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Hot Chicken Update

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I went for a second time to Hattie B’s, reportedly one of the premier places to get hot chicken in Nashville. For the uninformed, hot chicken is fried chicken that has spices on it that range from mild to rectally scarring (or at least that’s the way I understand it).

I started my hot chicken journey a couple of years back with a trip to Big Shakes, where I ordered the cry-baby version. No, I did not make that up. Yes, it was still hot enough to make me sweat.

This time, I upgraded from mild to medium.

I don’t foresee myself ever going any higher.

That’s about my limit for spiciness where you can still taste what you’re eating. And yes, it was goooooooood.

My next quest for hot chicken to complete the trifecta is Prince’s Hot Chicken on Nolensville Rd.

If you decided to try hot chicken for the first time, I recommend starting off on the low-end, unless you already know you’re a fan of the spicy. I also suggest making sure you have plenty of beverage handy. And napkins. And bread, if you can get it.

I give Hattie B’s two hot thumbs way up. Now all I need is the t-shirt that says, “I ate hot chicken at Hattie B’s and all I got was this lousy t-shirt (and a good meal).”

Random Frozen Thoughts in January

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When I say frozen thoughts, I do not mean thoughts about the Disney movie Frozen, which had the annoyingly popular song Let It Go. I mean how it’s so frickin’ cold outside that all the thoughts in my head are now frozen.

I’m all for winter, but when it gets below freezing, it needs to snow. Right now, the air is so dry that I shocked myself twice simply getting out of my car. At least I had some classic Otis Redding music to keep my thoughts from the cold.

Otis’ version of “Rock Me Baby” might just be one of the most authentic blues songs to come out of Stax records. I definitely didn’t fall asleep in the car while listening to that one.

I’m a little behind on my quest to read the Bible through in 2017. I’m just about to start 1 Peter. Hopefully, I’ll be done at the very least by the end of January. To be fair, I read through the New Jerusalem Bible, a Roman Catholic translation with a few extra books than the standard Protestant version.

It’s 11:05 and I’m ready to call it a night. All that cold weather with no snow is really tiring, so I’ll enjoy the comfort of my flannel sheets and once again count my many blessings after another good day without that dreaded toe tag.

 

Choosing Fruitfulness

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“There is a great difference between successfulness and fruitfulness. Success comes from strength, control, and respectability. A successful person has the energy to create something, to keep control over its development, and to make it available in large quantities. Success brings many rewards and often fame. Fruits, however, come from weakness and vulnerability. And fruits are unique. A child is the fruit conceived in vulnerability, community is the fruit born through shared brokenness, and intimacy is the fruit that grows through touching one another’s wounds. Let’s remind one another that what brings us true joy is not successfulness but fruitfulness” (Henri Nouwen).

I’m not anti-success. I love it when I try something new or take on a difficult task and succeed at it. Success is a great feeling.

But it should not be the final aim of the believer. Fruitfulness should.

To be fruitful is to pass along a legacy of faith first handed down to you.

To be fruitful is simply to abide in Jesus and let His work take root and grow in you, to let His words sink deep into the soil of your heart, and to let His love germinate inside you until it encompasses your whole being.

Let us choose success, but let us choose foremost to be fruitful.

 

An Inauspicious Start to 2018

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In all my wildly imagined scenarios, never did I picture myself standing in the 5 degree weather at 6:20 am, waiting for a tow truck.

It all started normally enough until I went to take a left turn out of my subdivision. First the power steering went, then the power. My car stalled mid-turn.

I sincerely repent of all my comments about all temperatures below 20 being the same. They’re not.

In my short wait for a AAA tow truck, I ran through all the possible causes of my Jeep being in a frozen coma on the side of the road (after I got out and managed to push it to the side of the road).

It could be anything from a bad battery to an engine apocalypse. I was hoping for a dead battery but secretly fearing worse.

Thankfully, the tow truck dude showed up within 20 minutes of me calling AAA for roadside assistance.

Thankfully, he took me to an auto shop close to where I work. They were able to take my car and drop me off at work.

Thankfully, all my beloved Jeep needed was a new battery.

It really could have been much worse on so many levels.

At least I wasn’t pulling out onto a busy street when my car died.

At least I was able to get to work and get my car taken care of.

At least it wasn’t a monumental, wallet-sucking repair.

So a day that started off bad ended up good.

Truly, God is still able to work all things together for good for His beloved, even at a ridiculously early morning hour on a frigid January 2 day.

It’s all about being intentionally grateful and not taking my every day blessings for granted. It’s about thanks-living and not just thanksgiving.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

 

A New Year’s Day Poem

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this on the eve of the new year 1945, the year in which he would later be executed by Hitler, days before the concentration camp he was in was liberated by the Allies. Note: this may or may not be a repeat, but if so, it’s worth a second read.

“By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
and confidently waiting, come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
and never fails to greet us each new day.

Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
O give our frightened souls the sure salvation,
for which, O Lord, you taught us to prepare.

And when this cup you give is filled to brimming,
with bitter sorrow, hard to understand,
we take it thankfully and without trembling,
out of so good and so beloved a hand.

Yet when again in this same world you give us,
the joy we had, the brightness of your sun,
we shall remember all the days we lived through,
and our whole life shall then be yours alone.”

