Upon Waking

If we understand everyone, friend and foe, neighbor and nuisance, as made in the likeness of God, the words we say should be tempered by that truth. Every single person we will ever converse with, both sinner and saint, bears the image of God; and for that reason, each person is worthy of honor.

The rest we resist is for our good. It’s a way to steward our entire selves. To sit down and just think. Or pray. Or meditate on grace and how it shows up in all the goodness we experience daily. Rest reorients us. Pausing makes room for memories. In silence and solitude, we can remember that man doesn’t live by bread alone.

To practice Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward.8

It’s possible that hiding from people signals hiddenness before God.

Faith in the nearness of God creates the resilience needed to keep leading, loving, giving, evangelizing, serving, praying for, and preaching to.

How we think about ourselves in light of our gifts will determine how and what we use them for. Either our glory or the Lord’s.

What would happen, though, if we remembered Jesus in the wilderness being tempted yet victorious? Or Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane suffering yet enduring? Or Jesus in the synagogue being misunderstood but not shrinking? Or Jesus being reviled but not returning it? Or Jesus being betrayed, being tired, being righteously angry, unfairly tried, ab

Even on His dying day, He met with God about a cup, and while it was poured, He spoke with God on a cross (Matt. 26:39; 27:46).

Everybody needs a Nathan. Someone who will love us enough to tell us the truth. Who will see the plank between blinks and do the careful work of helping us remove it. Everybody needs a Nathan. Someone God has sent our way as a merciful missionary.