reflection

“Do you want to get well?”

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

In John 5:6, Jesus asks a man who cannot walk, “Do you want to be made well?”

In context, the question seems odd seeing how we have already been told the man spends his days lying beside a pool renowned for its healing qualities. When we consider that the text says he had been in this debilitating condition for almost forty years, the question Jesus poses almost seems insulting or cruel.

In reality, Jesus can see that the man’s identity is deeply tied to his affliction, the routine it enforces, and the position it has placed him in for so long. Ultimately, Jesus heals the man and sets him free to begin a new life. While this account offers a practical example of the healing/restoring aspects of Christ’s earthly ministry, it also provides insight into our own need for spiritual healing today.

Sometimes we must give up a thing we identify with or take comfort in to begin to recover. In this account, the man was known as the one who lay daily by the pool. He was identified as a long-time lame man for whom his physical lack had become the defining aspect of his life. Not just the severity, but length of time and public place played a role in this reputation.

While we are not all physically marked, we too can gain an identity because of our life circumstances. We all know great high school athletes who are still remembered for their sporting skills decades after leaving the field. We know folks who are always seen as “the life of the party” regardless of how old they are. If we are not careful, we can allow these types of outward reputation to define us inwardly as well. We can get stuck in a familiar identity and find ourselves playing into a set role.

When we encounter Christ, the old self dies, and a new life is begun (Rom 6:1-4). We can no longer live just as we did before but now look to live as embodied examples of Christ (Gal 2:20). We may still look the same physically, but we no longer draw our primary identity from our past reputation, our current positions, or our family connections. In Christ, we are united with all others who have made this commitment regardless of our outward differences (Gal 3:26-29).

In addition to laying the old life down, the new life we are called to demands changes not only our hearts but our public-facing actions. The remains of our old life will seek to cling to us and stereotype us into shame, but as we mature in the Christian life, new thoughts, actions, and habits help to move us forward.

Was I a profane man before? Now I seek to intentionally speak with kindness and grace. Was I always working to pursue my own gain? Now I use my blessings to bless others. Was I known to others as a braggart, a cheat, or a self-righteous critic? I acknowledge these sins, find peace in Christ’s grace, and then move toward repairing relationships with others.

Jesus confronted the lame man because true recovery can only come when we are honest about our need. We can no more fix ourselves spiritually than the man in John 5 could will himself to perfect physical health. Being content to apply a fresh band-aid each day will never heal a deep wound that requires surgery- only when we admit the depth of our need will we admit our own limitations and cry out for His healing. When we come face to face with the Great Physician, may we have the self-awareness to see our deep hurts and receive His compassionate care.

Beloved of the Father

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One of the driving themes of Scripture is the ongoing relationship of God with His people. Whether as the LORD Almighty of the prophet’s vision (Isa 6), the God-Who-Sees Hagar’s distress (Gen 16), or the Babe of Bethlehem (Mt 1-2), our God shows up again and again both in power and in proximity. Despite lacking nothing, God is constantly moving toward relationship. In this reality, God more fully reveals His desire for community. Not only does He seek us and nearness to us, there is an eternal relational aspect present within God’s nature as Father, Son, and Spirit.

With Father’s Day this Sunday, many people will be reflecting on their relationships with their earthly fathers. Some kids are picking out BBQ supplies or golf balls to surprise their dads while others are wondering where their fathers are and why they are not present in their lives. Some of us grown-ups will get together with our fathers and give thanks for the bonds we share or will be blessed by precious memories of a good father gone from this life, but others will experience their fathers through a brief text message, an awkward phone call, the silence of estrangement, or a visit to the cemetery.

The human fathers of Scripture too are a mixed assortment of strengths and weaknesses. Abraham is seen as the father of the faithful, yet he struggled in his daily role as a husband and father. Like Abraham, his son Isaac and grandson Jacob were frequently flawed as family men. David was a man who sought the heart of God and composed beautiful psalms of praise, and yet his parenting produced sons filled with lust, arrogance, and poor judgement. The gifted disciple Timothy was brought up in the faith not by his spiritually absent father, but by a godly mother and grandmother who tirelessly taught him the Scriptures. What does this mixed review reveal about men as fathers and our lives as the people of God?

