Michael Kelley's Blog, page 51

What You Consume Will Inevitably Start to Consume You

You are what you eat.

You’ve heard the phrase before just as I have, probably in an elementary school health class. I remember hearing it when we were learning about the food pyramid and the importance of having a balanced diet. Then there’s another phrase with a similar meaning:

Garbage in, garbage out.

I first heard this one in the very first computing class I took long about 8th or 9th grade. The idea here was that as the computer would only do what it was coded to do. That if the end program was experiencing a problem, it wasn’t the computer’s fault; it was an issue with the input. The output was just a reflection of what was put in. And here’s another similar phrase with a similar meaning, though a different context:

What you consume will consume you.

This is a helpful little truism that reminds us that the things we take in, whether physically, intellectually, or emotionally, are not innocuous. It’s incredibly naive to think that we can consume whatever we want without any effect to our bodies, minds, and souls. We cannot take in endless amounts of social media, or on screen violence, or sexually explicit content without it changing us. Just as we can’t consume sugar all day and expect our teeth not to tall out, so also should we not expect anything different when it comes to our minds and hearts. What we consume stays inside of us. It grows. Metastasizes even. And eventually it will consume us.

Now we typically think of this principle in negative terms – that we should be very careful with what we consume. We should take this very seriously, especially since we are a consumption driven culture. In many ways, our entire lives are built around consumption. We consume food, media, relationships – you name it. We are living in a gluttonous world, and because we are, we must be very, very aware.

But the principle works both ways, and that’s good news, because there are some things that we want to be consumed by. God’s Word? Passion for Christ? The call to reach the world with the gospel? These are the things that should consume us. The good news, in that respect, is the same as the bad – that what we consume will eventually start to consume us. Consider how Jesus put it:

“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19-21).

It’s a pretty familiar passage, and we usually think of it in negative terms. That if we spend all our time chasing after temporal things – things that moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal, then our hearts are going to follow that investment. That’s certainly one way to understand the passage, but here is another one.

Jesus is giving direction to His followers. He’s saying “don’t store up” and then instead “store up.” These are active commands, things for us to do regardless of how we feel. We can certainly identify with that because we do things we don’t necessarily feel like doing all the time. We get up and exercise not because we are excited to do it, but because we know it’s good for us and we will be glad we did.

Now trace that line out a little further. When Jesus tells us that where your treasure is our heart will also be, it can be read as an action point. That is, you can actually play an active role in where your heart is, and the way you do that is through your investment. Or, as the principle stated earlier, what we consume will eventually consume us.

Flesh it out even more – if you want to be consumed by a love of God’s Word, then consume God’s Word. If you want to be consumed by a passion for Jesus, then consume Jesus. If you want to give yourself away for the spread of the gospel, then make it your practice to feast on gospel opportunities.

If you actually want to be consumed by something, then be very intentional about what you consume. Let’s make sure we are, then, consuming that which we desire to consume us.

God’s Mercy is Greater Than the Mercy of the World

The last two years have brought many different words into our vernacular. We might have been aware of these words before, but they certainly have a different meaning or emphasis to us now. Words like “pandemic”, “mask”, and “quarantine” have moved out of the realm of hypothetical or historical study and into our regular every day conversation. And that’s not all. There’s another word that has come to the forefront, and though it doesn’t directly have to do with the pandemic, it is nonetheless wrapped up in where we find ourselves as a culture.

The word is “cancel.”

This is a word that has been, in many ways – weaponized. It’s leveled as a threat, and the reality of such a thing happening has made everyone who engages in social media of any kind think twice about what they post.

In truth, that’s not a bad thing. There are many of us that could do well with giving a bit more considerations about the things we tweet. And there are those among us that frankly need to be challenged on the opinions, language, and videos we post or like. Nevertheless, the word hangs out there as an ominous potential reaction. So what does it mean to be “cancelled”?

Well, it’s a kind of ostracism or shunning. It’s when a large group of people, a group that gains momentum quickly, either consciously or subconsciously, to shove someone out. In today’s world, this ostracism tends to largely begin online, but it can quickly move to being in person.

