DAILY WRITING

Somehow, I forgot to hit publish on what I wrote last night. I haven't made that mistake since early in this experiment of daily writing. 

The experiment is now one month shy of two full years. During that span of days there were fewer than 7 when I did not publish something. And most were during my trip to Ghana, on nights when I was sleeping at some sketchy guesthouses with no Wi-Fi. 

I have been thinking recently about what I want to do with this experiment once January 1st arrives. I don't have a great desire to go for year #3 doing the same thing. 

One of my goals was to get daily writing practice and another was to convince myself that I am a writer. 

It took almost two years to make "writer" a part of my identity, but I am finally there. 

And with that realization and a bit of math, I have concluded that in the time I have devoted to blogging each day, I could have written at least one book. Maybe more. 

So in January, I am going to attempt a habit transplant - swapping out blogging before bed with daily book writing progress. 

I won't be starting with a blank page - I currently have my own small book in rough draft and a book in conjunction with a friend in its early stages. Both are waiting for attention.

I anticipate continuing blogging regularly, but likely not daily. (Unless I work it into my morning devotions somehow. That could be interesting.)

We will see what happens. 

All I know is the time is ripe for my habits to evolve.  

TWO VOICES

Last night's post came across pretty confident, but truth be told, lately I find myself getting whiplash from turning my attention between two competing voices.

One voice says, "You're thinking too big."

The other says, "You're thinking too small."

How do you decide which voice to keep and which to kick?

Along with "Too big!", that first voice cries out, "You're going to fail. You don't have what it takes. You're fooling yourself."

While the second offers advice like, "Trust God" and "Keep pushing ahead". 

Hmmm.

Now that I write it out, it seems pretty obvious:

The first voice is fear.

The second voice is faith. 

PREPARED IN ADVANCE

Francis Azaglo is a teacher in a small town in Ghana, but it doesn't pay much. To stay afloat, Francis started to look for some way to increase his family's income. 

About a year ago - with the help of a $1,000 loan from Mission Resource - he and his wife stocked a small shop on the main street where they could sell food (like fresh eggs) and household items (like superglue). 

Business has been good! 

As he finishes paying back his first loan, Francis has started thinking about the next step in the growth of his business: He would like to buy a freezer so that he could add various types of frozen meats to his inventory. 

So his next loan request will be 2.5 or 3 times as much as his first!

With so many of our clients requesting annual loans year after year - and each one bigger than the last - you can see why we are constantly in need of growing the revolving fund. 

Many of our clients use their loans as part of an annual business plan. They count on Mission Resource to have the funds available to build on the previous year's successes.

And so they are counting on me to get the word out and find the people who can financially support their climb out of poverty. 

I feel the pressure, but I also read Ephesians 2:10 literally:

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

I believe my position with Mission Resource is right where the Lord planned to have me at this point in my life. 

And since I have assurance of God's advance planning - He does all the heavy lifting - I don't need to fear failure. 

JUSTICE?

What follows is a series of incomplete thoughts. I am using this space to try to work out something in the recesses of my mind, brought about by the recent news of a local married teacher being arrested for allegedly attempting online to lure what he thought was a 14 year old boy into a sexual relationship.

My wife and I spoke of this news the other night as we walked our neighborhood. We found ourselves contemplating why it was weighing so heavy on our hearts and minds. 

In apologetics, there is much talk of "the problem of evil" - stated most succinctly in the form of a question: "If God is good and all-powerful, why is there evil in this world?" 

It seems to me we have a related issue, though I don't remember ever coming across it in my reading. Related to "the problem of evil" is what we could call "the problem of justice". 

When a criminal is put on trial and found guilty, we take comfort in the belief that the victim has "gotten justice".  

But has "justice" really been done? Take a hypothetical case of a man who sexually abuses a young teen - what is "justice" when he gets caught? 

There is no possibility of "an eye for an eye" style of justice. The man "stole the innocence" of the teen. But the court system is not capable of stealing the man's innocence in return, even if he had any innocence to steal. 

