Photo of The Goonies

The Goonies Life

What’s your favorite movie of all time? There’s a lot of great movies that have been made. If you would have asked my grandfather on my dad’s side of the family, he would have told you Gone With the Wind. For others, it might be one of the Marvel movies. Still others may love the Star Wars trilogy… “Luke, I’m your father.” “Nooooooooooo.” For me, there are a few greats. Iron Eagle. Top Gun. Karate Kid. But none of those compare to The Goonies.

The Goonies. My all-time favorite movie. It’s all about adventure. It’s hilarious. I mean who doesn’t love Chunk and Mikey and Data and Sloth. Not to mention the Truffle Shuffle. But the main reason this movie is my all-time favorite? The secret passages and treasure hunting. I would have given anything at age nine to go on an adventure like that to look for a giant pirate ship and One-Eyed Willy’s treasure. Coming up from under the water and looking to see One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship would have been amazing. Finding a treasure like that would have been life changing.

There’s another moment regarding another found treasure that must have been life changing as well. Only this treasure was found hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth. Check it out:

“While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord that had been given through Moses. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 34:14-15

Can you imagine the awe and utter excitement Hilkiah would have had!? This Book of the Law, God’s testimony through Moses, was lost for an amount of time we really don’t know. The priest, at the very least though, would have heard of stories past down through his Jewish culture about Moses and this Book of the Law. And for Hilkiah to accidentally find it would have been huge… Like finding One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship and treasure.

Now, fast forward almost 200 years later during the time of Nehemiah. Now Nehemiah had made his way to a top position in the great Persian Empire, one of the greatest empires in the history of the world. And he asked the king if he could go back to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. And the king of the Persian empire gave him permission to go and rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. Now, after the wall was completed and after the Israelites had settled into their towns, all the people assembled in the square. And Ezra the priest, brought the Law before the people. He stood on a high, wooden platform and read it from daybreak until noon. And as the people listened to Ezra reading the Book of the Law, they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. And then the Bible tells us:

“Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.” Nehemiah 8:9

Can you imagine, a large quiet crowd watching as Ezra steps up on a newly built platform in the town square. As Ezra opens the Book, the crowd stands up. They praise God with hands lifted high. Then, they bow down, faces in the dirt. Ezra begins to read and his helpers walk through the crowd to explain what God’s Word says. The people, listen giving their full attention to Ezra. And then, a sound begins to rise. It starts with one person. Then another. And as the people continue to listen to God’s Word being spoken, this sound continues to spread throughout the town square. It’s the sound of weeping.

The Book of the Law that Ezra was reading was super old… It was ancient. But that day marked something new. The Jewish people were becoming something that they had never been before… A people of the Book. They were, in essence, being rebuilt with material as strong as the stones used in their newly built city wall. You see, throughout their history, they had drawn their strength from two sources besides the Law. One was the temple, where they worshipped God. It was a beautiful building, magnificent even, in which they met God. The other was their leadership. First Moses, then Joshua, then the judges, and finally David and the other kings.

But these things couldn’t save them from disgrace. The temple? Even though it was a beautiful, crazy magnificent building, it had become a meaningless symbol to most Jewish people. They had even defiled it by putting idols in the temple. They disregarded it so badly that God had finally allowed the Babylonians to burn the temple down. Now, after the Jewish people returned from exile, they rebuilt the temple. But it was never again seen as a substitute for real devotion to God. What about their leaders? Not one king, over hundreds of years, had come close to matching God’s ideal or standard. Most kings, in fact, were people who didn’t worship or follow the God of Israel and were said to have “done evil in they eyes of the Lord.” And when the Israelites returned from exile, they had no king of their own. They instead were under the rule of a Persian king who wanted to keep all the power to himself.

So, with no king of their own and a temple where the God of Israel wouldn’t dwell, they turned to another source of power… The Word of God. This gathering that we see here is nothing like the jewels in the crowns of kings or the gold within the temple. It’s instead replaced by a single man standing on a simple wooden platform, reading words written on a simple scroll. But the words Ezra reads show their power in the way they affect the very people who hear them… Moved to praise God, to weep over their sins, to change their behavior and to make renewed promises to God. From this time on, the Jewish people were known as the people of the Book.

