This coming weekend is a three-day weekend for a lot of people, and it reminds me of an annual retreat our youth group participated in years ago (and probably still does). Every President’s Day weekend our youth group went to a nearby Christian conference center for a mini retreat. Many of the other churches from our denomination’s district brought their youth groups as well. It added some excitement to the mid-winter doldrums for a lot of our high-schoolers. It was always a very uplifting time that saw many kids dedicate or re-dedicate their lives to Christ.
One year during this retreat our youth leader, Allen, took part in an annual tradition for the retreat. He arranged to make pizza available for purchase, and our youth group would then meet together (just us in a smaller setting…no other church’s youth groups) for some deep discussions.
As you may be able to imagine, a large number of teenagers can go through quite a bit of pizza. Everyone was told ahead of time to bring some extra cash specifically for the purpose of buying however many slices of pizza they’d want. Allen announced that he’d get a slice count first, then collect the cash afterward. He went methodically through the roster he brought, keeping a record of how many slices each person wanted. Upon tallying all the orders, he asked “okay, last call, does anybody want to make any changes before we call in the order?” There may have been one or two changes to the orders, but it wasn’t long before he tallied up the final count.
As everybody started pulling out their cash, he announced a surprise. An anonymous member of our church was a big fan of the effect this retreat had on our youth group, and had volunteered to pick up the tab for the entire youth group’s pizza dinner. While buying pizza may not sound like much, it was a very real and practical way to love on the kids from our church attending the retreat that year. As jaws fell open, many of the boys, especially, tried to revise their orders higher, but Allen had seen it coming and purposely double checked before announcing the news.
This was a great way to demonstrate to teenagers the concept of having their debt forgiven. While this was an infinitely smaller debt to overcome than Christ’s redemption of our souls, it was an example that struck a chord and brought a tangible joy with it.
For those who have maybe heard of Jesus but might not be real familiar with Him, He serves as the bridge for us to cross an impossible gap. You’ve probably heard of Adam and Eve. For a time, Adam and Eve walked in sinless fellowship with the Lord. It wasn’t until they sinned (went against what they knew was right in God’s eyes) that death became woven into the human experience. Only someone without sin would be able to escape the lasting consequences of death, and only Jesus Christ has lived a sinless life. Since Christ was fully man, He wasn’t impervious to death, but since He was also fully God, He was impervious to staying dead. Since death has no power over the sinless, Christ was able to stare death in the eye and do as He wished. Although His sacrifice created a way to redeem us if we accept it, all of us are still destined to live with the consequences of our past sins. Everyone reading this will one day pass from this life into the next, but only those that have accepted Christ as their savior will spend the next life with Him in heaven.
I pray you’d experience a similar example of having your debt forgiven, and gain an increased appreciation for the gift Christ offers all of us. For those that have been Christ-followers for awhile now, please pray that those who are seeking truth would find it, and that God would move mightily in their lives, and in the lives of the teens gathering for the winter retreat this weekend.
The other day my daughter pointed out to me that 2024 is starting out an awful lot like 2020 did. The 49ers are playing the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. This month has an extra day at the end because it’s a leap year. It’s looking more and more likely that it’s going to be a Biden/Trump presidential election. And at least at this point in the year, the Olympics are scheduled to take place this summer as long as a worldwide pandemic doesn’t change things.
Well obviously, I don’t have the inside track on how any of those things are going to turn out (though I’m hoping the 49ers can pull off a win over the Chiefs). Despite not liking to put many political posts on this blog, I feel it’s important to sometimes address things before they happen, hopefully helping you to prepare mentally for what’s ahead.
President Biden is polling abysmally right now. I mean, it’s bad. He listens to extremist advisors and espouses policies that are difficult to justify if the goal is to make America and its economy better (raise energy prices, force electric vehicle adoption in a market that isn’t interested, ban gas appliances, forfeit energy independence, etc.). Between many of his supporters wanting him to do more to punish Israel, along with Independents (and a big chunk of Democrats) saying “you know, I think you’ve gone too far with the border situation,” he’s got a shrinking pool of people he can rely on. At this rate, his only real chance is to make the other Presidential candidates look even less appealing than he does.
Nikki Haley is still in the race, but she’s going to have to pull off some convincing wins here very soon if she wants to realistically remain in the conversation. If she somehow pulls off a massive upset and gains the GOP nomination, Biden’s going to have his hands full trying to convince the country that he can do a better job than she can. I don’t really see her being much more than a nuisance to former President Trump on his path to the nomination, though.