So how does one accurately calculate the jail time for the man equal to the psychological, spiritual, and physical harm done in the moment to the child - not to mention the negative rippling effects throughout the remainder of the child's life? 

What part of the man's jail sentence brings any healing to the child?

And what does "justice" look like for the parents of that child? Or for the wife of that man? 

And what if the man was himself a victim of childhood abuse - should that fact mitigate his sentence?

The biggest question in my mind is this: does the concept of "justice" even make sense outside a God-centered worldview? Or are we left to settle for mere "punishment"? 

And isn't justice much more than punishment?

EFFICIENCY

This is Keteve. I met him in Ghana towards the end of September.

He owns some farm land and a herd of sheep. 

Keteve has been a Mission Resource client for the past two years. He has used his loans to vaccinate his sheep - a smart move. Otherwise, a disease could get a foothold within his herd and wipe out every last animal. 

Keteve would be ruined.

On the day I visited his farm, Keteve was clearing out great mounds of weeds from among his pepper and tomato plants. The weeds were gathered and thrown into the sheep pen where they were eagerly devoured.

Keteve said that soon he would be scooping the dung out of the pen to be used as fertilizer for his crops. 

Talk about an efficient system! 

Pulling up harmful weeds and turning them into fuel for new growth strikes me as a rather Godly effort ...

SERVANTHOOD 2

In the first chapter of Colossians, immediately after describing himself as a servant of the Gospel, Paul reveals yet another "master" in verses 24-27:

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church. I became its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the word of God, the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Again, there's some incredible truth throughout these verses but I am just captivated momentarily by Paul's framing of his life as being one of servanthood to the Gospel and to the Church.

Although I find much to criticize in the modern Church, my loyalty to her has only grown in recent years. I am finding a desire to be a servant of the Church, not just a critic. 

After all, the Church is central to God's redemptive work in this fallen world, despite her imperfections. 

In fact, I have a growing frustration with parachurch organizations which circumvent the local Church. (And that seems to be the majority of them.) 

I don't know of too many missionary agencies, for example, which intentionally work with or through a missionary's home church in the process of sending him or her to the field. 

And once on the field, the missionary is too often flying solo, disconnected from local established congregations.

This is a great weakness in our missionary efforts. 

I have to say, one of the things I appreciate about my current work with Mission Resource is that we are working hand in hand with local Ghanaian pastors and churches. 

Mission Resource is a servant of the Church - as it should be.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

First, I should say that my family had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Good food and good company and so much to be grateful for.

But this evening my mind is with another local family whose reality collapsed yesterday. 

It was not a sudden death, a terrible accident, or a bad medical prognosis. 

Instead, it was a husband's massive moral failing. 

Yesterday that failing was brought out of the shadows and into the light, and an arrest was made.

Today video evidence was "shouted from the rooftops" of social media. 

It is tragic. Lives have been ruined. 

Out of respect for the wife and other innocent victims, I won't recount here specific details. 

I can only pray for the Lord to be present to all directly involved, comforting those who need comfort and convicting those who need to come clean.

SERVANTHOOD

In Colossians 1:21-23, the Apostle Paul writes:

"Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds because of your evil deeds. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence— if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant."

There's a lot going on in these 3 verses, but let's focus on one aspect easy to overlook: Paul frames himself as a "servant" of the Gospel.

It's funny how certain infrequent images from Scripture - e.g. "born again", "the blind leading the blind", or "fight the good fight" - gain prominence in the church's lexicon (and even the broader culture) while others are entirely overlooked. 

I am sure the imagery of servanthood was more striking to Paul's original audience, but it is sort of lost on us. A servant subjugates his or her own desires and needs in order to tend to the interests of one who is much greater in rank and power.

Have you ever heard talk of Christians being "servants of the Gospel"? I haven't. 

You have to wonder ... is it only famous 1st century apostles who are called to consider themselves "servants of the Gospel"? 

Or is it every believer?

