Right now, people are blowing stuff up outside in the middle of a thunderstorm. That’s right. Nothing says “Happy Independence Day” like drinking alcohol and playing with explosives.

But I give you a picture of a baby sloth wearing pajamas. It may just be the cutest thing you will see all day. I guarantee it will be the least divisive thing you will see all day on the interwebs.

That’s it. Just baby sloths in pajamas. You’re welcome.

It seems like there’s an awful lot of anxiety and stress out in the world today. I am aware that there’s a pandemic going on, but I think there’s more to the worry factor than that.

I truly believe that a lot of people have taken it upon themselves to be the enforcers of whether people do or do not wear masks while out in public.

People have also decided that they must call out every single instance of injustice of any kind anywhere in the world and must be offended for everyone to whom there is a perceived insult or injustice.

Social media is full of people who feel that they must always correct anyone whose theology and ideology doesn’t line up with theirs. Many of them come across as rather self-righteous and condescending.

Can I lift a burden off your shoulders?

It’s not your job to save everyone.

It’s not even your job to save anyone.

God in Jesus is the one who does the saving in every sense of the word.

If your eschatology doesn’t make room for the righteous reign of God to right the societal wrongs of the world, then it is too limited.

You are supposed to be against injustice because God is against injustice, but only God is big enough to make wrong things really right.

Your job is to love God and love people. That’s what Jesus said.

The way you love God is to do what He says, grow in His image, seek Him daily above all else, and make His name glorious wherever you go.

The way you love people is to be a good neighbor, see them as God sees them, treat them like God treats you, and to display the image of Jesus to them in everything you do and say.

That’s your job. God will take care of the rest.

When you give in to the pressure of the world around you to fit in, you give away the one thing that makes you unique. You give away the one thing that when the moment comes people will need from you. The world doesn’t need you to be like everybody else. The world isn’t mad because you as a believer are too different from them. They’re mad because you’re too much like them. The one thing you can give is you coming alive to who you are in Christ and shining in the dark places.

That’s something I wrote a few years back after hearing a Kairos sermon about how the world doesn’t hate Christians because they’re too different but because they’re not different enough. Or maybe I heard someone else say it. I can’t remember. It doesn’t matter because the truth is that the world needs believers to be set apart and different.

When believers compromise away their convictions and confessions to accommodate the world, they trade away the hope they offer through Christ, the only hope the world really has.

When you deconstruct your faith, you are trading away living water for broken cisterns that can hold no water at all. When Peter confessed to Jesus that He alone had the words of eternal life, he meant it. There is no where else to go.

Be different. Be willing to risk being hated just as much as Jesus was hated during His earthly ministry. For some it will mean public ridicule and scorn. For some it will mean loss of possessions and family and friends. For some, it will mean death just as much as it meant Jesus going to a crucifixion.

But it is worth it. Jesus endured all the agony for the joy set before Him of seeing all sorts of people transformed from despair to hope, from darkness to light, from death to life.

We have the ministry of reconciliation between people of every language and nationality and race and ethnicity. The hope of the world is the hope of the Gospel, that Jesus came to die for and to save sinners like me and you.

It’s not popular or politically correct, but it is still the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. It’s John 3:16. It’s Ephesians 2:9-10. It’s 1 Peter 1:18-19. It’s the truth that no one is too lost or too bad or too late for God to redeem and make right and restore.

“Here is the mystery, the secret, one might almost say the cunning, of the deep love of God: that it is bound to draw on to itself the hatred and pain and shame and anger and bitterness and rejection of the world, but to draw all those things on to itself is precisely the means, chosen from all eternity by the generous, loving God, by which to rid his world of the evils which have resulted from human abuse of God-given freedom” (N. T. Wright, The Crown and the Fire).

That’s it. God in Jesus took on all the sin of the world on the cross.

That’s the hope for the world.

Our final hope is not in some radical upheaval or climate change or social justice or anything man-made. While we work toward true justice and peace, we know that ultimately the victory comes not from us but from Jesus.

Some say that others should pay for what their forefathers did long ago.

But when you look to the Bible, specifically the Old Testament, it says that no one pays for the sins of his or her father. Each one must pay for his or her own sin.

But then you look to the culmination of history in the Cross that says, “Jesus paid it ALL!”

That’s the hope of the world.

I’m going to tell you a story. If you’ve been following these posts for a year or longer, you’ve probably heard it before, so you can skip this one if you want.

Three years ago, I went into the Williamson County Animal Shelter looking for another little cat to love nine days after I said my last goodbyes to Lucy.

I knew I could never hope to replace Lucy, but I needed a place for all the love to go that was still in my heart. I had no idea what this new cat would look like.

I did hope that the cat would more or less pick me. I prayed that the right cat would choose me to be her human rather than me choosing the cat.

It hadn’t worked the way I planned. I looked at a few cats that were nice (if not super affectionate or friendly). I even had one picked out that I thought I could grow to really love in time.

But then I turned around to see a little kitten paw reaching out from a cage behind me. Actually, it was my nephew who pointed her out to me, I think.