All human fathers are people, and no person is perfect. The patriarchs (the fathers of the faith such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), despite their struggles, were acknowledged as having covenant relationships with the one true God. God reveals Himself to Moses by saying, “I am the God of your father— the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). In order to clarify to Moses who He is, God connects Himself in relationship to these flawed men of faith. God also claims a relationship not just with these long-dead ancestors, but with Moses’s own little-known father (Amram) who had lived his whole life under the bitter yoke of slavery.

When we are confused about His identity, God reveals to us who He is through His relationship with our fathers. Even if our earthly fathers were not believers, as disciples we are all part of God’s spiritual family going back to the beginning when He created us in His image as relational beings.

At times, we forget who we are. We become distracted by the urgency of the present, and we lose sight of the fact that we are a part of a great heritage of the godly men and women of the past. If we are/were blessed with a Christ-like father who loved us well, may we give thanks for how he demonstrated our heavenly Father to us. If our relationship with our own father is/was complex/estranged/absent, may we take comfort that in the family of God, we are given His care and compassion far beyond any human’s ability. If tempted to lose faith in people, may we lean more deeply into the embrace of our Good Father and share His love with those we encounter this week.

What Is Truth?

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Our culture has trained us well to expect a general level of salesmanship, gimmick, and creative accounting in all areas of life. Whether the showroom, the courtroom, the campaign trail, or even the pulpit, we live in a world where far too often realities are stretched and assumptions are left uncorrected in order to gain advantage.

While we might not admit it aloud, we often think of basic honesty as naïve at best. “The world just doesn’t work that way anymore” we think, or we embrace some version of the logic that “honesty may be the best policy, but we aren’t dealing with good people” that allows us to justify our own departures from the truth.

The reality is that some things are true whether I want them to be or not. My opinion on whether or not the laws of gravity apply to me does not impact whether or not I will fall if I slip while on my roof. I may be thoroughly convinced that gravity is not real or that I never granted such an abstract force the right to control my life, but I will still find myself on the ground looking up. Strong commitment is great, but even the most solid commitment to the wrong idea just leaves me sore and corrected by experience.

Jesus and the Roman governor Pilate engage in a revealing conversation in John 18-19. Jesus, having been arrested and falsely accused, is brought before Pilate to receive punishment. It is festival season, and Jerusalem is teeming with hundreds of thousands of weary, foot-sore people already unhappy with Pilate’s rule. In addition to the crowds, the local religious leaders and the figurehead of Rome’s puppet government in the region also have an interest in what happens to Jesus.

Jesus is accused of setting Himself up to be a king- a claim, that if true, would put Him in rebellion against Pilate’s government. Pilate questions Jesus about His plans, and Jesus responds that His kingdom is not from this world. While showing no interest in setting up a new earthly dynasty, Jesus tells Pilate he is not entirely wrong, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:37 NKJV)

Jesus shifts the emphasis from political expediency and Pilate’s desire to be let off the hook to the everlasting mission of God- that God’s Christ would come to proclaim the true reality of God and that all who receive this truth will be a part of God’s kingdom.

Ever the politician, Pilate remarks, “What is truth?”

We don’t know Pilate’s tone, but his subsequent actions indicate he was unwilling to see the Way, the Truth, and the Life standing directly in front of him. Jesus says even Pilate’s authority is not of his own making, and yet Pilate uses his agency to choose the “go along to get along” path rather than to stand for what is true and right. He declares the innocence of Jesus while in the same moment consenting to His death. Truth can be realized in thought, acknowledged in word, and yet still be ignored in action.

Each day, the world around us encourages us to choose what is easy and smooth over what is difficult and may prove dangerous. If we believe that truth is most fully known and experienced in Jesus, will we be willing to stand for what is right when it would be easier to ignore falsehoods and dodge hard conversations? Ultimately, there can be no peace with God and no lasting peace with others without the foundation of truth. May we seek to lay this strong foundation, and having done so, build our lives and character upon it.

Prayer for Summertime

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O, Lord, Giver of every good gift, we give You thanks for the arrival of a new season of life. Bless us in the coming months with hearts that are aflame with a desire to honor You by serving our neighbors.

Help us to realize that our lives must be yielded to You before they can be laid down and offered for the good of those around us. Give us eyes to see what truly matters and to appreciate the needs next door, down the street, and around the world.