Only God knows what 2018 will bring, but just as certainly we can know that whatever prevails, God will be with us all the way. He will still work all things together for your good and His glory.

I still believe that God’s plans are far better than mine, and whatever He brings ends up  exceeding anything I could have wished or dreamed for on my own.

My prayer for all of us is to know the love of God that passes all understanding and casts out all fear and anxiety, and to know that no matter what happens, for good or bad, that Emmanuel, God with us, is still with you and for you and in you.

 

 

A New Year’s Day Prayer for 2018

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I’m sharing this prayer from one of my heroes, Billy Graham, at 12:51 am on January 1, 2018. Happy new year!

“Our Father and our God, as we stand at the beginning of this new year we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance as we face the future.

We each have our hopes and expectations for the year that is ahead of us—but You alone know what it holds for us, and only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we will need to meet its challenges. So help us to humbly put our hands into Your hand, and to trust You and to seek Your will for our lives during this coming year.

In the midst of life’s uncertainties in the days ahead, assure us of the certainty of Your unchanging love.

In the midst of life’s inevitable disappointments and heartaches, help us to turn to You for the stability and comfort we will need.

In the midst of life’s temptations and the pull of our stubborn self-will, help us not to lose our way but to have the courage to do what is right in Your sight, regardless of the cost.

And in the midst of our daily preoccupations and pursuits, open our eyes to the sorrows and injustices of our hurting world, and help us to respond with compassion and sacrifice to those who are friendless and in need. May our constant prayer be that of the ancient Psalmist: ‘Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end’ (Psalm 119:33).

We pray for our nation and its leaders during these difficult times, and for all those who are seeking to bring peace and justice to our dangerous and troubled world. We pray especially for Your protection on all those who serve in our armed forces, and we thank You for their commitment to defend our freedoms, even at the cost of their own lives. Be with their families also, and assure them of Your love and concern for them.

Bring our divided nation together, and give us a greater vision of what You would have us to be. Your Word reminds us that ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord’ (Psalm 33:12).

As we look back over this past year we thank You for Your goodness to us—far beyond what we have deserved. May we never presume on Your past goodness or forget all Your mercies to us, but may they instead lead us to repentance, and to a new commitment to make You the foundation and center of our lives this year.

And so, our Father, we thank You for the promise and hope of this new year, and we look forward to it with expectancy and faith. This I ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, who by His death and resurrection has given us hope both for this world and the world to come.

Amen” (Billy Graham).

Happy New Year’s Adam 2017

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Well, it’s New Year’s Adam again. In case you forgot from last year, Adam came before Eve, so New Year’s Adam comes before New Year’s Eve. Then it’s 2018.

I’m still just getting used to 2017.

Seriously. By the time I adjusted to writing 2017 on everything, the year was already half over. Then it was Halloween. Then Thanksgiving. Then Christmas. Then bam! 2018!

I think 2017 was about fretting and worrying less and trusting more.

2017 was about learning how much worrying is really just planning for a future without God in it, and how the antidote to all that worry is trust and prayer.

Just as much as 2017 was, 2018 is in God’s hands.

 

Pray Big

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(Ann Voskamp)

With only two more days left in 2017, one resolution I intend to restart in 2018 is to pray bigger and bolder.

I’m not so much praying the impossible for myself (though I will be bold in my own prayers) as much as I’m praying it for family and friends.

Maybe our new motto, modified from the original Star Trek slogan, is to pray boldly where no man (or woman) has ever prayed before.

So pray big. Pray boldly. Pray in such a way that the answer can only be explained by God– and nothing or no one else.

Pray, knowing that the Holy Spirit still helps us when words fail and only groans and sighs come. Even if it seems you get it wrong, the Holy Spirit always gets it right.

Pray as much and as often as possible.

Just pray.

 

Come to Me

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“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, The Voice).

That’s the promise.

To all who are weary and heavy-laden, as the old King James puts it, to all who work to the point of exhaustion, as another translation puts it, there’s rest.

All you have to do is come to Jesus.

You don’t have to figure your life out or get your mess cleaned up.

You don’t have to have your five-year life plan perfectly mapped out or all your goals and resolutions lined up for the new year.

You don’t have to have perfect theology or doctrines.

You don’t have to be perfect.

All you have to do is come to Jesus, and you will find rest.

 

 

 

It’s Resolution Time Again

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By my count, we have 4 more days of 2017. That means it’s time for those new year’s resolutions again.

I have some advice, not original with me, about how to go about making those resolutions go from wishful thinking to reality.

  1. Write them down somewhere. Even if it’s on a roll of toilet paper, writing them down moves them from hypothetical to real goals.
  2. Make them tangible and visual. Don’t just say that you want to lose weight. Say that you want to run in a 5K or fit into size 32 jeans.
  3. Make them realistic. Don’t aim to run an Ironman Triathlon if you’ve never done any serious running in your entire life.
  4. Celebrate the victories, even the small ones.
  5. Remember that the ultimate goal isn’t hitting goals but improving your quality of life.
  6. Make at least one goal very attainable, like taking a nap every day. Ok, that one’s mine, but I think it’s a good one.

So there you go. I actually wrote something that has bullet points and everything. Unlike my Pinterest boards, you can actually use it to do something constructive.

Now go and do it.