Each Year, a Gift

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Not everyone is a morning person, I get that. But I am. Unless I am just exhausted and way behind on sleep, I love waking up before the dawn and being able to witness the sunlight whenever it first starts breaking in through the windows. I love to suddenly become aware of the moment that the birds first start to sing. I love beginning each day with a prayer of thanksgiving and having a cup of coffee as I reflect on God’s goodness and mercy in my life. As I meditate on this, I offer up prayers for my family, my friends, and for the church and all the people in it. I’ve noticed that no matter how the day before went, if I stick to this routine, it helps me to live each day with a fresh, healthy perspective, and a renewed since of purpose. After all, each day is a gift, and each day is a chance to grow in and share God’s love.

Having said that, it should come as no surprise that I also cherish the hope and potential that each new year brings. It is like a new day, but on a grand scale. We are greeted with the opportunity to live another year here on earth, and to make the most of whatever lies ahead of us. Just like a morning routine can effect the way you approach a new day, our perspectives heading into a new year can be equally powerful.

Not all days will be good. Not all years will be good. In fact, some of them will be incredibly difficult and painful, but make no mistake, each new day, each new week, and each new year truly is a gift from God, the Author and Sustainer of life. If we commit to beginning each one with hope and with thanksgiving, we will move forward with a more Christlike perspective, and whether wonderful or difficult times lie ahead, we will be more prepared for the future because we enter into it with hope, joy, and thanksgiving. I pray that you embrace this new year as a gift from the God who gave it. May it be a year of blessing for you and your loved ones, and may we all grow in grace together in 2025.

Why we need this season

Jerry Akin

What is the reason for this season? We know what we celebrate— and who we celebrate. But why do we need to celebrate? Why do we need to sing the same songs over and over again every year during the month of December? Why do we insist on keeping the same old traditions, visiting with the same people, and eating the same food? Why do we continue to read passages of Scripture that we are so familiar with, as if we are going to discover something new this year?

Well, I can’t answer any of those questions for sure, but I will say this: I can always use a reminder of how God’s love broke into this world through the birth of His Son. Because even when I know that, and grasp it as truth, I know all too well that I’m still prone to forget it or take it for granted later on. 

And maybe that’s why we need this season. Maybe we need to surround ourselves with people we love— people God has placed in our lives so that we can experience His love. Maybe we need to keep coming back to those familiar songs, those familiar scriptures, and revisiting those familiar memories; because even though His love is eternal, we are forgetful.

Yes, Jesus is the reason for the season, but we need this season over and over again… so that we can continue to recall, reflect, and remember God’s love for us, and how the love came down on Christmas.

Just Your Imagination

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“It’s just your imagination.” I remember my mom telling me this many times as a child when I would get up in the middle of the night and tell her that I heard a monster moving around in my room. At some point in your life, you’ve probably also been told “it’s just your imagination,” and the phrase was meant to be either comforting or dismissive, implying that reality is not necessarily what is going on inside your head. But that doesn’t mean that the imagination is powerless. In fact, the imagination is one of the most powerful forces on earth. After all, when I heard those monsters in my room, it may have been “just my imagination,” but the fear I felt was very, very real. 

When Jesus came walking out on the water towards the disciples as they were in their boat, fear seized them. They were sure it was a ghost. Their imaginations ran wild, and fear took over. Once Jesus assured them that it was He who approached him, Peter’s imagination took a drastic turn. He went from panicked to utterly confident. He could see himself walking on the water too. He got out of the boat, and he actually took a few successful steps. Then his mind took another turn. He began to look at the reality of what he was doing, and suddenly it seemed illogical. He panicked, and began to sink.

In this short passage of scripture, we are shown repeatedly how powerful our minds, and what we use them to imagine, can be. God gave us our imaginations, and He wants us to use them for good. Like Peter, who by faith could imagine himself walking toward Jesus, God longs for us to utilize our imaginations in faith, capturing His vision, and then creatively finding ways to make that vision happen here on earth. Yes, God is the chief creator, and we are His creation, but miraculously, God calls us to collaborate with Him so that Creator and creation can work together to advance His original vision. In order to do this however, the imagination must be tamed; it must be sanctified.