I don’t mean to give a lot of commentary here on the the inherent good or evil that is accomplished by this kind of thing; I only mean to say that it’s a regular part of our world right now. And I also only mean to comment on the general speed it happens. Like a West Texas grass fire, the ire of the social community is raised, and things spread incredibly quickly from there. It happens fast, and it happens without mercy. And in a real way, it happens ironically.

The irony here is that the culture around us claims to value tolerance. Now there’s another word that warrants a bit of explanation. Tolerance is strictly defined like this:

“The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.”

Interesting, right? On the one hand, the world claims to value acceptance of all, the personal definition of truth, and the right for anyone to live as they see fit. And yet on the other hand, the world is ready to come together to actively put someone out of their number. Though there is much to be said about this apparent contradiction in cultural attitude, from a biblical perspective, we can surely say this:

God is infinitely more merciful than the world. And thank God that’s true.

How many times have each of us given God legitimate reason to cancel us? How many times have we committed, and recommitted, and then recommitted ourselves to follow Jesus only to come once again to the same point of desperation? How many times have we presumed upon the grace of God and treated our sin lightly? Too many to count. And too many terrible opportunities for God to wipe His hands of us.

But He has not. And He will not. Because, praise God, His mercy is more.

More plentiful. More patient. More forbearing.

The patience of the world will run out. And it will run out shockingly quickly. But not with God. His well of grace is not exhausted with you, and not with me. He stands ready even now, imploring those who are seeking their pleasure in the far country, but also those who have busied themselves with self-righteous work in the field, to come home. Come home, and join the celebration. For no matter how far you’ve gone, and no matter how hard your heart might be, you have not been cancelled.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. Making Our Gardens Grow

What can we learn, as Christians, from getting our hands in the soil and planting a garden? Quite a lot.

2. 5 Reasons to Read the Bible Beyond Personal Application

Let’s not just be pragmatists when reading Scripture. There is more than that there for us.

3. The Insidious, Fake Intimacy of Algorithms

Don’t settle for this poor substitute. There are real relationships out there waiting.

4. Star Wars Villains Ranked by Power

Just a fun little list here for the nerds among us.

If God Doesn’t Get Tired, Why Did He Rest?

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s how it all begins. And when I say “all” I mean all. This is the source of all things. It was an event that is absolutely unrepeatable. Unreproducable. Unobservable – because God was the only one there. Out of nothing, God made “everything.”

God created not out of boredom, because eternity was getting a little stale. Not out of loneliness, for God is completely and totally sufficient in and of Himself. God created out of love. It’s not unlike the reason why we have children. Some people have kids because they’re lonely or because they feel like there is a void in their lives. But often times, when kids come into the picture, it doesn’t necessarily fix that hole; it might put a band aid on it for a while, but it will come back. The best reason a husband and a wife have children is out of an overflow of love for one another. They love each other, and they want that love to spill over into others as well. So they have kids.

Before anything was created, there was an inexhaustible amount of love among the members of the Trinity. And that love spilled out into the creation of all that we see and know. So in the beginning God created. He created the molecules and the cellular division. He created the ecosystems that work in tandem with each other through His common grace. He knit together the vast number of individual species in all their glorious variety. He set the orbits of the planets in such a way that the tides on earth don’t rise more than they should. He planned night and day to be an appropriate amount of time to support different life systems in different areas. God not only created, but He created in such a way that all of His creation fits together in a harmonious way.

But let’s not stop there either. For in as much as God created the physical universe, He also created things that are invisible to us and yet are integral for the way we live. Take time, for instance. God thought that up, too, in the same way He thought up the Venus fly-trap or the brown trout. This too sprang from His creativity.

And so the process of creation went for six days. The heavenly bodies. The creatures and plantlife of the seas and the air. Then humanity, stamped and made uniquely with the imprint of the image of God. And then, quite suddenly it seems, creation is over. The end and conclusion comes at the end of day 6, as recorded as chapter 1 closes and moves into chapter 2, beginning in verse 31:

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. But the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

That’s how the account of creation ends. And at first glance, it doesn’t seem to end with a bang, but with a whimper. Don’t we expect some more? Some bigger fireworks? Something more extensive? Like one final grand act? What’s more interesting and even confusing, is the use of the word “rest” to describe God’s lack of activity on day 7. That seems to contradict much of what we believe to be true about God.

