Prioritizing Reflection in an Age of Distraction

“Men talk to me about their mental and emotional exhaustion, and all through the conversations, their phones are lighting up with a distracting blizzard of sounds and images. And they wonder why their brains feel fried! They’re giving themselves continual mental whiplash as they pour stimuli and data into their brains from every direction.” David Murray, Reset

We are busy. Our schedules fill up with many things—often good things—leaving us little down time. Many view margin as either an act of unfaithfulness and waste or proof of a less than fulfilling life.

Busyness leads to a hurried, rushed, and frantic lifestyle. We rush from place to place, event to event, and rarely enjoy what we’re doing because we’re thinking about where we came from and where we’re headed. What feels urgent and pressing leaves us stressed, but also guilty because of how many other balls in our life get dropped.

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Favorite Books Read in 2019

“I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” Jane Austen

“Reading is a gift, but only if the words are taken into the soul—eaten, chewed, gnawed, received in unhurried delight.” Eugene Peterson

I love books. Give me a good library or an hour at your used book store and I’m a happy man. There are a lot of things that make a book good, let alone enjoyable, so my list is admittedly subjective. But to add to the chorus of top books read in 2019, here’s my top-ten list. My criteria was reading them in 2019, not publication date, though most were printed in 2019. In no particular order…

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HOW IS JESUS OUR IMMANUEL (GOD WITH US)?

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” (Matthew 1:21-23)

Each Christmas, or Advent season, we sing about Jesus our Immanuel. God with us. We find comfort in the incarnation behind Christmas. God’s stepping down to Earth to be with us by becoming one of us in Jesus. But how is Jesus really God with us?

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A Theology of Feasting

picIn our kitchen, we have this framed chalk art in the image to the left. “You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart” (Psalm 104:14-15).  It’s a reminder food and drink are both God’s provision to care for us but also an evidence of His goodness in giving us food to add to our happiness. God wants us to enjoy our food, our drinks, and our feasts.

The Bible describes feasting in very positive terms—although there are obviously times where it’s corrupted or misused, like all of creation. It seems God created us to thoroughly enjoy food as a gift but also to prepare our hearts and minds for something even more satisfying.

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A Theology of Thanksgiving

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord.” (Psalm 92:1)

In our day and age of more-more-more where “Thanksgiving” is the waiting season between Halloween and Christmas, gratitude often takes a back seat.  It’s no surprise thankfulness struggles to compete for attention with a holiday where I get to make a list of things people will buy me.

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One Thing We Can Learn from ‘Frozen’

Movies show us glimmers of truth, sometimes in beautiful and powerful ways. Frozen conveys a lot of really good things, and some things I”m cautious of, but you can read this recent post of mine at The Gospel Coalition to learn one theme I love.

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Family Activities for Practicing Thanksgiving

(This guest post was written by Heidi Sweet, the Director of Children’s Ministry at Pennington Park Church. I get the privilege to serve on staff with her and learn from her.)

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Favorite Quotes from On the Road with Augustine by James K.A. Smith

I’ve loved the last few books by James K.A. Smith (You Are What You Love, How (Not) to be Secular, and his trio of cultural liturgy books). He combines church history, movies, music, philosophy, theology, cultural references, apologetics, and the Christian life in a way that connects the disconnected. He pushes you to think and feel. In On the Road with Augustine, Smith uses Augustine’s writings (particularly The Confessions) and life to help us navigate 21st century life.

Both Augustine and Smith prove to be trustworthy travel partners. Together, they help us think through our longings and desires in a realm of issues (freedom, ambition, sex, friendship, mothers, fathers, friendship, enlightenment, justice, story, and death). It’s an apologetic offering rest to the restless in the same source Augustine found rest: Jesus. While some of Smith’s best material is too lengthy to put here, I’ve provide a few of my favorite quotes from the book.

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First We Confess, Then We Cling

(Below is a Communion Meditation I shared at my local church. This was one way to remember and rejoice in Christ through Communion, not a detailed explanation of it.)

Follow the logic of 1 John as we think about how confession of our sin should lead to clinging to our savior.

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Thin Beliefs and The Need for Deeper Thinking

One thing making personal and public conversations difficult, inside and outside the church, is we live in a day and age where our understanding of an issue is weak but our passion is strong. This creates over-confidence in our opinions—when we should continue listening and learning—and animosity toward those we disagree with.[1] A lack of committed study and critical thinking is undercutting healthy conversations. We need to recommit ourselves to not only listening, but also to learning. We need to be diligent about better understanding matters we express opinions on.

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