Grant us the wisdom to look beyond the distractions of headlines and status updates and instead to see the real people we encounter day by day who stand in need of care and compassion. May our hearts be filled with tenderness for the struggling among us. Help us not to turn away from those who can be hard to love as we realize our own shortcomings and struggles.

Watch over our young children and teachers as they enjoy their break from school. Be with our teenagers attending practices, traveling to events, and working summer jobs.

We pray a special measure of protection, grace, and courage for those who ending their school days and who are now moving forward to receive further education, to begin their careers, or to start their own families.

Be with the parents who must balance earning a living and making memories with their families. We pray for those striving for a better life as they also seek to support those dependent on them for help. We pray for single adults raising children alone and trying to balance the barrage of summer activities.

Grant mercies to those who are lonely today- may they find the community they long for. Bless those fighting the daily battle with addiction- grant them a measure of strength in this season when social events and vacations can provide added dangers of relapse.

Watch over those working out in the heat and storms of summer- bless the farmers, the linemen, the construction workers, law enforcement officers, and first responders.

Be with the old, the sick, and the infirmed who suffer most acutely during the long days of summer. Keep watch over all those facing the heat of our Southern summer without adequate cooling.

Remind us to look out for each other.

Be with those traveling for work, family, or fun during the coming week and the summer months ahead. Give them traveling mercies for safety as they journey.

Be with our country and community as the summer brings again the focus on politics and power. Help us to keep faith with one another and to extend grace to one another in such tense and troubled days. Let us realize that when the dust of our disagreements settles back to earth, we will be left facing our problems together. May this reality cause us to consider our hearts and give heed to our words even as passions are high and differences great.

Lord, we so often fall short of Your desires for us- we leave undone what we ought to do, and we do things that pull our hearts away from You and from the care we owe to one another. Help us, in ways big and small, to be conformed more and more to the image of Jesus. May this season open our eyes to His will for us.

In His name, amen.

Wish I Had Known

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

Perhaps you have heard folks say, “If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have done some things different.”

While living in regret and focusing only the past are not long-term paths to a healthy life, there is value in being able to see things we did poorly and to use these shortcomings as reminders to keep improving and to encourage others to avoid our mistakes. With a milestone birthday next week, I want to share some thoughts related to the regrets I hear most often and, at times, feel myself.

Maintain the relationships that matter most. As a minister, I have taken part in dozens of funerals and memorial services over the years. While in some ways each grief is personal, one reality I have seen again and again is that our closest relationships are often complex and complicated. No relationship- spouse, parent, child, best friend- stays the same over time. We must come to realize that as our lives change, we must invest time and effort in strengthening the relationships that matter most. We cannot assume that people know how we feel, what we meant, or why we made the choices we did. Making the effort to spend time with the people that matter to us now helps us to build and strengthen bonds across a lifetime. It is easy to allow physical distance, changing circumstances, or a relatively small disagreement to cause a tiny crack that widens over time. In the end, it will not matter how much I achieve if I sacrifice the people that matter most.

Take breaks in the midst of life’s busyness. One challenge facing us and our relationships is the danger of being constantly overextended. While Scripture encourages us to make the most of our opportunities, there is no glory in burning out due to taking on more and more without adequate rest. Each of us need to realize the importance of pacing our lives to finish well rather than to shine only for a short season. Work is an important aspect of life, but we need times of rest and recovery to do our best work. In our modern culture, much of the recreation that we embrace is entered into almost as if it is a career. We spend money, time, and commitment not actually taking a break but cultivating hobbies and interests as intense as our work lives. Every activity should not demand our most intense effort- this realization is not to excuse shoddy work or poor use of time, but a conscious understanding that we must pace our lives with stamina for the long haul rather than attempting such an intensity of activity across all areas of life that can never realistically be maintained.

Realize the value of choosing faithfulness. If we admit we need time to build relationships and yet we are often too busy, these two realizations should cause us to be thoughtful in choosing our priorities. We make choices every day concerning our time, effort, and commitments. What a terrible thing to realize we have worn ourselves out chasing more and more all the while losing out on intimacy in our family, friendships, and our walk with the Lord. Knowing we cannot do everything or be everywhere, we must remember importance of being grateful for our blessings and choosing faithfulness right where we are.