I’m not sure of the latest numbers, but at one point there were over 90 criminal counts pending against Trump. That’s not a small thing. If he’s guilty, he should face the consequences. I do question the timing of the four cases, though. It strikes me as odd that no charges were brought until after it was evident he’d be running again. It seems suspicious that everything seemed to hit at once, almost as though it was a coordinated effort to keep someone in the courtroom rather than the campaign trail and force them to use money on legal defense instead of being used elsewhere. Between that “legal coordination” and attempts to keep him off ballots, I don’t feel it’s Trump that poses the biggest threat of election interference or threat to democracy.
Now I can’t honestly say I know what all those charges are, but based on the sheer number of them I’ve got to imagine he’ll be convicted on at least one of them. Those are all felony counts. Here I’m showing my ignorance on the legal system, but I would think that not all felonies are created equal. There are different levels of “badness” in the felony category. If he’s convicted of the most minor felony count, it can still truthfully be said that he’s been found guilty of a felony (even if he appeals and wins). If that happens, that’s the only thing you’re going to hear out of the White House, out of Biden surrogates, and from protesters between now and the election. They’ll hope a felony conviction of any sort will be enough to cause a sizable portion of voters to withhold their support from him.
This may just shape up to be a contest to see who can avoid looking the worst. Trump’s facing 90+ felonies, but Biden just got caught either lying to the American people or showing that he doesn’t quite have a solid grasp of the situation. Regarding the border bill that fell apart earlier this week, Biden has repeatedly claimed that its passage is necessary to empower him before he can solve the border crisis. The last president somehow managed to do quite a bit to secure the border, and the Democratic Senate that’s been in power since then hasn’t taken away any of the President’s powers. My guess is that Biden will tighten up the border just enough to say “look, we’ve reduced the number of people crossing into the U.S.” to try to take away Trump’s biggest weapon, and you’ll hear “felony, felony, felony” or “fascist white supremacist” about Trump.
Also like we saw in 2020, there are probably a lot of people that are going to say “I don’t like either candidate.” In an interesting turn of events, this year there’s a third-party candidate that’s benefitting quite a bit from a general dislike of the two-party system. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is picking up some steam. He comes from a more traditional Democratic platform, from before extremists took over the party. At this point he’s the most centrist candidate in the race, and he’s gaining support from people on both sides (though more of that support probably comes from Democrats). As we draw closer to the election in November he’s probably going to get more attention because a lot of what he says makes sense to people who are looking for less drama out of the White House.
What I’m about to say assumes that Kennedy gets a LOT more support between now and November, so keep that in mind as you read it. Presidential candidates win elections by gaining more than half of the nation’s 538 electoral college votes. You need 270 to win. If RFK Jr. peels off a state or two, he could conceivably prevent any candidate from reaching 270 electoral votes. In that case, the outcome of the election gets tossed over to the House of Representatives.
To reiterate, we’re talking about kind of a long-shot scenario here. If the House gets to pick the next president, it’s going to be under tremendous pressure to “do the right thing.” The “right thing,” however, is open to interpretation. Is it the candidate that got the greatest number of electoral votes? Is it the candidate that got the most popular votes? Will it come down to a party-line vote, and if so, how will that work if a few of the representatives are in the hospital or are otherwise unavailable in one of the narrowest House margins in history?
It’s still a very difficult time in our nation’s history. There’s no candidate that everyone will support. We’re stuck once again with picking the least bad option. No matter what party is in power, please pray for our president and officials in Congress. God allowed them to be there, so please pray for His hand on them, steering them toward what He wants to accomplish.
Lord, thank you for the blessings we enjoy by living in this country. I ask that You watch over our nation’s leaders, give them wisdom, and help them make God-honoring decisions. I ask in Your name, amen.
It’s that time of year again. Unless you’re an absolute champ and already have your taxes done, you’re probably gearing up to file them in the next couple of months. In this post we’ll ignore Washington’s inability to spend less money than it takes in, and instead focus on your taxes at a personal level.
Taxes are sort of a necessary evil. The government needs taxes in order to function, and unquestionably has the right to tax its citizens, but my view is that you shouldn’t pay any more taxes than you legally need to. I don’t have the time or space to get deep into taxes here, but I’ll try to provide some basic tips for those of you to whom taxes are a mystery. If you’re already well-versed with your own tax situation, this post probably isn’t for you.
With a few exceptions, every dollar you make is subject to tax. The obvious and most common source of income is your job, but in most cases if you’re receiving money that’s not a gift, that money’s taxable. If you have a side gig, or you have a yard sale, maybe you win the cash prize in your fantasy football league, or you win a bet with a friend, any time you’ve been given money in exchange for something, that means you’ve generated income, and that income is taxable. You’re responsible for reporting it come tax time. If you’re not reporting it on your taxes and the IRS can prove you received it, you have nobody but yourself to blame.
