So I’m sitting here in a local restaurant, Primos Cafe, waiting on Teresa to finish up physical therapy. She’s doing pretty well after her knee replacement a couple of weeks ago.

While sitting here, I’ve been perusing social media. Y’all, I’m telling you – while Covid cases are plummeting here in my neck of the woods, I’m struck with just how many people are angry, upset, scared, threatened – actually all of the above. Terms like socialism, communism, Nazism, are all thrown around so much that they’re meaningless. Folks are bemoaning the state of the country and of the world.

At the root of this, I believe, is simple fear. I won’t analyze what kind of fear, or how it manifests itself, but it seems to be a fear of chaos, of things horribly out of order, uncontrollable, and prevalent. No one seems immune.

Some time back I developed a workshop/course called Cruising Through Chaos. My intent was to equip folks with the proper emotional, mental, and spiritual tools to not only survive the chaos we find ourselves in, but to even thrive in the midst of it.

I wanted to call it to your attention again.

This is a paid program. It’s worth a nominal investment if you think you or a loved one can benefit.

You’ll find it on my course platform, Transformational Encouragement Academy.

Some questions about it always crop up. Let me address some of them:

Is this just another self-help rah-rah program?

That term, self-help, just doesn’t explain what I want to see in you. There are a couple of gazillion self-help programs out there on every topic imaginable. I’m not knocking them … I’ve been a fan of folks like Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Michael Hyatt, and scores of others like them. What makes this different, methinks, is that it is grounded heavily in scripture, and the principles I share will bear that out. But if it motivates you, that is a good thing.

So is this workshop just for Christians?

It’s not intended to be. I’d like to think the principles I share are universal. But, if you want to onboard with me, you do need to understand the context I’m coming from. I won’t apologize or back down from that. I’m not trying to “proselyte.” I’m an absolute truth kind of guy – truth, by definition, is not relative. I intend to bombard you with truth as revealed in scripture, but in a very applicable, meaningful way.

Is this going to smack of anything political?

Not just NO but HECK no.

Can I anticipate and expect life change in five days?

You know I’d offer a resounding “YES” to that question. Here’s why: we are all products of decisions we’ve made, and often we make a decision in the space of 30 seconds that can totally alter the trajectory of our lives. By that same token, we can take steps right now that will do the same thing. Understand this – if you embrace the principles I share, and follow them to the bone, you will absolutely see change in five days. My disclaimer? Personal growth is a process. You’ll be hammering on that all the days of your life. My goal is to plant that seed, watch it germinate, and then see that little green plant peek its head above the soil. Water and fertilizer are your responsibility then, but the growth has already begun.

I’ve tried to “fix” myself in days past. It didn’t last. What would make this any different?

Glad you asked. You won’t like my answer, but you still gotta love me. If I don’t provide you with the proper tools and teach you the proper skill set, then I’ve failed. If I don’t give you the best I have, which has been prayed over and fretted over, then I’ve blown it. But if I give you the best I have and you don’t take advantage of it – say you work one or two lessons and bail, or slough through the workbook and journaling, I’m not the one who failed. It’s going to come down to the “D” word – discipline. My sense is that anyone can manage five days. That’s the reason I wanted to put those constraints on it. It’s not supposed to be a quick fix, but I did want you to see results quickly. I’m not beating up on you. I totally get it. If you blow it, just take a break and start over. Like Zig said, “Failure is an event, not a person.”

Can I share this with others?

Well, you should. I think there’s some potential for some small group study here. Iron sharpens iron, y’know, and that extra layer of accountability sure wouldn’t hurt.

If this is so helpful, why do I have to pay for it?

Fair enough. On my end, there were development costs, hosting costs, and all sorts of other intangibles. I want this to be more than an expensive hobby for me! There also is some significant sweat equity involved in putting this thing together. I’d like to make some profit. I’m just being frank. Finally, there is seldom, if ever, something for nothing. It’s often said “you get what you pay for.” I wanted for you to have more than you paid for. I priced it so you can just grab it and go. You’re welcome!

What makes you an expert?

Simple. My story is your story.

We all deal with challenges, do we not? Life is full of joy and heartache in equal measure. Everyone faces something.

Many people respond to life with despair, or at least a sense of hopelessness.

Well, I am here to stand before you and declare that hopelessness is not an option.

I’ve had life experiences that were killer, and by God’s grace, they’ve been overcome. I’ve added those experiences to this workshop.

I am here to tell you that what I have for you is FIRE.

Check it out. Be blessed.

Once more, here’s the link.

Are you the greatest? What makes a person great?

Conventional wisdom would hold that some people just get the breaks we mere mortals don’t. It’s a combination of inborn talent, faster firing synapses, genetic blessings, right time/right place, etc. You either got it or you don’t.

So we buy personal development books. We listen to audio programs that help us develop a positive mental attitude. We set goals. We discipline ourselves.

And we end up right back where we were. Know what I mean?

Baloney. Don’t buy any of this. Say this with me: “I am destined for greatness.”

I don’t want to come across as some sort of rah-rah cheerleader here … I hope you’ve read enough of my musings to know that’s not how I roll. I would contend, though, that the greatest is in you.

Here’s a little revelation for you. You are capable of greatness. I am not kidding. This isn’t some false promise.

