I have always been the parent of our family who has taken the boys to school.  Before moving to Conway, Leah was a teacher in Texas and had to be at school before the boys.  Fortunately, most of the time their school was at the church where I worked, so I took them to school.  I have kept the trend here in Conway, simply because I enjoy the ride to school.  However, from the time we wake up to the time we get in the car, everything seems to be a mad dash.  

It's almost straight from a cartoon or sitcom.  Bowls and cereal are thrown on the table from the kitchen, clothes are flying around and something ends landing on their bodies.  Toothbrushes, toothpaste is all a mess.  Their hair may or may not get done (but that's our little secret).  Lunches are in the backpacks, backpacks on their backs, and we are heading out to the car.  I just got stressed out all over again, just typing that!  

The car time is different.  We can only drive so fast (there are speed limits and we go through several school zones just to get to our school).  So it seems that time during the car ride slows and this is where there is much magic and awesome conversation.  I know I won't always get this kind of conversation, so I'm taking advantage of it.  But that's for a different post.

That mad dash gets me every day.  I don't look forward to how frantic we get.  Even on the days that we make slower yet successful progress, it is probably because I forgot to take out the trash or something like that.  Being on time is a pet peeve of mine and I grew up knowing that on time means 15 minutes early.  I'm never that early anymore, but I try my hardest to be on time.  That means that sometimes the process to get somewhere on time is frantic and crazy.

I see in many people and in many churches that we tend to have this mad dash sense of spirituality.  That we must run around frantic to get everything done.  Yes, there are things that need attention every Sunday.  Yes, there are times when we need to hurry to an Emergency Room, hospital, or someone's house.  But if we are going to be disciples of Jesus (people who follow Jesus), then we might want to reflect on our pace.  Jesus never seemed to live life in a mad dash.  He was not bound by time, quite like we are.  He was urgent about glorifying God.  But he was evenly paced when it came to healing others, miracles, exorcisms, and raising people from the dead (remember Lazarus).

I think it is important to take notice of our pace in life.  Sometimes we need to slow down from the mad dash life that exists in our culture to really soak in Jesus and see what God is doing around us.  We might even need to do this at church, during our worship services.  Other times we might need to find more urgency.  When it is time to show God's glory to those around us, it is time to be urgent in that mission.

What is your pace in life?

What is your mad dash story?

How can we find a better pace for the Kingdom?

The other morning my son, Brody (5 years old), put his shirt on and not only was it inside out, but it was on backwards.  Usually I would say something to him, laugh with him about it, be silly, and then we would fix it.  This time, for whatever reason, I just let it go.  Some time that afternoon I noticed he had his shirt right side out and the tag was in the back.  I asked him about it and he told me that he noticed it and fixed it.  This is atypical of Brody who would usually want us to fix it for him.  Needless to say I was surprised and proud that he took his own initiative to fix his shirt.  It's the small things, people!

I have had this blog post in mind for some time.  The story of my son is a simple reminder that when we have eyes to see, we can see what is really meant for us in the Kingdom of God.  However, Jesus didn't really teach us to wear our shirts right side out and the tag in the back.  That was the message of the Pharisees.  Jesus wouldn't disagree that keeping the law of God is the right thing to do, but what Jesus saw as the law and what the Pharisees saw as the law were world(view)s apart.  The Pharisees could only see the law and the standard to live by from what was handed down for generations, since the days of Moses.  Jesus understood the law, but could only see (and know) the heart of God and the intent of the law.  Jesus knew that the law could never save God's people only an ultimate sacrifice could do that.

So, in many ways Jesus taught and lived out an upside down, inside out, tag-in-the-front, gospel.  But Jesus didn't teach and live this gospel to be noticed or simply for the practice of being unique, innovative, or different.  Jesus was interested in bringing heaven to earth.  Jesus grew weary of a law-filled life that actually would result in death.  The kind of life where joy is sucked from the marrow and leaves its people brittle and eventually broken, irreparable, unsalvageable.  The kind of life that when brokenness and sin enter and the pretty package of life that is promised by keeping the law, disintegrates leaving law-only followers blown away like chaff by the wind.