The U.S. has a progressive tax code. That means everybody is taxed lighter at low income levels, but income is taxed at higher and higher percentages as income levels rise. The lowest tax bracket right now is 10%, but rises to 12%, and then 22%. There are higher levels than that, but if you’re in a tax bracket above that level, you’re probably not going to learn much from this post. The system is a little deceiving if you haven’t ever paid close attention. If you’re in the 22% tax bracket, it doesn’t mean you’re paying 22% tax on every dollar you make; it means you’re paying 10% tax on all your income up to the cap of that first bracket, plus 12% tax on every dollar that’s in the next highest bracket, plus 22% tax on all the remaining dollars. That’s way better than 22% of every dollar you make. After you add up all the money you made last year from various sources, you can do a search for 2023 tax brackets to see where you fall.
Let’s say you’re married filing jointly, and between the two of you, you earn $60,000 a year. The government recognizes it needs to give people a break by not taxing every single dollar they make. Uncle Sam helps people out in the form of something called a deduction. If your tax situation is fairly simple (you rent your home instead of own it, you don’t donate much money to charity, and you don’t mess around with stocks or real estate), you should probably go with the standard deduction. It’s a value that’s updated every year, and in the 2023 tax year the standard deduction for a couple that’s married filing jointly is $27,700. That means you can subtract $27,700 from your annual salary of $60,000 (which shields almost half of your income from the tax man), and you’ll only have to pay taxes on the remaining $32,300. Deductions are good because they reduce the amount of your money that gets taxed, ultimately reducing the amount of tax you need to pay.
A second kind of deduction, called “itemized deductions,” is an option, but doesn’t make sense for everyone to take. For itemized deductions to provide you more value than the standard deduction, your itemized deductions (things like donations to charity, mortgage interest, property taxes, etc.) would need to add up to more than the standard deduction. It’s possible to do it with income of $60,000, but it probably doesn’t happen consistently unless you own a home and/or give a sizable chunk of your money to charity. If you’re making $60,000 as someone who’s married filing jointly, you’re probably going to want to take the standard deduction.
So if you continue with this $60,000 example (where you’re only taxed on $32,300), you calculate the tax according to the tax brackets. Ten percent of the first $22,000 (the upper limit in the lowest married/filing jointly bracket) is $2,200, and then you have to pay 12% on the remaining $10,300 ($32,300 minus $22,000). That comes out to $2,200 plus $1,236, for a total tax bill of $3,436. Don’t lose heart, you probably don’t have to cut a check for that much.
That’s the simplified version. If you have kids that are your dependents living with you, and you’ve provided more than half of their financial support for the year, you get to claim the Child Tax Credit. Depending on the child’s age, you get to subtract up to $2,000 per child directly from your tax bill. Tax credits pack more of a punch than deductions do, because while deductions knock a percentage of a dollar off the tax bill, a tax credit removes 100% of a dollar’s worth of tax liability for every dollar of tax credit you receive. Deductions = good, credits = better.
The last thing I’ll quickly cover is tax planning. Nobody likes to be surprised by a big tax bill when it comes time to file. Some people like to get a refund when it comes time to file, and others would rather pay at least a small amount when they file so they don’t have to give the government an interest-free loan with the money that comes out of each paycheck). I’ll let you decide what’s right for your situation, but the ideal tax planning scenario would be to owe no tax and be due no refund. If you know how much tax you’ll owe at the end of the year, it’s usually pretty easy to ballpark how much tax should be withheld from each paycheck.
Let’s use our example from above (assuming the couple has no kids and no major tax credits). They’ll owe $3,436 in taxes. If they’re paid every two weeks, we can divide 3,436 in taxes by 26 paychecks a year to find that if they withhold $132.16 from each paycheck for federal taxes, at the end of the year that amount should fully cover the tax they owe. They’ll have to readjust for raises or substantial changes in deductions or tax credits, but that’s the gist of it.
It’s too late to make adjustments to Federal withholding for the taxes you’ll be filing over the next couple of months, but since we’re only a month into 2024, you have a great opportunity to choose how much money you accrue by the end of the year to use in paying your ’24 taxes in the winter/spring of 2025. If you know roughly how much money you’ll make this year, you can also ballpark how much money should be withheld from your paychecks. Just make sure to account for the fact that some paychecks have probably already come in and the withholding from them might be different from what you want it to be for the year’s remaining paychecks. Your pay stub usually shows how much is withheld from each check, along with how much has been withheld so far in a given year. Once you determine what you want withheld from each paycheck, get in touch with your payroll department or submit an updated W-4 form to your employer’s payroll support provider.
I can’t even begin to tell you how complicated the U.S. tax code is, so please understand that this is very basic information. There are all kinds of additional considerations to look at (like filing single, married filing separately, and filing as head of household). The way you earn money also affects your taxes; if you’re married filing jointly and one spouse collects a paycheck while the other makes money babysitting, it’s likely that tax is only being withheld from one of those income streams, but both of them figure into the amount of total tax that’s owed, so you’ll need to plan accordingly.
