Mercy

What is mercy? In very simple terms, I've heard mercy described as ‘not getting something that you deserve.’ This is kind of accurate, but it doesn't fully express what mercy is. More appropriately, mercy is withholding a punishment or consequence. It is preventing pain and hardship from coming to someone. Sometimes that is deserved pain or punishment or hardship, and sometimes mercy is simply the act of making a hard choice or sacrificing to withhold that pain from the person. 

Mercy is defined as: “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.”

Matthew 5:7

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Egg Hunts

 What are you looking for in life? 

• 
  Are you looking for love? 

• Are you looking for acceptance? 

• Are you looking for success? 

• Are you looking for happiness? 

• Are you looking for joy?

• Are you looking for fun?

• Are you looking for excitement?

• Are you looking for purpose? 

• Are you looking for meaning? 

• Are you looking for hope?
  

Everyone is looking for something in life. Sometimes we are well aware of what we are pursuing, and sometimes we have no idea, but we know that we're looking for something. 

April Fools'

This past Tuesday was April Fools’ Day, a day traditionally associated with pranks and jokes and outlandish stories. I used to work at a press release distribution company, and every year we received tons of erroneous press releases that were put out by major companies in jest and fun. Sometimes they were simply trying to trick people or make them laugh, and sometimes they were used as part of a larger marketing campaign to bring attention to a new product or a corporate change, like a new name or logo. 

When it comes to Jesus, and Easter, God sort of played the ultimate April Fools’ Day joke. For thousands of years the Jews had been looking for a Messiah. They had been waiting expectantly for the Anointed One, the Chosen One, a Savior who was going to come restore their nation. They were waiting for a conquering warrior king who was going to usher in a new kingdom and bring the Jewish people back together and free them from the chains of slavery and oppression that they had been living under for so long. 

Easter Baskets

 Easter baskets are an iconic symbol of the spring holiday. On Easter morning, thousands of children find baskets, some colored, some plain, filled with prizes: toys, chocolates, candies, eggs, etc… left by the Easter Bunny the night before as a way to commemorate this celebration of new life. This fun tradition is adhered to by people of many different backgrounds and beliefs and cultures, and it has several origin stories. 

• Some say that the basket symbolizes Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility from which Easter derives its name, as she was often depicted with a basket under her arm. 

• Some say that it is a modification of the “nest” that the German egg-laying hare, Osterhase, would lay his multi-colored eggs in. 

• Some see it represented in the Catholic tradition of bringing a basket of food and treats, many of which had been given up for Lent, to be blessed on the Saturday before Easter and then enjoyed the next morning. 

Hunger & Thirst

When was the last time you were hungry or thirsty? It was probably today, probably no more than a few hours ago. Hunger and thirst are common occurrences for all living things. We need food and water to keep us alive, and within just a few hours of eating or drinking something we start to feel hungry or thirsty. Our body is reminding us that there is something that is essential to life and it’s been a bit since we had it. Now, that original feeling of hunger or thirst may not be terribly strong. It may be just a small annoyance or reminder that we should start thinking about where our next meal is going to come from and start planning on when we are going to eat, but the longer we go the stronger the feeling gets. It becomes painful and unignorable until we finally eat and drink and are satisfied again. 

Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day! 

Today is such a strange “holiday." It's a day to commemorate the mysterious number known as pi. 3.14, except it's not 3.14. It's 3.14159265, but actually, it's more, much more. It's an endless number, an infinite string of digits, never ending, never repeating, never falling into a pattern. The number of calculated digits of pi currently stands at 202.11229 trillion. That's an incomprehensible number of digits, yet, it's no closer to the full truth of the number than 3.14.

Pi is not only mysterious for its infinite nature, it is also an incredibly important number in our world. It is found in, and plays an integral role in, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, physics, astronomy, statistics, and biology. It's part of things like heartbeats, circadian rhythm, breathing cycles, and even the stripes on zebras. It even helps us understand DNA.

Be Humble

The first two Beatitudes were more about inward attitudes, having a right outlook on your own spiritual state and being rightly upset and grieved over sin and evil in the world and within yourself. The third Beatitude is a bit more outwardly focused, as it has to do with how we interact with the world and people around us. 

Matthew 5:5

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

The word meek, in today’s society, means “quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on; submissive.”

This is somewhat the same meaning that Jesus is getting at here, but with a few important distinctions. We typically think of a meek person as someone who is shy and quiet, like a mouse, someone who is weak, who doesn’t, and can’t, stand up or speak up for themselves or others and who is easily taken advantage of. However, that isn’t really the idea that Jesus was trying to convey. Jesus is quoting an Old Testament verse here:

Shapes in the Clouds

Have you ever looked up in the sky, watched the clouds floating by, and discovered a whole world of creatures and activities within them? 