The gospel, good news, that Jesus brought, though new in approach and rhetoric in His day, lasts!  It creates a saving surge throughout the body giving hope, joy, and LIFE!  His gospel is the heart of God.  Where the law does not dissipate, but rather grows with deeper roots into the very nature of God.  The law become fulfilled through Christ and no longer does the law become the THING, but Jesus does.  We see God's heart through Christ.  We see that what God intended through the law is that His people would live upside down, inside out compared to those who live for the broken world.  Some believe that this means we must excavate ourselves from culture and live in gated isolation so that we aren't corrupted by the culture that invades our perfect Christian world.  Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Pharisees in scripture were after.  That was not Jesus' quest.  Remember he was the one who touched lepers, cast out demons in a graveyard, "worked" on the sabbath, called a tax collector to be his apostle, and often ate in the homes of tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus did not absolve himself from culture, but in reality immersed himself in the culture without changing who He was in God.

If we want to live the gospel.  We will be better off immersing ourself in culture and entering into relationships with people in our world.  When we choose this path we must keep our center, our core, strong.  Our relationship with Jesus will be tested and we must keep it first.  Then as we meet people, establish relationships, eat at their tables, God will use our stories and His gospel that is living in us to show a new path.  We must remember it is not our responsibility to manipulate an outcome for God.  We will be light bearers and God will take care of the rest.  Those that don't know Christ or have given up on him will appreciate our time, our words, our life that we are sharing with them.  It is those who stand on piety, law, and isolation that might attack our actions and maybe even our motive.  If so, then we are in good company.  And yes we will wake up in the morning and everyone will look and only see that we have put on our shirt inside out with the tag in the front.  But Jesus will see a follower, The Spirit will see thin space, and God will see a kingdom-meeting-earth-with-a-sweet-kiss moment. 

Who knows, maybe one day I will stand in the pulpit with my shirt inside out and tag in the front. 

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.  You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. -Psalm 51:17


I find myself many times in my life with what I feel is a broken spirit.  Most times when I feel this way it causes me sadness, discouragement, and self-examination.  The broken spirit is something that happens to everyone.  Sometimes it is because there is healthy dose of pride being exerted.  However, there are those times when the people we know, don't know, or even love break our spirits.  Intentionally or unintentionally we feel a punch in the gut from life and loved ones, not because we need humility, but because they feel the need to share their displeasure with us.  There are those times we can even justify the desire and action of breaking another person's spirit, simply because we don't agree with their actions or we feel the responsibility to judge.  I find this verse above fascinating, because there is a breaking of pride and the author is self-inflicting the backseat of life so that God can be the driver.  If I swell up with pride may I be one who can offer a broken spirit to the Lord and a contrite heart, because He cannot reject this posture.  

My heart breaks though when I witness either myself or someone I know force a broken spirit and contrite heart on another.  Jesus who was perfect and God in the flesh did not desire to break the Spirit of the people, but rather chose a unique path to love someone into repentance.  Think about some of the stories we know about Jesus.  What if they were different.

And so Jesus instructed the adulterous woman to beg for mercy until he put down his rock.

Zacchaeus you are the scum of the earth and you should feel the burden of guilt until you start giving away money

Well...if you hadn't had so much sin and thought more about God you wouldn't have been an invalid for 38 years.  Get up and cry out that God will save your wretched soul and then you can walk.

Who touched me?  No really, who touched me?  I don't just give my power to anyone.  Why do you think you're bleeding?  Fix your heart and then maybe God will fix your illness.

It would be most difficult to love this type of Jesus.  And we would quickly see that this is not the heart of God.  Calling down people so that they will look up is an appalling method of evangelism.  One of my mentors, Randy Harris, says "What you win people with, is what you win people to."  

If we want to win people to a Jesus that matters and that will change their lives, then we have to be careful about how we share His story.  Jesus has a story that loves others and wins them to God because of who God is, not because of how awful Humans behave.  When I was in college the main reason I didn't pledge a social club (fraternity) is because the common ingredient among them was that they "broke you down, in order to build you up."  And they justified this move with scripture and the practice of Christianity.  We must be careful not to bring that into our walk with God and others.  Life is hard enough and the people we come in contact with don't need another reason to hate Christians or feel horrible about who they have become in this life.

If we will just be people who extend a loving savior to the world I guarantee that the Love that God has for them will break their spirit and give them a repentant heart.  We won't have to call them names, list their sins, quiz them on their ethics, or make them give promises we would never keep ourselves.  All we will have to do is show them who Jesus really is and they themselves will take on humility and live a life of Psalm 51.