This is only enough information to get you pointed at areas you want to learn more about. I’ve only discussed federal taxes here. State and local taxes vary by location and are in addition to federal taxes, so don’t forget about those. Of course, the best way to ensure that you’re getting it done right is to pay a tax professional to do it, but if you’ve got a fairly simple tax situation and don’t mind working with numbers, you can probably file them yourself. Tax software makes it easier to do on your own, and can often get it done cheaper than paying someone else to do it.
In the last week or so here in the DC area, we’ve had the most snow we’ve had in a couple of years. Though it’s just about completely gone by now, the snow and accompanying cold snap we’ve had has got me thinking of days gone by when I spent more time in the snow.
I took up the sport of cross-country skiing when I was in college. I took a half-credit class my Freshman year, and man, did I enjoy it. After I got bit by the bug, I got a job repairing/maintaining the school’s skis (which meant I could take them out whenever I wanted), I went out and bought my own skis, and I spent a lot of time skiing around the college’s cross-country running trails. I can only remember cutting class once in college, and it was to go out XC skiing on new fallen snow on a Friday afternoon.
One of the things I liked so much about cross-country skiing was the mobility I had in places I wouldn’t otherwise go. When you couple that freedom with the peacefulness that’s out there in nature, with sounds muffled by the snow, it was something I enjoyed very much.
Well, I need to tell you about a dopey move I made on skis. The college I attended had its own mini ski slope. It wasn’t anything major, but it was great for teaching people who have never gone downhill skiing before. For those that aren’t familiar, these are two very different types of skiing. Downhill skiing is the stuff you do when you get all bundled up and ride on chair lifts, and cross-country skiing is the stuff that NordicTrack tries to simulate. This ski slope had a green circle (bunny slope) to teach students the basics, a blue square to give students more room and a steeper slope to try out their skills, and a black diamond (more of a blue square plus) with a still steeper slope to let students pick up some greater speed.
One night a buddy and I wanted to go take advantage of the fresh powder that had just fallen. One of the best places to go was near the ski slope. The ski slope was closed and there were no lights in the area, but after being out in the dark for awhile my eyes adjusted, especially with the snow making things brighter.
Now cross-country skiing isn’t exactly the most relaxing sport. You’re doing a lot of work; you’re always either kicking with the skis or pushing with the poles. Since you’re the one providing the propulsion, the sound and cadence of skis and poles moving through the snow are ever present. That constant effort makes you really appreciate the free trip you get when going down hills, and it can seem almost otherworldly to glide down a hill without all the noise.
The powder on this occasion was deep enough that it prevented me from building up a lot of speed. It was just the right depth that I could go sailing straight down the main ski slope without bombing down the hill at a breakneck pace, something you don’t normally get to experience on cross-country skis. Only the front tips of the skis stuck out of the snow, and as they blazed trails through the unspoiled powder, snow the consistency of powdered sugar sprinkled with salt caved back in on the skis and covered them, all while I moved down the hill with no more than a gentle swishing sound. It was a delightfully serene moment I wanted to capture as best as I could.
I had my camera with me (back when people carried cameras but not phones), and even though I knew it wouldn’t do justice to the real thing, I wanted to try. I took out my camera and turned it on, and looked through the viewfinder (remember those?) to get the view of my skis that I wanted. I pressed the button, and a brilliant flash from the camera, which then reflected off a totally white surface, blinded my perfectly adjusted night vision as I continued straight down the hill.
Very quickly I realized there was a decision I had to make. There were trees, machinery, and other stuff at the bottom of the hill that I could crash into and get seriously hurt, but I figured I would probably miss it all. My vision might even come back early enough for me to make out any dangers before I got close to them. I could also start turning across the slope to buy myself some time for my vision to return, but then I would be heading toward some trees for sure. Cross-country skis don’t turn as easily as downhill skis, especially in powder, so that would also be an action that would benefit from being able to see.
Well, I probably could’ve made it to the bottom safely, but the choice seemed to be all risk and no reward, especially considering how soft it would be to fall down in that much powder. I intentionally fell over and waited until I stopped seeing stars. My serene moment was fun while it lasted, but it ended when I slumped down into a frozen white blanket until I could see again.
It’s a pretty unremarkable picture if there’s no context
Whatever the weather’s like where you are, I hope you’re healthy and well, that the first month of the new year has been treating you right, and that in the coming weeks you get some weather you enjoy.
Well, political primary season is here. Despite what it may seem, I don’t really like putting political posts on the blog, but sometimes I feel like it’s important to put information out there that doesn’t get much attention.