Have you ever looked up in the sky, at the stars that dot the night, and discovered a whole world of heroes and epic quests? 

Have you ever looked at the bark of a tree and seen faces looking back at you? 

The world is full of shapes and patterns and designs, and we could easily look at them as nothing more than shapes and patterns and designs, but humanity doesn't like to do that. We like to find deeper meaning and symbolism. Clouds aren't just clouds. They're ever changing animals parading through the blue expanse. Stars aren't just stars. They're dragons and hunters and bears. Cracks in bark and craters on the moon are faces of souls that are trapped within.

Mourning

Today we are looking at the second Beatitude, or Blessing, in The Sermon on the Mount. This week was also Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday, and, while I didn’t intentionally plan this, these things actually go together quite well. 

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, is a day of decadence and debauchery. It is the day before the start of the Lent Season, which is the 40 days leading up to Easter, and it is meant to be a time of fasting and righteousness. It is a time when you intentionally remove something from your life and replace it with time spent with God. You are supposed to identify and remove something from your life that is or could be a distraction, or something that occupies a good deal of your time/attention. It is meant to be a sacrifice. Mardi Gras, being the last day before Lent, is a celebration of gorging yourself on everything that you will be removing from your life. It is an overindulgence of that which you have deemed needs to be removed. It is said, by some, to be a celebration of life, but it is a distorted celebration of life as true life comes from Christ “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” not from the perverted sweets of the world. 

This is where the next Beatitude comes in.

Poor in Spirit

This week we are getting into the first of Jesus’ teachings during The Sermon on the Mount.

We often have a skewed view of spiritual justice and morality. It is very common to think of your life in terms of a scale; as long as the good things in your life outweigh the bad things then you're going to be ok. However, this isn't at all what we see Jesus teach, and there are actually a lot of problems with this idea. To start with, who defines good and bad? Does each person get to choose for themselves what is good vs. what is bad? What if something I think is good, you think is bad? Does that thing count as whatever we think it is or does it have a universal designation? Even if salvation and spiritual justice worked on a sliding scale of good vs. bad, we would need some definitive measure and designation that is set in place by someone outside of the system. 

Listening to God

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ famous sermon, from which we get many of the principles, guidelines and examples of what it means to live a Christian life. This is where the Beatitudes come from as well as The Lord’s Prayer. It is an extremely important section of scripture, and we are going to take the next few months to go over it and see how we can apply it to our lives today. 

So, before we jump in, let’s set the stage. Jesus had just begun His public ministry. He was traveling all around the area, teaching, healing, performing miracles and displaying wisdom. He had just called His apostles, those twelve who were closest to Him, who traveled with Him and ministered with Him and learned from Him. He was gaining notoriety and fame, and as such, a huge crowd of people were beginning to follow Him, to see what He was going to do and hear what He was going to say. They didn’t have Instagram or TikTok during that time, but if they did, Jesus’ follower count would have been skyrocketing, and every one of His videos would be going viral. 

A Library in a War Zone

I recently had the privilege of going to the "International District" Library to get a copy of Alice in Wonderland for my daughter to read for school. (I had placed a hold on it to pick up at another library, but didn't think it would be ready for at least a week or more. It was ready the day after I went to the library. Oh well.)

This library was really really nice. It was clean, well lit, organized, and the grounds were well maintained and landscaped. The parking lot was nice. Even the Recycle and Trash bins outside were nice. It had a cool Little Free Library outside. It was a really neat library. 

However...

The Great Romance

Since this Friday is Valentine’s Day, it seemed only appropriate that we look at love, but more specifically, that we look at romance, because while love is a very broad and encompassing topic, romance is much more narrow and specific. So, what is romance?

Romance: a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love; or a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.

There are a couple of words in those definitions that I want to highlight: Mystery & Excitement.

This is a really cool concept to think about. We often talk about love in church, about God’s love for us, about our love for God, about loving each other, about loving our enemies, etc… Love is central to Christianity. It is how the world will know that we are followers of Jesus, by our love. It is the enduring quality that supersedes and outlasts even faith and hope. It is what gives everything meaning. It is one of the absolute qualities and characteristics of God. God is love. So, what is love? 