On Easter Sunday I completed a series called, "Reckless."  Every Sunday from the Sunday prior to Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday we took a look at the different ways Jesus loved others, recklessly, as outlined in the gospel of John.  I first got this idea from my co-worker, Sarah Campbell, at Highland Church of Christ.  She had this idea as a theme for our summer youth missions.  I can say for sure that, that summer and this idea changed my life.  Before that summer I approached helping and serving others as another item on the list of what I should do as a good Christian.  However, that summer I learned that serving others and spreading the word of God is about love, not duty or obligation.  Love wells up inside you and then you serve others, because you can't help yourself and you feel that you are cheating others by not telling them who this beautiful savior, Jesus Christ, is and how he loves them unconditionally.  So, thanks Sarah Campbell for giving me new eyes and allowing the Holy Spirit to use you in mighty ways with adolescents and their families at Highland Church of Christ.

During our sermon series at UCC we took a look at the idea of Jesus "moving into the neighborhood" (John 1, The Message) and His reckless love for others, some who no one else would dare love.  Who else but Jesus would strike up a conversation with a Samaritan Woman who couldn't keep a husband and end up having an entire village believing?  Jesus is the one who found the paralytic looking for a miracle bath and gave him working legs to walk and leap.  Jesus was the only one who could throw a stone at the adulteress and instead loved her enough to give her an unprecedented 2nd chance.  His reckless love was shown in how he wept with his friends over Lazarus' death and yet showed the power of God through Lazarus' resurrection.  He dealt with the crowds that cheered and the leaders that plotted with great love and respect of the Father.  And as a final act of reckless love Jesus rose from the dead so that all people might have the chance to experience the ongoing love of God and Kingdom life.

Most of the time I don't give reckless love.  I give estimated, expected love.  A kind of love anyone can give.  The challenge for me and maybe for you is to give reckless love, the kind of love Jesus gave to all that we meet in our everyday life.  Instead of giving "leftovers" love, after we have judged, proven ourselves right, stood on the "correct" political side, and have vetted someone worthy; we should love first and second and third and then keep on loving.  Once you have experienced that kind of reckless love that speaks to the outcast, takes up for the scandalous, shows compassion on the marginalized, and weeps with the broken-hearted you cannot mistake that God is real, alive, and saves through Christ.  I pray we experience that kind of love from others and that we experience that kind of love as we give it away and let it go, recklessly!  Then we will have it forever, real now and eternally.

Good Friday is probably the best known day of Holy Week. Some schools still dismiss to honor the holiday, and it's one of the core moments of Christianity. 

Some people make the cross THE core. I think that may be somewhat misguided for several reasons. 1. I like to think that there was more to Jesus than just death (something we all can do). 2. Without the resurrection Jesus is just another dead deity. 3. The cross as the core puts everything on Jesus and there is a responsibility that every follower has in response to Christ. 4. No one at the time saw the power of God at that moment, except the centurion (that in no way means power was absent, just unseen and deniable). The power of God cannot be avoided upon the resurrection of Jesus, by those eye witnesses and even today. 

Don't get me wrong the cross is extremely important. It is prophesied about and God did not save Jesus from that reality. It reminds us Jesus is human and teaches us the fullness of God's love. And I can also argue that raising the importance of the cross is due to the fact of the resurrection and maybe I'm splitting hairs. 

But being Crucifixed (fixated only on crucifixion) has at least two dangers. 

1. We can become so fixated on the crucifixion and what Jesus did that we feel no pull or tug on our lives to be true disciples of Christ because we place all responsibility and response on Jesus. 

2. We can easily neglect the entire story of God for only a small (although of high importance) piece. We won't see the need to pour over the Torah or be amazed at the prophets proclamations. We won't find genealogies fascinating and we won't have much use for serving others and following Paul's exhortations. 

This is why on Good Friday we challenge ourselves to live Cruciformed (formed by the crucifixion) lives. Then we see our place in the story. We answer the call to true discipleship (not just church membership). We lived shaped by God because he gave his only Son for our sin and for us to live Kingdom Lives. 

Now that's a Good Friday!