Here’s the bottom line up front: Primaries can be more important than general elections, so it’s very important that you study up on the candidates and participate in the process. It almost seems inevitable that we’re headed for a rematch on the Presidential ballot, but that’s only the most prominent part of a very large picture. It’s also important to consider the Representatives, Senators, and local officials you’re choosing to compete later in this cycle. If a district is solid red or solid blue, the November election is more or less a foregone conclusion. The actual decision point, where voter turnout matters, is going to be the primary election that selects which candidate subsequently appears in the general election. If you’re not voting in the primary, you’re really just letting someone else determine who gets into office. This is especially important for those of you that vote Democrat.
Here’s what I mean. The Democratic Party of today in almost no way resembles what it used to be. The values are different. Now it’s nonsensical and extreme. Don’t feel like you need to completely buy into what they’re putting into their national platform, which seems like it’s a contest to see who can be the craziest. Despite what you feel like you’ve been told, it’s perfectly acceptable to be a Democrat that wants secure borders. Even though the media doesn’t want you to think this way, it’s also totally fine to be a Pro-Life Democrat. Forget what the party platform says; I know there are plenty of Democratic voters out there that think “no, boys should not be able to compete in girls’ events by saying they’re girls.” They’ve become the party of sowing division, rather than unity. How is that good for Americans? What happened to this party? The state we’re in is a result of primaries selecting extremists whose views represent only a small percentage of the actual base. You didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left you during its leftward march. It’s up to you to take back your party.
While obviously there are problems on both sides of the aisle, the problems listed above are Democrat-owned. Republicans are trying to solve them but don’t have enough bipartisan support, either at the national level or at the local level (including school boards, in some cases). I’m not saying you have to vote Republican. Don’t worry, even if we find common ground on these few issues, there’s still plenty to distinguish the two parties!
If you’re not voting in the Democratic primary for candidates that are more centrist and less extremist, you’re probably going to find yourself stuck between voting for a Republican and voting for an extremist Democrat in November. Come November, there are a lot of people that vote only on the basis of whether the candidate has a “(D)” or an “(R)” next to their name and don’t know the actual positions of the candidate, and that’s dangerous.
There’s a lot of posturing politicians have to do with regard to taking hard-line stances against the opposing party when they’re in front of the cameras, and I understand that. Members of all parties are supposed to work together, though. They don’t have to be friends, they just have to work together. Right now the political atmosphere is one of tangible hatred, and that’s not going to get us to a better place than we are right now.
Do your homework. Find the primary candidates in your district’s election that align with your values and vote for them. Take back your party, and let’s hold our elected officials accountable.
(If you’ve got an extra minute or two, have a read over the diary entry below. If not, feel free to skip it.)
We’ve all got quirks. They start when we’re young, but they don’t always resolve themselves as we get older (sometimes they become magnified). I think this becomes most evident in long-term relationships.
My wife and I have been married for over 17 years now. We definitely have quirks of our own. Some of them are stereotypical for men and women, others are maybe more specific to us as individuals. By way of example, if I’m looking for something specific in the refrigerator, I can open the door and turn the fridge upside down trying to find it, even looking right at it multiple times, and still not see it. Then my wife comes along and with a “seriously?!” expression, homes in on it in under a second and a half. At the same time, she can have a song in mind, and it sounds just like the real thing inside her head, but when she tries to hum it, no matter what it is, it always comes out sounding like Smooth Criminal.
I’m blessed to have a spouse that’s pretty easy for me to be married to. Even so, we have to deal with differences of opinion, different perspectives, and quirks in general. She’s very patient and polite when I hear a random voice inflection or odd combination of words or music notes that somehow reminds me of a movie scene from my childhood, or some bizarre scenario reminds me of a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, and then I take an unreasonable amount of time to provide the context and summary of that scene or comic, which ends up being pretty unremarkable.
While not true in all cases, by and large, men tend to have a more compartmentalized mental arrangement as they go about their day. If you could peek inside our brains, you might see our conscious focus addressing only one thing at a time. There’s the wakeup routine. Then comes the commute. Then he’s at work, thinking about work stuff. Afterwards he has to run errands on the way home. All of those things tend to stay within their respective zones without much bleedover unless some sort of unusual circumstance affects things. My mind works this way most of the time, and is very helpful when it’s time to put certain things on hold. When I leave work, it’s time to stop thinking about work. When it’s time to sleep, I stop thinking about stuff and I’m usually out within two minutes of closing my eyes.