HOLDING ON

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” – David Allen.

One of the clearest lessons I have learned in the past two years of writing on a daily basis is this reality. 

Writing daily has trained me to pay greater attention to my own thinking. 

An idea will often pop into my head during the day - while in the shower or walking the dog or studying the Bible - and if I don't write it down immediately, it evaporates, disappearing as quietly as it came. 

But even writing an idea down doesn't guarantee that I will "hold onto" it. 

I have come to discover that in order to truly hold onto an idea, it must be acted upon.

If the mind is for having an idea, it is the responsibility of the body - the hands, the feet, and the mouth - to hold onto it. 

 

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Melissa and I were in Target the other day, browsing the Christmas section to see what's new and interesting this year.

This display was not what I was expecting, but it is certainly "new and interesting":

This is the section for Christmas wrapping paper and gift bags. The panels are there to describe some of the featured artists. In and of itself, it is a nice idea. Graphic artists rarely get the recognition they deserve. 

But this sign was more than a "fun fact" sort of curiosity. It was a cultural signpost.

I take some comfort in the fact that a Target employee had installed the two panels in the wrong order and walked away without noticing. (Obviously, it is meant to read across the top, "Celebrating art & culture ARTIST SERIES".) 

That suggests to me that perhaps the rank-and-file didn't find the display as necessary as some Target executive did. 

Here are the descriptions of two of the artists:

Sadly, we are left without specific information on the sexual proclivities of the other 3 artists behind our choices for wrapping paper ...

Do better, Target!

END GAME

I continue to struggle with modern "worship songs". 

The lyrics are shallow. 

The songs contain plenty of metaphors but little poetry. 

And, most importantly ... 

Instead of being lost in worship, I often find myself lost in thought - questioning the validity of the words I am meant to be singing.

When words are projected on the screen in the sanctuary for the congregation to sing in unison, it is implied that we are singing Truth. 

So I think the screening process should be stringent. Right?

Maybe you will say I am being nitpicky, but this one we sang this morning wouldn't get through my vetting process:

That's because I see these lyrics on screen and my mind goes ...

1)  I believe God does have "an end game" with us and it does involve an "arrival"

And

2)  What about Jesus commanding, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect"?  (Matthew 5:48)

I understand the sentiment the song is attempting to communicate, but it feels like it could too easily be understood as excusing effortless discipleship.

HEART AND HEAD

I always linger over the prayers the Apostle Paul records in his letters, because they represent his greatest desires for his fellow believers. 

Take a look, for example, at Paul's prayer for the Philippians in 1:9-11 and imagine him praying for YOU what he prayed for them:

"I pray that your LOVE may abound more and more in:

• KNOWLEDGE and
• DEPTH of INSIGHT

SO THAT you ...

• May be able to DISCERN what is BEST and
• May be PURE and BLAMELESS until the day of Christ,

Filled with the FRUIT of RIGHTEOUSNESS

That comes THROUGH Jesus Christ

To the glory and praise of God."

If you were to summarize this prayer in one sentence, it might look like this:

"I pray that your LOVE would grow in KNOWLEDGE so that your RIGHTEOUSNESS would increase."

Even shorter: Heart + Head = Right Actions.

My study Bible plainly states the main takeaway: "Christian love is not mere sentiment; it acts to benefit others on the basis of knowledge and insight." 

STRENGTH TRAINING

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified."

I Corinthians 9:24-27

Serious athletes train by giving extra attention to diagnosing areas of weakness and then extra effort to learn new skills in those areas. 

They are always evaluating their daily performance with this question in mind: "Where do I most need to make progress?" 

Nothing gets swept under the rug. No excuses are accepted.  

Paul reminds us that we should approach our faith with at least as much dedication as a serious athlete approaches physical training. 

If you were looking at general trends in the American church and were asked to list our greatest collective weaknesses, what would you put in the top three? *

Mine would include:

1. Knowing the basics of the faith.
2. Spiritual disciplines
3. Materialism

What would it look like if the church took the mindset of a serious athlete toward our spiritual shortcomings?

