![]() God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. -Psalm 64:1-3 Let's do something different today. There are so many words being put out there right now. So many perspectives to read, so many things to scroll, so much to get anxious about. Many of those things are valid; some are a result of our inability to disconnect from things that spike our dopamine levels up and down and increase our rage, our anxiety, or our sense of superiority. This week I'm not desiring to add to that. Today I'm drawn to simply remember God's holy invitation to take a step during the storms (whatever they may be) to find refuge in his presence. The earliest writings about God in the scriptures speak of God as "refuge," a "shelter," an "ever-present" place of protection. Many of us have experienced that. And yet, we often neglect the opportunities to shelter in God because it requires stepping away from the raging winds for a few moments, and for whatever reason, we find that to be very difficult. What if we miss something important!? What if we don't feel productive or helpful for an hour?! Can we trust that God gives us permission to breathe deeply and exhale slowly? I'm fascinated by how just a little movement can shift our perspective and re-ground us in our identity. Turning off a phone, having a cup of tea, reading a book, sitting deeply with a prayer, taking a slow walk with Jesus, sitting in stillness and listening for the reassuring whisper of God. I've come to learn in that even in the midst of intense seasons where the wind is always whipping, God's refuge is never more than a few feet (or choices) away. I was given an embodied lesson of this deep truth while I was finishing a sabbatical pilgrimage last year walking from Scotland to the coast of England. I want to share a 90 second video from that experience. Don't worry, you don't need to hear what I'm saying in the first 15 seconds. You won't be able to anyways, the wind is too loud. That's kind of the point. (click the picture to view) So today, friend, what steps will you take to seek out shelter and find some rest in God's care?
Jesus, shelter me from all sides on the days the storm rages. Peace, Keith
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Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.
-Proverbs 4:25 One of the weird things about having teenagers is realizing how much language has shifted from a few decades ago. There are constantly new phrases working their way into rotation, and old words taking on fresh meaning. I lost all pride associated with trying to be relevant years ago, so now I just ask a couple times a week, "What does that phrase mean now?" One phrase in particular isn't too hard to decipher, but it's definitely risen to prominence in our household the last few months in the lives of my teens and their friends: Locked in. Now, it's nothing revolutionary, but it's used all the time around here. It means you are in the zone: "Saquon Barkley is so locked in right now. Look at his expression on the sidelines. He's ready to go." (Yes he was.) "That race didn't go well. I wasn't really locked in during my warmup." "I was finally able to get locked in for a bit and finish my homework." Locked in is just a 2025 way of saying "focused." But it's a better way to say it. It gives you this physical sense of someone who is not bouncing around in lots of directions. It's about a mindset that allows the main thing to stay the main thing so that somebody can really excel. Or, conversely, it's a way to describe how someone's focus and mindset is all over the place, so they're not going to do their task very well. So this month every time I hear that phrase, I've been thinking about what it means for disciples of Jesus to be locked in during the coming year. This is a struggle for me. I feel everything, all the time. I'm overwhelmed by all that needs to be done in the world, not always knowing my role. I go down rabbit holes sometimes, or sit here trying to solve endless issues that aren't even mine to solve. I foolishly start scrolling fresh debates on social media and then just get irritated at the world and values that are spoken but not embodied. And then sometimes I just ignore everything and watch Eagles highlights for waaaaay too long. Totally not locked in. While some of those things may have a place in my life (maybe) for 5 minutes, it's not the calling that we have right now as people of Jesus. We are called, like the writer of Proverbs says, to look straight ahead and fix our eyes on what lies before us. It's a prequel to what the writer of Hebrews wrote, to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." We are called be people who, regardless of the social, political, or personal landscape of our lives, embody the spirit and the character of Jesus minute by minute. We are called to be imitators of the heart of God in everything that we do. That means it's going to look like integrity, compassion, truth, self-control, kindness, and love. And the greatest of these is love. It will require prayer. It will require healthy life rhythms. Living deeply has always required this. I love the way that author Eugene Peterson paraphrased the expanded Proverbs passage 30 years ago: Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust. (Proverbs 4:23-25 MSG) I believe my teenagers would say that describes someone who is locked in. There is always so much swirling about as we learn to live as disciples of Jesus in the United States. Every single day, a million lesser kingdoms are courting us for our attention and allegiance. We need not ignore what's happening in the world around us. But as we engage with the right focus, it will enable us to be curious, courageous, and compassionate (I find those things almost impossible to balance if I'm not keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus). It means we will look to be the helpers, so that people will know us by our love and not our rhetoric. It means we will live beyond dualistic attitudes that try to label a person as either good or bad. Let's make a shared commitment to be "locked in" with eyes on Jesus, created in God's image, empowered by God's spirit, and intended to do good works in God's world. Jesus, fix my eyes on what lies before me today, so that all I do would build your kingdom. Peace, Keith You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