That sounds more like a term that should be applied to us, because that’s what we do on the weekends. We work and work and work until we can’t work any more, and finally when the weekend rolls around us, we want to do nothing except rest. To nap. To stop thinking. To lay on the couch. We want to rest because that’s what you do when you’re exhausted. But God?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure it’s exhausting work to create. It’s not like He had been idle for the previous 7 days; God had been busily working hard during those days. But rest? Our God? The one who doesn’t slumber or sleep? That God?

And we’re right to suspect something fishy going on here, because a better translation for the word “rest” is actually “cease.” That’s the context in which we should read this. God stopped, but He didn’t stop because He needed a break. God doesn’t need breaks. He stopped because He was finished. There wasn’t any more to do. It was very good. The verb translated as “rest” in most other contexts carries the implication of taking up a position of safety, security, or stability; of settling down or settling in. It is marked by God’s ceasing the work of the previous six days and settling into the stability of the cosmos. And that is important.

In our eyes, this might be the “bang” that we think creation should end with, but the institution of the Sabbath is more than just an appendix to bring creation to its closure. This is actually the climactic moment of creation – the thing that brings it all together for us.

The reason we have trouble seeing Sabbath as the climactic moment is because it’s not centered on us. We would much rather that the climax be the creation of man and woman, and that this seventh day is just something tagged onto the end, but it’s not. It’s the summation. And we struggle with that because if that’s so, then it’s not about us. It’s about God. It’s about His completed and very good creative work and recognizing it as such.

Those two elements – completion and celebration – are what the Sabbath is all about. It’s not about exhaustion for God, and it shouldn’t be about that for us. God doesn’t invite us as His people into the story of creation until this moment. And by inviting us in here, indeed commanding us to be regular partakers of this Sabbath moment, we know that in Sabbath-ing we are to have the same purpose as He did on this first Sabbath. We are to celebrate the completed, creative work of God. But as we close the Old Testament and move to the New, we begin to see the true implications not only of Sabbath but of creation as a whole.

The creation of the universe, as it turns out, is a paradigm – a precedent – that is repeated over and over again throughout redemptive history. And it’s one we have a personal knowledge of. Though this was the first time when God called light out of darkness, substance out of the void, and life out of nothingness, it wouldn’t be the last time. This model of creative activity has been repeated over and over and over again throughout the years following His initial creative work.

The same thing has happened in us. At one time, we were all children of darkness. Slaves to the kingdom of the air. Void of hope and life. And yet the Great Creator once again stepped into the darkness and the void and spoke, and life sprang up again inside of us. He called us from darkness to light, from nothing to significance, from outsiders to children. And He created a new heart inside of us that is bent toward Him. What God did at creation started the pattern He has continued throughout the rest of history, and we stand in the long line of His workmanship.

And now, much as He did on the seventh day then, after He created life in us in Christ, He stands back in Sabbath. Not because He’s tired, but because He’s finished. When Jesus hung on the cross, His pronouncement was one that has great meaning for the followers of Jesus and the children of God. It is indeed finished. We don’t need to strive any more. We don’t need to improve on what God has done. The work He has done in us is His work, and it is very good. The call for us now is to Sabbath along with God, reflecting on and enjoying His finished work in creation. Creating us in Jesus.

3 Reasons God Wants Us to Be Good “Waiters”

Frequency illusion is a kind of bias in which, after noticing something for the first time, there is a tendency to notice it more often. Let’s say, for example, you decide it’s time for a new car, and you want to buy a Jeep. So you’re thinking about Jeeps, researching Jeeps, and test driving Jeeps. Frequency illusion would say that you will also start noticing Jeeps on the road, and your mind can trick you into thinking there is a higher frequency of Jeeps on the road than there actually are.