Women, on the other hand (again, not in every case, but more often than not), have “spaghetti brains.” There are no different sections of the brain that conscious thought is split into. It is literally everything, everywhere, all at the same time. There are individual lines of thought that touch on wildly vacillating topics. One may lead to the next, but they may just as easily have nothing to do with each other. All of the following thoughts can occur within the same minute: “Where did I put that thingy I don’t need anymore?” “I can’t believe Charlotte thought I took her yellow sweater in 7th grade; I should look her up and see if she’s sorry.” “Puppies!” “Don’t forget to pick up snacks for the kids’ soccer team.” “LAUNDRY.” “I’d eat a bug if they let me sleep in tomorrow.” “My bra hates me.” “Lose weight, lose wei…CANDY!” “Children are a gift of joy wrapped in toil.” “Organize 1,087,017 pictures into a slide show.” “The check engine light came on.” It’s a constant barrage of swirling and churning thoughts that would bring me to my knees. My wife and I can go to bed at the same time, but she’ll be awake much longer than I am because a lot of those thoughts need to fizzle out before sleep comes.
You can imagine that the communication styles of these two vastly different brain structures also require some give and take. I can do some multitasking, but I prefer to focus on one thing at a time. If I have an idea about something else while I’m working on my main task, I write down the other thing or email it to myself, so that I can focus harder on it when I have an opportunity. In conversations, I look for transitions to help prompt me that we’re moving on from one topic to a different one. I find that sometimes I’m ill-equipped to handle my wife’s communication needs. She can unleash a conversational stream of consciousness that I can’t possibly follow along with, covering a myriad of topics in a single breath. I struggle to see the connection between the different topics we’re zooming through. If I had a video of myself trying to keep up, I think I’d see myself listening with one eye squinted shut tight and the other bugging out of my head as I try to hang on just a little bit longer. Yet this conversational style is effortless when she’s among her sisters or close friends, while us brothers-in-law/husbands use about a fifth of the words they do (on a good day) and just kind of nod periodically.
These are some fun examples, but they’re meant to help illustrate the following point. We are different, and while sometimes those differences are great, other times those differences drive us nuts. Humans in general are hard to get along with, much less live with. Even so, God put a whole bunch of us here. A lot of the Bible is about how to get along with other people. Marriages are the basics for family life. I understand that not everyone is blessed to have two parents married to one another, but that’s what God intended. Those marriages require work, and they often require grace.
Our culture today says that you should be you-focused. “Do what makes you happy! You deserve it!” In reality, marriages are “we-focused.” You’re a team, and teams need to work together to move forward. You’re not perfect, and your spouse isn’t perfect. That’s why you both need to extend some grace and flexibility. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
About a month ago I mentioned that I’d do something of a “year in review” for this blog. At the time I was discussing the importance of following through with the remaining opportunities the Lord gives you to do His work in this life. During lengthier endeavors I think it’s good now and then to stop and reflect on how far you’ve come, recognizing that God is heavily involved and deserves credit for any success.
A little over five years ago God laid on my heart an absurd task: start a blog that honors Him. I say “absurd” because: 1. I don’t really use social media anymore, which seems like it would be kind of an important element of trying to gain attention for a website; 2. I’m an introvert and don’t relish the idea of trying to connect with nameless, faceless people out there in the electronic ether; 3. I’ve had little or no classroom writing training, so a writing-centric effort doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Despite those misgivings, I decided to obey and let God do whatever He wanted with this whole endeavor.
I can’t claim that I’m some kind of massive Christian influencer. In fact, some of my posts here don’t even mention God or religion. What I can say, though, is that my blog’s reach has extended beyond what I initially expected it to. The intent behind this post is not to say “look at me and how cool I am” or anything like that at all. By sharing this information what I’m really hoping to do is drive home to you the importance of taking small steps of obedience to Christ, because over time they add up and serve as opportunities God can use to work in other peoples’ lives. Even more than that, I’d like to show how a pattern of faithful consistency builds into a cumulative body of something larger. You don’t have to do one huge, mind-blowing thing, it’s probably more beneficial to do a lot of smaller things regularly. To help prove my point, here are a few interesting 2023 stats for the blog and what I take away from them.
During the year the blog hosted 51 new posts, once a week for almost the whole year. While it’s no surprise that IP addresses from the United States score the most number of hits on the blog, the U.S. is far from the only country that had someone stop in for a visit. Besides the U.S., DareGreatlyNow.com had hits from over 50 countries during 2023. Most of those countries accounted for only one, two, or three hits during the whole year. Of course, it’s impossible to claim any of those hits resulted in bringing anyone to Christ, and I have no actual insight into what people do with the posts they read on the blog. Many times God uses conversations, songs, articles, and myriad other things to speak into a person’s life, and I hope God uses my work here to do that very thing in others’ lives. For now I have to trust that God brings the right posts to the right person at the right time, and I have to be okay with knowing that I won’t get filled in on just about any of the details until after Jesus comes back or calls me home.