______________

* The scarier questions are "What are my personal areas of spiritual weakness?" And "What am I personally doing to turn those weaknesses into strengths?"

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE POLL

This past Saturday, my boss Dave and I were given the opportunity to speak to the Men's Breakfast group at our home church about the work of Mission Resource. Since I had fresh photos from my recent trip to Ghana, Dave let me do most of the talking.

The breakfast is held at 7:30 am on the first or second Saturday of each month. Almost 40 guys showed up, the majority were in their 60s, 70s, and 80s.

I took the opportunity to survey this unique group about their spiritual disciplines. 

They tended to be strongest in their prayer lives. Nine described their prayer lives as being at least relatively "consistent". Most reported spending 10 to 15 minutes daily in prayer.

Two of the oldest men pray an average of 2 hours each day!

(That's a good use of the retirement years, right?)

Not surprising to me was the relative weakness in daily Bible reading. Fewer claimed consistency in personal study of Scripture and fewer were able to report a particular number of minutes per day spent in the Bible. 

I have a growing interest in promoting the benefits of personal time in the Bible. I think it is crucial to spiritual health. 

But the really steep drop off was when I asked about fasting. Only one claimed to do any sort of fasting, and that was only "occasionally". 

This did not surprise me. Fasting is the one spiritual discipline which seems almost universally neglected by modern American Christians. 

 Why is that?

 

GUILTY PLEASURE

Today, I confess my guilty pleasure: Anything created by Weird Al Yankovic. 

One of my great regrets in life is that I was a late comer to the Dr. Demento Show, taping each Sunday night broadcast when I was supposed to be sleeping. So I wasn't there for Weird Al's radio debut with "Another One Rides the Bus". By the time I had become a "dementoid", Al was already gaining renown in the world of novelty music. 

I almost got to see Yankovic in concert at the Indiana State Fair in the summer of '84. He was supposed to open for the Stray Cats (!), but he canceled last minute due to illness. I was bummed.

Throughout my teens and twenties, I bought each Weird Al album the moment it came available. I remember even buying a 33 that I felt like I had to hide from my parents because the B side had a song called "Nature Trail to Hell (in 3D)", a comic imagining of a teen slasher movie. 

I got irritated with people who mispronounced his name. And I pitied those who believed that Yankovic was incapable of producing anything but the parodies he became famous for. 

In fact, my favorite songs were often his originals - 

• Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung
• One More Minute
• I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead
• Gonna Buy Me a Condo
• Generic Blues
• Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota

I was a true fan. During my college days, I even went through a Hawaiian shirt faze. 

All this to say that I have already watched his new biopic movie, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, twice. I haven't laughed so hard at a movie for a very long time. 

Here's a public service announcement: I recommend the movie and you can watch it for free on Roku (even if you don't have Roku). 

CYNTHIA'S FOOD STAND

A few weeks ago, several hours after I thought I had requested $40 cash back at a grocery store kiosk, I suddenly realized my wallet was still empty. I spent the next hour kicking myself for walking away without picking up my money. 

It bothered me a lot. 

But the next day, Melissa checked our bank account and the $40 was never withdrawn. 

I was relieved.  

The whole thing reminded me of the morning Emmanuel and I visited a woman named Cynthia Amega at her food stand in Kumasi, Ghana back in September. She makes her living serving hot meals to adults and students in her neighborhood. 

That morning, Cynthia was distraught. Torrential rains overnight had flooded her little supply depot. Several 50 lbs. bags of rice were ruined, soaked through with murky water. They would cost 900 Ghanaian cedis to replace – roughly $90 US. 

(That was the value then - it would be even more today because the cedi is losing value against the dollar rapidly right now.)

Life can be so harsh in developing countries. Although I had felt bothered at the thought of losing $40, it wasn't going to destroy my family economically. It wouldn't have meant my kids going without food! 