It might be that it feels “unseemly” to think of yourself as the greatest. The trick, I believe, is learning to see yourself the way God sees you. He’s awfully partial to His creation, of which we’re a part.

Here’s what’s happened. The reason you find it hard to believe that you are capable of great things is because the Enemy has made sure that you’ve had plenty of attacks. You’ve had setbacks. You’ve experienced pain. You have had more than your share of failures.

The result is that you question yourself. Worse, you compare yourself to others who seem to have so much more on the ball than you do. They seem to float above life’s problems.

The dirty little secret is that they are probably just as riddled with doubt and uncertainty as you. They just don’t put it on Instagram. They might not be the greatest.

One of the devil’s great deceptions is to convince you that you’re ordinary. I return to this theme a lot, because not many of us are truly “bad” in the conventional sense. Yes, we’re sinners, but we probably aren’t filled with malice or hate toward others. We don’t like to think we’d purposefully hurt anyone.

Satan is full of malice and hate. He wants to hurt and destroy.

And to the extent that he can convince us to question ourselves, he knows he’s taken us out of the redemptive fight. In short – he wants us to view ourselves as losers.

The strategy, then, is for us to focus on the battle God wants to win IN us more than the battle we want Him to win FOR us.

You are called to greatness. It’s spelled out in black and white for us: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I swear, if we could get past knowing that verse so intimately and realize the power and passion in it, this whole discussion would be moot.

If doing all things through Christ who strengthens you isn’t evidence of greatness, I don’t know what is. And this isn’t a “greatness” as the world might measure greatness … this verse could be a reality in your life and you still spend your earthly days in obscurity.

That’s not what this is about. It’s about peace, and security, and knowing that, dang it, you are NOT ordinary. You, by God’s grace, are great in the Kingdom.

What this knowledge does – or should do – is help us take the focus off ourselves and put it on the Source of all that is good in us. Don’t forget that.

So get ready. Destiny winds are blowing over your life. You are the greatest.

It may feel like we collectively, and you, specifically, are in a bad way – but it’s not all that bad.

“Tony,” you say, “you gotta be kidding me.”

It’s true, though. It’s not all that bad. I’ve had a little epiphany, courtesy of a federal judge and Yale law professor named Guido Calabresi. 

You can check him out, but I want to share a little parable that he’s been telling law students for decades. It’s paraphrased, but you’ll get the gist of it, and you’ll realize it’s not all that bad.

Calabresi asks students to imagine what it’d be like if a god came to earth and offered all society an invention that would forever change and improve daily life. It would allow folks to spend more time with friends and family, see new places, experience new things. There would be, however, a high cost. If the god bestowed this invention on us, then he would also choose 1000 young men and women and strike them dead.

So, would you take the god up on this deal? Calabresi’s students would invariably say NO. Then Calabresi would deliver the zinger: “What’s the difference between this and the automobile?”

You can check the stats for yourself, but cars kill far more than 1000 people a year. In the United States, it’s about 40,000 annually. And we generally don’t give that a thought. Car accidents have always been a part of our lives. Chances are you’ve been in one or at least know folks who have been. In spite of this, we believe that cars are not all that bad.

You may be way ahead of me by now, but the point is clear: We, as humans, can be irrational about risk.

Think about it. There are things that are risky, for sure. Driving is one thing. Pollution is bad. We don’t think about that.

What we do latch onto, though, are those random and highly unlikely things. I, for one, am not a great flyer. Plane crashes bother me. The odds, though, are incredibly low that I’ll die in an airplane incident.

Other things that terrify folks might include shark attacks, getting struck by lightning, or getting kicked in the head by a mule. Or, even, dying from COVID-19. You may get it (I did), but the odds of you dying from it are almost negligible.

The companion terror to that recently has been the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. I’m not of a mind today to get in a vaccine debate … my counsel all along has been to talk to your personal physician and do what he or she recommends. They most likely know more than you do. Don’t let your Google search trump their medical degree.

Regarding Johnson and Johnson – at this writing, six women have developed rare blood clots within three weeks after receiving it, and one of them died. About 6.8 million had received the vaccine by then. Again, just playing the numbers, the odds of getting blood clots from J&J is less than one in a million.

So why do we let such minuscule things like this bother us, when it’s not all that bad?

Part of it, these days, is because so much new is coming at us. In the early days of the pandemic, we were all like deer in the headlights – as in, “What the heck is happening here?”

The media, of course, contributes to our fear. I call it “Pandemic Porn” – it’s like the news is tailored to get some sort of weird backward negative thrill from us. It’s always “look how bad things are!” And, of course, shark attacks are newsworthy, and video footage finds itself in an endless social loop.

Don’t hate, and don’t judge, but I’m persuaded that COVID is curable, because the vaccines seem to have nearly eliminated death, hospitalization, and other connected illnesses. You may disagree, but remember – my experts can beat up your experts.

Still, one thing we can agree on is that for many people, vaccinated and otherwise, there is a lingering obsession over the risks of COVID. And this blog isn’t all about COVID – it’s more about our skewed worldview, brought on by a host of factors, that leads people to think things are eternally awful. But things simply aren’t all that bad.

I can state that with confidence. Know why?

It’s because I embrace the fact of the bigness and sovereignty of God.

Here’s a little exercise: Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Make a list of everything that is out of God’s control.

Be honest. There isn’t a list to be made. Because (drum roll) there is nothing outside of God’s control.

