Life, for most of us, feels like a movie we've arrived to forty minutes late.

Sure, good things happen.  But tragic things happen too.  What does it mean?  

We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes wonderful, sometimes awful, but usually a confusing mixture of both.  And, we haven't a clue how to make sense of it all.  No wonder we keep losing heart.

If you walk into any mall, amusement park...

This week I am writing this email as I prepare to share this Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family. At the same time my house is decorated for Christmas… yes, we are “those” people. Our house has been decorated for Christmas since before my birthday earlier in the month.

So, with Christmas all around me, it is not hard to be thinking of Jesus. And today I was thinking about the name of Jesus. 

As I have gotten older, It has been getting harder and harder to sleep though the night without interruption. Sometimes I long for the days of being a teenager when I could go to bed at 11:00pm and sleep till noon and not be awoken by anything — even my mom’s early morning calls to join the family for breakfast.

One of the themes that I have picked up on is how our spiritual enemy seizes upon, and at times creates, my restlessness as opportunities to implant thoughts into my mind and spirit. Seldom are my late-night introspections good thoughts. Rather, they seem to take me to some of the worsts moments of my life and proceed to recite back a twisted spin of the events — all with basically this accusatory message of, “you suck. You are nothing.”

This has been a tough year for me. Now, to be fair, there has been a lot of joyful times, but, at the same time, it has been a tough year. 

On at least two occasions, my body has reminded me that I am LATE into my 40’s… in fact as I write this, my right arm is still in pain from a disc golf game I play with my boys — back in July. 

In addition to physical pain, there has been heartache, suffering, and betrayals. On top of this, my friends have been suffering as well.

This week I took some time to get away in the mountains to reflect and pray. As I have spent a lot of time with God out in nature this week, I have reflected on how much of my spiritual growth has come from times that were not in a church service.

As a pastor, this is a tough pill to swallow. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has thirty-four intimate encounters with an individual. Of the thirty-four, one takes place in church.