Hi everyone,

So I’m heading out on holidays as soon as I hit “post” on this post. And I’ll tell ya, as much as I enjoy taking holidays, it sure is a lot of work…

I mean preparations have to be made. Planning has to be done. Provisions need to be put in place so I could actually go away and truly be away.

I’m sure you all know what I mean. We don’t live in a world where we can just “drop everything” and shift gears. We have a lot of balls to juggle, a lot of things to consider, a lot of stuff that gets in the way of stuff.

But if we’re honest, what will happen if I don’t get everything done? What will happen if I drop a couple of balls? What will happen if things aren’t perfect?

I’m not saying that we should all be lazy in our jobs and responsibilities, but I am saying that it’s ok to let go, it’s ok to relax a little, it’s ok to be pruned of the things in our lives that might not be imperative to who we are, might not reflect what we’re about, or aren’t helping us in our identity as God’s people.

And I guess sometimes that pruning hurts. But it’s necessary.

Here are the readings for next week:
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Psalm 82
Hebrews 11:29—12:2
Luke 12:49-56
And a video of the readings being read:

These are some harsh words all around. Honestly in reading them, I almost winced at saying “thanks be to God” or “praise to you, O Christ”, because really? It sounds painful and very unpleasant.

But necessary.

I think this is what Jesus is talking about. I think this is what God is talking about. I think this is what we have to look forward to as we grow in our faith. In that, the more we learn of God’s righteousness, the more we see how much we miss the mark. The more we understand of God’s truths and morality, the more we find how little we understand. The more we see God’s goodness in the world, the more we see how little we deserve it.

And holding up that kind of mirror isn’t ever easy. In fact, it’s darn right difficult. Because it does hurt, and it does cause pain, and it just makes us feel bad.

But in that pain and brokenness of knowing how we fall short, we can find healing in knowing that we’ve been forgiven. While we might want to hold on to that which hold us down, we are liberated from our burdens through grace. While we feel bad for being bad, we can be encouraged that God loves us anyway.

This still doesn’t make it easy to let go of things and move toward a better us, but we can know that we aren’t alone in the journey, and that God holds us through it all.

Thanks be to God! See you in a few weeks!