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Dear Friends,

Love, joy, and peace sound nice, right? We can have warm, encouraging, and positive feeling about those virtues and experiences, e.g., “Oh, I’d love more of those!”

But this week, in our season on the Fruit of the Spirit, we come to a Fruit that, maybe, provokes a different type of response: patience.

The fuller meaning of the biblical word that is translated as “patience” is helpful in understanding our reactions. Patience isn’t a calm personality attribute, but rather is/involves:

• a state of emotional quietness in the face of unfavorable circumstances;
• long-suffering, under trial endurance;
• a state of emotional calm in the face of provocation or misfortune and without complaint or irritation;
• slowness in avenging wrongs.

This Sunday, and next week in our Daily Worship Devotions, we turn a story about David (1 Samuel 25) that is all about patience, long-suffering, and losing it. In this story, David is “in the wilderness” and he naturally wants to get out. Biblically, the wilderness is a place of loneliness, confusion, hardship, and stuck-ness. David’s wilderness in 1 Samuel 25 is not a punishment. It’s not the specific consequence of some action he’s taken or failed to take. It’s a place of significant helplessness where the only thing he can do is wrestle with and wait for God. Read More

Dear Friends,

I can remember when our youngest child could swim well enough that he didn’t need constant and unbroken, vigilant, parental supervision at the pool. It was awesome. Given that we have 3 children, that day brought an end to 10 years of Summer pool stress and anxiety. When you have young children, going to the pool is . . . Well, let me put it this way – I think if you gave young parents the choice of an afternoon at the neighborhood pool:

a) Alone with your friends
b) Alone with 1-3 young non-swimmer children

I’m pretty sure which one would win out!

So, I still remember enjoying, again, a long-forgotten sense of “summer-pool” peace and relaxation when our youngest became an independent swimmer. I could take a book to the pool – and read it! I could enjoy the newspaper! Never mind that, I could actually have a sustained conversation with other adults – with actual eye contact! I remember smiling, relaxing, and thinking, “This is how it’s meant to be!”Read More

Dear Friends,

What brings you joy? Think about it for a few seconds:

• What brings a smile to your face?
• What makes your heart swell?
• What gives you that glow of pleasure or fills you with laughter such that you feel like hugging someone?

The Christians in Galatia had lost their joy and that was a problem. Where had it gone and what had happened to it? It was important to God that they get it back. But why? Is not being super joyful really a big deal? After all, there’s a lot of lamenting and honesty in the Bible about pain, suffering, and sin. Isn’t the more important thing that we are humbled by and sorry about our sin? We live in a messed-up world that has and is rebelling against the one true and holy God. What is there to be joyful about?

God and his Word will not allow any false dichotomies between sorrow and joy. We are called to them both. If one of them is absent, it’s a sign of spiritual unhealth or worse. The more deeply we grieve over our sin, the greater should be our experience of the joy of our salvation. If we do not experience that joy, there is something deeply wrong with our confession and repentance. Likewise, if we truly lament the brokenness of the world around us, then we will also experience joy and happiness when we contemplate heaven. If we don’t, there’s something wrong with our faith. Read More