Problem is, we act like there might be some random renegade molecule out there in creation that God doesn’t control, and that one little thing can absolutely destroy the right and righteous order of things.

You know that’s not so. Nothing happens randomly. Either God wills it or He allows it. Either way, He calls the shots.

That may be why some people reject God entirely. They don’t like to think there is a genuine Supreme Being Who is sovereign over everything. Sovereign over you, your friends and family, over all governments, over all illnesses, over it all.

It stands to spiritual reason, then, that if God is indeed sovereign, then we can face life fearlessly. Because things aren’t all that bad.

Oh, sure, with our finite human eyes, things look bad. By human standards, there are plenty of things that are bad. Cancer is bad. Poverty is bad. Racism is bad. The list goes on.

But, against the backdrop of eternity, things aren’t that bad. I am a stranger here. A pilgrim and a sojourner. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Believer, we need to embrace the truth of that last sentence. Once we genuinely understand that, duh, God’s got this, then we can relax. He knows what He’s doing. He’s God, and He’s been at this a long time.

I don’t want to make light of the struggles you’re facing. We all struggle. What I do want to leave you with, though, is the secure knowledge that God knows what you’re facing, you are prone to irrational fears, and He understands you much better than you understand yourself. And He’s walking beside you 24/7/365.

Be well.

No doubt that phrase, “Our finest hour,” resonated with you – assuming, of course, you’re familiar with famous historical quotes. That’s the way we remember it – but that’s not really what was said.

That’s from Sir Winston Churchill. Here’s your refresher.

The Allies during this period of WWII were in dire straits. In his speech, Churchill was to express his feelings towards the countries of France and Germany. France was just defeated by Germany. He spoke because he believed that Britain should continue fighting to defeat the evil that Hitler was.

The entire speech is readily available for context. If you really want to do a deep dive and feel just a little thrill, you can listen to it.  Indulge me – I want to share the last few lines.

What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”

Here’s what I want you to note: We remember this as Churchill saying “our finest hour,” when in reality he said “their finest hour.” In other words, he was looking at the crisis they were in from some point in the future, with the assurance the British Empire and the Allied forces would prevail.

We did.

We are are seeing an event global in scope. It literally impacts all mankind. We tend to think about disasters happing somewhere else. Even here in the South, where we routinely deal with tornadoes and hurricanes, we think earthquakes don’t happen here, because they typically don’t. Wildfires, floods, all those other cataclysmic events are “out there.”

I’ve wondered what World War III might look like. Is this it?

I’ll add this to the mix, with apologies to my international readers: This whole election process has been a dumpster fire. I won’t get into details, or even my personal beliefs and takeaways from what I’ve witnessed. All I’ll say is that January 6, which I’ve blogged about, was a real gut check for me. We’ve all been affected in some fashion, and we’ve learned a lot about ourselves in the process – personally and corporately.

Guess what? We’re all in this one together.

The people of the world have had the opportunity to unite against a common foe. The wonder of this is that every one of us can take part. This isn’t the job of some elite or specialized group. For sure, the government can do the wise thing. There are health care workers and first responders. Truckers are the cavalry, the knights of the road. Grocery store workers, convenience store managers, aren’t exactly working from home. They all have special roles.

But you have a special role. You can literally be an agent of change. You, you, you.

In an absurd sort of way, I find that exciting.

As a believer, I know this is all part of The Plan. I don’t want to wade into a theological discussion here. But could God have stopped the onset and continued spread of COVID-19? Of course He could. Of course He can. He’s God.

C. H. Spurgeon said:

All the hounds of affliction are muzzled until God sets them free.

You can ponder that. The one indisputable fact is that the pandemic is still with us. What do we do?

My question – will future generations say “this was their finest hour?” Or, more timely, “Is this our finest hour?” – right now?

Here’s my observation, and it really doesn’t center on the actual physical health issues.

If I’m discerning, I see that people under stress tend to reveal the conditions of their hearts. Many folks post some really funny memes, only to find that others are offended. Some people try to couch everything in political terms. Others feverishly look for somewhere, anywhere, to place blame – as if that were to make any difference in what has already happened.

So – what have you learned about your heart in these days? Who are you really? Are you self-aware enough to take stock in yourself?

Mercy. I sure have taken stock in me.

God knows the condition of your heart. I can’t help but wonder if part of His plan in these days is for we who are believers to discover who we really are. Does He want us to confront the condition of our own hearts?

It grieves me when Christians act like the lost world. We aren’t part of that.

How we respond to crisis (Do we worry out loud? Do we whine and complain? Are we embracing into the negativity of others? Do we encourage, and affirm, and comfort them?)  tells us who we are.

Discovering who you are is not a bad thing. What’s even more important is that we see ourselves as God sees us.

It may just be as you ask yourself those hard questions you’ll see the need for personal change and redemption. That’s what’s happening to me, for sure.

Don’t waste this moment. You may never have a better chance to be who God created you to be.

Our finest hour? Hey, maybe this can be your finest hour.

Think on these things, and take care of yourself.

Read that again: Want a do-over? You can begin again and finish well.

I don’t know why that statement resonates with me so strongly.

Actually, I do.

I don’t have many regrets. Yes, I’ve made some bad choices and decisions. I have found myself in patterns of behavior that have not served me well at all. I’ve dug myself into some significant holes. None of them have been moral failures or crimes.

