'Til Kingdom Come

Tis the Christmas season and my church has had its share of events to celebrate the Advent of Christ. The two big events I look forward to each year are the Christmas concerts. One with adults and one with children. I loved both concerts but for very different reasons. Each allowed to me reflect on the Lord but from opposite perspectives. With the adult Christmas concert there is a sense of Awe. The stage is packed with singers and musicians. This year a stage extension had to be built just to compensate for all the performers. The concert is big in scale and well rehearsed as the singers and musicians perform with meticulous precision. As I sit in my seat I meditate on God's immensity, creativity, perfection, and beauty. My senses can hardly take hold of all the glory of the performance. I just sit there and let it wash over me. There is a purity in the high quality of it all. A week later I attended the children's concert. Dozens of children, ages 5 to 12, crowd the s...

Over the summer I realized that as a single man in my mid 20's I am presented with a conflicting set of agendas for my life. One popular opinion is that I need to take full advantage of my singleness. Travel, pursue goals, go back to school. Figure out what I want out of life.  These are not bad things. They are great things. These may even help me to reach my life goals of marrying a godly woman and having a family of my own. However, I'm also told that getting married and having a family will reveal to me and others the depths of my selfishness and pride. I could wait until that possible day to discover those elements in my heart but I was a Boy Scout and our motto was "Be Prepared". The hope then is that I rid myself of as much of my egocentrism as I can and to live for others now. Where I see the problem is that the life I'm being told to live now is not helping cultivate the life that I seek to flourish in later. I set before me the same challe...

In my last post I discussed the importance of Plasticity in clay. The quality that allows the clay to be easily molded to the form of the Potter. I too must be flexible to the ways in which the Lord is sanctifying me to His greater and mysterious purposes. Sometimes the shapes that the Potter is forming can stretch the clay thin. In these moments the quality that is critical is Strength . The clay must be able to hold it's own and not collapse in on itself or tear. An overly fragile piece of pottery is not very useful. How often do I find that my integrity is being tested? That the stretching and bending of my soul and character are being all at once strained by outside forces and yet conditioned by my Father. One of my favorite verses in scripture, one that I cling to often, is Joshua 1:9. Following the death of Moses, Joshua is faced with the incredibly difficult task of leading the people of Israel into the promise land which in addition to flowing with milk and honey is ...