And I can’t help but draw similarities between our world, country, state, city and my life. As I look out from my small window at home, how many times do I give my strength over to our political leaders. For some of us, when Trump was in office, we looked to a new president for hope. Now that we have a new president, for some of us we can’t wait for the next election for our hope. For others, we draw our strength and hope based on our own abilities. If we’re honest, real power and strength comes from our work, where we live and our political views. And the Word of God becomes an after-thought, tucked away in the corner of our temples or forgotten about like One-eyed Willy’s pirate ship and treasure.

We focus on the pretty, shiny things of this world. The news makers. But the real earth shaking, life changing comes from what looks like an ordinary book, but in reality is an Extraordinary Word from God Himself. Just like the temple, the kings, and Moses, the worldly things we draw our energy and strength from can go away or be destroyed. In the end they can’t ultimately change us. Only the Word of God never changes. Only the Word of God is full of life. And when we become people of the Book, we become a people who find true joy and rejoicing, hope and direction for our lives (Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to walk by, and a light to illumine my path.).

You see, after the Israelites weeped over their sin and began a new devotion to God, Nehemiah told all the people, “This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

And just as the Israelites learned, when we become people of the Book, we learn too that the joy of the Lord is our strength. We find true joy, hope, direction for our lives and can rejoice fully in the love of Jesus. So, go now, and be people of the Book.


hopeful

The Turnaround

The Chicago Cubs. I’ve been a fan of this team for as long as I can remember… Sitting on my dad’s lap watching Ryne Sandburg, Shawon Dunston, Andre Dawson and the Penguin, Ron Cey. And throughout the years, I’ve passed this love of the Cubs on to Jami and our kids. Each year, minus the “crazy year,” we try to get to at least one game at Wrigley Field.

So in 2018 we bought tickets to watch the Cubs take on the Washington Nationals. At that time, Bryce Harper played for the Nationals. So I purposely bought tickets in the Bleacher section of Wrigley Field right behind where he was playing in right field. We got to the game super early so we could be one of the first in line to grab our seats. As soon as the gates open, myself and Carter ran up the concourse ramp to secure front row seats against the right field wall. All throughout the game we heckled Bryce Harper and cheered on the Cubs. Unfortunately for us and the Cubs, they got behind early. And by the bottom of the ninth, they were down three to nothing.

As the Cubs took their last at bats in the ninth, the Nationals quickly got the first out. It was looking really bad at this point. Hope was fading. Then, the Nationals recorded the second out. By this time, even the people who turned their hats inside out to be rally caps were losing hope. The moans and groans in Wrigley Field were audible. Hope was fading fast. Then, strike one. Strike two. Hope was all but lost. The batter took a couple of balls… Then, the batter hit a slow rolling ground ball that the second basemen couldn’t pick up in time. The next batter, Contreras, was hit by a pitch. Hope was extended a tiny bit. The next batter worked the count to three balls and two strikes. And after a couple of foul balls was able to get on base by drawing a walk.

The bases are now loaded. And David Bote, a Cub who was fairly unknown at the time came up to bat. A home run now would win the game. The pitcher threw the pitch… Ball one. The next pitch was a strike. Then ball two. The third pitch was for strike two. And hope once again audibly faded in Wrigley Field. Bote fouled off a couple more pitches. Then took a pitch for ball three. How on earth could he take a pitch in a time like this. You could see and hear and feel the prayers of the Cubs faithful in Wrigley Field. And then… It happened… Something so rare that it’s only occurred 15 times in Major League History… Bote hit a walk-off grand slam with two outs to give the Cubs the win over the Nationals. Cubs fans in Wrigley Field that night went from a feeling of total hopelessness to joy and victory.

Hopelessness.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been there… If you’ve ever had the feeling of being hopeless. Maybe you’re at the start of this new school year and you have this feeling of dread and hopelessness about trying to make new friends. Maybe you look out into the world and see all of the chaos and hurt and despair and it overwhelms you to the point of feeling hopeless about humanity. Maybe you look at your relationship with your husband or wife or your kids… and you feel the arguments and hurt deep inside and you don’t know how to make things better… To get to a better place.

