When we get up to go to work, most of us are motivated by the responsibilities we have to care for ourselves and those we love. But if the only meaning we find in our work is the money we make then work can be dreadful!

It’s interesting how even as we progress, the line keeps moving.  Once upon a time, many of us prayed for enough. But then, not long after God honored that prayer, we wanted more.  We always want more. Ironically, enough is never enough!

I want to suggest to you that there must be something else.  Could you consider that the work that you do is an act of worship? What if your job is an opportunity to carry God’s presence into places and to people that you may never see at a church? 

You see, when we reach the end of our story – what will matter most will not be the money that we made or the stuff we acquired.  

We find meaning through our relationships – the connections we enjoy with God and one another!  

Get it?

⁴ Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. ⁵ When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

Proverbs 23:4–5

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Can I tell you all a secret?  

There are times, many times, that I am overwhelmed with circumstances and literally at a loss for words.  These days, it seems to be happening more frequently.  

The near constant stream of bad news, tragedy, and suffering leaves a lump in my throat that prevents anything beyond groan to escape my lips. Ever felt like this?  

You are not alone.  

Thank God for Jesus.  Thank God for the Spirit that speaks for us when we don’t know what to say and who intercedes for us when we don’t know how to pray!  

Lord have mercy!

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Romans 8:26

When you’ve run out of words, and don’t know how to pray – know that God can translate our tears.  God deciphers our despair!  God can hear our silent suffering!  God sees,knows, hears, and will answer!

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs, 

just adam

Hypocrisy is as sneaky as humility is elusive.  To absolve oneself of guilt is to teeter toward hypocrisy.  To claim humility is to watch it escape us.  So what do we do?

When we witness injustice, violence, or greed, how do we confront it without exuding self-righteousness?  When we are seeking redress for wrongdoing, how do we avoid vengeance?  This is tough.

MLK would remind us that,

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

With all that’s going on right now socially and politically, I’ve been wondering why this season is so painful and disappointing for so many of us.  It’s not like we haven’t faced difficult times before.  None of this is new!  

I think part of the struggle is that we realize how entangled and entrenched we all are in this system.  All of us. We are victims of

and complicit to a wicked system that demands ‘haves and have nots.’ Our economy is built on the exploitation of laborers, domestic and foreign. Our desire for convenience outweighs the need to conserve natural resources and to preserve our planet. We are good capitalists – we are materialistic and  individualistic – but not very good Christians.  Lord, have mercy!

 Even our protests flaunt our designer proclivities.  We are all mixed up in this mess together.  So what do we do?

First, we must admit some humility.  None of us is all right or all wrong.  Then we must take a long slow look in the mirror and confess our own flaws and weaknesses – our complicity to these wicked systems, and confront our hypocrisy and contradictions. Then we must discuss how we dig ourselves out of this mess, by the grace of God!

Listen:

How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

Luke 6:42

We got work to do!

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

In seasons of distress, we are sustained when we realize that as God’s children, we always have something to look forward to. 

Like a runner who senses the finish line is near, though just beyond view, we are rejuvenated at the very thought of a breakthrough. 

Hope is what energizes us when we would otherwise quit.  Hope encourages when life tempts us to give up.  Hope invigorates us when the road is rough and rugged.

Hope is our reminder of God’s faithfulness even amid the bleakest of circumstances.  Hope is like the air; lifting us with its invisible power when we are weary and exhausted.  We can’t see it but we can certainly feel it!

Hope is the unseen power that compels us to press on when our own strength is gone!  But hope also gives us the resolve to wait faithfully on God’s promises to be revealed.

Hope is what sustained the prophets and apostles – God’s people across the ages! Hope is what sustained our ancestors through unimaginable hardship and persecution.  And, this hope is what will sustain us now –  even as we are waiting on better!

Hope! 

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:24–25

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

Because God is faithful, Christians can look forward hopefully.  No matter how things appear – we can remain undeterred because God has capable hands and God’s character is unfailing! 

Our hopefulness is more than just optimism amid uncertainty – it is confidence that sees, understands, and is at work on our behalf, for our good, and our perfecting.

For our good…

I heard it said that ‘if it ain’t good, then God’s not done!’ I am inclined to agree.  

While we may be facing a mountain today, or navigating a storm, or facing a crisis, God is working things out for our good!

We are Resurrection people.  The worst things will never be the last things!  

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…

1 Peter 1:3–6

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

When I was a child, I feared the darkness, and if I’m honest about it, darkness still frightens me. When I was a child, my eyes played tricks on me in the darkness- creating monsters in the shadows. But now, it’s not the physical darkness that haunts me.

It’s the darkness within that scares me.  It is the darkness of human hearts that raises the hair on the back of my neck.  The violence, the greed, the carelessness, the cruelty, the hatefulness – this destructiveness is terrifying!  The hardheartedness – the ignorance, and the arrogance makes me shudder. But, then I remember Jesus.  I recall the goodness of God. I remember that when the Son rises darkness flees! 

I remember the living hope that I have in the Resurrection! 

As dark as things may appear, I remain hopeful – it’s a brand new day!

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam

We live in a time where the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them,’ mentality has seized the day. Lying and bullying are the modus operandi. 

Even believers are tempted to get caught up and to do the things that we once resisted because of frustration or anger. 

I want to encourage us to hold on.  We cannot take up the ways of those who oppress, abuse, slander, and disrespect others.  We cannot, as Dr. King said, ‘let any man drag us so low as to hate him…’

We must not compromise our integrity.  We must not allow ourselves to be goaded into a violation of conscience. We must not abandon hope.  

Even under intense pressure, may we continue to look to the One who is our steadfast hope and bless the LORD who redeems us!

11 But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me. 12 My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the Lord.

Psalm 26:11–12

Good Morning, I love you all!

ihs,

just adam