Nope. They’ve mostly been just stupid.

You’ve heard this plenty of times: You can’t fix stupid.

If “fixing stupid” means going back to the past and undoing things you’ve done or said, that is absolutely true. You can’t take it back.

Here’s a miracle, though: You can get a do-over.

If you want to try a little exercise, here ya go. Get a piece of paper and a pen, or open any notes app on your device.

You won’t enjoy this, but it’ll lay some foundation for good stuff.

Number your paper from 1 to 5. I want you to come up with 5 stupid incidents in your life that were caused by you – decisions you made, things you said, or habits you instilled in yourself. You won’t have to share these with the class, so be totally honest and authentic. Sugarcoating won’t help. I’ll wait.

Wasn’t that fun? And now, I want you to circle the one out of the whole list that had or has the biggest impact on you.

Guess what? You can’t take it back. And it could have been of such significance that it altered the trajectory of your life.

I hope that little exercise didn’t put you in a total funk. Again – you can’t take it back, and in some fashion you have to make peace with that. It’s done. Over. Finished.

Still. You can start over and finish well. You can get a do-over. We just have to come up with a strategy as to how that can happen.

I don’t want to give you a pep talk. I do want you to think in terms of what’s ahead for you. The reason you aren’t dead is because you haven’t completed what God put you here to accomplish.

Let’s try a do-over, shall we?

1. You’ve identified some events in your life that have hamstrung you. You may be experiencing fear or shame because of them.
2. Claim this thought: “You are never good the first time.” That’s from John Maxwell. Maxwell is a pretty smart guy.
3. Mistakes and failures come to anyone who has a pulse. There’s nothing new there.
4. As hard as it is to believe, those mistakes and failures can and should build character and make you resolute. You can’t learn and grow if things go your way all the time.
5. I say this all the time: Failure is an event, not a person.
6. Don’t wish for a do-over. The lessons you learned the first time were sufficient.
7. Everything – and I mean everything – you’ve experienced is a foundation for the positive things that come next.
   1. Look once more at the number one thing on your list.
   2. Identify the most significant lesson you learned from it.
   3. Ask yourself: If faced again with the same circumstances that brought on your bad decision, what would you do different?
   4. Is there a principle in what you learned that you can apply to other similar circumstances?
   5. If so, what would keep you from modifying your behavior next time? (Hint: Whatever it is, don’t do it again.)
   6. Remember you have total, utter control over the choices you make. It’s not someone or something else’s fault. That gives you extraordinary power and authority.
8. You aren’t too old, uneducated, unlucky, unfortunate, or unable to start fresh. You’ve had experiences that have prepared you to do so much better the next time around. Claim that.
9. Give me an excuse that will convince me that you can’t engineer a do-over. But I wouldn’t work too hard on that one. I will not enable your excuses. You shouldn’t enable your excuses either.
10. Truth: You already have inside you what you need to do to start over and finish well. There is a do-over available to you. There has to be a connection made between what you know you should do and actually doing it. You have the solution to your pr0blems already at your fingertips. So how do you make that a reality? At the risk of sounding naive, here it is: you just do it.

Please, please, please understand – I am a fellow pilgrim and sojourner with all this. I’m saying things I know to be true. But as stated in #10 above, just doing it is a really acute struggle some days.

Ancient script says this: “… I do not practice what I want to do, but what I hate… what a wretched man I am!” For thousands of years, men and women better than you and me have dealt with this awful conundrum. “Who,” said the apostle Paul, “will rescue me from this body of death?” He takes a deep breath and says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”*

I’m a person of faith. I’m not saying that it is impossible for you to start over apart from God. In my context, though, I acknowledge my inability to experience lasting change apart from him.

At the beginning of 2018, I made the very public statement, “2018 will be my best year ever.” Eight months into 2019, my success criteria has shifted. After dealing with flooding, a parathyroid tumor that really wreaked havoc with my calcium level and my mental capacity, a renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer, if you please), and a concussion which has caused post concussion syndrome (the worst) … I’m sticking by my statement. 2018 and 2019 have not been the best years in the conventional sense. It looks pretty awful in retrospect, and there are still more challenges to come.

Know what, though? It’s gonna be okay. It always is. Always has been.

I can’t begin to comprehend all the “why’s” in play here. In the flesh, it’d be easy for me to say “the heck with this.”

All these events have put me in a place of starting over with my “new normal.” I don’t know if I would be willing to put effort into a new start had I not been faced with these challenges. It’s all part of a plan that I can’t completely see quite yet. But I have utter confidence in God shepherding me and orchestrating events  all around me in order to fulfill His destiny for me.

That’s what a do-over means.

My story is your story. You’ve had challenges galore. We’ve all made some bonheaded choices. You’ve wanted to blame God, others, circumstances, unlucky breaks, everything to excuse yourself for how you’re feeling and acting. I have, too.

Well, dang it, we are better than that. We are capable of more. Inside each of us is the solution to our ordeals. We need to simply receive with gratitude, and act on what we know the wise thing to do is.

Begin your do-over. Finish well. The world needs a completed and fulfilled you.

*from Romans 7:15-25.

Tony’s question: What’s one concrete, measurable step you can take to rid yourself of regret and get a fresh, do-over start? Share with the rest of us below. 