Of the website’s top 10 visiting countries from 2023, it’s not a shock that most of them are either English-speaking or have large percentages of English-speakers in their populations. Aside from the U.S., the rest of the website’s top 10 patron nations are, in descending order, Canada, China, Ireland, Germany, Norway, India, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.
Broken down by region, I see seven countries/islands from North America and the Caribbean, three from Central and South America, 20 from Europe, 14 from Asia, seven from Africa, two in Australia (Australia and New Zealand), and four in the Middle East.
Few or none of these stats are a result of my own personal work to promote the blog. I simply don’t have the time to work on drawing more attention to it. I write and post stuff, and God guides people to the site to bring them to see whatever He wants them to see. I have no idea what individual concepts He’s guiding them to. Sure I would love more people to come and read, but if I’m honest, that’s the flesh talking. I’d say that all these posts were worth it if one person decided to trust in Christ as a result of reading one of them. I believe that’s true, but I also know that the blog isn’t really geared toward non-believers, it’s geared more toward Christians that aren’t fully stepping out in what they’ve been called to do for the Lord. What truly needs to happen is that the right person sees the right post at the right time. While some posts are very time-sensitive and lose relevance quickly (current events, especially), many posts on the site age pretty well, and hold true from year to year. In fact, of the five most-viewed posts in 2023, three of them were posted prior to the start of 2023. I sit here reviewing some of these stats and get confused about why posts from 2019 or 2020 are doing so well, but just accept that God’s still using some of my older submissions to work in people.
Often you are the determining factor in whether or not a post has reach. Facebook is the top referrer of people to the site, and that’s not me doing that, that’s because of readers like you liking and sharing individual posts, which then sometimes take on a life of their own (that wouldn’t happen without you, so thank you!). After Facebook, search engines are the next-highest referrers bringing people to posts. Then there are a handful of other blogs that link directly to portions of the website, so thanks to other bloggers out there!
There are other insights to glean from last year’s numbers, but it’s time to wrap this up. If I had waited these last five years to follow God’s lead, these kinds of stats would probably still be five years away. Please keep this perspective in mind when God calls you to pursue different “absurd” tasks in your life. I want this post to serve as encouragement to take up the challenge He’s extending to you, and to do it without delay. Your tasks on their own, whatever they are, may not move mountains or get your name in history books, but if God’s placing the assignment in your path, it will add to the collective effort of other saints He’s got working on various projects and could very well lead to you someday hearing the wonderful words “well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” Zechariah 4:10
Here in America most peoples’ normal routines are disrupted this week, and few people are likely to really pay attention to this week’s blog entry. After U.S. readers, Canadians are the top patrons of my blog. Though they probably don’t shut down to the same degree we do in the states, there’s still some of that because they celebrate some of the same big holidays we do. It turns out that’s not the case in the country rounding out the blog’s top three. Today I’d like to focus on my readers in China.
I suspect that most of you in China (or in territories China now controls) that read this blog are reading it for the sake of censoring it from your nation’s citizens. You’re not terribly interested in hearing what I want to say, this website just showed up on one of your lists to continue monitoring. If that’s the case, you’re probably some of the only people in your country that are even able to read what I write. Since I probably can’t reach the country’s average citizen, I’ll focus on you because you, too, need to hear this information.
Although many in our two nations maintain an aggressive posture toward one another, this is a shortsighted view. Regardless of the choices we make, someday all of us will pass from this life. I would like to speak to you briefly about the state of your soul after you die.
Despite what you see on American television and social media, many of us in this country are religious. We believe in God and that He created every human across the entire globe with a natural desire to know and pursue Him. All of us here on the planet come from common ancestors, so people from every country share in that same kinship. Our earliest ancestors, who enjoyed the privilege of walking and speaking with God when He came to visit with them in the cool of the day, made a terrible mistake. Unfortunately our ancestors could not follow even the simple rules God presented. As a result, imperfection entered the world, and all of humanity, everywhere on every continent, sailing on any ocean, and orbiting above the planet, now lives with this imperfection and separation from God.
After centuries of limping along with temporary ways to reconcile humans to God, God provided a more permanent solution. He sent a man to walk the earth and live His entire life without violating any of God’s rules, and this man achieved this goal, dying without any shortcomings. Through this man’s perfect life, we enjoy restored access to God’s presence. You know who this man is, but I’m avoiding use of His name here in the hopes that more people in your country will have access to this post without it being flagged. This door of reconciliation to God is open to you, and it is available regardless of political affiliation. God is bigger than the American Government, and God is bigger than the Chinese Communist Party. He wants people to accept His gift to humanity, and this gift is available to people from every country and all walks, even if those people think they are enemies in this life. Please take some time to consider what happens after you take your last breath. We can have peace with one another by joining in our pursuit of God through His son.