But a person living hand-to-mouth in Ghana could be put out of business permanently by losing a few bags of rice. 

Fortunately, this wasn't the case for Cynthia. Although she was upset, she took the loss in stride, knowing that God was in control and that her business was stable.

That stability was in place for two reasons:

1.   Cynthia is one hard worker, day in and day out. Every morning but Sunday, she is up at 4 am so that she can start serving meals by 6:00.  She and three apprentices keep busy until closing at 3 or 4 pm. 

2.   For the past three years Cynthia has been a client of Mission Resource, using her loans to buy food in bulk. This allows her to buy more at better prices and cuts down on the frequency of trips to the market - 2.5 miles away.

The opportunity to put businesses like Cynthia's on solid financial footing - able to weather life's storms - is one more reason I find joy in my work with Mission Resource. 

 

OPEN AND CLOSED

A niece of mine was born with Craniosynostosis, a condition where the bone plates of the baby's cranium grow together too early. Then, as the child's brain attempts to grow in the restricted space, the skull ends up misshapen. Surgery was required to separate the plates. 

For months after the surgery, she had to wear a protective helmet to prevent accidental damage to her brain since it was (temporarily) not fully protected.

Now, twenty years later, you would never know she had ever required such risky surgery.

Author Rebecca Solnit writes,

"Human infants are born with craniums made up of four plates that have not yet knit together into a solid dome so that their heads can compress to fit through the birth canal, so that the brain within can then expand. The seams of these plates are intricate, like fingers interlaced, like the meander of arctic rivers across tundra."

"The skull quadruples in size in the first few years, and if the bones knit together too soon, they restrict the growth of the brain; and if they don't knit at all the brain remains unprotected." 

"Open enough to grow and closed enough to hold together is what a life must also be." 

It seems to me that the same could be said about what our faith must be: "Open enough to grow and closed enough to hold together".

And, on a larger scale, what our churches should be. 

COFFEE

Some people are addicted to coffee. I am not. 

If the price of coffee doubled tomorrow, I wouldn't just cut my consumption in half - I would stop drinking coffee altogether. 

(That would be so that Melissa could continue to drink her coffee at her usual rate with no impact on our family budget. Because that's the kind of guy I am.)

And if I stopped, it would be cold turkey and it would not bother me a bit. (Although it might be a bit more difficult in the winter than in the summer.) 

I really only enjoy two things about coffee:

1. It's warm.
2. It reminds me I am an adult.

The flavor is OK, but I am more of a chocolate guy. And I am not really affected by caffeine, so that doesn't figure into the equation. 

Hot chocolate is warm and delicious, but it isn't as adulty. 

And besides, I can't afford all those extra calories.

So I guess to me coffee is the equivalent of "diet hot chocolate" - I drink it instead of what I really want because it's better than nothing. 

WORK INCENTIVE

In Ephesians 4:28, Paul has advice for thieves who come to know Christ.

The first part is pretty obvious: "Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer".

Again stating the obvious, Paul offers the alternative: instead of stealing, "he must work". 

Paul then clarifies what kind of work he has in mind: "doing something useful with their own hands". What the NIV translates as "useful" is the Greek word for "good". 

Paul ends his advice with the reason why the repentant thief is supposed to get a job.

Notice he does not say, "Get a job so that you can support yourself." 

Instead Paul gives this motivation: "that they may have something to share with those in need".

How is that for an incentive to earn an income?

LIVING IT UP

After the Apostle Paul describes how he strives to "win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14), he says that he expects other "mature" Christians to believe and behave in the same way. 

But he is open to some may not be as gung-ho as he is: "If on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you." (3:15)

Then Paul drops a sentence that is one of the most underappreciated in all of Scripture: "Only let us live up to what we have already attained." (3:16)

When I was younger, I was often frustrated with the slow progression of my Christian walk. I wanted to be Super Christian. Instantly. I wanted to live miraculously.  

And if it couldn't happen today, then tomorrow would suffice. 