How do we sanctify the imagination? Just like anything else— by recognizing that we don’t sanctify. We submit it to God and let Him sanctify it, purify it, and redeem it through His grace. And how should we use the imagination? In whatever way God moves us, and in whatever manner that He calls us or inspires us. We are created in the image of the ultimate Creator, and what a wonderful thing it is that the Creator has designed us to collaborate and create with Him.

The Heart of Worship

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Do you ever feel like you have so many things going on that it’s hard to keep it all straight? Maybe you have so many thoughts, ideas, and concerns swirling around in your head that it’s hard to remember the simple, basic things like where you put your car keys. I know I get that way sometimes. In those times where I feel like my mind is so cluttered, and my day is so busy, I sometimes feel like there should be a reset button that I hit and it wipes out all the mess and I can just rebuild my train of thought starting with the basics. 

There’s a praise song that says, “I’m coming back to the heart of worship. It’s all about You. I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it when it’s all about you, Jesus.” I’ve found throughout my life that when I seem to have so much going on and I easily lose focus, I must return to this prayer over and over again. It’s kind of like hitting the reset button and clearing away the nonsense. 

Our lives our meant to be lived out in worship, meaning that we reflect and glorify God even in the every day stuff. But we carry so much baggage with us— exhaustion, guilt, fear, complacency, and many other things. If we take a moment to intentionally hit the reset button, and focus only on Jesus, all that other stuff clears away and we understand why we worship in the first place. It’s all about Jesus. In fact, all of life is. We live with so many things on our agendas and calendars that we often forget the simple truth that we were created to bring God glory. The very reason for our existence is to walk in, grow in, and reflect God’s love, made available to us through Jesus Christ. That is the basic truth we should strive to live into, and it is the very heart of worship. Are you living your life with a heart of worship? Is it all about Jesus? Please join me in confessing, “I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it,” and let us live our lives in a way that glorifies God more authentically.

deeper

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Rapid commutes, instant communication, and living in a faster, smaller world has made us masters at multi-tasking. But for all that we are able to easily and readily accomplish, how much of it is done hastily and without much thought?

We are in danger of becoming surface-people: People who so quickly skim and scan over so many things that we rarely allow ourselves time to truly sink into the deep parts of our conversations, our relationships, and our spiritual reflections. Yes, the COVID-19 Pandemic forced us to slow down in certain areas, but in other ways, it made us a more virtual people than ever before. The time it takes you to get to your next appointment or important meeting could simply be the amount of time it takes you to log onto Zoom or Skype. Schools and churches are meeting virtually, allowing us to quickly gain access to the knowledge we need or desire, and then move along. 

Without ever slowing down, without a time of deliberate reflection, we risk becoming more and more shallow— shallow friends and shallow believers with shallow experiences. This is the opposite of what we are called into as we seek to follow Christ.

When the rich man came to Jesus and asked how he could become a follower, Jesus told him to sell everything he owned. It’s easy to hear this statement and think that Jesus was anti-wealth, but He wasn’t. The point of Jesus’ command to the rich man was that if he truly wanted to follow Jesus, it couldn’t be a shallow experience. It couldn’t be just another thing he dipped his toe into as he continued to acquire and amass many other things. Jesus was saying, if you want to follow me, you’ve got to jump all the way in, with both feet, into the deep end.

Where is it that we are not diving in deeply enough? In a life filled with quick, shallow experiences and encounters, where is Christ telling us to go deeper?

In a fast-paced world, we tend to treat everything like it’s simply the next thing we need do before we move on to something else. But Jesus said to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. These are not surface actions. These do not allow for shallow experiences. When it comes to matters of the heart, matters of the soul, matters of our relationships— When it comes to following Christ, we are not called to be surface people. We are called to go deeper.

Keep Learning

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When I embarked on the journey to become a pastor, I didn’t realize the full extent of how much learning would be involved. There was License to Preach School, where I had to officially earn my license; there was seminary, three years of processing my believes through the multi-faceted lens of theological academia; there was teaching parish, a cohort of pastors that came together to talk candidly about their experiences in an effort to learn from each other; and then there was my residency, a three year program beyond seminary where I had to chronicle my experiences in real time for the sake of demonstrating how my ministry had evolved. Even now, the conference requires all pastors to continue their education by earning a certain number of “CEU’s” every year. These are earned by attending seminars or taking additional pastoral care courses. All this to say, I’ve realized that my learning is a life-long pursuit.

