You don't need a white Christmas.

I have to admit, I am rather surprised. I woke up a few minutes ago to discover a sudden (and reasonably large) dumping of snow. After checking the forecast, it appears we are in for a white Christmas this weekend! How exciting!

In a way, it seems somewhat funny that whoever chose the date to celebrate Christmas picked December. Did nobody travel back then? Possibly. I don't know. But the more I think about it, the more December feels like it makes sense.

It is the darkest time of year- immediately after the winter solstice. Christ came to save us from the dark forces of sin. It also is when many places are likely to get snow, which is an amazing visual reminder of purity. Freshly fallen snow is so beautiful and overwhelmingly white. It is reminiscent of our forgiveness that Christ came to make possible.

"Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." - Isaiah 1:18

I know these parallels can't work in every region of the world at once. Nevertheless, that is what today in my little space in Washington state reminds me of. Perhaps your place in this world can make you think of another truth of God right now. After all, as Psalm 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."

So, look around you. Look outside. Take in God's creation. Which of His truths are you reminded of today?

The Over-Glamorized Life of Creatives (Aka: beware of envy!)

There tends to be this idea that the life of people who work in entertainment and media production is glamorous. Over the past year, I've been learning that this is not at all the case. Yes, media creation can be fun. Yes, it can feel really cool to have an audience and get compliments on your creative work. But the life of those who produce media and music is not all glory, fun, and sparkles. That is just the part we get to see.

In reality? My friends in video production spend more time tediously editing footage, hunting for inspiration, and keeping up with sponsorship connections than they do acting and filming. My friends in the music industry have endless practice sessions and constant nights sleeping in rented tour buses and hotel rooms. It takes an entire day for the team to set up for concerts and then they might stay up half the night loading crates into trailers in the rain. The writers in my life have to devote huge amounts of time to marketing their work while they hope and pray it sells enough for them to make a few dollars. And me? I just spent a solid six hours editing a single podcast episode and am about to start hunting down web links for the show notes.

It's easy to assume someone's life is all fun and games when you look at the surface. It's easy to envy someone when you make assumptions. But as Christians, we are to break away from envy.

Galatians 5:19-21 states envy in the list of lifestyles that are displeasing to God and uncharacteristic of His children:

"Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Not only that, but envy even has the potential to drive one into poor health, according to Proverbs:

A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. - Proverbs 14:30

What or who do you envy? Is it truly worth it?

Why I Hate Selfless Love.

I’m going to risk sounding like a bad Christian and start off this week’s devotional by saying this:

Selfless love sucks.

It takes your resources, your time, your energy. It can range from being mildly inconvenient to downright painful. It means we have to be aware of how our words and actions affect others instead of blurting out everything we feel in a moment. It means we should care for others when we’d rather focus on taking care of our own burdens.

It also means we need to be more like Christ - which sounds pretty ideal until we realize how much hardship and rejection He went through. Do we really want to go there? Nowadays, society won’t judge us for focusing our time and energy on ourselves or for simply chasing what makes us feel good. So why bother?

It is now December, and the answer is basically staring us in the face. The lights I keep driving past may just seem like fun and festive decor to most, but to those who believe in Christ, they should also be a reminder. A reminder that the Light of the World didn’t just sit up in Heaven enjoying Himself.

God’s creation had (and still has) turned against Him. If I were Him, I’d be inclined to say “Well, that was stupid. Screw humanity. I’ll just chill up here while they suffer for rebelling against my design.” But, God isn’t made in my image (thanks be to Him for that!). So, instead, Christ exercised selfless love. He confined Himself to a human body. He chose to help society’s hopeless and looked down upon sinners rather than taking on a glorious political position or snubbing everyone like the “good” people did. He was despised, rejected, and even betrayed by those who said they loved Him.

What does He do in return? He takes on the punishment of damnation so that our debt is paid and we can be adopted into His family and have the ability to love Him.

Selfless love sucks.

But, it was given to us by Christ. So let’s pay it forward. And backward. And everywhere in between. Let’s selflessly love Christ by following Him and His Word no matter what. Let’s selflessly love others because that is what Christ did and wants us to do, too. It won’t always be a warm fuzzy feeling, it may mean we’ll get dirty or uncomfortable or worse.

It won’t be like a Hallmark Christmas flick, but it is the best way we can celebrate Christmas both in December and throughout the year.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” - John 15:9-17

Our Daily Provision

For the longest time, I had been obsessed with lists. Every single weekend I would write down all the things I needed to get done, including a long string of projects that I had in mind to do in the future, just in case I had time to work on anything related to them. The list was as big as my forearm, and at the end of my two days off, I would mentally berate myself for not having accomplished much. Hey, we are called to be good stewards of our time. I rationalized.