With more and more days as not-so-super Christian, I finally decided that I had to be patient with God. He just doesn't move very fast!

Now I wonder at God's patience with me! 

It turns out that I wasn't ever waiting on God to move me to the next level, He was always patiently waiting on me to start living what He had already taught me. 

HERE TO STAY

One of my assigned books this semester has got me a little down.

The title is The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by Carl Trueman.

One of the blurbs on the back cover says Trueman's book will help "the church understand why people believe that sexual difference is a matter of psychological choice". 

But the book is a whole lot bigger than that. 

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self traces the historical roots of the "woke" tide which is rising in our culture. Trueman makes a compelling case that those roots go back hundreds of years. Rousseau, Nietzsche,  Marx, and Freud all played significant roles in shaping the ideology that is now bearing fruit in modern America. 

I used to assume that all the pronouns, microaggressions, safe spaces, and critical theories were going to be a passing trend, ridiculed out of fashion within 5 or 10 years. But I am starting to see that it is here to stay.

We need to move beyond shock, laughter, and mockery. We need to analyze the shape and scope of this ideology if we hope to combat it. So far we haven't even come to grips with the fact that it IS an ideology. 

While we collectively obsessed for decades over preventing Marxism from getting a foothold in our economy and government institutions, this more dangerous hybrid ideology was creeping steadily into schools, colleges, the media, and Hollywood. 

THE UNCOMFORTABLE EXAMPLE OF PAUL

Warning: this post might cause some discomfort. It does for me. But here we go ...

Have you noticed an epidemic of American Christians preoccupied with building their own little "slice of paradise" here on earth. We spend lots of money to bring comfort and pleasure to our ourselves and our families. (Sometimes we spend money we don't even have.)

If I am honest, I fight the temptation myself. 

Other times I just give in. 

Thankfully, so far this particular temptation has been consistently held in check for me by the fact that God has never put enough wealth into my hands for me to build much of a paradise - at least not by American standards. (But does that matter? It's all relative.) 

Do we even hesitate before we pull out our wallets to pay for the biggest TVs, the most elaborate vacations, the newest gizmos, the most beautiful yards, and the most expensive toys? 

We, who are promised an eternity of heaven's joys, work hard in the meantime to insulate ourselves from the hardships and pains of this fallen world. 

We are trying to start vacation early while there's still work to be done. 

This striving after a pre-heaven paradise is so aligned with our culture's values that the church as a whole hardly even notices the inconsistency, much less preaches against it. 

After all, most pastors can't address this problem without being labeled hypocrites themselves. 

But then you have the Apostle Paul. 

Nobody could ever accuse him of being materialistic. He didn't spend his lifetime acquiring things. His experience of the life of faith was the exact opposite: he lost everything. 

If you are like me, you find Paul's sentiments in Philippians 3 to be both admirable and uncomfortably radical: 

But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.     (Phil 3:7-11)

Paul had a pronounced goal to his life, one he was willing to sacrifice everything for.

And it was not to own a bigger home in a nicer neighborhood. 

ELECTION DAY MEMORY

Back when I was a teen, I learned an important lesson on politics from my father.

I don't recall the exact circumstances - maybe the U.S. was in the midst of the Iran-Contra mess - but I remember hearing my dad say something critical of Ronald Reagan.

I was shocked. 

"Wait a minute - I thought we were Republicans!"

Dad responded, "Well, he's wrong."

Even without any further explanation from dad, the lesson lodged tight in my brain: Don't let party loyalty blind you to the facts.

(The lesson has applications beyond politics, too.)

To this day I believe that the more we can shake off absolute party loyalty, the better off we will be as a nation. 

WRONG QUESTION

I have been poking around a bit on Substack recently. It is unfamiliar to me as a platform, but a friend uses it as a launch point for his business newsletter, so I thought it worth checking out. Maybe it is something I could use for Mission Resource or my own personal projects.

There are categories listed on the Substack landing page from which one can choose, with dozens of newsletters for each. Most of these are subscription based, so the authors are making money from the website. 

