My wife and I swung into our local Target on December 26 to see if we could spy any sweet after-Christmas bargains. When we walked in, we saw that “One Spot” area that I think is standard issue at all Targets everywhere. I noticed two things immediately: 1) there was absolutely no sign of Christmas decor anywhere–it was all Valentine’s Day stuff and 2) the Valentine decor/gifts/knick-knacks were ALREADY picked over and shelves were mostly bare.

I made a statement to a crowd this past Sunday night at our church’s Christmas Eve service. I was making the contention that I think we’re doing the Christmas season wrong. Maybe wrong is too strong a word, but there’s this cultural thing we do where late October and early November we start to get this buzz of excitement for Christmas going. Our local radio station switched to all Christmas music on November 15, and from then on it was a growing crescendo until daybreak on December 25th. But then, it’s a hard shift, and all things Christmas seem to vaporize. What’s wrong with that? I mean, technically nothing. After all, once the 25th passes, what’s the point of having a tree, or lights, or Christmas music? And true to form, that same local radio station switched back to its mix of “today’s hits and yesterday’s favorites” on December 26th. What’s “wrong” with that? Well, it seems that we front-load the hype on Christmas but once the 24 hours of December 25th pass, there’s not much left but scraps of wrapping paper and extra cardboard in the trashcan by the curb. We quickly move on. People like me who prefer to linger are left with a “that’s it?” kind of sensation.

I understand this is largely cultural, but there can also be a spiritual dimension to it. The whiplash we get on the morning of December 26th is precisely what is expected, based on how we generally view the 25th. And after all, it’s over so why would we do any different? All that is real and true. I am also aware that those who follow Jesus (not necessarily those who call themselves “Christians”) operate under a different cadence than the world around them, as they should. I understand that to them (us), December 25th holds no more significance in terms of celebrating Jesus than any other day does….or should.

So here’s where my thinking is at today. How do I/we create, cultivate, and maintain a passionate love relationship with God? Does that question come across as weird to you? I’m a rather organic-leaning guy when it comes to faith and spirituality. I generally don’t employ rigid lists of do’s and don’ts in my faith walk with Jesus. But I must confess to you that their absence has sometimes gotten me into stale and dry places I didn’t intend to be with my faith. If I want my life to be a continual love affair with God incarnate, Jesus Christ because of the acknowledgment of faith for what He did for me (and for you) through the manger, the cross, and the empty tomb then there has to be some sense of “best practices”, and not just “let’s see what happens”, right? In other words, if I don’t build structural plans into my heart’s desires, will they ever be more than desires?

Let me make clear here that I’m not looking for a perpetual mountaintop existence. That’s neither realistic nor biblical. I understand the part that “A long obedience in the same direction“, as Eugene Peterson puts it, plays in our spiritual lives.

So I’m going to lay out some structural plans that I’m implementing in my own rhythms. Like I said, I’m not an insanely rigid/regimented kind of follower of Jesus. But I do see that if I want any relationship to flourish, I have to create some sense of organization so that I’m doing all I can to have happen what I want to have happen.

First, I’m dedicating time each morning to worship music. Music for me has the ability to straighten out my spiritual/mental cross-eyedness and fogginess. It helps recalibrate my attention on truth and on God’s presence. Maybe you can relate. I’ve invited anyone to join in with a little thing I’m doing in 2024 called “Morning Worship“. I’ve created a playlist on Spotify under that name (search for the name/graphic included here) and I invite anyone to send me a song suggestion to add to it; as long as it’s a song that has a special ability to speak to where you are spiritually, or encourage you spiritually in some way. You can comment below, DM, or email me. I’ll add your suggestion(s) to the list and you’ll also get to experience a wide(r) variety of great worship songs that others enjoy. THEN, commit for January to dedicate AT LEAST 10 MINUTES of your morning routine (showering, breakfast, commuting, on the bus to school, etc.) to listening to worship music. See what it does for your mindset as you start your day, and see what impact it has on your outlook.