Maybe you look at your life and you… Just… Feel… Hopeless.

I get it. But more importantly… God gets it too. And He sees you in your hopelessness and has created a way to take you from hopeless to hopeful.

Check this out, it’s found in 1 Chronicles chapter 4, verses 9 and 10:

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

We don’t know a bunch about Jabez. This is the only time we read about him in the Bible… But these two small verses tell us two important things. First, the Bible tells us that he’s more honorable than his brothers. We don’t know how much more. We don’t know if his brothers were horrible people or not. It just says that he’s more honorable. And that’s a really important statement considering the situation we find Jabez in. You see, his mother gave him the name Jabez because she gave birth to him in pain. The name Jabez, literally means pain and/or sorrow. In the Jewish culture it’s common to give symbolic names to a child. Additionally in the Jewish culture, the name of a person could also foretell his future. The mother of Jabez gave a vision of what her son’s life would be like… A life filled with sorrow and pain.

I wonder what Jabez was thinking and feeling. He didn’t choose to be in this position. He didn’t choose his name. But Jabez did choose whom he called out to. And as a result, Jabez went from hopeless to hopeful. But how, how did this happen? How did Jabez go from hopeless to hopeful?

First, Jabez called out to the God of Israel, the one true God and asked that God would bless him. He wasn’t shy about it. Jabez recognized that there is only one God and that He is the source of all blessing. And this God is the Father of Jesus Christ, who came down to earth and sacrificed His life for each one of us. If we go to God in prayer, like Jabez did, then we can expect the same blessing that Jabez expected. A blessing that is greater than any material blessing. It’s also a spiritual blessing like good relationships, a compassionate heart, a gentle spirit, good relationships among other things. It’s up to us to go to God and ask for His blessing on our lives rather than chasing the broken promises and blessings that the world tries to offer us.

Secondly, Jabez asked God to enlarge his territory. Now some people think that Jabez was asking for more land… That he was asking God to enlarge his physical territory. But this isn’t what he was asking. In reality, he was asking God to enlarge the territory of his heart. He wanted his spiritual territory to be enlarged. He wanted to reach others for the sake of God’s kingdom. He wanted to bring and claim generations of people for the God of Israel. What do you need to claim or reclaim today in your life? What part of your life do you need to take back from Satan to be able to reach others with God’s message through you? We need to go to God to reclaim those areas in our lives.

Third, Jabez asked for God’s hand to be with him. Jabez recognized that he needed God’s help to lead him in the right direction. He knew that God could and would lead him on the right path in life and keep on that path that is good. Jabez also knew that blessings can only be good things when they are from God’s hand. He also knew that blessings can become curses if they aren’t from God Himself. And the same is true for our lives as well. We should pray that God’s hand would lead us through any and all of life’s circumstances and trials.

And fourth, Jabez asked that God would keep him from harm so that he would be free from pain. Jabez literally means, pain and sorrow. When Jabez is praying, he is speaking against the symbolic nature of his name and the potential vision of what his life could be like. He’s also letting go of the shame that comes along with his name as well. When Jabez went to God in prayer, he went vulnerable, ready for God to turn his weakness and shame around into God’s glory. Does this mean that we will ultimately be free from pain? No. But it does mean that we have a God who will walk with us through our pain and use it for God’s glory and the redemption of humankind through Jesus Christ.

Hopeless to Hopeful.