I clicked on "Faith and Spirituality" to get an idea of the offerings and found the top paid newsletter in this category - with "tens of thousands of paid subscribers" - is one called Tipping Point Prophecy Update.

Are you surprised?

The description reads: "In this inspired newsletter, Jimmy Evans and other experts explore biblical prophecy, walking you through the many parallels between today's world and the End Times."

The cost is $7 a month. Assuming "tens of thousands" means a minimum of 20,000 paid subscribers, Jimmy is raking in at least $140,000 each month. 

(Jimmy is probably hoping the Apocalypse doesn't come TOO soon.)

Apparently the newsletter features a regular Friday Q & A. 

This past week Jimmy was asked the following:

When you say the Lord will come for His Church at the Rapture, what does that mean for those who do not have a “home” church, even though they love the Lord, study the Bible, and watch church online? Would they still be considered part of the Church when Jesus comes?

I was curious to see Jimmy's answer. Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall. And although he offers a "7 day free trial", there's no way I am giving him my credit card number ... even temporarily. 

So I will just take my own crack at answering this reader's question:

Unfortunately, you can't "watch church", either online or in person. You are asking the wrong question. Keep loving the Lord and studying the Bible, but I urge you also to find yourself a church which is more obsessed with living out an active, loving faith in the here-and-now than with end times "prophecy". 

(Besides, the Rapture is not really a thing.) 

BETTER SLEEP

I have drifted away from my sleep discipline.

Every good habit is susceptible to drift. Some good habits swim entirely against life's currents and will be lost without vigilance. 

An early, regular bedtime is one of those habits, at least for me.

Now I miss the greater productivity and alertness that I experienced the few months I maintained a strict 10:00 pm bedtime.

The Daylight Savings Time switch this weekend seems like a good opportunity to get back on track.

So I am cutting this post short and heading to bed. Good night!

COUNTRY CHURCH

Over the past three months, on occasion, I have been preaching at a little country church in Greencastle, Indiana. And I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's a small but attentive crowd.

Actually, "crowd" is hardly the right word. The highest attendance so far has been 9. 

And that included me.

They are sweet people who lost their pastor to a nearby church at the beginning of the summer. 

The guy took a few of the members with him, and now the remaining congregation isn't quite sure how to move forward. 

I keep praying about how best to help them discern next steps. 

This weekend they will be having a "fellowship hour" in place of Sunday school. Melissa will be joining me for the first time. I am looking forward to introducing her to my new friends.

Last week, Caleb drove the 40 minutes from college to join us. He walked in half way through Sunday school - before I had had the chance to tell everyone he was coming - and some nearly fainted to see a young man walk through the door of the church!

Would you lift a prayer for this little flock as many struggle personally with health issues and together they determine the future of the church?

IT'S NOT JUST FAITH

A local church has a sign out front which proudly states, "Faith is believing without proof". 

A few years ago, I would have responded by whipping out some Josh McDowell apologetics and declaring, "But there IS good evidence for the existence of God!"

And, yes, apologetics remain useful and there is still a place for a book like Evidence that Demands a Verdict.

Nevertheless, at this point in my life, upon seeing this church's proclamation, I only think, "When it comes down to it, what proof do I have for anything I believe about life?"

We are all supposed to reject everything outside of SCIENCE these days, but from day to day we believe all sorts of things without scientific proof.

In fact, all our most firmly held beliefs are based on feelings, stories, and experiences - far outside of empirical data of any sort.

Take love for example. In what sense do I have hard scientific proof that my wife loves me? 

Yet if you asked me, I wouldn't hesitate to say not only that I believe Melissa loves me, but that I know Melissa loves me.

A MOTOR FOR ANIM

Even though I had read a number of books and had been with Mission Resource for several months before I left for Ghana, the bulb didn’t really light up until I met some of our clients firsthand. It moved everything from the abstract-and-theoretical into the concrete-and-practical. 