That same thing has probably happened to you in a number of contexts; it certainly has to me. I have been spending much time in the Book of Psalms lately, and I wondered if I was suffering from frequency illusion. It seems to me that the exhortation and command to “wait” is all over this particular book of the Bible. We are doing a lot of waiting around our house right now, and perhaps I was reading my own circumstances into the Bible. Surely there is some of that, but on the other hand, you can’t read many of the psalms without running into the word. No fewer than 15 times are various psalms centered on this idea – that we are to wait on the Lord, hoping in Him, instead of feeling anxiety or the compulsion to take matters into your own hands. We are to:

Wait expectantly (Ps. 5:3)Take heart and wait for the Lord (Ps. 27:14)Wait in hope for the Lord (Ps. 33:20)Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him (Ps. 37:7)

Waiting is a skill, if you will – and a skill the Lord wants us to work at. To practice. To grow in. And here are three reasons why God wants us to be good “waiters”:

1. Waiting shapes our character.

We hate waiting because waiting, in our minds, is a waste of time. We know what we need to do, where we need to go, or what we need to get, and waiting for whatever that thing or destination is, is just an obstacle to overcome. But that’s not the perspective God has. God wastes nothing. Indeed, He wants us to wait because it’s during seasons of waiting when our hearts are laid open and bare.

When we wait, we see our own frustration, anger, anxiety, and a host of other things. During seasons of waiting we come to see the true nature of our faith and we are forced to reckon with what we say we believe is actually what we believe. Waiting changes us at the heart level, and this is what God is primarily interested in. He is far more concerned about making us into the image of Jesus than He is about getting us to a destination quickly.

2. Waiting builds our faith.

Waiting is an opportunity for us to reaffirm our faith and to have an active kind of trust – the kind of trust that takes real work – rather than a passive and assumed kind of trust. And this is where we live most often. Our faith exists in the realm of assumption. We assume the sun will come up. We assume we will not have a catastrophic accident. We assume that everything will be okay today just as it was yesterday. That’s not all bad – again, our ability to make such assumptions is a reflection on both God’s common and special grace in our lives.

But every once in a while, it is a very good thing for us to be put in a situation that’s a little more extreme. For us to have to wait, and in waiting, to have to actively exercise our faith. It’s during seasons like that which our faith is built up. Like a muscle that needs to be worked out in order to grow, so is our faith.

3. Waiting glorifies God.

Consider, for a moment, what you must believe to be true in order to wait on the Lord. What truths fuel our waiting? We must believe that God knows what our situation is. We must also believe that He cares about our circumstances. We must further believe that He wants to help us, and that He knows what’s best for us, and will eventually bring that about. If we don’t believe these things, or if these things aren’t true, then waiting is foolishness.

But these things are true, and each and every one of them present these attributes of God – His care, His love, His providence – to those around us. Our waiting becomes a testimony to the character of God. God receives the glory when we wait well.

Waiting is hard. And it’s not any easier for the Christian. But waiting is not a waste of time. It’s during seasons of waiting when our character is formed, our faith is built, and ultimately God is glorified. Be a good waiter, Christian, for your own sake and for the glory of Jesus.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. The World Needs Your Story

That’s what Netflix thinks, and they’re right in a different way than they intended.

2. Judge Not

Oh, boy – do we ever need a perspective like this right now.

3. The Illusion of Normal Days

Great picturing of the days of Noah, and how those days are just like the ones we are in now.

4. 5000 Candles in the Wind / Music Video

If you know, then you know.

How One Word Changes Your Perspective in a Season of Difficulty

“Why?”

It’s a question every parent is familiar with. And, at least in my experience, it’s both beautiful and annoying at the same time. It’s beautiful in the sense that it exposes the natural curiosity and wonder of our children. It shows us their seemingly insatiable desire to discover and know. It propels them into greater and greater learning as they encounter more and more of the world around them. But it’s also annoying.

It’s annoying because most of the time, there is no end to it. Your kids ask you “why” something is, and the majority of the time, that only leads to another “why” question. You can explain and explain and explain and yet there is still more to explain, until at some point, most every parent answers the “why” question like this:

“Just because.”

Kids grow, and as they do, they also tend to ask “why” less and less. It doesn’t disappear entirely, but it’s like that natural sense of wonder gets beaten out of them. Their creative curiosity starts to ebb, and it’s as if they care less and less about the reasons behind certain things. They begin to accept that things are the way they are and they no longer need an explanation for it. And then they become adults. They become us. And we don’t ask the “why” question a whole lot. But when we do, we usually do it out of a posture of pain.