I don’t know where you’re at right now. I don’t know what side you find yourself on… Hopeless or Hopeful. What I do know is this, praying to the living God is a powerful weapon to help us move from being hopeless to being hopeful. The only reason we see Jabez in the Bible is because he prayed. But Jabez wasn’t using his prayer as a formula to get something from God. He was calling upon God for help… To help him to move from being hopeless to being hopeful. He knew that personal, everyday needs can be brought before God in prayer. And we can do the same thing today, even right now so that God can move us from hopeless to hopeful.


silhouette of a man graphic

Who Are You

Growing up, I had a few alter egos. For instance, there were times when I would ride my bike and pretend like I was Ponch from the old tv show CHiPs. I’d grab one of my toy guns and holsters, my remote control police car and ride around my block looking for crime. After Ponch, came my alter ego of… Zorro. I actually made a mask out of black fabric to wear, put on a black cape, wore my black sweats and put on a sword from one of my old Halloween costumes. Zorro had a cave to get ready in and so did I… my garage. When it was time to battle evil, I’d walk out through my back yard to the garage, change my outfit, then crawl out through the doggy door in the wall. Once evil was conquered, and I did conquer evil, I’d crawl back through the doggy door, change into my regular clothes, hide “Zorro’s” outfit, then go back to my “regular life.” The last alter ego is actually one that I don’t usually talk about. For years I tried to keep it hidden. The reason? Two words… Wonder Woman. That’s right. You can laugh. But I would pretend that I was Wonder Woman. On one night in particular, I got into character and stood on the couch to do battle. The villain? My brother Tim. I jumped off the couch, grabbed him by the wrist and arm, spun him around and around… and let go. He went flying head first into the wooden coffee table. As soon as I let go I knew there were problems. And when he turned his head around as he was crying all we could see was blood running down his face from just above his eye. My mom and dad scooped him up and headed to the ER where he received a number of stitches. Needless to say, that was the LAST time I pretended to be Wonder Woman.

Alter egos.

These were just a few of the other identities I took on as a little kid. When I put on that mask and cape, I WAS Zorro. When I rode my bike with my toy gun on my side, I WAS Ponch. When I put on those pretend bracelets and threw my brother head first into a coffee table, I WAS Wonder Woman. Over time, as I grew up, these alter egos… Identities, went away. They disappeared. But I noticed that as I got older, they were replaced by other identities that I thought made me who I was… Other identities to give me and my life meaning. Instead of having fun in my pretend identities in my younger years, as I got older it became a serious search for who I saw myself to be. So, when I was a teenager, my identity was found in the idea that I was a baseball player… Not only a baseball player, but a baseball player that had a girlfriend. As I got older into adulthood, I made my identity about what I did for work… How much money I made… The title on my desk.

Essentially, my identity was found in what I was doing. And my value and self worth... How I viewed myself and what I thought about myself as a person was linked to that identity found in what I was doing. So, when I was playing baseball really well, I had a high self-esteem. When I had a girlfriend, my self worth was greater. When my coach or my boss thought I did a great job, I thought my value as a person was greater. “Doing” things well equaled a greater self worth. The problem? I didn’t always play baseball well. I didn’t always have a girlfriend. My boss didn’t always think I did a great job. And my job title wasn’t always what I wanted it to be. And when my identity was found in what I was doing, when I wasn’t doing as great of a job as I thought I should have done, my self worth and self esteem lowered. If I stumbled or dropped a ball, I would call myself clumsy. If I would forget to do something at work or get a bad grade in school, I would call myself stupid. Or if I didn’t have a girlfriend, I would call myself pathetic.

Those are the thoughts I would have about myself. But those aren’t the thoughts that God has about each one of us. Only Satan, the enemy of our lives, would try to make us think that our worth comes from our work. Only the enemy wants us to find our identity in what we do, because he knows that when the lights go dark and the "success" is gone, so is our value. But God has a different thought regarding our identity… One that is found in "being" rather than "doing"… One that doesn’t change because of anything that we do or don’t do. You see, our true identity is based on how God sees us.

And how does God see us? According to the Bible, God sees us as someone who is…

Called

Chosen

Citizen of Heaven

Conqueror

First, God sees you… He sees me as someone who is “Called.” Check this out:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

You and I were born into sin. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, sin has been an issue on earth. And each one of us was born into that life. And sin produces a darkness that we can’t get out of by ourselves. We can try to be good enough. We can try to do enough to make things right with God, to make us feel better. But there’s nothing we can do by ourselves that will provide a means of escape from the darkness of sin. Only God can call us out of the darkness we find ourselves in. Only God can call us out of the darkness of sin and despair. Only God can call us out of the darkness of an identity based on doing... Based on what we do. And He calls us through His Son Jesus. And God is calling you right now, even as you read this. God is calling out to you right now.