“The Gate of the Year” is the popular name of a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins. She titled it “God Knows.” I’ll share its best-known stanza in a moment.

A quick history lesson.

According to Wikipedia, the poem was written in 1908 and privately published in 1912. King George VI quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast to the British empire. It was thought that his wife, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Consort, shared it with him. Now it’s believed that Princess Elizabeth, aged 13, gave the poem to her father.

The Gate of the Year gave comfort to the Queen Mother all her days, and was a real inspiration to Brits in the Second World War. She had its words engraved on stone plaques and mounted on the gates of the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle.

These are some powerful words:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

I wish I’d written this.

So why this current fascination on my part? Let me parse it.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

Here are two fundamental wishes. These are especially meaningful when you have some hard questions and answers aren’t forthcoming (hello, 2020!)

The desire for light is self-evident. You want to be able to see where you’re going.

“Tread safely into the unknown.” If light is available, then the unknown isn’t quite as scary. In these dark days, if you knew what lay ahead, wouldn’t you be comforted by knowing? (Or not; if what lay ahead is disastrous, you might not want to know.)

There have been times in my life – and, in all likelihood, yours too – when you took a leap of faith and hit the ground with a sickening thud. Your faith was misplaced. You let the clamor of the world drown out that still, small voice. Or, worse, you “followed your heart.” Ancient script teaches that the heart is deceitful above all things. Following your heart sounds noble, but it’s not a good idea.

And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

Yes yes yes.

You’ve probably said things like:

I thought God wanted me to marry him.

I thought I was supposed to take that job.

Moving to a new house felt right, somehow.

Here’s the lesson here:

• It’s not a matter of removing the darkness. It’s a matter of accepting the darkness and prevailing in it.
• God’s hand is big, protective, and firm. He doesn’t let go of you. People might. He won’t.
• If it’s safety you crave, then the most perfectly safe place in the universe is in the hand of God, and it doesn’t matter how dark it is.

So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.

Here’s a subtle nuance. The picture is of someone (you? me?) moving first and then finding the hand of God. It’s knowing that He’s already there, whether you have reached Him or not. The poet draws the picture of taking God’s hand and trodding gladly into the night. No fear, no apprehension. Just the simple joy of knowing God’s got you.

It doesn’t matter the circumstances of what brought on the darkness. They might not change.  The mandate is to be glad in those circumstances. Crazy, I know. But it all is centered in God holding your hand.

And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Sweet.

Get this picture.

• God leads, and the journey begins in darkness.
• He leads toward the hills. Hills conceal, but there is the promise of something else beyond what can be seen.
• The day breaks in the East. There is the certainty of sunrise, and, blessedly, visual confirmation that it is indeed dawn. A new day with new possibilities and new hope.

The Gate of the Year

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.^[3]

“Nobody’s perfect.” You ever said that?

If you have, it’s probably because you screwed up and were trying to justify your failure to someone else. That’s why they make pencils with erasers, right? People make mistakes.

This is the logic: if nobody’s perfect, I shouldn’t worry so much about the times I’ve blown it.

And yet – many people are prone to protectionism. If that’s you, keep reading. If not, maybe you can just pass this blog along to someone who is.

At any rate, we all tend to mentally beat ourselves up when we miss obvious things. Have you ever said things to yourself that, if anyone else said them to you, you’d punch them in the throat?

• ”You are an idiot for messing that up.”
• ”You are a consistent screw-up.”
• ”You’ll never be good at that.”
• ”Why bother? It won’t make any difference.”
• ”Look at all those people who can do that better than you. You’re just outclassed.”

See what I mean? When you say “nobody’s perfect,” you recognize there’s a standard out there that you aren’t reaching. And the harder you try to get things just right, the more likely it seems that you’ll fail.

Perhaps you can identify with:

• regret
• opportunities you turned away from
• choices that were lame in hindsight
• Saying “I should have…”

It’s also a matter of hearing criticism from others that feels like “piling on,” because you’ve already emptied your emotional fuel tank criticizing yourself.

I’d contend that much of what we experience in the realm of personal dissatisfaction has to do with perfectionism. Let me explain.

You’ve probably had the experience of running across a high school acquaintance on Facebook or other social media site who comes across as shockingly perfect. They have the right job, right spouse, right kids; they live in the right place, drive the right car, vacation in the right places. Perhaps you’re a student and you see posts from your classmates, who invariably have it all together. You aspire to that. You so wish you had it together, at least more than you currently do.

You’ve heard me say this a gazillion times: Social media is a great betrayer of the truth, simply because we can only see what others want us to see.

Knowing that as a fact, though, doesn’t always take the sting out of you feeling that you just aren’t good enough. It’s because we get a sense of “who we ought to be,” and that’s informed by what we see in others as filtered through modern narratives.

”Nobody’s perfect,” say you? Then why the self-inflicted dissatisfaction?

Pop culture has us saying things like:

• ”I’m better than I was yesterday.”
• ”I’m good enough.”
• ”I can do whatever I set my mind to.”

Does that even help? Perhaps. None of those statements is inherently false. But you might find yourself stuck in the same state you were in yesterday. Maybe you really aren’t good enough. Perhaps experience has taught you that you can put your mind to something and still fail.

Make peace with reality on this one.

