As I step into 2020, I do so with much more than an ambition to add a bunch of to do’s or habits to my schedule. I do it with my growth and that of my families in mind, trusting that the most important factor in our journey is the power of God and our faith in the fact that we are His creations, not the weak bodies He rescued us from.

My biggest goal is to read daily through His Word, using a tool I found many years ago. I wish more Bibles existed in this kind of format: a reading for the day with a challenging insight alongside it. I own it in print and electronically, so there’s no reason that I would ever not be able to complete my reading. If you don’t already have a great Bible reading plan for 2020, I recommend this one or a look through the amazing plans available in the Bible app!

As another goal, and the reason this post is appearing here after a very long slow period, is that I hope to write daily in some form or fashion this year. So expect more updates from my blog, if you choose to follow along!

My approach to leadership too:
Joshua did not really need to establish himself as Israel’s next leader. The people knew he was the one, God clearly directed them to follow him. Sometimes I really want to push myself to the front as a willing and able leader, but I just feel too much like David’s son, Absalom, who tried to take his father’s kingdom by force. I’d rather be Solomon, thrust into the place of leadership when the time came.

Burning the chariots:
The biggest and only military failure of Israel seems to be their refusal to keep the military advantages they gained when they conquered other armies. They were quick to dispose of chariots in many cases–expensive, highly advantageous, and hard to rebuilt war machines. God directed them to destroy them, so it’s not really failure at all, but it seems quite amazing to me that He had them destroy their advantages, knowing that there were more battles to be fought and a constant defense to be kept up in the land. As always, we depend on God for our victory, and in some cases, like Israel, fighting our battle or preparing for the next is often done in ways that are foolish to the world, but keep us dependent on the one who ultimately brings the victory.

The War is over, but the battles are just beginning:
The book of Joshua is quick to define the campaign for the land that swiftly destroyed the kingdoms of Canaan, concluding that the land then had “rest from war,” but this series of battles left tons of land to be won from the towns and small lands that lay between all those major players. The people were to take up the smaller battles on their own, God’s victory was assured. Reminds me of the Christian life in many respects: Christ as won – the grave is defeated and our lives are new in Him, but what remains is still patches of enemy territory in our own sinful lives, our misled culture, and in our battle to spread the gospel. Just because the victory will come, does not mean that there’s not a lot of fighting and a hard road ahead.

Lately I have made some foolish decisions–not decisions I knew were dumb, but uninformed decisions that I thought were adequate at the time. Unfortunately my decisions put others in danger. It cost one of my animals their life, a devastating blow. By God’s grace the other dangers only created a little property damage. I’m a big learner and try to study everything I am into, but sometimes a crucial piece of info gets missed. In the most recent events, I’ve made amends and even strengthened some relationships in the process, but it’s hard to deal with situations like these because you can “what if” yourself to death. I’ve spent hours wondering if I am to blame for some of it…was it really me, or my fault? Were there extreme circumstances that I would not have been able to predict? And in the process of trying to resolve the issues, asking: What if they send me to jail? What if the offended party tries to retaliate? What if they don’t believe that I really didn’t mean to harm anyone?

When your heart is in the right place, but you can’t communicate it, that’s a hard set of circumstances. Some people live do this because they don’t try to learn how to express love well. But I try really hard to love with wisdom and all my mind as well as my heart…and still sometimes I fail.

I can only trust that God will make up the difference, happily filling in the gaps when my best efforts fail. And I must give 100 percent to continuing to get more and more wisdom so that I avoid as many mistakes as possible.

You can’t escape the news related to planned parenthood. It’s plastered all over the web on news sites and social media, it comes up in every news discussion on the radio and the television. And I won’t reiterate the videos or comment on the emotional and political impact they are making here, because what you and I really need, it to see the call to action that we desperately need to follow if the problem is truly going to be fixed.

When all is said and done, Planned Parenthood is going to lose a lot of support and funding. It will forever have trust issues based on the publicity it has received. You don’t need to express your outrage or share any more news articles about it, in fact, you REALLY need to stop sharing your feelings about all of it. At this point, you are not tearing down Planned Parenthood as much as you are tearing down your own reputation and opportunity to connect with other people. Too much sharing and people will come to see you at hateful and judgmental. They will distance themselves from you out of fear that you’d attack them with the same ferocity as the posts you share contain if you really knew them. And chances are, they are hurting and need someone who can be understanding. In fact, chances are quite a few of the people you know have some shame related to how they got pregnant or an abortion they had…and you are killing your opportunity to be the one that leads them through it to healing.

The truth is, the church has been and should always be the BEST place for people to run for answers and support in a moment of crisis. And if we had been or provided a better place for millions of mothers over the past few decades, Planned Parenthood would not have had as much of an audience. The popularity of their services is partly due to our lack of popularity in serving those same hurting people. Now that they have lost funding and trust, the best thing YOU and the other faithful believers can do it put more money, resources, and volunteer hours behind good pregnancy ministries and services. The church has the opportunity to step up and fill a gap—saving BOTH ADULT and children’s lives in the process. I pray hard that we will step up to the challenge. I pray that you will care more about saving lives: physical and emotional lives, more than you care about seeing the demise of Planned Parenthood.

Lastly, the news and attacks of Planned Parenthood have caused pregnancy and abortion to be on everyone’s mind. If someone has lost a child or aborted one, you can bet that they have had to revisit those emotions as they process these events. Others are currently pregnant, and overwhelmed with physical change, fear, and not knowing where to turn. They should be able to turn to you. I BEG you…let them know that they will be met with compassion, understanding, and prayer, regardless of what they have done or what they believe. Remind yourself that Jesus healed, fed, and talked with people who didn’t agree with Him. He knew that they needed to know Him before they could follow Him. The same is true today. People need to know the heart and kindness of Jesus through you before the specifics of morality make sense. Relationship before rules.

As a good friend and colleague of mine said quite controversially a few weeks ago:

“God will never call you to hate someone.”

Jesus called us to love our enemies.

Christian – you need to step up!
Now is not the time for you to spread hate. Now is the time for you to fill the gap that is left and invite people to come close to you and the church for healing. Support the church and pregnancy ministries. Rally around women who need support, regardless of how they arrived in their situation. Make this opportunity a redeeming one, not a repelling one.

I pray that we can shine in this moment, not screw it up.

Jesus doesn’t issue many threats, but He does issue one important one, twice.

“This king did what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart!”

Forgiveness is at the core of Christian faith–it is what separates us from every other religious movement: we don’t earn our salvation in any way. It is a free gift of forgiveness for all the selfish, God ignoring things we have done. And Jesus points out that although forgiveness is hard, if you can’t look at the billions of things God has forgiven and then act in the same way toward those who have hurt you, you don’t truly understand forgiveness.

Forgiveness is hard. I need to be threatened, because it NEVER comes naturally. But it is a necessary part of living out our faith, and I must do it, no matter how hard, or how deep the hurt.