Secondly, God sees you and has chosen you. The very first part of 1 Peter 2:9 tells us that “we are a chosen people…” Ephesians chapter one verses three through fourteen says,

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will -  to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:3-14

God has chosen you. He has chosen me for Himself. He has adopted us as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ. He has chosen us to be children of the living God. Jami and I were able to have a couple of friends pray over us a couple of weeks ago. We’ve had people pray with us before. So going into this we were expecting what we thought was going to be a time of prayer we’ve previously experienced. But it wasn’t. It was something we’ve never experienced before. It was a true gift from God. You see, one friend led the time of prayer. And as he listened to what God was saying, he prayed that out loud. So at one point, he mentioned that God had given new names to people. In the Bible, this isn’t anything new. He gave Saul a new name of Paul. He gave Abram a new name of Abraham. He called Peter, “the rock on which I will build My church.” And then, this friend asked if God was giving me a new name. It wasn’t something I was expecting. But it was something that marked me. And as I thought about it more and more, "chosen" stuck out to me. God chose me. In all of my failures and flaws and ugliness, God still chose me. He chose me as His adopted son through Jesus. But He also chose me to influence and make a difference in the lives of students and families. And God has chosen you as well.

Third, God sees you and I as citizens of Heaven. Philippians chapter three, verse twenty says,

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ… Philippians 3:20

You see, when you are Called… When you are Chosen… When you are adopted sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, our citizenship is found in Heaven. No longer do we set our minds on things of this earth… no longer do we set our minds on our selfish ambitions… No. Those things aren’t important any longer. Our hope and our longing is for God’s glory and praise to be lifted in our hearts and our minds. Our identity is no longer based on doing, it’s found and based in our being… being a citizen of Heaven.

And finally, God sees us as Conquerors. But not just any conquerors. No. But conquerors through Jesus Christ who loves us. Romans chapter eight, verse thirty-seven says,

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:37

You see, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ. There’s nothing we can say. There’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing that then enemy can do. Nothing can separate God’s love from us. It’s through God’s love and His strength that we can face any hardship… Any trial… Any let down… Any hurt… And be conquerors because of the love of God and the strength of Jesus Christ in us. When we call on Jesus and accept Him as our Savior, there is nothing that can separate God's love and acceptance from our lives.

God's acceptance of us, and therefore our identity, is not defined by our actions. So we will never be a "failure" when our performance doesn't match our expectations. When we reassign the source of our value and worth to its rightful place, in Jesus Christ, we will be free from the fear of failure or the opinions of others. We will be free from the labels we place on ourselves. And free from the shifting thoughts of our self-worth.

You see, God sees us as…

People who are Called

People who are Chosen

People who are Citizens of Heaven

And people who are Conquerors

The only thing that matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks about us. And the identity we find in Him will never change.


Jeep Hoist

It's Ok To Ask For Help

So, the other day I bought an electric hoist to make taking the hard top off the Jeep a ton easier. I found the one I wanted and then Morgan and I went and bought it. I was excited to have this hoist. I mean, we’ve had this Jeep since last October and we hadn’t taken the entire top off. And now, with this hoist, we can make our Jeep completely top free. After bringing it home, it was time to install it. I had watched a lot of YouTube videos on how to put this thing on my ceiling. Jami and I had gone to a few stores in search of a bar that would help reinforce the hoist and make it completely safe to use without worrying about the weight of the Jeep top pulling down our garage ceiling. Once we got the metal bar and screws home, it was game on.

