirus or COVID-19. Nothing and no one will change their minds.

Then there are some who live in constant fear and anxiety of the pandemic. They will go to extreme measures to protect themselves and their loved ones. Every waking thought is dedicated to the virus. They get angry with you if you’re not as fearful and anxious all the time as they are about COVID-19.

God told us to live wisely in this world, but He also said not to live in fear. He told us that His perfect love overcomes fear. Ultimately, for me to still choose fear is to doubt God at His word. It may be my natural default setting, but that doesn’t mean I have to live that way from now on.

You can live in such a way that acknowledges the reality of the pandemic without letting anxiety dictate your existence. You can take coronavirus seriously without prioritizing fear over living your life. Even though the tendency of humanity is toward extremes, you can find a healthy balance in the middle where common sense and trust in God intersect.

Also, I don’t think believers are called to shame those who don’t share our views on the pandemic. We’re not given the liberty to disobey Jesus’ command not to judge, even in the middle of COVID-19. That means you don’t get to decide the character of a person you’ve never met and know nothing about aside from one or two of their behaviors. You don’t get to say you know a person’s intent or motivation when you’ve never had any meaningful conversations with them or gotten to know them at all.

Trust that God knows what He’s doing. Trust that He can work even in the midst of people who don’t take the situation seriously and those who are consumed and obsessed with it. You can rest in the knowledge that it’s not your job to end the pandemic or get people in line. God is up to the task.

He will take care of it. And you.

I’ve seen them. You’ve seen them.

All the posts and gifs and memes essentially blaming 2020 for all that’s gone wrong lately. Usually what follows is a wish to be transported immediately to 2021. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

I’ve probably posted a few myself.

But what does a calendar year have to do with any of it? Is a man-made construct of measuring time really to blame for it all?

I for one am done blaming 2020.

I believe that the rest of 2020 will be what I choose to make of it.

I know I can’t control what comes next. I can control my response.

It can either be one of fatalistic acceptance or resigned apathy. Or it can be to lean on the promise of God that He really does work all things together for good. Even in 2020.

I can cop out and call the next 4 months a loss, or I can do a mental reset and intentionally seek out ways to find the good and to bless others and to make the name of Jesus great for the next 134 days.

In the midst of every bad, negative, evil that happens, there is a reason for gratitude. Not everything that happens is good, but there can be good in everything that happens.

Even a pandemic can make us truly thankful for the gifts of life and relationships and face-to-face conversations. You know, the old-fashioned kind we used to have before social media took over?

I know God is still in control in 2020, the same as He was in 2019. The same as He will be in 2021, regardless of the outcome of the Presidential election or the search for a coronavirus vaccine.

Just this. This right here. That’s all you need to know.

You’re welcome.

This made me chuckle.

Basically, Kanye West is fed up with some of the content of Tik Tok and wants to start a new app called Jesus Tok. But I prefer Jason Isbell’s idea of calling it DC Tak.

If any of this sounds like a foreign language, you’re probably not familiar with current app technology. You’re also probably not from the 90s.

But if you’re one of the lucky few who get this, you are awesome.

Sunburns are not fun. I should know with as much experience as I’ve had with it. On my recent outing to the lake, I got nice and toasted. Think extra crispy.

I remember that first night was miserable. I could hardly lay down it hurt so much. I don’t think I slept much at all.

But I came home and found my old bottle of Panama Jack Green Ice. There’s nothing like some good ol’ 100% Aloe Vera Gel to soothe and treat sunburns. The bottle may be old, but it still works magic.

In my own life, I’ve notice that when I’m in the midst of pain and suffering, whether literal or figurative, my immediate cry is for relief. I want it over A-S-A-P.

But God often has a different idea in mind. He wants my transformation. He wants my renewal. He wants to grow something in me that wasn’t there before: namely, Himself.

I think it was Dan Allendar who said that as long as your cry for relief is stronger than your cry for a changed heart, you’re never gonna grow up.

That’s what I want. A changed heart. Even more than I want relief, I want a changed heart that moves from selfish to self-less, from prideful to humble, from anxious to peace-filled. I want to be more like Jesus. No matter what.

“When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne, and the people of all the nations will be gathered before him. Then he will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people at his right and the others at his left. Then the King will say to the people on his right, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father! Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.’ The righteous will then answer him, ‘When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels! I was hungry but you would not feed me, thirsty but you would not give me a drink; I was a stranger but you would not welcome me in your homes, naked but you would not clothe me; I was sick and in prison but you would not take care of me.’ Then they will answer him, ‘When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and we would not help you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me.’ These, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life” (Matthew 25:31-46, GNT).

“One day we took the children to see a goldsmith refine gold after the ancient manner of the East. He was sitting beside his little charcoal fire. (‘He shall sit as a refiner’; the gold- or silversmith never leaves his crucible once it is on the fire.)

In the red glow lay a common curved roof tile; another tile covered it like a lid. This was the crucible. In it was the medicine made of salt, tamarind fruit and burnt brick dust, and imbedded in it was the gold.

The medicine does its appointed work on the gold, ‘then the fire eats it,’ and the goldsmith lifts the gold out with a pair of tongs, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back again in fresh medicine.

This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold into the crucible, the heat of the fire is increased; ‘it could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now.’

‘How do you know when the gold is purified?’ we asked him, and he answered,

‘When I can see my face in it [the liquid gold in the crucible] then it is pure’” (Amy Carmichael, Gold Cord). 

“But he knows the way that I take;
    when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold” (Job 23:10, ESV).