Though our world continues to darken, there is always hope in Christ, and it’s our job to reflect that hope.
This past week some controversial news came out of the Vatican. I’m not Catholic and I’m not familiar with many Catholic practices, but it seems the Pope has made some changes that now allow blessings for homosexual couples under certain conditions.
To be clear, he’s not changing the Catholic Church’s view that marriage is between a man and a woman, but he’s enabled blessings to take place which formerly could not occur. I’m not real familiar with what exactly a blessing means in this case. If a blessing is something you give to everyone that comes inside, like a handshake or a fist bump, it’s probably not such a big deal. If, on the other hand, it represents the Church saying “we sanction your behavior,” then we’ve got serious problems. I suspect it’s not at either of those extremes. The guidance is that such blessings must not have the appearance of endorsing gay marriage. It is, I think, a relatively minor change to those familiar with Catholic practices and protocols, but again, he has changed policy to enable blessings for people who could not have blessings granted previously. Overall, Pope Francis is trying to make the Church appear more welcoming to homosexuals.
He’s in a tough spot. The number of people that claim to be Catholic (or Protestant, for that matter) is in decline, and he’s trying to do something about it. Unfortunately, when church leaders around the world ask “how can we make the people of the world be more open to attending church?,” the only real answer is “make the church look more like the people of the world.” That’s a mistake.
Christ knew He came with an offensive message, and we, the Church, are to purposely stand in stark contrast to the darkness around us, echoing that offensive message. “You’re all sinners, and therefore unworthy of Heaven.” While that will certainly make you feel defensive the first time you hear it, it’s not the whole story. The rest of the story is that Christ made a way for all sinners (regardless of skin color, wealth, gender, age, political persuasion, social status, etc.) to get to Heaven and spend eternity with God. There are two ways to Heaven: 1. Live a perfect, sinless life, or 2. Ride the coattails of someone who already has. Since option 1 isn’t possible for anyone reading this, we’re all depending on option 2. The only person who’s lived a sinless life is Jesus Christ, and He wants you to accept His offer, which He gladly extends to all without prejudice. The audacity of standing in contrast to what the world says is acceptable is exactly what makes Christ stand out.
I see what Pope Francis is trying to do, but I think if sinners don’t feel welcome in church, that’s as much our fault as it is the fault of upper levels of church leadership. Different churches absolutely have different feels to them, but their primary goal should always be twofold: 1. knowing Christ and 2. spreading Christ. If you’re part of a church that isn’t doing either one of those, it’s probably time to start asking some questions.
We should be going out of our way to make sinners feel welcome at church. After all, we’re sinners, and we’re there, aren’t we? Life is messy. People are broken. No church can fix them, but Christ can. If people are seeking truth, do what you can to make them feel welcome at church, which in turn can help them find the truth of Christ, especially this Christmas season.
Merry Christmas to all, and may you know Christ deeper in the coming year!
I have a daughter that looks forward to Christmas all year round. Sometimes we catch her humming Christmas carols in the summer. Once Halloween passes, she starts to crank it up into full gear. You can imagine how full of the Christmas spirit she is right now.
In a lot of Christmas carols, as well as certain Bible verses that are more prominent in December, “Peace” gets a lot of attention this time of year. There are a lot of Christmas carols out there that mention the word “Peace” somehow (sleep in heavenly peace, Peace on earth and mercy mild, his law is love and his gospel is peace). A lot of Bible verses point to it, too (…and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. Isaiah 9:6). It’s as though the very presence of Jesus is somehow synonymous with Peace.
Yet despite all this mention of Peace, there’s a verse in Matthew chapter 10 that seemingly contradicts this concept of Christ bringing peace to the earth:
Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. –Matt 10:34
Now what does that mean? This doesn’t sound the least bit peaceful.
It’s actually a warning from Christ himself that His arrival did not bring peace to the world. In fact, wars have been fought in the name of Jesus. People have been disowned by their families for converting to Christianity. Though it’s not directly related to Christ, the world is currently in the greatest state of unrest in recent memory. Where’s the peace?
In Old Testament times, the fall of man severely damaged the relationship between God and humanity. God’s wrath and pure holiness prevent the relationship from continuing in the same way it previously did. The chasm between the two could only be temporarily bridged by animal sacrifices and priestly intercessors. Now Christ has changed the game and permanently bridged the gap on our behalf. This wasn’t possible before His birth. Christ didn’t come to bring peace; He came to make peace. There’s now an enduring pathway back to a restored relationship with God that could only have come from someone that fulfilled all the requirements of the law.
May you enjoy the Christmas season, knowing that despite all the imperfection present in the world, there’s a way back to a relationship with the Prince of Peace.
