This series we’ve been doing on the Bible has not only been challenging–at least for me–but somewhat unexpectedly, it’s been a major eye-opener for me. My study has led me to learn all sorts of new things about the Bible and if I were to summarize it in a sentence it would be simply: Objectively, the Bible is the most unique book in history.
It’s New Year’s resolution season which, in our home at least, has brought up the discussion of becoming a more generous person. If you’ve got kids, this is probably something you want to instill in them but the challenge is, how do you teach being generous? I know the best way to teach anything to your kids is to model it in your own lives so, yes, we’ve sought to do that, but when it comes to generosity, the whole “Don’t let your left hand know what the right hand is up to” (Matt. 6:3) teaching makes this somewhat tricky.
Check out what our community has undertaken, through God’s grace,over the past 12 months…
As many of you know I have our church library in our living room which is pretty handy when I’m sermon prepping. Last week while prepping for the message on Advent Peace, I found myself thumbing through “Beyond Homelessness” – a book about “reconciling Christian faith in a culture of displacement.”
Something’s up. Do you feel it? It’s possible it’s just the Christmas jitters but I think if we’re honest, it’s more just ol’ fashion tension. It’s felt in conversations with family members and friends we haven’t chatted with in a bit. Maybe it’s present at the office or job site. Maybe in school. There’s… something unsaid that is being said very loudly between us in the various spaces and contexts we find ourselves in each day. I could probably point my finger to a few sources, but let’s just be real and concede that whatever this something is, it is almost certainly tied to the political situation south of the border and its leaking through our own border. Regardless of political “side” you find yourself on–if any at all–the tension continues to result in a drifting apart from one another, which royally sucks because in this season of togetherness we’re entering, it’s the connecting and moving toward one other in authentic ways that really makes the holidays such a meaningful and special time.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last while, you’re aware there was a relatively important election south of the border, in fact. Like me, you’ve perhaps had a political convo or two with friends or family that may have revealed a perspective that left you confused and bewildered. Like, “How on earth do they see reality like that?” There are a number of reasons for this utter disbelief, but maybe at the top of that list is the collective media each of us consume on a daily basis. Because don’t kid yourself, the goal of the media will always be to make bucks even at the expense of truth. The more division they sow, the more dollars they make. Whether it’s social media or a favourite news source, our media now weeds out anything that might cause us to stop viewing or consuming, giving us only what we want to hear and thus making it exceptionally challenging to attend to any unbiased take on what the other side might say.
This week I wanted to just share the story he tells of this girl and the waterfall. I could tell the story but instead I’ll just paste the video here and you can watch.