As long as you’re grappling with who you ought to be vs. who you really are, you can expect to be in pain.

Before you break out the torches and pitchforks, understand this: I am not giving you an excuse for not striving. You do want to better yourself. Don’t let contentment cause you to stall out. If you’re a believer, giving up and accepting your state is not an option. Nobody’s perfect in and of themselves, but we are perfected in Christ. (More on that in a moment.)

But that old self? That part of you that keeps coming back to torment you and convince you that you’ll never amount to anything? It’s time for a funeral.

That’s hard.

There is never any excuse for not desiring excellence. You never want to intentionally do a bad job. I hope you realize that without me pointing it out. You want to do better and hold yourself to high standards. That’s not what I’m talking about.

Listen: Sometimes good enough is good enough. And not good enough doesn’t define you. It just means you need to not let perfectionism become a liability that saddens you.

Ancient script says this: “Be perfect, therefore,” Jesus said, “as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

Want to know a better translation of the word “perfect?” Check this out: Perfect = complete. In other words, you are whole and done because God’s done all in you He needs to.

There are huge implications for us – not the least of which is that we never need to say of ourselves, “nobody’s perfect.” Because you can be made complete.

If God is complete (He is), then if we mirror Him (and we should), then we show the world the character of God. Theoretically, can we be perfect? Because of our weakness and useless striving, we can’t be perfect in the world’s sense. In the spiritual sense, we have grace to overcome our shortcomings and sins. Still, there are plenty of opportunities to sin, and we all tend to take advantage of them. So we aren’t talking sinless perfection here, neither in the spiritual or temporal sense.

”Nobody’s perfect” is a true statement apart from God. But you can be made complete.

I’d suggest that completeness makes perfectionism irrelevant.

Yes, you want to be and do your best. At the same time, you have to understand that God has already done the heavy lifting. He doesn’t exist to serve you. But what He wants to do is for you to recognize who you are in Him, and not who you are in comparison to others who seem to have it together so much better than you do.

May God grant you grace, peace, and the simple contentment of knowing you don’t have to perform for Him or anyone else. You’re complete. Don’t carry around burdens that were never meant for you.

Just you wait. Is patience a virtue?

It can be. Our society doesn’t lend itself to being patient. Here’s proof:

• microwave ovens
• drive-through anything
• direct deposits
• high-speed internet
• overnight delivery
• instant grits (yecch)

Know where I’m coming from? We are encouraged, even taught, to be impatient.

“Just you wait” can be a threat, too, depending on it’s usage. For instance, you may have heard something like this when you were a kid: “Just you wait until your father gets home.” Implication: This ain’t gonna be pretty.

So, when we are forced to wait, pretty much everything in our nature rebels.

Some things can’t be rushed – harvested crops, for instance. Physical growth of a child. We are locked into a 24-hour day; you can’t negotiate for more or less.

Ancient script has a lot to say about patience, especially waiting on the Lord. A sampler:

Hosea 12:6

Therefore, return to your God,

Observe kindness and justice,
And wait for your God continually.

Psalm 27:14

Wait for the Lord;

Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.

Psalm 37:7

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.

There are lots more.

This is not going to be a big revelation to anyone, but these days, we are being forced to wait. I’m not talking about quarantine necessarily, because that can be different depending on your location and the suggestions (mandates?) of the authorities. I’m not going there (be thankful – I got nothing to say that I want to use bandwidth on. One day, perhaps.)

It occurs to me that, for the believer, waiting is part of the spiritual condition. And it can make you very, very tired.

People, you are currently part of The Plan. Waiting is part of it.

• Waiting can make you bone-weary, but you are still living and breathing.
• The ebb and flow of your life may have been disrupted. Your routine has been blown to pieces. Yet God has set a rhythm in nature and in life, and He’s adjusting, even changing it, for His purposes.
• That means something. We may not yet know what that “something” is, but rest assured He’s actively working, doing activity all around you.
• God is steadfast. Cling to that.
• The ordeal you’re facing may be taking a lot longer to resolve, and there might not be anything you can do about it.
• It may take longer still.

Know what? Just you wait.

You have done all you know to do to persevere. You’ve hung in there. You’ve prevailed.

What has happened in recent days is part of what is making you a new creation. You aren’t defined by your impatience or frustration.

Don’t forget that.

Just you wait. God is doing a new thing. That new thing is you.

Be blessed.

Joy in prison? Where’s the joy in losing freedom? (And I could say “joy in quarantine” and it’d be even more personal, right?)

I woke up this morning thinking about joy. Joy is a condition of the heart and not necessarily a feeling. It’s a state of mind that transcends circumstances.

You may feel like you’re a prisoner because your coming and going is severely limited. But if there can be joy in prison, then there can be joy anywhere. And it’s not dependent on what’s happening around you.

Here are two questions for you to answer before I go any futher:

1. What was the worst punishment you remember getting when you were a kid?
2. What do you do to lift your spirits when you’re in a funk?

So, scoot your chair in close, kids. Uncle Tony is going to tell you a story.

There is an ancient account in the book of Acts – chapter 16.

Our main characters are Paul and Silas. In verse 16, we see these guys encounter a fortune teller. This slave girl was making a good living for her owners. When Paul and Silas show up, she starts following them around – for several days, in fact – hollering “these men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved!” (V. 17, NIV).