Something New

This past Sunday was Groundhog Day, the day that a cute, furry, little rodent crawls out of his hole to let everyone know if there is going to be an early spring or six more weeks of winter. As it goes, if the groundhog sees its shadow, that means it is sunny, hence, six more weeks of winter, and if it doesn’t, that means it is cloudy, hence, early spring. Don’t ask me how that makes sense. It is what it is.

What we are looking at today, however, doesn’t really have anything to do with the Groundhog Day events and more to do with the Groundhog Day movie. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is a movie about a weatherman who is assigned every year to cover the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, PA. This guy is a real jerk who doesn’t like anyone or anything but himself, and pretty much no one likes him either. He especially hates the Groundhog Day event. As it turns out, a blizzard ends up causing him to have to spend the night in Punxsutawney, and when he wakes up the next morning it is Groundhog Day again. He winds up getting stuck in a loop in which he relives the same day over and over again for something like 35 years, until he finally breaks free.

Education Goals

As we look this week at Education related goals, let’s start by looking at the opposite of education: ignorance.

Ignorance is defined as a lack of knowledge or information.

Paul, on multiple occasions throughout the Bible, says something to the effect of, “I do not want you to be unaware/uninformed” about mysteries of the Gospel, about spiritual gifts, about God’s works, about actions and events in his and his companions’ lives, etc…

There is a common saying in society, “ignorance is bliss,” which is a way of conveying the idea that if you don’t know about something you aren’t worried or anxious about it, and that it can be better to be ignorant and happy than informed and scared. 

Growth Goals

The next goal topic that we are going to look at in this series is that of growth goals. Growth is defined as several things:

• the process of increasing in physical size.

• the process of increasing in amount, value, or importance.

• the process of developing or maturing physically, mentally, or spiritually.

It’s that last one that I am going to talk about here. So, first off, what are some of your growth goals? These can take the shape of goals designed to make you a better person, sibling, child, friend, student, Christian, etc… Often they have to do with character and attitude, how you react and respond to situations. Are you impulsive or contemplative? Are you assertive? Are you goal oriented? Are you angry? Are you vindictive? Are you self-focused? Community-focused? God-focused? Are you helpful? Are you kind? Growth goals can also take the shape of goals designed to improve your ability in a certain area? That may be sports or hobby related. It may be relational and communicative. It may be educational. It may be spiritual. It may be business related. If growth is the “process of developing or maturing” or “increasing in … value, or importance” then growth related goals are all goals that are designed and intended to make you better, more mature and more qualified in a certain area.

Health Goals

One of the most common goals that people set at the New Year, and at other times, is a health related goal. Usually this takes the form of “I want to lose weight” Sometimes it is left at that, and sometimes it is more specific, “I want to lose 15 pounds.” Then, steps are added to accomplish the goal. “I’m going to walk/run/workout for 30 minutes a day.” “I’m going to start this or that diet.” “I’m going to cut out sugar/fats/carbs/sodas/candy/etc…” Sometimes the health related goals are more fitness related or targeted to a specific sport or objective. “I want to lift x pounds.” “I want to run x distance at x speed.” “I want more strength/endurance.” Even things like “I want to get more sleep/drink more water/be outside more/have less stress.” are health related goals. Health related goals are some of the most prevalent for several reasons.

Firm Foundation

As we start a new year a lot of people are going to make resolutions and goals. Honestly, a week into the new year, a lot of those resolutions and goals are probably already broken, but regardless, this is the time when people take a look at their lives and make decisions about the types of things they want to change or remove or improve on. While there’s not really anything special about the start of a new year, we still take this time to examine ourselves, and even if we don’t “officially” make any New Year’s Resolutions we still probably all can identify things in ourselves that we like and want to fortify and make stronger, things that we want/need to improve on, and things that we want to change or just get rid of entirely. These may be skill sets, or attitudes, or habits, or mindsets, or relationships, or activities, etc… 

So, how about you, what do you want to accomplish this year? What do you want to get rid of? What do you want to add? What do you want to change? Do you have health related goals, education related goals, sports related goals, family or friend related goals, God related goals? Take a minute to think about this, and take note of everything that comes to your mind, regardless of how huge or small it may seem.

Intentionality & Consistency

With the start of a new year most people look at it as a clean slate, an opportunity to make a fresh start, to forget the flaws and failures and hardships and mishaps of the previous year and to set new goals and resolutions. It's an opportunity to dream of what you want to accomplish, of the type of life you want to live, of the skills you want to possess, of the kind of person that you want to be (in your family, with your friends, at your job, with God), of the health and fitness level you want to attain, etc… We start every new year excited and energized for what we think it's going to bring and who we think we are going to be when it comes to a close next December 31st.