We often convince ourselves that tomorrow there will be more opportunities to tell people how we feel or to better prioritize our lives. Regardless of our stage of life, none of us live with guarantees about the future. With this reality in view, may we resolve to say what needs to be said and to change what needs to be changed starting right now.

Slowing Down, Listening Up

/ Will N. / Leave a comment

While writing in my favorite coffeeshop last week, a professor at our local university who I had not seen recently walked by and said, “Will, it’s good to see you. How long have you been here?”

Thinking he meant serving the church in our community, I replied, “Over 20 years now.”

He gave me a slightly puzzled look.

“I meant in this coffeeshop. I must have missed you when I walked in.”

My answer was accurate, but not accurate for the question he was actually asking. Life can be like that as well; we are giving a right answer, but we have failed to truly understand the nature of the question.

Much of the conflict and confusion in our culture comes from missed (or missing) communication. We spend a lot of time talking, but too often we are talking passed one another. Because we often focus on responding to others rather than reflecting on what they truly mean, we end up confused and frustrated. How can I better hear what others are saying when topics arise where we disagree?

Turn down the temperature. One issue that quickly can sidetrack a conversation is when the level of emotion becomes elevated too quickly. This type of heated exchange fuels cable news, talk radio, and religious discussion boards, but often causes potentially meaningful conversations to fizzle. If I am passionate about an issue, I must also consider that the other person may be just as passionate. This realization is especially helpful if I take the time to realize that I may not be as personally invested in the subject as my counterpart. If we are discussing adoption, I may have many well-researched ideas, but if the person sitting across from me was adopted as a child or is currently in the adoption process after years of infertility, I do not share the same connection to the subject. This realization is not some type of moral relativism, it is simply acknowledging the fact that no two people come to any conversation with the same background, and our experiences deeply shape our thoughts and emotions. The writer of Proverbs 15:1 wisely notes the need to “chill out” before responding in anger and says, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” When I can pause to gentle and soften the conversation, I stand a better chance of both truly hearing and being heard.

Consider the time and place. It is also important to consider the timing and setting of the exchange. If a person confronts me with an online comment at 2 AM, I won’t see it immediately, can choose to ignore it, or if needed, follow up privately. If a person asks me something in a one-on-one conversation, I have more time and focus to respond well rather than being put on the spot in a larger group like in a staff meeting or church assembly. Not every question merits a response, and not every answer needs to be given in an immediate, public way. Our instant, social media-saturated world tells us that to respond quickly is to win, but the opposite is almost always true. The person who can slow down and consider the best, most helpful way to respond in the specific setting is more likely to make a lasting difference.

When we fail to pay attention to others, we open ourselves up to confusion and conflict. As we live each day, may we seek to imitate the Prince of Peace who understood and modeled the power of listening and faithfully responding to people’s needs in ways that best fit the demands of the moment.

What Matters Most

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Because what we focus on determines the way we live, what we place first in our hearts becomes the driving motivation for our daily actions.

What are some questions can we ask ourselves to better realize the forces that dominate our lives?

What are we talking about? We talk mostly about two topics- what we must talk about to live (work issues/schedules/bills) and what we care deeply about in our own hearts. Even as believers, we can spend vast amounts of time each week talking with those around us about sports, entertainment, or politics, and yet spiritual topics seldom arise. Witnessing the overly-aggressive zeal in some religious people may have caused us to give up speaking about spiritual matters all together. While we need to use wisdom and discernment when sharing our faith, it is a sad state when friends, coworkers, and neighbors know much about which team I cheer for, who I vote for, and what music I love, but know little about my commitment to Christ.

How do we spend our money? Another indicator of our focus is demonstrated in how we spend our money. We might spend several hundred dollars on tickets to a favorite concert or sporting event but would balk at giving such a gift to the work of the local church or Christian organization. We spend freely on maintaining our vehicles, eating in restaurants, and impulse buying clothes and decor to fill our homes, yet we seldom open our hearts and wallets to those in need around us. The Scriptures warn us not to set our hope in uncertain riches (1 Tim 6) and that the hoarded wealth we should have shared will witness against us in the judgment (James 5). When those around me see how I spend my money, does my spending show my priority of serving God and others?