We are hurting because of disease, death, destruction or else the general chaos we see in the world around us. We can accept alot, but every once in a while that chaos becomes too personal and too overwhelming for us to accept much more. And so, like children, we once again cry out, “Why?”

Why is my wife sick?Why can’t I find a job?Why is there so much anger in the world?Why is God allowing this to happen?

But here is a difficult question to ask ourselves during these kinds of “why” seasons: would knowing the “why” really help us? We think it would, but I don’t know – I’m not sure that knowing all the cosmic reasons behind this event or that one would actually be the balm on our wounds we think it would. Knowing the “why” doesn’t take the pain away. Not really.

Job, when he was stricken with all kinds of suffering, went on a quest for answers. He sought understanding – the mysterious “Why” behind his troubles. He wasn’t content with the explanations of his friends, and pressed into God asking the hard questions most of us shy away from.

In Job 38 God started talking back. He answered Job out of a whirlwind, which must have been more than a little disconcerting. But after these thirty-seven chapters of accusations, ques- tions, and pain, the answer God gave was not the “Why?” Job was looking for. It was the “Who” he wasn’t.

For the next four chapters, God talked about . . . Himself. He talked about His power and His creativity. He talked about His wisdom and His justice. And He reminded Job that he, as a human, possessed none of those qualities in comparison to the Almighty. Never once did God crack the door of eternity and say, “See, this whole thing started when Satan came walking in here. . . .” Never once did He take Job into the future to show him the good that would come from his struggle. Never once did He reveal the way He would redeem Job’s pain. Never did God show Job one of the billions of Bibles that would be printed in the future, all containing his story. Not one single answer to Job’s specific questions. Just descriptions of Himself. This is often where the “why” leads us – it leads us not to specific answers but to God. And that is a very good thing.

I wonder, though, if there is another word we can change, by God’s grace, during seasons of difficulty that will also dramatically change our perspective. What is instead of asking “why”, we began asking “what”?

See, if we really believe that God loves us, that He is for us, that all things work together for our good, that He is busily taking all these events – even the painful ones – and using them redemptively to shape us into the image of Jesus… if that’s all true, then we can ask the “what” question.

What is God teaching me?What is being exposed about my heart?What needs to change in my faith?What lie have I been believing?

These are the “what” questions. Now to be clear, the “what” questions do not come immediately. We need to sit in our pain. To process it. To lament over it. To grieve. And so start asking the “what” questions too early can do more harm than good, as if we are denying that what’s happening to us is real and that we are terribly sad because of it. But at some point, by God’s grace, shifting that one word can make a world of difference. It can move us into a posture of humility, accepting that God can take what is terrible and use it for good.

This is the “what” the “who” does during seasons of “why.”

3 Questions to Help Parents Know Which Hill to Die On

“Are we going to die on this hill?”

My wife and I often ask this question to each other. Quite often in fact.

Children grow, and as they do, they begin to test the limits of their parents. It seems to me that it’s a natural (and therefore sinful) thing for kids to push on the established boundaries and preferences of their home to see how firm they are. I’m not even sure they know they’re doing it, but doing it they are nonetheless.

To be clear, I’m not talking about outright defiance here. I’m talking more about issues of general expectation or commitment. These are issues like doing homework as soon as you get home rather than waiting until later in the evening. Or choosing to wear your hair in a certain way, even though mom and dad would prefer something different. Stuff like that.

Which leads back to the question: “Are we going to die on this hill?”

In other words, we ask ourselves whether this particular issue that the child is pushing on is worth putting all our own weight on. Implicit in the question is the knowledge that you can’t die on every hill, because if you do, then your stand becomes less and less meaningful. So you do know if this is the right hill on which to take your stand?

Here are three diagnostic questions that might help:

1. What is the deeper issue?

When it comes to issues like these – issues of preference or expectation – it’s worth asking why we, as mom and dad, have that preference or expectation to begin with. What is the deeper, heart-level issue here? If you can identify that, then it will help you know the true importance of the issue. Furthermore, it will help you know if this particular thing is really worth standing firm on, or whether you can let it go.