-Luke 3:22 We don't talk enough about belovedness. This past Sunday is historically the day that we remember Jesus' baptism. I was teaching from Luke 3 this year and spent my time on the wild and weird witness of John the Baptist, so I didn't focus on the final lines of the narrative when Jesus himself goes under the water: "When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.'" First off, I LOVE that Luke just has Jesus embedded in the crowd. A man of the people, waiting in line with the others, probably listening to people talk about this powerful prophet, John. Maybe Jesus leaned over and whispered to someone, "That guy's my cousin!" Jesus doesn't need to get baptized, but he chooses to anyway. Jesus is simply among the others, validating this beautiful action of making a fresh start and receiving God's forgiveness. It's a super humble thing to do, and it gives us a glimpse into the humanity of Jesus and how he never felt the need to prove himself to anyone (keep that in mind for later). And that's where the holy moment comes in. When Jesus gets baptized, God's voice emerges from the heavens. And we might expect to hear something like what we hear 6 chapters later during the transfiguration, when the voice of God proclaims,"This is My Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to Him!" That's a solid use of the moment, in my opinion. Make sure everyone around hears it and get's it. This is God's guy, listen up everyone!!! But in this baptism moment, the voice doesn't come to the rest of the crowd. It's spoken directly to Jesus. And God speaks only one thing: belovedness. You. You are my child. And I love you. And I'm so happy with you. God could take the opportunity to make a booming declaration. But what the Father prioritizes in this moment is not a message for the crowds, or a loud command, or a fresh theological statement. It's an oddly parental moment: Jesus, who has not yet done any ministry, any teaching, any healing...... Jesus is SO beloved by the one who has sent him. And what we then find in the coming chapters is a man who had learned to live out of his belovedness. A man whose identity in God was so deeply rooted, that he didn't need to prove himself, even when challenged, tempted, and falsely accused. We see a belovedness so deep that Jesus' message to people would mirror the message of that baptism. Fear not. You are worth so much to God. God loved the world so much that he sent his son to redeem it. As the father has loved me, so I have loved you. That's why we can read this story and hear God's same words whispered to us. "I love you. You are my child. You delight me." We are in a belovedness drought right now. Maybe it's because there's so much division. Maybe it's because it's hard to talk about love when lives are being destroyed by fires and people are afraid for their future. Maybe it's hard to feel beloved when you can't pay your utility bills and yet there seems to be a new billionaire in the news every day. Maybe when others have harmed you, it's hard to remember that you are so much more valuable than how you've been treated. It might be hard, but we are people of truth. So let's choose to echo the voice of God in each others' lives this year. You are beloved. You are beloved. You are beloved. Lift up your eyes and sense the Spirit of God reminding you that you are loved before you've done a thing. Find ways to speak belovedness to others this week. Send a text, speak a word of care, remind someone that they are valuable beyond what they produce or contribute to the world. And let's start normalizing a reality where we live deeply from the love we have already received, rather than spending our lives trying to be worthy of it. Jesus, thank you today for your preemptive love. Peace, Keith *Artwork: Baptism of Christ by Vladimir Zagitov ![]() If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. -2 Corinthians 11:30 So I'm sitting here on my quarantined couch after being thoroughly destroyed by illness for the past 2 weeks. It was a bed for about four days, but I was recently promoted to the couch because of good behavior. Pneumonia has been ripping through my lungs, and has turned the first days of 2025 into one long and pathetic coughing fit. I don't go down often. But when I do, I fall hard. My body completely shut down this week, and I was of no use to anyone. But far worse than that, I was a burden to everyone. I needed people to bring me food, bring me blankets, turn off the lights, and take me to urgent care. I needed people to fill in for me at church, and to take care of things on their own that I would normally be partnering with them for. I had to cancel meetings and admit that I couldn't even pull off a zoom call. I was weak. We all have scripts that run through our heads about what we believe about ourselves and our world. Many are formed decades ago. I've discovered over the past year that one of the false scripts I've lived by is "I am not allowed to be a burden to anyone, ever." I don't know where I picked it up over the years, but it's in there deep. I am the strong and capable one. I make things right in the world. I help people when they need me. I keep things consistent and moving in positive directions. If I'm ever a burden, I've failed. (Yes, I'm aware of the hubris behind such thinking.) Pneumonia has it's own script: Screw your little narratives. I'm your daddy now. Embracing weakness can be an immense challenge for some of us. Even harder, in fact, than the often celebrated virtues of selflessness and servanthood. I have found that even though the desire to help others and offer selfless care is indeed is a high virtue, learning to graciously accept help from others and admit weakness and limitation.... that's actually harder for most of us to do. I don't know if it's fair to judge spiritual virtues based on how difficult they are to live out, but if so, then perhaps admitting our need and weakness before others is every bit as formative to the soul as our ability to give our energy in loving others? It may be "more blessed to give than to receive," but my goodness, receiving actually feels more costly me to sometimes. I can care for others and still hold onto my belief that I am the above the need to be helped. I can give time and energy to others all while thinking "I love to help people (but if I'm ever in that situation, I'll be fine to just handle things on my own)." I think this might be one of the reasons God gives us community. It's not simply so that we can learn to help others. It's so that we can learn the humility of being helpless and receiving care (the soups, prayers, and texts have been amazing!). Similarly, I think maybe this is why God gives us the gift of weakness. At times that we are highly capable, we rarely learn what it looks like to truly trust God's goodness. It's only in moments of true weakness that we have the opportunity to be empty enough to be filled in fresh ways. And to rest in the fact that we are enough, even when we CLEARLY AREN'T. This is the message the Apostle Paul learned when he heard the whisper of Jesus saying, "My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness." So I'm trying to start off this year nice and weak. I'm seeking to be a person who is able to share where I need help as easily as I offer my help to others. Perhaps you need a weak start to the year, too. If you're feeling weak, or if life's circumstances have forced it on you, may you have courage to not always be strong. I'm working on it with you. And maybe that's where God will do the most beautiful work in us. Jesus, thank you for the love we have been given, especially when we're faced with how limited we are. Peace, Keith |
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