Month: September 2024

Morning Musing: Colossians 3:12-13

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“Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been stuck? There are all kinds of ways to be stuck. We can be stuck in traffic. We can be stuck on a math problem. We can be stuck on a vehicle repair. We can be stuck on a writing assignment. We can be stuck on a word puzzle. Being stuck isn’t much fun, especially when we can’t immediately see how to get ourselves unstuck. As frustrating as all of those different forms of being stuck can be, there’s another that can be even harder to experience. We can be relationally stuck. Getting stuck in the context of a relationship can feel like it puts our entire life on hold. Even being relationally stuck, though, can come from a number of different sources such that getting unstuck can feel almost impossible. Today, let’s talk about a way to help us move forward when we’re relationally stuck that works in almost every situation.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:21-24

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“Then Moses asked Aaron, ‘What did these people do to you that you have led them into such a grave sin?’ ‘Don’t be enraged, my Lord,’ Aaron replied. ‘You yourself knew that the people are intent on evil. They said to me, “Make God’s for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt – we don’t know what has happened to him!” So I said to them, “Whoever has gold, take it off,” and they gave it to me. When I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I once got grounded from watching TV for a week. I was in grade school, and I don’t have any recollection of what I had done to be in trouble. On the Saturday morning of that week, though, I was up early and found myself alone in our den…where the TV was. Yes, I turned the TV on, and, yes, I got caught fairly quickly. When my dad asked why I had done that, I remember offering up a reverse psychology excuse that I knew I watched too much TV anyway, and that having the extended punishment duration I knew would be coming would probably be good for me. Much to his credit, I’m pretty sure my dad kept a straight face the whole time. As far as excuses for bad behavior go, that one was pretty terrible. But at least it wasn’t as bad as Aaron’s here was. Let’s talk today about what may be the funniest scene in the entirety of the Scriptures.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:19-20

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“As he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became enraged and threw the tablets out of his hands, smashing them at the base of the mountain. He took the calf they had made, burned it up, and ground it to powder. He scattered the powder over the surface of the water and forced the Israelites to drink the water.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What makes you angry? Are they mostly righteous things or selfish ones? We all have our list. The items on that list are the result of all kinds of different experiences. Ultimately, the things that make us angry say a lot about us. If we get angry about the wrong things, that’s a sign that we believe the wrong things. If we get angry about the right things, we are much more likely to be on the right track…even angry. When Moses discovered what the Israelites were doing, he got angry. Let’s talk about what happened here and what should make us angry.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 32:17-18

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“When Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, ‘There is a sound of war in the camp.’ But Moses replied, ‘It’s not the sound of a victory cry and not the sound of a cry of defeat; I hear the sound of singing.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Many years ago, I read a book that was more transformative in my thinking about sin than anything else I’ve ever read save the Scriptures themselves. It was called The Smell of Sin and the Fresh Air of Grace by Don Everts. The basic premise is that in order to understand grace more fully, we need to understand sin more truly. To this end, Everts, in beautifully poetic prose, starts the book with an exploration of the ways the culture around us (at the Enemy’s direction) falsely portrays sin. What we see here falls right in line with one of the descriptions he gives. Let’s talk about forbidden fun and the reality of sin.

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Playing Favorites

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Sometimes the conflict we find ourselves facing in our families isn’t directly our fault. Instead, it’s the fault of somebody up the generational line from us who did some accidental tinkering along the way that resulted in things being where they are. One of the most potent sources of this accidental tinkering is when parents (or grandparents) play favorites with their children and grandchildren. This sets up the subsequent generations for all kinds of frustrating seasons of conflict. Let’s talk about how this can happen and what we need to do about it when it does.

Playing Favorites

Julie Andrews lent her voice to some of the most iconic movie songs ever. One that has always been among my favorites is “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music. In attempting to distract and reassure her nanny charges during a thunderstorm, she invites them to think about their favorite things. We all have favorite things. For instance, my favorite pie is pecan pie. (That’s not to be confused with pee-can pie or pee-cahn pie; those are different.) My favorite baseball team is the Kansas City Royals, who are in the midst of one of the most dramatic season turnarounds in baseball history. My favorite professional football team is the Kansas City Chiefs. I promise we will be magnanimous as we continue to outshine the Patriots’ dynasty in every way. College is all Kansas, of course. My favorite super spy is Ethan Hunt. My favorite drink is probably a cherry limeade from Sonic. My favorite book is probably still C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, but his The Screwtape Letters would be a close second. Marvel is superior to D.C. Studios on the big screen in every way, and not even James Gunn will fix that. But in the animation department, D.C. owns everyone and it’s not close. 

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