Do the New You by Steven Furtick
Furtick’s newest release offers six mindsets meant to help you realize and become who you were created…
Untangle Your Emotions by Jennie Allen
As I cracked open Jennie Allen’s Untangle Your Emotions, I was hopeful for some guidance in navigating through the chaotic, knotted-up ball that describes our feelings. Overall, her book offers some great, general advice. Feel your feelings before you attempt to simply fix your feelings. We were created to feel, and so our feelings can be gifts from God Himself. Her acknowledgment that we are all feelers was also deeply appreciated. (I always cringe when someone says they’re not emotional. No, we all have emotions even if we’re not all expressive in the same ways.) Her attempt to remind the Church that emotions in and of themselves need not be sin—it is what we do with our emotions that can lead to sin—is a poignant truth we need to acknowledge. It cannot suffice to simply tell someone, “Well, you shouldn’t feel that way,” and leave it at that. At best, it’s unhelpful, and at worst, it’s even more harmful. Particularly helpful was the second section of her book where she framed an approach to notice, name, feel, share, and choose our emotions as a method to untangle them. I found the chapter The Vocabulary of Emotion (naming your emotions) especially helpful, as she named the big four emotions and their secondary counterparts.
Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer
Saint Maximus, back in the seventh century, acknowledged, “A person who is simply a man of faith is [not] a disciple.” John Mark Comer frames the same axiom with the question: are you a Christian or are you a disciple? If your immediate response to that question is, “Are those not the same things?,” then Comer’s Practicing the Way is the exact book for you to read.
Proverbs: Correction
If you hate rebuke, you are a stupid fool who is only leading others astray and causing more harm to yourself. It will result in poverty and disgrace and death for you. Look, that’s just what the Scriptures say. And, if that is truly to be the result of those who continue in their own way and ignore the instruction of the Lord, then no wonder He rebukes those He loves. It would actually be unloving to not correct and redirect such destructive behavior.
Proverbs: Anger
It’s ridiculous how easy it can be to rationalize, minimize, and outright deny our own anger while pointing to the anger of the other person. Let me say that again in case you missed it: it’s easy to see the absurdities in those examples because they are outside of yourself, but you deceive yourself about what’s inside of you. We tell ourselves that our anger is justified and moral and good and right, but the anger of everyone else around us is unmerited absurdity. So, I want to invite you do something with me this morning. This is not a sermon for the other side. This is not a sermon to pass off to that one person in the office you think needs to hear it. This is a sermon for you, and it’s about you. And, as we continue to unpack this topic of anger together, be open to seeing yours for what it truly is. See, I’m convinced our problem isn’t just that we are angry, but that we are angry in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons.
Own the Vision: Prayer
I want to invite you to do something that may seem contrary to how you’ve approached life and God up to this point. I want to invite you to do something that might seem to be just outright dangerous. I want to invite you to pray for turbulence. Invite the turbulence. Stop praying safe and shallow prayers. Friends, if we are to be a church that believes in the power of prayer, then we need to begin to pray like it. I mean, when was the last time we prayed something that challenged us in our very spirit? Something that shook us? Something that disturbed us?
It’s What You Make of It
Forecasts are unpredictable. You know this, but I’m not just talking about the weather. Life has a way of throwing us certain curve balls. We set our sights on the future, only for things to go another way completely. I certainly don’t mean to trivialize anything because sometimes life’s twists are pretty dark and heavy. Other times, they are minor annoyances and disappointments. In both instances, one thing remains the same: I can’t control it.
God Intention
Well, here we sit at the end of another year—another decade! For many, tomorrow is all about opportunity. Resolutions. Goals. Fixes. Betterment. While the beginning of another year serves as a great moment to reflect and to resolve, the stats don’t lie. Look, I hate to burst your bubble, but research shows that in just two weeks from now, thirty percent of us will have abandoned our resolutions already. Another study indicates by the end of 2020, just eight percent of us will have achieved our goals. From my own personal experience, that seems about right.
Even the Rocks Will Sing
Has the opening line of Joy to the World, ever bothered you, too? “The Lord is come”? I’ve heard it sung incorrectly and have even recently seen it posted incorrectly online as, “The Lord has come.” That almost feels better, doesn’t it? But, that’s not what Watts wrote. He wrote, “The Lord is come.” And, while the grammar admittedly has always bothered me, it’s because Watts was not describing a past event such as the birth of Jesus. Rather, he was looking forward to the future event of Christ’s return.
Chaotic Christmas
What am I waiting for this Christmas? Honestly? For it to be over. I know how that sounds, but it seriously seems that every year I can’t wait for Christmas to happen. But, then, I suddenly find myself longing for it to just be… done. And, I know that Christmas is meant to be this season of peace, but I don’t get it, man, because, at the end, I just feel exhausted. I don’t know if I would say that Christmas is peaceful. Chaotic, maybe?