Where do we spend our time? As much as conversation and checkbooks, where we spend our time often becomes a visual demonstration of our priorities. Once school, work, and family responsibilities are fulfilled, where am I spending my time?

Recreation is a God-given gift- Jesus and His disciples took times of rest, attended socials gatherings like weddings and feasts, and enjoyed time with friends and neighbors. In our modern world, however, we often sacrifice the spiritual on the altar of the social. While some folks manage this tension well, most of us could honestly admit that we spend more time on our own amusements than on God and His service. When there are opportunities for fellowship with believers, do I seek them out? Do I turn my time in worship into a “punching a clock” obligation that I go to reluctantly and leave quickly to get to other things? Am I willing to spend all day on the lake or at the ballfield or on a shopping trip, but never consider taking extended time to share in a youth event, Christian conference, or special church function? None of us can do all things, and recreation that is not sinful in itself can be done to God’s glory, but the subtle danger is that my personal “me time” will grow more and more self-focused and less God-honoring.

No one is immune from placing self before God. When such misplaced devotion occurs consistently over time, we fail to center our lives as we should, and we live with divided hearts. If our lives do not reflect God as our first priority, may we humbly recognize our error, genuinely repent, and fully refocus our hearts on Him.

Prayer for Stormy Times

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Father God, the weather is unpredictable, but we know that You are constant and ever-sure.

Like the spring, we too are inconstant; often blown off course and shifting in the challenges and trials of life.

You know our frame, our limitations, our weaknesses. Despite our defenses, we falter, fail, and fall.

Help us to see that our effort at self-defense always leaves us short of the deliverance that can only be experienced in surrender to You. Give us the ability to see the folly of resisting our great need for Your divine care and grace in each moment of our lives.

Even we who long to reach upward can never scale to the perfect heights we seek. We give thanks that in lovingkindness You descend to us.

In the blessings of our daily experiences, in the bold assertions of Your word, in the beautiful community of the church- You show us more of what we can be.

Yet these gifts would be nothing without the Giver.

Incarnate in Bethlehem, walking in Galilee, dying outside Jerusalem, rising in power to die no more.

In Jesus, You come among us clothed in the dust and ashes of creation.

You do not offer an absentee love, but place the fullness of Yourself in our midst.

To the vulnerable, You are a protector.

To the self-sufficient, You are a servant.

To the prideful, You are a warning.

To the broken, You are a healer.

To the burdened, You are a liberator.

To the hungry and hopeless, You are Daily Bread and Living Water.

To the lost, You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

In Your grace, You choose to place Your love upon us. You extend constant sustaining blessings and the opportunity for salvation.

What more could You do to give Yourself to us and for us?

Help us to see this love. Help us to accept it. Help us to experience it more and more fully, and help us to live our lives in response to it. In this season, let us choose to pass forward the love we have received.

In tense times and uncertain days, may our lives be marked by a Christ-like humility that silences the mouths of critics and opens the hearts of cynics.

Let us not be bewitched by power nor lulled into passivity. Give us the courage to withstand the assaults of enemies and the compromises of friends. Grant us, as Your people, the ability to shine light into the darkness.

Let us not be tossed by the stormy winds that threaten from both within and without, but let us instead be fixed and anchored to a love that cannot be shaken and will not be moved.

In Christ’s holy name and through His power we pray, amen.

Lest we forget Gethsemane…

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Sometimes a verse you have read a hundred times just hits differently. The Scriptures are timeless, but as believers, we are shaped and shattered by time and our own experiences, and we bring our changing perspectives to our reading of God’s Word.

Between Luke 22:42 when Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane for relief if possible but for the Father’s will to be done above all, and Luke 22:44 which describes His agony and the intensity of His sorrow dripping down as blood-like sweat, Luke 22:43 reads:

“Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.”

When I read this recently, I was reminded of Hebrews 2:16, “For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.”

Jesus did not take the form of angels to redeem them, and yet angels strengthened Him as He came in human likeness to redeem us. In His moment of greatest suffering, Jesus was blessed by strength sent from heaven and was empowered to endure. It has been said, “Every life has its Gethsemane, and every Gethsemane has its angel.” In that ancient grove, among the olive trees whose fruit was pressed to bring forth oil for food, light, and healing, Jesus was pressed down and poured out for us.