As time went on, I became more worn out and more stressed. Then I stumbled upon a piece of writing having to do with the Lord's prayer. It pointed out the part that says "give us each day our daily bread", expounding on the fact that it says daily. Not meals for a year, a month, or even a week. But simply sustenance for a day. Whether that means a meager serving of oatmeal or an extravagant feast, who can know- but we will be provided for.

Planning ahead can be important and useful, sure. But when it comes to our day-to-day life, one day's worth of provisions will carry us through to the next day, and then the next day's provisions will carry us to the one after that, and so on. We don't need to worry about accomplishing a million little things that are unnecessary for today. God will give us the strength and time necessary to do exactly what He intends us to do today, however much or little that is. 

Our job is to do what He equips us for with diligence, and trust Him when He allows distractions or down periods to hit. We can make all the lists we want, but in the end, He is sovereign over each day.



“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins,
    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

- Luke 11:2-4

Back on the Rock

"He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!" - Psalm 40:2-4

Being a hiker, this passage really stands out to me. When you're out in the wilderness, it is very possible that you could fall to your death if you slipped into a large pit; you have to avoid stepping in miry bogs, and you feel the stability of rocks under your feet. Even those who are not outdoorsy can still feel this imagery; sometimes we feel as if we've slipped into a mental bog that we cannot escape on our own, and at some point in time, we have all been dead in a pit of spiritual destruction.

Let us be thankful and continually praising God each day that He has saved us from that destruction and set us upon His firm foundation. Know that He is equally capable of pulling us from the miry bogs of sin and despair. Believe it. Hang onto it. Don't be afraid to share it so that others can know. Trust God, and never allow yourself to pridefully believe that you are the only one who can rescue yourself.

Be Thankful For Everything?

It’s November, and as Thanksgiving draws nearer, I’ve begun to notice people online trying to be more aware of the blessings they have experienced over the past year and focus on the good in their lives. But what if we have had a hard year? Do we just try to tune out most of the events of the past months and go into a tunnel-vision focus on particular things that we enjoyed? Or is there something deeper we ought to consider as we wander through these dimly lit portions of life?

Recently, I encountered this verse in Thessalonians; “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). That's tough. In ALL circumstances? Really? Yep, really. It's not any easier for me than it is for you, believe me. But it's the truth, and on top of that it is a command from God. But how can we do this? Certainly not by our own power.

We must pray that God would help increase in our trust in Him, and remember what the Bible says of His character:

"The LORD is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds." (Psalm 145:17), 

"The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all." (Psalm 103:19). 

While we may not be thankful for the specific undesirable circumstances we end up in, we can still give thanks to God that He is using those events as part of His plan, and that whatever it is, in following with his character, it will end well and allow us to in some way glorify Him.

Those Trying Times

"Welcome to solitary confinement,"  are words which undoubtedly once echoed through this room as a prisoner would get shoved through the open door into the small dark room. While none of us have likely been imprisoned in a solitary cell, we may have gone through times where we mentally felt like it. Even King David went through a period like that, and in the process he penned this Psalm:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul

    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

    lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

(Psalm 13)

There are several things that can be noticed about David's stance in this psalm:

1.) His sorrow coexisted with his joy.

2.) He was considered a "man after God's own heart", yet he still experienced very difficult times and felt distant from God.

3.) He was praying to God, despite feeling distant and abandoned.

4.) He recognized that counseling himself during times of hardship leads to more sorrow- he needs God's counsel.

5.) He trusts, rejoices in, and praises God amidst the hard times.

How can you be more like David as you tackle life's challenges?

The Cup Bearer

"Then Joseph said to him, “This is its [the dream's] interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cup bearer. Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house... 

...On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cup bearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cup bearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." 
- Genesis 40:12-23

How often are we like the cup bearer in this situation in regards to God's blessings in our lives? How many times in our lives has God provided for us, but ended up going without the proper thanks or even a second thought from us? So often it can feel like where we are is our own doing- we worked hard for this, we made the choices that brought us to this position; while yes, we have been making choices, it is God who directed our steps and provided the opportunities and the impactful people we've met along the way.

Even if we are not currently in a high point in life, it is worth remembering that things could always get worse, were it not for God and His mercy holding back some of life's trials from us. Whether you are at a high point or a low point in life, take a step back and consider the blessings He has given you, whether in the form of the amazing things that have happened or in the form of the terrible things that could have yet did not.

Give thanks to God today, and every day. To Him be all glory.