She was all alone in her cage, crying for me to take her home. She had picked me as the very human she wanted to spend all her nine lives with.

Her name at the time was Marcie, but that name really didn’t fit. I don’t know what inspired the name Peanut, but it seemed to fit (plus it got three votes from my nephews and niece).

So three years later, I have this quiet and gentle cat who loves her belly rubs. She’s mostly black, but she has this one peanut butter colored foot that she’s rather proud of (or at least you’d think so by the way she shows it off).

Thanks, Peanut, for three years of joy. You are the best.

“Lord, all that I long for is known to you, 
my sighing is no secret from you… 
I put my trust in you, and leave you to answer for me” (Elisabeth Elliott).

Of course, that works for any day of the week, but it seems especially appropriate after another Monday has come and gone.

I believe Mrs. Elliott also said something to the effect that God gives the very best to those who leave the choice with Him.

May this be the day that you worry less and worship more, panic less and pray more, try harder less and trust more.

May this be the day that you rediscover that God and God alone is enough, and if you have nothing more, you have enough and you are enough.

May this be the day that you remember that all the days of your life are written in God’s book, and He knows every one of them by heart.

May this be the day that you know in your deepest heart that God has already written the last page of history. You can read it in the last chapter of the last book in the Bible and rest in the fact that it will be fine in the end, and if it’s not fine, it’s not the end.

Recently, I found out that a man that I greatly admire and respect has passed away. His name was John Oden, and he was one of the most kind and faithful men of God I have ever known.

He was a steady stalwart and a friendly face at Room in the Inn for around 20 years. His was the face you could always trust and everything about him reflected Jesus to everyone he ever met.

I found this old Wordsworth poem that seems appropriate for the occasion:

“And O ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,  
Forebode not any severing of our loves!  
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;  
I only have relinquish’d one delight  
To live beneath your more habitual sway.  
I love the brooks which down their channels fret,  
Even more than when I tripp’d lightly as they;  
The innocent brightness of a new-born Day  
Is lovely yet;  
The clouds that gather round the setting sun  
Do take a sober colouring from an eye  
That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;  
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.  
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,  
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,  
To me the meanest flower that blows can give  
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears” (William Wordsworth).

“Dear Lord, you have sent me into this world to preach your word. So often the problems of the world seem so complex and intricate that your word strikes me as embarrassingly simple. Many times I feel tongue-tied in the company of people who are dealing with the world’s social and economic problems. 

But you, O Lord, said, ‘Be clever as serpents and innocent as doves.’ Let me retain innocence and simplicity in the midst of this complex world. I realize that I have to be informed, that I have to study the many aspects of the problems facing the world, and that I have to try to understand as well as possible the dynamics of our contemporary society. But what really counts is that all this information, knowledge, and insight allows me to speak more clearly and unambiguously your truthful word. Do not allow evil powers to seduce me with the complexities of the world’s problems, but give me strength to think clearly, speak freely, and act boldly in your service. Give me the courage to show the dove in a world so full of serpents” (Henri Nouwen).

In case you wondered, it is not your job to fix everybody and everything.

It’s not your job to point out everybody else’s mistakes and errors or to correct their political view.

It’s not your job to carry around the burdens of every single person plus your own.

It is your job to trust God.

It’s not your job to carry around anger all the time.

Yes, there is a time for righteous anger, but the Bible says 1) in your anger, do not sin, and 2) don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Carrying around anger constantly is like playing with fire– eventually you or someone you love will get burned. Someone you did not intend to harm will get hurt.

The answer is always deep adoration of God. After all, He’s the only one with the real power to heal and unite and restore.

“Father, our source of life,
You know our weakness.
May we reach out with joy to grasp your hand
and walk more readily in your ways.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever” (from The Liturgy of the Hours).

I confess that I am prone to judgmental thinking when I read social media posts. First of all, my name is Greg, and I am a grammar nazi (for the next meeting of Grammar Nazis Anonymous). And is is really TOO hard to understand when YOU’RE using the wrong word? Honestly.

More importantly, I get annoyed when people use Jesus and faith as a means to promote some other agenda, whether it’s politics or business or whatever else, instead of faith being the ultimate end and goal.

Often I miss the heart behind the message. I don’t give the other person the same courtesy that I would hope someone else would give me when reading one of my heartfelt posts.

This beautiful prayer acknowledges before God that 1) we are full of weaknesses and 2) He already knows them all even as we tried to hide them behind bravado and anger and finger-pointing and humor.

We call on Father God as the Source of Life, confessing that we desperately need God in all the hours of our days. I know I do best when I’m clinging to God’s hand with all that I’ve got and finding joy in His ways instead of my own.

It’s a declaration of dependence, something that is very counter-cultural (and in many ways unAmerican). It’s to agree with Jesus that we are poor in spirit, having nothing of our own to bring to God but instead being offered all the benefits of the God’s Kingdom.

Jesus, help me to always seek your hand with joy and to walk willingly in your ways, knowing that You alone can make beauty out of chaos and light from darkness. Amen.