I know people right now passing through their own pressing dark night of the soul- illness, addiction, estrangement, grief, loss. You know these folks too- it may even be you or someone close to you is experiencing such a season even as you read these words. Whatever we face, may we realize that when Jesus suffered on our behalf, He was not instantly delivered nor was the source of His suffering destroyed- instead, His Father provided Him with the strength to bear the terrible burden.

Whenever we suffer, we are never alone. No matter what form our trials take, our Lord stands with us in the midst of the hurricane to strengthen and support us. Not only in the form of faithful friends, not only through the unseen ministries of angels, but God Himself is with us and within us to supply His power to help us endure.

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.’” (Psalm 91:1-2)

May we continually draw strength from the realization that while darkness lingers, ultimate suffering has been already been overcome- not by our strength, but by Christ’s surrender and His suffering in our place.

In His humility, Jesus comes as one of us and takes life’s harm, hurt, and hate on our behalf. In our own strength, we can never simply resolve and then do better. We can never fully overcome the pull of our own hearts to forsake the best and right paths for those that seem simpler, safer, and easier. We cannot power through the struggles, sufferings, and sorrows of this life alone, but we can, when conformed to the spirit of Christ, humbly surrender and receive the strength and the support that God supplies.

In looking to the Father’s strength and trusting His will, we imitate the perfect example of Jesus, and we gain the assurance of God’s presence and power with us our trials.

Each life indeed has its share of Gethsemane’s sorrows, but because of Gethsemane’s Savior, we never need to bear our burdens alone.

In Praise of Small Places

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“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

This question comes from the lips of Nathanael, a man whom Jesus Himself would commend for being a straight talker (John 1:46-47). Today Nazareth is a predominantly Muslim city of nearly 80,000 people in northern Israel. Modern Nazareth also has a large Christian population and the city benefits from tourism centered around the New Testament testimony of ancient Nazareth as the hometown of Jesus. If you are familiar with Scripture and remember the town’s name, you most likely think of Nazareth in the context of the oft-repeated designation of our Lord as “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Today, Nathanael’s incredulity at the origins of the Messiah seems out of place. After all, 80,000 people is well more than double the entire population of Weakley County, yet in its day, Nazareth was a tiny village- neither David’s birthplace (Bethlehem) or the home of God’s temple (Jerusalem). Nathanael raises an honest question, “How could someone so great and so important come from such a small, forgotten place?”

I admit I hold a great affection for small places. I have lived in four towns in my four decades of life- all in West Tennessee and each with less than 3,000 residents. While I have been blessed to travel to some of the largest cities in the world and enjoyed those visits, I have returned here again and again. I will be the first to confess small places are not perfect- in fact, they hold the same challenges as cities even if harder to recognize. Small towns can serve as strongholds of hypocrisy, islands of poverty, dens of crime, and homes to violence. Hard times hit small places hard- when factories close, when younger generations move away, when addictions arrive to fill the emptiness and loneliness of hurting people.

Despite the struggles, I believe there is value in the intimacy of such a life.

To know the names of the people you meet each day at the store and in the bank- to love them as your parents loved their parents as your grandparents loved their grandparents. To shop local because you know the family’s youngest daughter got braces last week or because their uncle passed suddenly and you want to help with expenses. For an old man to remind you of what a great athlete your daddy was or to thank you for your grandfather’s service in the war. To be told you come from good stock or to be praised for overcoming a tough upbringing. To hear the same stories again and again, and although you were born fifty years after the fact, you feel like you saw the drought, the winning shot, or the great fire. To see hardworking people slip a few bills into a young father’s hand when he was short at the store- careful not to let his children see that he had come to the end of his money but not to the end of the month. To know those church ladies armed with worn Bibles and well-used casserole dishes who always whispered to the young teachers each August, “If you have any children in your class who need anything, you just let me know.”

No place is perfect. Even in small places, we face challenges to fund and feed and fix, and we often disagree on how best to do that. We have many differences in how we think, worship, vote, and live, yet we should not be surprised that the Man who taught us to love God and to love our neighbor came from a place where He would have known His neighbors by name.

When we are committed to loving God and serving where He has planted us, good things will continue to come from the least likely places.