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February 28 - March 27, 2023
There is an invitation—whether married or single—to a life of communion, joy, and delight.
The love of God doesn’t remove our desires; it reorders them. The banquet is the recognition that we were created for ecstasy but that this ecstasy is found only in God.
Sacramental living is a way of spiritual formation that sees all of creation as the means by which we can encounter the living God.
To put it simply, we are not just to receive sacraments; we are to become them. Whether through our compassionate love for our neighbors, shared intimacy with friends, kindness toward our children, or through the making of love with our spouses, our entire lives point to something beyond ourselves.
Our bodies, though affected by the reality of sin, are gifts from God to cherish and nurture.
In the words of the famous philosopher Martin Buber, from his book I and Thou, I was formed to see women as “its” and not “thous.” Women were not seen beyond their body parts.
A deeply formed sexual life is one marked by sobriety. By sobriety, I’m not referring to abstinence and willpower; I’m referring to honesty.
Whatever we cannot name reveals our bondage to shame.
But the practice of sobriety is imperative in a world marked by sexual disorder and bondage.
We find it hard to speak honestly about our addiction because we have fixated ourselves on the act and not on the pain the addiction is seeking to soothe.
vows. (I should clarify that just because someone is married doesn’t automatically lead to intimacy, connection, and vulnerability.)
The answer is simple: loneliness is combated not solely by physical proximity but by emotional closeness.
Lovemaking Is Communication, Not an Activity
I’m most happy, joyful, content, and generous when my wife and I are living from a place of loving union with each other.
Our lives are to be joined with God in love, in contemplation, in surrender, in obedience, and out of that, in loving service and mission to the world.
To do without being disconnects our activity from the source of life and love: God’s life and love.
When we’re doing without being, we’re liable to serve in order to gain the approval of others, lead to mask a deep sense of insecurity, volunteer to get God to love us more, start new things to prove our worth, and over-function, not giving adequate space for our own health.
God dances and invites people throughout history to move in accordance with his rhythm of love. But sometimes we’re off rhythm.
Any sense of mission that is faithful to Jesus begins with the presence of God.
Any notion of mission in this world must confess that God moves first.
Long before we arrive, God has been present.
Even when they sin and are banished from the Garden of Eden, he still reaches out, looking to restore communion and relationship.
As a result, many Christians have seen people as projects to fix instead of relationships to nurture.
How, then, shall we be on mission? Well, we can start by creating space for presence.
What’s needed is for Christ followers to discern God’s presence rather than assuming his absence.
We are formed to believe that God is only with people and in places that mirror our belief systems. Or we believe he is present in supernatural spiritual moments but not in the ordinary moments of our lives. I’m regularly guilty of this.
Mission for a Christian must begin not with human fallenness but with God’s posture toward the world.
Does God exist without us? Of course. Does God want to exist without us? Not a chance. God is for us. This is the foundation of mission.
We have incorrectly understood extroversion to be a spiritual gift that everyone must cultivate.
Being on mission doesn’t require us to be intrusive, awkward, and coercive. It should be a normal experience.
You see, hospitality is not simply the opening of our homes; it is the opening of our hearts to another.
Or to put it another way, the person who might be farthest from God might be the person who thinks others are too far from God.
As theologian Henri Nouwen said, “Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.”2
Practicing justice is an act of joining God in seeing that the created order (people and everything else) receives what it is due.
justice is a necessity for our world to reflect the good news of God’s reign over all things.
mishpat. Although the meaning of this word in Scripture includes the punishment of wrongdoing, it predominantly means giving people what they are due as human beings made in the image of God.
Tim Keller, mishpat “is giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care.”5
To practice justice requires us to practice presence.
The work of deeply formed justice requires a willingness to stay present well after the adrenaline-flowing outrage has passed.
Frederick Buechner captured this truth well: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
voices. As Dr. King famously said, “A time comes when silence is betrayal.”9
Striving for justice is not for the faint of heart, yet this is the deeply formed way of Jesus.
part. To see all work as holy is a spiritual practice that pushes back on a spiritual elitism that obscures God’s good vision for all creation.
We are there, certainly, to be the presence of Jesus, but we are to express his presence primarily through our good work.
offering high-quality work is part of our missional call.
Dr. King, “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and earth will have to pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.’ ”12
the essence of the gospel is the lordship of Jesus Christ.
The good news, simply stated, is the recognition that Jesus is Lord over all things and invites us to a life free from the shackles of bondage.
But the announcing of the gospel is a practice that requires careful discernment, compassionate curiosity, and a willingness to step beyond a transaction of faith.
As Jesus perfectly modeled, we are called to open ourselves to joining the journeys of others, building relationship, discerning openness, and announcing the news of God’s loving presence and commitment toward them. This