This gets on Paul’s nerves. This girl wasn’t lying, obviously, but she wasn’t the kind of person that Paul wanted to be identified with. It made him and Silas look more like sorcerers than missionaries. So Paul commands the evil spirit possessing this girl and giving her her abilities to leave. Done.

Needless to say, the owners of the slave girl saw their livelihood dry up. Poof. So they grab Paul and Silas, drag them before the authorities, and say, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” (V. 20). Okay, then.

Things don’t go well for Paul and Silas. Instead of a formal trial, which legally they were supposed to have, they’re stripped and beaten by the crowd – “severely flogged,” the scripture says.

They are thrown into prison. The jailer puts them in an inner cell, puts their feet in stocks, and stands guard over them.

Now things get really interesting. Joy in prison? Riiiiight.

Verse 25 says, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”

Imagine you’re another prisoner. You have to wonder, “What’s up with these guys? Why are they singing? What is there to pray about? Don’t they realize how bad things are for them?”

Let’s stop for a moment. This is evidence of joy in prison. Check this out – the joy these men are experiencing and displaying is not dependent on the circumstances they’re in – it’s dependent on who they have a relationship with. Hello!

You’re probably several steps ahead of me by now. You may feel like you’ve been in prison the last few weeks. At the very least, you’ve had to monitor where you go, who you’re with, and what you can and can’t do.

Have you been joyful through all that? Have you experienced joy in your prison?

Scripture says, “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. All at once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.” It’s worth noting that not only were Paul and Silas freed, everyone else was, too.

I’d encourage you to read the rest of the passage for yourself. It’s good stuff. You can read about the response of the jailer – who wanted to kill himself because of his perceived failure – and his question of “What must I do to be saved?” (That’s the most important question anyone can ever ask, by the way.)

When you think about there being joy in prison, that just doesn’t seem possible, now does it? In this account, though, Paul and Silas experienced joy first, and then freedom. They weren’t freed and then felt joy. Joy preceded freedom.

Man, that’s good.

Let’s wrap this thing. Let me help you today.

• You may feel that you’re imprisoned. I’m not talking about simply being quarantined. You may feel like you’re a prisoner of your thoughts and emotions.
• Maybe you are dealing with the blackest funk imaginable. You don’t have COVID-19, but some of what you’re experiencing is just as bad, just not in a physical sense.
• And yet – you can be joyful. But it’s not a joy that you can dredge up from within yourself.
• Remember – you can be unhappy and joyful at the same time. That’s a paradox, but it’s so. Happiness is transient. Joy is eternal.
• What Paul said to the jailer, verse 31: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” Ka-pow! Boom! Think the jailer experienced joy then? Because now, the fact that all the prisoners were freed – which would have been reason for despair – was negated by the joy of his salvation.

Point – you can experience joy in prison, no matter what that prison might be.

It’s futile to try to “feel good” on your own during these challenging days. Oh, you might have moments of pleasure when you are able to have one of your favorite meals delivered, of if you score on some toilet paper. But that won’t last.

People, your unchanging, amazing joy is all wrapped up in your relationship with Jesus.

I assure you, He will sustain you in your prison. One day you’ll be free in every sense of the word.

Until then, joy is readily available. Just don’t think you can experience it with your own resources.

O be joyful.

No doubt that phrase, “Our finest hour,” resonated with you – assuming, of course, you’re familiar with famous historical quotes. That’s the way we remember it – but that’s not really what was said.

That’s from Sir Winston Churchill. Here’s your refresher.

The Allies during this period of WWII were in dire straits. In his speech, Churchill was to express his feelings towards the countries of France and Germany. France was just defeated by Germany. He spoke because he believed that Britain should continue fighting to defeat the evil that Hitler was.

The entire speech is readily available for context. If you really want to do a deep dive and feel just a little thrill, you can listen to it.  Indulge me – I want to share the last few lines.

What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”

Here’s what I want you to note: We remember this as Churchill saying “our finest hour,” when in reality he said “their finest hour.” In other words, he was looking at the crisis they were in from some point in the future, with the assurance the British Empire and the Allied forces would prevail.

We did.

Now we are seeing an event global in scope. It literally impacts all mankind. We tend to think about disasters happing somewhere else. Even here in the South, where we routinely deal with tornadoes and hurricanes, we think earthquakes don’t happen here, because they typically don’t. Wildfires, floods, all those other cataclysmic events are “out there.”

I’ve wondered what World War III might look like. Is this it?

Not in my lifetime, or yours either, have you faced a disaster of this magnitude.

Guess what? We’re all in this one together.

The people of the world have the opportunity to unite against a common foe. The wonder of this is that every one of us can take part. This isn’t the job of some elite or specialized group. For sure, the government can do the wise thing. There are health care workers and first responders. Truckers are the cavalry, the knights of the road. Grocery store workers, convenience store managers, aren’t exactly working from home. They all have special roles.

But you have a special role. You can literally be an agent of change. You, you, you.

In an absurd sort of way, I find that exciting.

As a believer, I know this is all part of The Plan. I don’t want to wade into a theological discussion here. But could God have stopped the onset and continued spread of COVID-19? Of course He could. Of course He can. He’s God.

C. H. Spurgeon said:

All the hounds of affliction are muzzled until God sets them free.

You can ponder that. The one indisputable fact is that a pandemic is unleashed. What do we do?