I was a little nervous about being able to safely install this hoist. However, my friend Davis, a fellow Jeep owner, encouraged me and had faith that I could put this hoist up (shout out to Davis!). After reading Davis’ words, I decided to try and pull it off by myself. I prepared all the materials in the garage. Pre-drilled the holes in the ceiling studs that would hold the anchor screws. Grabbed the metal bar. Attached one anchor screw. Attached the second anchor screw. Then the third. And then screwed in the fourth anchor screw. This thing is definitely not coming down. I even placed two spacers on either side of this anchor bar… why? Well, honestly I don’t know why. I saw it done on one of the YouTube videos and thought it made sense.

Now it came time to hang the electronic hoist. I adjusted the ladder to where I needed it to be. Then I grabbed the hoist. I feel like I need to say one thing about this hoist first. You see, as I was walking out of the store with this thing, I commented to Morgan on how heavy it felt in the box. Fast forward to the Sunday after buying this hoist, I picked up the hoist out of the box. Now, I had just had my hands above my head for a bit drilling holes, holding the metal bar and trying to line up the holes in the bar to the holes in the ceiling, then screwing in the four anchor screws. In other words, my arms and shoulders were already tired. So when I pulled the hoist out of the box, it definitely felt heavier than when I bought it. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I grabbed the hoist, made my way over to the ladder, then made my way up the ladder towards the ceiling. I raised the hoist up to where it needed to be hung and then realized quickly that I needed to bring it back down to the ladder. I thought, ok, maybe I just need to rest for a minute. So I brought the hoist back down and laid it back on the chair.

After resting for a few minutes, I tried again. I grabbed the hoist and made my way back up the ladder. Raised the hoist above my head, tried to put one of the bolts in above my head and above the hoist… nope… couldn’t do it. This time I thought maybe it was the position of the ladder. Ya, it had to be that. So I repositioned the ladder and climbed back up. Lifted the hoist above my head and tried to screw it in again. Still couldn’t do it. So I climbed back down. Climbed back up. Then climbed back down. I did this probably ten times almost falling off the ladder twice because the weight of the hoist had shifted in my hand and shoulder. I even asked Jami to help screw in the bolts to the top of the hoist. But because I couldn’t hold it up for very long, and because we couldn’t see the top of the hoist to screw in the bolts, we couldn’t get it done. And then she said ten words. Words I didn’t want to hear. The words?

"Maybe you should ask one of your friends for help.”

What!? I don’t need help, I can do this myself I told Jami. Plus, I didn’t want to bother one of my friends. I was sure they were busy and had other things to do. So back up the ladder I went. And then, back down as quickly as I went up. Five more times, again nearly falling a couple of those times. And then it finally hit me. Maybe I really can’t do this by myself. Maybe I should ask one of my friends for help. So I did what very few guys like to do… I pulled out my phone and sent a text to one of my friends asking for his help. I felt horrible about it. I kinda felt like a failure because I couldn’t do it myself. And I felt like I was putting my friend out, like I was an inconvenience to him. But I sent him a text asking for help anyway. He came over a little later that day, and we installed the hoist in just a few minutes. You see, I just wasn’t meant to put up that hoist by myself. But together, my friend and I put it up together.

After we had the hoist installed and took the Jeep top off, I thought, man life is just like this experience. We run through life, all of its problems and circumstances and we think that we’ve got this. We don’t need help. But life was never intended to be lived alone. It’s always been designed to be lived in community together. Check this out:

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. - Genesis 2:18-22

From the beginning of time, God knew that it wasn’t good for any of us to be alone. He knew that each one of us needs community, we need togetherness, we need people in our lives. Life was never meant or designed to be lived by ourselves in isolation. God’s very design was for us to live in community. But loneliness is a real problem that many of us have felt at one time or another. In a recent study, 36% of all Americans — including 61% of young adults and 51% of mothers with young children—feel “serious loneliness.” And it’s only been made worse with COVID. And if that’s you right now, I want you to know two things.

First, Jesus loves you right where you are. Right in your loneliness. Right in your suffering. Jesus loves you. And when you call on the name of Jesus and ask Him to come in your life and save you, He doesn’t leave you alone. He provides you with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit to comfort you. John 14:26 says,

"But when the Father sends the Comforter instead of me*—and by the Comforter I mean the Holy Spirit—he will teach you much, as well as remind you of everything I myself have told you.’ - John 14:26

Second, the church is here for you. It’s filled with people who love Jesus who can provide you with the community you need.