Next, I want to foster more spiritual conversations. I think spirituality has reached the level of politics in our culture today and that has been to our detriment. I want to–in as unweird a way as I can–open up doors of conversation about spiritual things. I have found over the years that who we are spiritually is who we are. There is no relational ground that is deeper than when I get to speak to someone about spiritual things. Ironically enough, when people learn that I’m a pastor, it seems that doors shut more than open. I’m not sure why that is, but I’d love to reverse that. Let me tell you a little about me in order to grease those gears: I’m a creation of God. I am an inherent image bearer of the Divine. I am seen by Him as precious because of the single fact that He made me as He desired to. Yet, I am also very keenly aware that my tendencies are toward selfishness, and that selfishness brings all types of brokenness. My sin condition creates a divide between me and my Creator. Enter Jesus. Jesus is God incarnate and He alone has bridged the gap between holiness and humanity. By faith, I receive the gift of His love shown perfectly through the sacrifice He made on a Roman cross of crucifixion where He died willingly for the sins of the world. Even mine. Because He conquered death by resurrecting three days later, He alone holds the power over sin and death. And because I have chosen to place my faith in that victory, that victory is also my victory. So my life now is simply to walk in the spiritual victory afforded me by the selfless love of God my Creator, shown through Jesus, my Savior.

Now. What part of that did I attribute to my own wisdom, my own intelligence, my own ability to work hard enough to gain something…anything good from God? What part of that drips with ego? What part of my testimony props myself up as the hero of my own story? I hope you’re picking up what I’m putting down here. I am a child of God because God has shown the whole of humanity grace through Jesus and His voice has called/invited me into a love relationship with Him, and I have responded. That’s it. None of me. All of Him. That’s my story.

NOW. Back to spiritual conversations. If you want to talk with me about anything; belief, disbelief, atheism, agnosticism, pantheism, church hurt, justification, election, redemption, adoption, regeneration, sanctification…or anything about how this beggar was given bread and now shares that bread with others…I’m game. No pretense. No agenda. No debates. No religious talk. No arguments. Just people talking about the most important part of being human that people can talk about.

The next part of my structural plans has to include subtraction. I plan to jettison what isn’t producing what God desires in my life. If you hold a job, ask yourself, “Based on what I know, what I do, and what I contribute to this job, would I hire me?” I think it’s an important and not unspiritual practice to evaluate where things actually are. Careful here, though. This isn’t about a grade or assessment that affects your standing with God. All that is “hidden with Christ in God” as Paul told the Colossians. That’s untouchable. But I do think it’s necessary to keep a pulse on what your faith is actually doing in your mind, in your heart, in your attitudes, in your priorities, in your decisions, and in their outcomes. When I step on the scale in the bathroom, I know that the number displayed doesn’t tell the WHOLE story, but I do know that is tells PART of the story. So when I respond to that number, I can shrug and say “It is what it is” or I can decide to tweak and say, “Okay, today it’s gonna be only water…or no extra sugars…or I’m gonna take an extra long walk with Winston…or its gonna be 2 meals instead of 3 today…” You get the idea. Assess where you are and where you want to be and make some tweaks. What do I need to lose in order to gain what I want more of?

You can’t see me or think my thoughts, but it’s about this time in writing that I become fully aware that this is becoming a lengthy blog post and I begin to idolize and deeply appreciate those who’ve read this far. A professional blogger would tell me to chop this behemoth up into several days’ worth of content. Fair enough.

The bottom line is this: If I want romance in my life, it isn’t going to happen without structure and system. We are people who have concocted this idea that romance just appears and whisks people away into a euphoric spiritual, emotional wonderland. I have not found this to be the case. Romance is work and happens as we do the work it requires. With Valentine’s Day approaching (as our local Target so clearly reminded us), we can think along the lines of familial, platonic, or marital/erotic love (technically speaking), but we would also be wise to apply the science of structure and systems to our spiritual love relationships as well. To leave this core aspect of ourselves to chance is patently irresponsible.

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time before today, you know there are some blog posts that are just untidy and don’t give a sense of being wrapped up with a bow. This is one such post. It’s meant to trigger thinking for me and for you too. Please share your thoughts in the comments and let’s keep this conversation going.

It’s Christmas time. Lots of frivolity, merriment, and holly-jolly going on. There’s no better time to talk about anger, rage, and indignation, don’t you think? Something I’ve thought a lot about but written precious little about is the fact that the God who made us (whether you believe in Him or not) is a God with the capacity for anger. And it’s my personal opinion as a follower of Jesus that not enough followers of Jesus have a good understanding of the benefits of anger. That’s right: benefits. So let’s get into this.