Good Friday Readings: Matthew 27:32-56, Luke 23:26-49
Challenge: write down 3 ways you live a Cruciformed life. 
Write down 3 more/different ways you could live a Cruciformed life

While evil lurked on Wednesday, Intimacy, compassion, and prayer rule on Thursday.  There is a great deal of things that happen on Thursday.  It is probably the busiest day of Holy Week.  Jesus breaks bread with his disciples (Last Supper), calls Judas out, washes his disciples feet, spends half the night in prayer, and before the hours tick into Friday is betrayed and arrested.

Jesus sends his apostles to make preparations for the passover meal and while they eat, he institutes a meal that my tradition commemorates every Sunday and every Christian church celebrates at some time.  In the midst of what is to come and betrayal that is at hand, Jesus takes time to have a meal and share with his closest friends, all the while giving them something that they will be able to hold onto even after his death, after his resurrection, and after his ascension.  The meal still holds today for the church.  This is not a funeral dirge type meal.  It is festive and meaningful.  There is laughter at the table, stories being told.  There is also anxiety and many questions.  Jesus takes the opportunity to finally set up what God has been wanting to do this entire time.  Jesus is being set as the savior and focus of God as the true Messiah that demands our attention and our worship forevermore.  The bread is his body that will go on the cross as human.  The cup is the blood that will be shed not to save himself, but to save all of humanity.  This simple act of making something everyday, meaningful takes Jesus from head knowledge, something to be grasped, into a true savior that through his own flesh and blood becomes our gateway to God and a one-time sacrifice...our victor! 

In an act of complete compassion and humility, Jesus takes the form of a servant, the lowest of servants, and gets down on his knees and picks up the dirty, nasty feet of his closest friends and disciples and begins with a towel and wash basin to change their souls from darkness and void to pure and Spirit infused.  This one act of servanthood along with a command to follow this kind of way, gives us just what we need to know of Jesus.  He did not come on Horse for war, he came on a donkey of peace.  He didn't come to condemn and tear us down so we had no choice out of weakness to follow, but he came with tenderness and love to draw us into God's true nature.  He came gently and would leave in brutality as a human.  But as Divine he was in the beginning and would return for eternity.  Life is not lived on a high and exalted platform, but on one's knees with the dirt of the world under their nose, so the stench of the world can be overtaken by the aroma of a perfect, compassionate, humble Christ.  And only Jesus can wipe the nastiness of our life away, and yet finds us completely capable to do the same for others.  That's the way of Christ, whether we can comprehend it or not.

Jesus is right where we would expect him to be as those come to betray and arrest.  He is with His father in intimate prayer.  This is a lesson to us all.  Jesus in the midst of giving up his very own life for the salvation of humanity takes time to pray.  It's pure.  It's earnest.  It's holy.  If there were ever a call on our lives to pray, it is the example that Jesus leaves us before he left us.  Pray and do it with your full being.  Jesus prays for God's will, His obedience, His disciples, His enemies, and the world.  What a humbling notion, to think that our very names were on Christ's lips before he gave his final breath up on the cross.  That could change how we live for him.  And well it should!

Maundy Thursday Readings:  Matthew 26:17-27:26, John 13:1-38
Challenge:  Rise up and show compassion to those "less" than you.  Pray in great Earnest for the Kingdom of God and His will.  Share a meal with those you love and let Jesus be the focus

What if you knew that this would be your last Tuesday with Jesus?  What would you do with Him.  How would you respond to Him?  On the Tuesday of Jesus' last week before his crucifixion and resurrection, there were people spending time critiquing, learning, and anointing.

On Holy Tuesday we are reminded that Jesus had authority to teach about his father, God.  It didn't matter whether or not the chief priests, teachers, and elders believed him.  They thought they cornered the market on knowledge of God and law.  They definitely knew ABOUT God and law, but they didn't KNOW God.  Jesus knew His father and in this last week leading up to his death and resurrection, he does a great amount of teaching to set some things up and to set some things straight.

I love how the gospel, Matthew, shares so much of this teaching.  He loads it on and we get to see Jesus' heart and exactly how he reflects God to the people.  I encourage you to read through Matthew 21:23-25:36.

The last big scene we see with Jesus on Tuesday is his anointing.  Mary comes and pours pure nard over him.  The fragrance fills the room and in an act of complete humility and love she wipes his feet with her hair.  And of course no good deed goes unpunished.  With a great indignant spirit, some that were there call this woman out and make a case for the poor.  Matthew says disciples.  Mark says some that were present.  John calls out Judas as the indignant voice.  It doesn't matter who, the problem is still the problem.  The ones who should get it, don't and those that should be furthest from godly things, run to it.  