Another thing I’ve learned is that the life-long pursuit of learning is not at all limited to pastoral ministry. I am constantly learning as a spouse, as a parent, as a child, and as a member of the surrounding community. We all are! We all have the continuous opportunity to increase in knowledge and understanding about the people and the world around us, and we also have the opportunity grow in wisdom regarding our circumstances. The world is a much different place than it ever has been before, but thankfully, we are different people than we have been before. We carry with us the insights that we have gained through experience. Even our scars give us a greater sense of perspective as we greet each new situation with sharper eyes and more discerning hearts. 

What’s more, for all the knowledge, intelligence, or wisdom we may think we have acquired over time, there is still so much more for us to learn. Recently, I have witnessed God work in the life of the church, in the lives of my colleagues, friends, and family, and in my own life in ways that I never imagined. God is innovative and resilient despite the circumstances, despite a pandemic, despite pastoral transitions, and despite uncertainty over how to be the Church during all of this. God is constantly working, moving, growing, and structuring things according to His purpose, and it has been really awesome to witness. 

In all of my learning, the most wonderful thing I’ve learned is that I will never stop learning about God’s sovereignty— His ordering in the midst of our chaos. May this learning be a life-long pursuit for all of us.

The Power of Words

Jerry Akin

Words carry a lot of power. We are woefully dishonest whenever we echo that old saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Words can hurt. Words can also heal. Words can reveal secrets, encourage friends, deliver important messages, or even start a movement. Any progress that has ever been made in our world was first expressed through words. Teachers, preachers, political leaders, protesters, activists, prophets, poets, and musicians have all influenced the winds of history with their words.

The words that are written in the Holy Scriptures, relay God’s message to us. These words were put in the mouths of prophets, they danced on the tongues of angles, they echoed off of palace walls, and they traveled through the desert. But all of these words, and all of the voices that delivered these words, pointed to the Word made flesh: Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist was a voice in the wilderness, but Jesus’ voice is what spoke (and still speaks) to the hearts of men and women throughout the ages. The words that come from His voice don’t merely point to hope and promise, they are hope and promise. His words are life, and if we are listening, His words can revolutionize our own lives. Can you hear His voice today? What is He saying to you?

An Easter Reflection

Jerry Akin

This is the time of year when things come back to life. The days grow a little longer, and the sun shines a little brighter. Grass grows greener, and butterflies can be seen floating and fluttering in their fields. Trees began to bud once again, and the birds that take up residence in them seem to sing a little more sweetly. All of this testifies that our creator God is a God of, not just life, but renewed life.

For all of our advances in knowledge, science, and technology, we cannot create life, or even renew life where it has been lost. Sure, we may be able to lengthen life, enhance the quality of life, and preserve life; but God alone has the power to breathe into the dust of the ground and create new life from nothingness. Is it any wonder then, that God alone can breathe life back into what was once dead?

Surely this world and all that is in it will soon come to pass, but the God of renewed life has the power and the authority to recover whatever has been lost, and usher it into eternity. For although this world is fading and fleeting, His Kingdom is Eternal, and the power by which He reigns is the power of resurrection.

Jesus appeared to Mary in the garden and asked her, “why are you weeping.” Mary was filled with a very deep kind of grief. Not only had she seen her Lord crucified in front of her very eyes on Friday, but now, on Sunday, His body was missing. This was salt in the wound. Mary probably felt more abandoned and alone than ever in that moment. It was what we could call a wilderness moment. But in the midst of that wilderness moment, in the midst of that grief and loneliness, Jesus spoke her name… and everything changed.

Like Mary, we live in a world of loss, and hurt, and grief; but the One is from the Promised land, He has crossed the wilderness, and defeated it. He is able to appear to us in the desert and in the darkness, bringing us eternal joy, and the promise of new life. He appears to us in our grief, and with love, He speaks our name.