What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

No matter what age you are, the church is a place where you can find hope and healing and community.

Lastly, I think most of us has struggled with the feeling of being alone. Or feeling like we’re a bother if we ask for help with something we’re going through… The struggles we face. The Hardships we have. We just don’t want to bother someone with what we’re going through. Or we think we can get through it ourselves. Whatever we’re going through, we can handle and solve it ourselves. But God has placed people in our lives for a reason. Check this out:

On one of the days while Jesus was teaching, some proud religious law-keepers and teachers of the Law were sitting by Him. They had come from every town in the countries of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was there to heal them. Some men took a man who was not able to move his body to Jesus. He was carried on a bed. They looked for a way to take the man into the house where Jesus was. But they could not find a way to take him in because of so many people. They made a hole in the roof over where Jesus stood. Then they let the bed with the sick man on it down before Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” - Luke 5:17-39

What kind of friends do you have in your life? What will your friends do for you? How far are they willing to go to help you? Better yet, what kind of friend are you? What will you do for your friends? How far are you willing to go to help your friends? You see, this dude couldn’t walk. He was paralyzed and couldn’t move his body. Everyone knew that Jesus was in town. Everyone knew that Jesus had the power to heal people. And this paralytic and his friends heard that Jesus was in town too. What did they do? They carried this guy on a bed from their town to see Jesus. The Bible doesn’t tell us how far they came. They don’t tell us how heavy this guy was. How many times they had to stop to put him down to rest. But we do know that this was only half of what they did. They other half? Ya, they tore apart the roof, raised up the guy on the bed to the roof then lowered the guy down to where Jesus stood. These friends did all they could for their friend. They carried him on the road from their town. I wonder what they talked about. They tore up a roof. They knew Jesus was inside and that He could heal their friend. They did everything they could just so their friend could be brought before Jesus. They did all they could to help bring him healing.

You see, life is meant to be lived in community. In a togetherness where we all help to bring healing to each other through Jesus. We’re all struggling with something, it’s up to each of us to be roof-top friends to each other, being willing to be the kind of friend who will do all we can to bring healing in the name of Jesus.


Guy walking in tunnel

Held in Captivity

Looking back on my childhood as I was growing up, I can name about three things that I loved doing. One, playing baseball… Whether it was at South Side Little League, in my back yard, or simply playing Hot Box, it seemed that I had a glove on my hand nearly every day it was nice out. Two, playing Ghost in the Graveyard… We couldn’t wait for the sun to go down in the summer time so we could start this game. And when our parents called us in for the night, we’d always ask for more time to play and run back outside. (Do kids even play outside at night anymore?) And three, Guns. Ya. As kids, we’d play guns… Or war, or cops and robbers, or whatever you want to call it.

Growing up, our neighborhood had plenty of kids to make two teams. We’d all bring our guns outside day and night. Most of us had multiple guns that we brought… one, because why not? And two, there would always be a kid who wasn’t from our block that was staying the night at a friend’s house who didn’t have a gun. So one of us would loan one out to him.

After dividing the teams up, each team would go separate ways and find a base to defend. And then… the game would begin. The goal? Well, capture as many “enemies” as you could. Locate the enemy base. And occupy the enemy base for the win. We loved playing that game. It seems like we played that game nearly every other night of the summer.

And us Ruth boys… We took it serious. Crawling through bushes. Hiding under houses. Hiding up in trees. Just so we could jump out, shoot the enemy and take him captive. Once we had our prisoner of war, we’d walk him back to our base while the other teammate would provide us with cover. Now, our base was almost always our garage. We made it our base for a couple of reasons. One, we had windows on three sides. Meaning, we could see our enemies coming and shoot them before they reached our base. And secondly, it provided a great opportunity for interrogation.

You see, a garage has a what? Yup, a garage door. Now, what do you put prisoners in as you hold them captive? Yup, handcuffs. And you can bet that the Ruth boys had handcuffs. And do you remember what the most important goal was of playing this game? Yup, finding out where the enemy base was so we could go conquer it. Clearly our enemy captive wasn’t going to give up where his base was easily. So we developed an effective means of interrogation that included handcuffs and the garage door.