Today we must keep in consideration that when Jesus taught, he was trying to reflect the full nature of God.  He wanted to share what the Kingdom truly was and what it could continue to be even after he leaves.

Also, we must realize that we must run to God.  We must see Jesus for who He really is.  We must learn in humility and then worship him, even if it is with tears.

Tuesday Readings:  Matthew 21:23-25:36, Mark 11:27-14:11
Challenge:  Examine our lives and what we believe about Jesus and listen for God's call on our lives

This was not a good day to be on Jesus' bad side.  On the Monday of Holy Week, Jesus sets things straight for the Temple and curses the fig tree.

This may be why Mondays are so bad still today.  Maybe it all started when Jesus walked into the temple and saw how people were desecrating the holiness of God in such a public way.  People had not come to worship and give glory to God and revere him as the father.  They had come to make some cash.  In reality, they weren't interested in God at all and were willing to help their poorer Jewish neighbors give a sacrifice at passover, but for a price.  This was a great weekend to make some money.  300,000 to 400,000 Jews would be ascending on Jerusalem to celebrate passover and many of these travelers would need something to sacrifice.  And if they were poor, then all the better.  Jesus was at the end of his rope and could not stand to see how disrespectful people were to God, his house, and his prized creation...his people.  On a side note, this wasn't the first time the temple had been treated with such contempt.  In Nehemiah's day (Neh. 13) the temple was being treated with disrespect when Tobiah had been given a room in the temple.  Do I need to rethink my office at the church building?  No, Tobiah shouldn't have been there because it was Law that no Ammonite or Moabite should be admitted into the assembly of God, because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam to call a curse down on them (Neh. 13:1-2)  Not only had Eliashib provided a room for Tobiah in the courts of God, but had also neglected the Levites and the portions they were to be receiving.  So what does Nehemiah do about such a travesty on the house of God.  "I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah's household goods out of the room.  I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense." (Neh. 13:8-9)  He then called upon Judah to bring tithes and take care of the neglect of the Levites.  There is a lot more going on here too as Nehemiah tries to reestablish the temple of God.  But back to Jesus...what does he do about the crimes against God's house? "Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  'It is written', he said to them, 'My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.'" (Matthew 21:12-13)  Jesus was angry!  But he had a right to be angry.  Just like the day of Nehemiah, Jews had forgotten what it meant to be at the temple in the presence of the Lord.  They forgot their worship.  They forgot his holiness.  It was a bad day to be on Jesus' bad side.

You know its a Monday when you go to get a fig and the tree hasn't bore any fruit.  So what does Jesus do about this?  He curses the tree and right then it withers (Matthew 21)

And before Monday can get away let's make these connections.  It isn't necessarily about commerce or fruitless trees.  This is about faith and the realization for Jesus that Friday will have to come, because the people who should be closest to God, don't have a clue who they worship or why.  They need to drive away the distractions that have made God something he is not.  They need to dig deep for an ounce of faith that doesn't depend on human ability, but the power of God.  They need to realize that the Messiah is right in front of them and instead of always taking a cynical look at God's message and messenger, they must trust in the God that has chosen them, given them life, and provided them a savior.

As we think about Holy Week and especially the Monday of Holy Week, we must focus on the fact that God is to be our focus of worship, that faith is real, and that Jesus is our Savior...now and forevermore!

Holy Week Monday Meditation:  Matthew 21:12-22, Mark 11:12-26, Luke 19:45-48

God rides in on a donkey.  What?  Why doesn't God ride in on a horse.  After all He is the great God who can do anything and all powerful.  Well, plain and simple, a horse is an animal of war and a donkey is an animal of peace.  So God rides in on a donkey.

It doesn't mean that there is not a battle.  There is!  A cosmic battle...spiritual warfare where the crowd is torn between Hosanna and pre-meditative murder.  There is also the idea that the people who actually knew Jesus (those riding into Jerusalem with him) and the people who came out to meet him, thought that they were laying down palm branches and cloaks for a King that would take Israel, where it always has wanted to be...Over All Other Nations.

