The War on Drugs played a set in Birmingham and it might have been the best show I’ve ever seen. They played all the great ones, even debuted a new song. And they sound amazing. Can’t wait for news about a new album soon. And best of all, I got to enjoy the evening with Sunny!
Lysa Terkeurst says that if you can trust God with your doubts, you can trust Him with anything. I think she’s right.
When you’re having a hard time seeing the goodness of God in your life, you might have to look more broadly. She recommends looking for His goodness in the small things. Sure, we love it when the “big things” line up just the way we want, but that’s kind of a silly barometer for gauging the goodness of God. Even so, those smaller, daily reminders of His goodness and His provision are there if we have the eyes to see.
She also writes, “Trusting God is holding loosely the parts of my life I want to hold most tightly.” Our impulse — my impulse — is to try and cling tightly, to exert control. Anything less than this feels like quitting. And I wasn’t raised to be a quitter. And yet, how can it be quitting when you’re entrusting it to the Lord? Isn’t that the very definition of faithfulness?
Lysa says, “We can control our choices today, but we cannot control the outcomes of tomorrow.” All I can do is make wise choices today, trusting that God is in complete control.
When we seek control, it usually leads to absolute chaos and increased anxiety. But surrender leads us in the way of peace.
She mentions the practice of saying aloud what she’s surrendering. Verbalizing it this way:
“Lord I surrender this unexpected turn of events.”
“I surrender this disappointment.”
“I surrender my doubts about you or this circumstance.”
“I surrender how sad I feel today.”
One practical way to do this is to pray with your hands open, palms up. It helps us to physically act out that which we are surrendering at a soul level.
I’m drawn to this quote by Martin Luther:
If your faith and trust are right, then God is the true one. Conversely, where your trust is false and wrong, there you do not have the true God. For these two belong together, faith and God. Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.
This means I can make a “god” out of just about anything.
But I may not be relying and depending upon the “true” God. This is living falsely.
And it’s probably only a matter of time before this falsity becomes evident.
I asked Jackson to play “Imagine” one more time before we take him to Berry for his freshman year tomorrow and Sunny snapped this candid pic. I think I will cherish this memory in my heart forever. Jackson fills our lives with music. Definitely going to miss hearing him play on a regular basis.
Jackson and I saw Lord Huron in concert. As you can tell, we had fun.
We had the opportunity to hear Joshua preach a few times this summer. Really proud of the work he’s putting in to develop his skills as a speaker and a minister. Excited to see what the future holds for him.
I preached recently on the difference between the attractional model of church and the missional model. I worked up this chart to help explain these somewhat arcane terms.
We had a great time over the weekend celebrating birthdays with this crew.