It was quite simple, brilliant, effective… and well, a little cruel as well. To get our captive to talk, we’d place him in handcuffs, hook the handcuffs to the garage door, then slowly lift the garage door up. And as we slowly lifted the garage door up by our hands (we didn’t have an electronic garage door opener), the captives hands would raise up along with it causing tension and pressure on his wrists. The result? Oh ya, he talked pretty quickly and would reveal where his base was.

We were masters at holding our enemies captive and getting them to talk. Once we placed them in handcuffs, we could essentially get them to do whatever we wanted, because they knew what was coming next. They didn’t want to tell us what we wanted to hear, but in reality, they had no choice because they were captives of the Ruth boys. If we did any of this now, we'd probably be arrested and prosecuted... man I'm glad we grew up in era we did!

Captivity.

It’s an interesting word. The Bible has some things to say about it. Check this out:

Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to Me in the desert.’” Exodus 5:1

You see, the Israelites were held captive in Egypt for about 400 years. During this time, the Egyptians held the Israelites as slaves and worked them extremely harshly and made their lives bitter with hard, cruel works of service. As a result of this captivity, the Israelites were broken in spirit. And as the Israelites cried out to God, He hears their cry for help and provides a way to deliver them out of their captivity.

Fast forward now to Bethany, an area just outside of Jerusalem. A man named Lazarus became sick. Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother was seriously ill. And while Jesus was making His way back to where Lazarus was, Lazarus died. Now, when Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, Larazus had already been in the tomb for four days. And when Jesus arrived at the tomb, he told the people to take away the stone. But Martha was worried that there would be a bad odor because of the decaying of the dead body after four days.

But Jesus reminded Martha that if she believed that she would se the glory of God. And after telling Martha that… He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Just like Moses told pharaoh to “let my people go,” Jesus told death to let Lazarus go. Just as God called the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, Jesus called Lazarus out of captivity of the grave. And God is still calling people out of captivity today through Jesus Christ.

Jesus has told us with His own words that everyone who sins, is a slave to sin. But Jesus came so that we would be set free from the captivity of sin. But how many times do we forget about that captivity if for just a brief moment because we either get some enjoyment out of it, are comfortable in it or are afraid of living without it.

I don’t know what you’re struggling with right now. I don’t know what’s holding you captive. Maybe you’ve asked God to help you with your anger. Or maybe you’ve asked God to help you give up a relationship you’re in. Maybe you’ve asked God to help you be more patient. Or you might struggle with pride, or greed, or envy, or lust, or gluttony. You know these things are wrong, but it’s hard. It’s hard because you enjoy it. Or you’re comfortable in it. Or You’re afraid of living without it. But one thing you do know, is that you know you are held captive to it. Captive to that thing or feeling or emotion or person that you can’t let go of… and you know… you know there’s a better life on the other side of sin. And when you go back to your captivity, you feel alone and depressed and scared… that’s what captivity does to us. You want so desperately to be freed from this captivity, but it’s just not happening.

Can I suggest one possible reason? Maybe, just maybe you need to believe that God is good before you can be set free. Maybe, right now, the reason that you haven’t been set free is because you don’t believe that God is good. Satan knows that as long as we keep believing that God is not good, we will stay stuck, unable to trust and believe God and, as a result, unable to be set free. But just like God didn’t give up on the Israelites until they were free, he won’t give up on us. Just like Jesus called Lazarus to come out of the captivity of death, Jesus is calling each one of us out of the captivity of sin.

Captivity.

If you are held captive today, there are three things that you can do to start your journey to freedom…

  1. Believe God really is good.
  2. Trust in Jesus as your Savior
  3. Surround yourself with friends who will take off your grave clothes. That was the last thing that Jesus said after He called Lazarus. He knew, that the friends in our lives have the ability to help us be free from captivity.

It’s my prayer that you will take steps today, even now, out of the captivity you find yourself in.