But Jesus didn't come so that Jews would have civic power or political domination.  Jesus came so that Jews and Gentiles alike could be reconciled back to God, once and for all.  Jesus came for peace.  A peace that passes our understanding.  A peace that brings hope back to the people.  Maybe not the hope they wanted, but the hope they needed. 

He came in triumph.  He hadn't even had his final battle yet.  That was to come at the end of the week.  And the ultimate victory would come the following Sunday.  It was a battle no one could conceive was coming.  It was the end of the war and yet, in all the celebration, in all the parade and fanaticism...people rightfully gave praise, even if it was for an entirely different and maybe wrong-headed reason.

The world will always be at war.  We fight battles every day.  We fight for the rights of the oppressed.  We fight to keep our value systems strong and in place.  We fight terrorists as a nation.  We fight personal demons of sin.  And we fight for the Kingdom of God.  But Jesus didn't go around bombing clinics, hating those who sin, or using the poor and needy as a way to make himself look holier.  Jesus came with an extra measure of peace...and the world hated him for it.

The world wanted war and a king that could drive out those in power. The Jews wanted a Messiah to free them from bondage of other rulers so that they could control their own destiny (which in their minds would surely help them redirect their nation and people back to purity with God).  But Jesus didn't come to change the world.  He came to save it.  He came to save it from itself.  He came to save the prisoner and the free.  He came to save the wealthy and the poor.  He came to save the oppressed and the advantaged.  He came to save the lost and the godly.

And when Jesus comes to save he rides a donkey.  Now who saw that coming?

Please indulge me a little and allow me to speak somewhat hypocritically.  I have been really brought down in the past few weeks.  Mostly it has been due to twitter and Facebook.  A recurring conversation in my mind and with my wife has been, "I really want to delete my Facebook and twitter."  We both agree that this could be a real blessing.  However, (and yes, this is an excuse) many of the people of my church and the friends that we have left in Texas are on Facebook and it provides a way of connecting and engaging with people, the church, and culture.  However, it is a double-edged sword.  I've been wanting to deactivate my Facebook account for two years.  I'm still on the fence about it.  Anyway as I find my way back to my point, I have been really brought down by social media the past few weeks.  The Chick-fil-a issue has been one of those things (don't read that statement and assume you know where I land on that issue, and no I'm not telling...yet).  But also there are some of my friends on Facebook who spend their entire time tearing down and being extremely critical of the church.  I will say more about that in the future.  it has just seemed to me that everything I tend to read on these avenues has been negative, vicious, and cynical.  I need a break from that.  And I realize that this entire paragraph is negative.  


And so here I go on the roundabout!

Jesus faced great critics, great sinners, and was forever surrounded by liars, sick, demon-possessed, ignorant, manipulative, and persecuting people.  And yet...he did not give in to the negativity.  He stayed positive for the sake of the Kingdom and His father.  You know we can learn a thing or two from Jesus.  Life is imperfect and predictably broken, dark, and awful at times.  However, we are to be the light in that darkness.  We are to be the healers within that brokenness.  We are to be the awe that is surrounded by the awful.  If Christians are simply the same as the world our message is weak.  If we join the complaints of the world our burden becomes like that of the Israelites in the wilderness and it is a burden that cries out for slavery and bondage when freedom is the promise.  Our burden should be that even while we are on earth where things have taken a alternate route from God's ideal, we live with the Holy Spirit in our heart connecting us to Christians all over the world.  Our burden is a message of hope, reconciliation, and love.  Our burden is not perfection, but redemption.

I am redeemed
I am accepted 
I am loved
I am healed
I am sheltered
I am sustained
I am forgiven
I am a light
I am an extension of grace
I am HIs

AND SO ARE YOU!!!!!

Lay down negativity and live in the Light of God.  It doesn't mean it will all go the way you plan and life will be easy.  It doesn't mean we won't mourn, lament and feel the troubles of the world.  It won't mean we will smile all day as we walk on rainbows and eat nutritious cotton candy.

It will mean we will have a perspective that is other-worldly.  A sightline that looks through the negative to the positive and our hope (read expectation) is in the one who makes all things new and will restore all of creation.

When it seems I'm drowning in life's negativity, yes I can deactivate Facebook or delete my twitter.  Or I can shine my light not so my stance can be heard, but so Jesus can be seen.