It seems you can open up to almost any Old Testament (that’s Genesis through Malachi) and without much looking you can find a situation where God’s wrath (or at least seemingly grumpiness) is being seen. I’ll be the first to confess that it can be a challenge to reconcile what seem to be two different sides/aspects/faces of God when you look at the Old and New Testaments. It appears that God was sometimes vengeful and sometimes benevolent. I get that.

What I want to do is take a look at a situation in the gospels when Jesus came into the temple courts, what he saw, and how he responded. But first…

Have you ever witnessed a true overreaction happen? When the way someone was responding to a situation was completely disproportionate to what the situation actually warranted? If you’re a parent, I’m sure you’ve seen your little one (or yourself) have a complete meltdown over what in your eyes was a normal everyday inconvenience; a block tower falls over, a spoonful of peas hits the ground, a stubbed toe, a red light when you’re in a hurry, the shelves being empty of the one ingredient you needed, the boss bumping that deadline up a day, or any number of daily “grievances” that can just set us off. As long as there have been reactions, there have been overreactions. Raise a hand if you’ve ever overreacted to anything at any time. Yes, I see those hands. Thanks for your brave honesty.

If you read in John’s gospel, chapter 2 you’ll see some incredible things happen. First off, we see Jesus’ first public miracle at a wedding in Cana. There’s so much happening there but its what happens soon after that I’d like to focus on for a few minutes. You can read the specific passage I’m referring to here. It’s John 2:12-17.

Let’s get right to the juicy part, shall we? Verse 15 tells us “So he made a whip out of cords…”

While we’re unclear as to the actual material Jesus used to craft this whip (whether plant, rope, or leather), we can see clearly that he “made” a whip. Being God, He could have certainly summoned a whip to appear in His hand but the word used for “made” is more indicative of something being produced, created; something being accomplished. In other words, Jesus took His time with His anger. He thought it through. He responded with anger that was holy and right. So we can reasonably figure that Jesus’ response to the scene He saw was not an anger that was moody or unhinged; rather His anger was calculated, controlled, and purposeful. We can say that Jesus whipped it. Good.

The reason for Jesus’ anger was that there was a violation of the sacred happening right in front of Him. The space designated for worship, for offerings, for fellowship, for community, and most of all for prayer was being adulterated and used for the sale of goods, commerce, business, for profit. Thieves in the form of merchants had infiltrated the holy temple and Jesus simply wasn’t going to tolerate that.

So Jesus took a breath, found some cords, maybe even sat down, and created a whip with which to address the situation. And by “address” we mean coin-scattering, table-flipping, and raised-voice behavior. In other words, Jesus was TICKED.

What angers you these days? Your first stop is to ask this revealing question: Is what I’m angry about and how I’m responding worth the level of anger I’m giving it? Just like we can misappropriate funds into a bad investment, we can misappropriate energy into an unworthy situation. Anger isn’t the problem. Misspent anger is. Search the scriptures and you won’t find the words “Don’t get angry.” Nope. They’re not there. What you WILL find are the instructions “In your anger, do not sin.” (Eph. 4:26)

So what gets you angry? What is going on in our world that triggers table-flipping and coin-scattering? Are you confident that the response it’s eliciting from you is calculated, controlled, and purposeful? If not, how did this thing reach such a level of importance in your heart that it would receive a disproportionate amount of your emotional energy?

If I may, I’d like to suggest that the list of things that would cause us to flip tables should be rather short. Here are mine: racial injustice, exploitation of any human for any reason, when I (and/or others) know better but don’t do better. And because it was true for Jesus, we can safely add that it is okay to be angry when prayer loses a place of priority in our lives, communities, and worship.

By contrast, here are things that have no right triggering anger within me: having to wait in line, traffic frustrations, when others disagree with me, when I feel someone is speaking inaccurately about me, when things don’t go as I planned/think they should, comment sections, being overlooked at work, the good fortune of others, and plenty of others.

I’ll ask again: What’s getting you angry that really shouldn’t? Jesus was angered; flipped tables, scattered coins, and raised His voice when prayer was undervalued. So prayer needs to play an integral role in us recalibrating our priorities when it comes to what makes us angry and what doesn’t/shouldn’t.