Top3 for January 12, 2024
Before you head off into the weekend, here are three things that I’ve read and been thinking about this week. Hope they are as helpful and challenging for you as they have been for me.
Have a great weekend!
#1
My life had not been shattered into many pieces by a massive tragedy, but it consisted of as many disorganized pieces as it would if it had been.
Love Does by Bob Goff and Donald Miller
Having a life of disorganized pieces can lead to feelings of loss, overwhelm, and despair. Having to figure out on a daily basis where to turn, what to do, how to manage is exhausting. Believe me…I know about this all too well.
So what to do?
Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:33
Organizing our life and cleaning our closets is a bandaid approach to feeling overwhelmed. What is needed is a new perspective, a new power, and a new plan that emanates from the source of all good gifts. It is an act of faith to lean into a singular focus on God and trusting that he will truly give us everything else. And that everything includes picking up the pieces and juggling the plates of our disorganized and at times shattered life.
#2
It became increasingly clear to me that I know quite well the difference between darkness and light but do not always have the courage to name them by their true names.”
Discernment by Henri J.M. Nouwen
A difficult truth of the Christian faith is that knowing what to do is not the same thing as doing it. Just as there are no points for just knowing the right answer in Jeopardy, the best of knowledge and intentions fail to change the course of history without action.
Nouwen names the lack of courage as the wall between knowledge and action. Lack of courage, or maybe we say fear, leaves us hoping for the best and not acting towards it. The one thing that casts out fear is love. Love gives us the courage to act when everything inside of us says “no”.
And we find ourselves back at Matthew 6:33. We know love because we are loved by God. We act because we are acted upon by God. It truly all comes back to our singular focus on God. The courage to act is one of the those things that is added unto us..a gift. Let’s call it grace.
#3
Prejudice saves us a painful trouble, the trouble of thinking.
Rabbi Alfred Bettleheim
I’ll leave this one right here for us.
todd nelson 