I thought a particular example would be helpful to explain the basics of why loans can be so powerful for the working poor.

I met Anim Otu in the village of Makango at the end of September. The village sits on the shore of Lake Volta and Anim makes his living by catching tilapia and catfish. He has a decent boat but he bought the motor used 10 years ago and it is reaching the end of its lifespan. 

As breakdowns become more frequent, Anim is spending as much time repairing the motor as he is checking his traps. That means fewer fish each day. And fewer fish means his income is steadily decreasing.

Anim has found a motor for sale at the equivalent of $1,300 U.S. But as his income shrinks, so does any hope of ever affording this amount without outside help. If nothing changes, the old motor will eventually drive him out of business. And into hunger.

This is why a loan from Mission Resource holds the potential to do so much good – and prevent so much suffering.

The majority of the people we are helping are like Amin: living life on the verge of crisis. They are looking for a little assistance so they can keep fishing, sewing, farming, or cooking - whatever serves their community, puts food on their table, and enables their kids to go to school. 

With the help of a bit of capital, in time, our clients stabilize their businesses and then grow them. 

Mission Resource is making a real difference in the lives of real people. And THAT is what is motivating me in my current role.

My title is “communications director” and that means a big part of my job is helping Mission Resource raise more money so that we can offer more loans.

And real people are depending on me. 

HUMILITY

Have you ever found yourself yelling at a podcast? 

The other day I was listening to "Coffee with Scott Adams" and the topic was Kanye West's response to the public outcry over his recent remarks which many deemed "anti-Semitic". 

Apparently, Kanye had lost a good chunk of his fortune in the aftermath.

Adams, reporting that Kanye felt God was using the whole episode to "humble him", asked his audience, "I don't know what to think about that - is humility even a part of Christian faith? I mean, it's not listed in the Ten Commandments, is it?" 

Adams is an atheist and it was a sincere question seeking an answer. He knows a lot of stuff, but matters of faith are far outside the boundaries of his expertise!

An audience member pointed out through the "chat" box that pride is one of the "seven deadly sins" and Adams took that as confirmation that maybe humility was important to Christian faith.

The whole exchange made me want to yell.

It seems to me that humility is not only a part of faith, it is foundational to authentic faith in Christ. 

Those who are too proud to bow to Jesus as their Lord never come to know Him. 

*******

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." James 4:10

NO "UGH" NEEDED

Do you remember Bono, the lead singer for the band U2? 

His music gained popularity in the 1980s and made him rich and famous. Admirably, in the decades since, Bono has dedicated his life to activism on behalf of the world’s poor, especially in Africa.

Unfortunately, Bono’s main solution tended toward greater government aid and ever greater handouts.

(And handouts can often do more harm than good.) 

So it was surprising to see Bono admit in a recent interview with The New York Times that his eyes have been opened:

“I ended up as an activist in a very different place from where I started. I thought that if we just redistributed resources, then we could solve every problem. I now know that’s not true. There’s a funny moment when you realize that as an activist: The off-ramp out of extreme poverty is, ugh, commerce, it’s entrepreneurial capitalism.”

I am glad Bono has come around! He still has a powerful voice. 

His current stance is where Mission Resource (the organization I now work for) has always been. (And without the “ugh”!) Next year we will be celebrating two full decades of encouraging “entrepreneurial capitalism” in Africa for some of the world’s poorest people by providing the loans they need to build their businesses and their lives. 

It struck me that what Bono went on to say about capitalism and globalizing markets could apply equally to our ministry through Mission Resource:

“If somebody comes to me with a better idea, I’ll sign up. I didn’t grow up to like the idea that we’ve made heroes out of businesspeople, but if you’re bringing jobs to a community and treating people well, then you are a hero. That’s where I’ve ended up.”

I agree with Bono: bringing jobs and kindness to a poor community is heroic! 

Mission Resource is blessed with heroes on both sides of the Atlantic: our Ghanaian staff who do the legwork and our financial partners here in the States who make it possible.