2. What is the true win?

What are we really after with this expectation? This is related to question number 1 because it helps us know what we are trying to instill in our kids. If, for example, a child wants to buy something foolish with his or her money, the deeper issue of one of stewardship. And the true win is for the child to see that they are stewards of what God entrusts them with, and therefore not to act foolishly. So if that’s the true win, then the best thing to do might be to let the kid go ahead and buy that toy that’s going to break in five minutes so that we can better communicate the truth. It might, in other words, be the true win to back down from the hill and let them take it.

3. Are we prepared to follow through?

To put it another way, how committed are we to this? Have we already established consequences for this action, and are we ready to follow through with this promise we’ve made? This is a good question to ask because the worst case scenario would not necessarily be for us to back down as parents; it would be worse for us to stand firm and then not follow through on what we have said would happen next.

Parents, you can’t die on every hill. Nor should you. May God give us wisdom to know when to stand firm and when to back down.

No Matter What’s Going Wrong, There’s Always Something Going Right for the Christian

It seems like bad things come in bunches, doesn’t it?

You have a car break down only to find that the air conditioner has gone out only to find that the water heater is leaking.

Or you get crossways in a relationship only to find that you are overburdened at work only to find that one of your children didn’t make the sports team.

And so on. Life happens, both good and bad, and at least from our perspective, it can seem that those things happen in streaks. That’s true at a personal level, but it’s also true when we look outside our own lives. There are seasons in the world when it seems like there is a relative amount of peace, prosperity, well-being, and agreement. But then again, there are seasons when it seems like the hits just keep on coming. And this is certainly what the last couple of years have felt like.

“2020” has ceased to be the way we identify a particular year and has instead become a catch phrase in our vernacular. It was the year when seemingly everything in the world went wrong, but when the calendar switched over to 2021, we assumed the season would change. But in many ways, it has not. Perhaps 2021 is not what 2020 was, but it’s at least the little brother of that year. And now here we are, surprisingly, in the closing season of this year hoping once again that the season is going to be different.

Maybe it will. But then again, maybe it won’t. In either case, though, there will be seasons that will at least remind us of this one – times when it seems like circumstances just keep piling on. For the Christian, though, it’s a good and right thing to call to mind that no matter what or how much is going wrong, there are still some things going right. Hear the words of the prophet from the Old Testament:

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
    the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
    and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him” (Lam. 3:19-24).

Surely everything was going wrong for Jeremiah. He had been mistreated, neglected, abused, and maligned when he faithfully warned the people of coming judgment. And then the judgment came – the city of God was besieged and the people of God were in dire trouble. Jeremiah wept for the people, wept for their sin, wept for the judgment they were undergoing. Everything was going badly. But even when everything was going wrong, something was still going right –

The Lord was still compassionate. His presence was still with them. God was still faithful, even when His people were not. These are the things Jeremiah had to call to mind – he had to make an effort to remember what was right in the midst of everything that was wrong. And though our circumstances might not be the same degree of “bad” or “wrong” that Jeremiah was experiencing, we still must do the work of calling to mind what is going right.

So what good do we call to mind today, especially if it seems like all is going wrong? The answer is similar to what Jeremiah testified. What’s going right is still the Lord’s grace. His compassion. His care. His advocacy. Here is what we call to mind, and therefore we have hope:

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:31-39).

Yes. This is what we call to mind. This is what we work to believe in the midst of circumstances that are going terribly wrong. In the midst of all that’s going badly, Jesus is going right. And we are still in Him.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. Thinking Wisely about 40-Hr Workweeks and the Office

A timely post here, as many in the world are evaluating and re-evaluating the nature and rhythm of their work.

2. What are Friends For?

A great question. I fear that the simple joy of having deep friendships is progressively being lost, and the benefits outlined here lost along with them.

3. 10 Words that Changed Everything About My Suffering

I won’t give them to you here because it will mean so much more for you to read them from Joni Earackson Tada.

4. The 15 Best Pixar Scenes

I’ve seen every one, and they’re all amazing.