You know the answers to that already. You might find the CDC helpful.

My question – will future generations say “this was their finest hour?” Or, more timely, “Is this our finest hour?” – right now?

Here’s my observation, and it really doesn’t center on the actual physical health issues.

If I’m discerning, I see that people under stress tend to reveal the conditions of their hearts. Many folks post some really funny memes, only to find that others are offended. Some people try to couch everything in political terms. Others feverishly look for somewhere, anywhere, to place blame – as if that were to make any difference in what has already happened.

So – what have you learned about your heart in these days? Who are you really? Are you self-aware enough to take stock in yourself?

Mercy. I sure have taken stock in me.

God knows the condition of your heart. I can’t help but wonder if part of His plan in these days is for we who are believers to discover who we really are. Does He want us to confront the condition of our own hearts?

It grieves me when Christians act like the lost world. We aren’t part of that.

How we respond to crisis (Do we worry out loud? Do we whine and complain? Do we feed into the negativity of others? Do we encourage, and affirm, and comfort others?)  tells us who we are.

Discovering who you are is not a bad thing. What’s even more important is that we see ourselves as God sees us.

It may just be as you ask yourself those hard questions you’ll see the need for personal change and redemption. That’s what’s happening to me, for sure.

Don’t waste this moment. You may never have a better chance to be who God created you to be.

Our finest hour? Hey, maybe this can be your finest hour.

Think on these things. And keep that six foot distance.

The time of your life. Or is it the timing of your life?

I have this propensity to overthink, well, everything. This is also known as “spending too much time in my head.”

I don’t have many regrets. Sure, there are some things I would like to have a “do-over” with, but I’m learning that what is in the past is simply that – the “past.” You can’t go back and change things, Doc Brown, but you can glean whatever lessons you can and move on.

I’d be way presumptuous as to try to determine what you’ve faced or are facing in your life. It is safe to say, however, that all of us deal with something.

How do you handle those times, those issues? If this is the time of your life right now, how do you go about redeeming the time? Can you fix things as you move along? What is the timing of your life – what’s God up to in these days?

Because He’s up to something. He always is.

God knows the exact timing of your life. Because of our finite world view, and because we are living right now, we often ask, “Okay, God. What the heck are You up to? Am I part of some cosmic experiment? Are you engineering circumstances just to see how I’ll react? Why am I dealing with what I’m dealing with right now?”

This isn’t some existential crisis thing I’m talking about. It’s just asking some hard questions.

With that as background to understanding the timing of your life, I’m gonna do a deep dive here. I have a hunch that this will resonate with you. I want it to help. If this just slides right past you as irrelevant, then take some satisfaction in knowing that someone else reading this will benefit.

Here’s the question: Have you ever suffered? Are you currently suffering?

Cheerful, I know.

You’ll have to determine on your own scale what “suffering” really is. For instance, when my beloved Auburn Tigers lose a football game, I don’t like it, but I’d hardly consider it suffering. If, though, I’m dying of cancer, then I’d be justified in calling that suffering.

Or is it? Does the timing of your life include awful, soul-searing pain? Put another way, is there a plan to your suffering?

If you’re a believer, you already know the answer to that, unpleasant as it may be. God is always at work to conform believer to His likeness, and that might not feel pleasant. He knows the reason for your pain, and is under no obligation to reveal that reason to you (although in hindsight you may understand completely what He was up to.)

Fact is, God knows the reason for your pain and understands the suffering you have to endure.

Consider:

1. He blesses you with patience. Yeah, I know. If your temperament includes being impatient, this one is hard. I believe, though, that patience is a virtue that serves believers well. In spiritual growth and maturity, there are no quick fixes. If God wants us to experience a new and significant part of His nature, He’ll take His time in teaching us. He has eternity in mind, unlike we puny humans who get all bent out of shape if the line at the checkout at Walmart is too long.
2. He blesses you with love. When we’re on the ropes, and hurting, God’s love becomes even more clear. We move into that attitude of dependence on Him and recognize that apart from His love we’re sunk. His love blesses us and gives us the opportunity to be more like Him.
3. He blesses us with freedom. Think about this: when we’re dealing with hurt and even suffering, we have complete freedom as to how we respond. We aren’t some primitive life form that blindly responds to what’s going on around us and we aren’t like the moth who is irresistibly drawn to the light. We choose whether to move to the light or not, or whether to stay in the darkness of the modern world. Isn’t that something. We are responsible for the condition of our hearts, and can choose whatever path we’re faced with. Freedom to choose is certainly a blessing.

All sorts of things come our way in the course of a day – or a week, month, year, or lifetime. We interpret those things as good and bad. I’d suggest that, as a believer, it’s all ultimately to the good (and that’s not an original thought with me – Romans 8:28, baby!)

The timing of your life is in God’s strong hands. Our role is to hold fast to faith.

That looks simple and easy in print. But in real life … whew.

I feel like I’m going way too simplistic here, but simple truths are the best: God’s hand is on your life and there is a reason for everything – everything – happening in your life right now.

He doesn’t expect you to know “how” you’re going to get through your current trials. He simply blesses you with the chance to keep moving. Isn’t persistence one of the most important values you can hold?

Keep moving in the direction you know best and God will take care of the rest. That’s His absolute promise.

If it doesn’t feel like it’s over, it’s not.