Gratitude
John Beeson
Injustice: The Gratitude Snatcher

I pray you had a blessed Thanksgiving. I hope your heart entered into this past week with a spirit of gratitude and that your time with friends, family, and God only heightened that gratitude.

No one wants to walk in ingratitude, and yet gratitude can be so quickly snatched from us.

What destroys thanksgiving? There are many threats: envy, pride, and selfishness. But one sneaky snatcher of gratitude is injustice. When the earth quakes with injustice, its tremors rattle our hearts and our trust.

 When we experience injustice, questions swirl: Why would God allow that wrong to happen? How could He let this grievance happen to me? Won’t the wrongdoer be punished? Won’t the victim receive restitution?

Injustice: The Gratitude Snatcher
Recommendations, Gratitude, Leadership, Nature
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. How to practice gratitude (even when you don’t feel it): O. Alan Noble says, “We like to think of gratitude as an overflowing feeling directed at others—an outpouring of love and warmth. But sometimes warmth doesn’t come. Even still, another’s kindness deserves our gratitude. What are we to do when we don’t feel grateful but know we ought to be?”

  2. Fight burnout with thanksgiving: Ajith Fernando writes this to pastors, but it’s applicable to everyone. “I have come to notice that the most joyful people in my life and ministry are also the most thankful, and joyous people experience freshness as they go about their service. God’s grace is a means of freshness over the long haul.”

This Week's Recommendations
Christian Living, Gratitude, Prayer
John Beeson
Becoming What You Hate

In the fall of 1997, I arrived at Gordon College. Nestled 45 minutes northeast of Boston, Gordon’s beautiful campus sits in the heart of New England. This southwest kid was about to get the full New England experience. And you can’t have a New England experience without experiencing her fans.

Just three years later, the newly minted coach of the Patriots, Bill Belichick, would draft Tom Brady with the 199th draft pick of the 2000 NFL draft. At that point, the Patriots had logged a sad 68-92 record in the 1990s.

Becoming What You Hate
Christian Living, Leadership
John Beeson
What’s Your Leadership Superpower? (And What’s ...

My grandma Betty’s house smelled of lilacs and bacon. Her favorite dusting powder and her favorite breakfast food blended to form a smell all her own that permeated her one-bedroom apartment. I’m sure she didn’t realize the unique olfactory experience she greeted her visitors with.

We become nose blind to the smells we are often around. We recently rented a vehicle that smelled of dirty diapers. By the third day, we weren’t sure if the nasty smell had dissipated or we had just grown accustomed to it.

Similarly, we are often blind to how others experience our leadership. Have you ever met someone who thinks they have a gifting they clearly don’t have?

What’s Your Leadership Superpower? (And What’s Your Leadership Kryptonite?)
Recommendations, Christian Living, Consumerism, Finance, Culture
John Beeson
This Week's Recommendations

  1. If you want to be miserable, then spend your money like this: Morgan Housel begins, “Tell yourself that you’ll be satisfied once you make just a little more money, have a little bit nicer home, and can spend just a little bit more than you do now. Ignore the fact that the group you’re in now used to be a dream that you thought would bring you contentment and happiness.”

  2. If you ask AI for marriage advice, it’ll probably tell you to get divorced: Samuel James with an important post. “I’m convinced that part of the emerging polarization between men and women has to do with the increasingly niche information streams that men and women are immersed in. Men see the excesses and abuses of feminism daily. Women see the excesses and abuses of masculinity daily.”

This Week's Recommendations
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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. I’ve studied over 200 kids—here are six magic phrases that make kids listen to their parents: Good things to tell people, not just your kids. Reem Raouda says, “Parents are constantly searching for ways to get their kids to listen. But a lot of us focus too much on trying to get them to obey in the moment, rather than building genuine long-term cooperation.”

  2. Seven lies about our love lives: Eric Geiger shares, “’It’s just between us’: The world, especially in the West, paints relationships as just between the two people.

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Unbelief Isn't a Sin, or Is It?

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Unbelief Isn't a Sin, or Is It?

An earnest interlocutor responded to me, “God wouldn’t hold it against me if I don’t believe in him, would he? If he hasn’t made faith clear enough, isn’t that his responsibility?”

Is unbelief a sin? Surely not!

Culturally, we don’t take unbelief very seriously. We tend to think of unbelief as a neutral characteristic, if not even something that might show a particular strength of character. We might consider someone who doesn’t believe as being sharp minded, thoughtful, or not gullible.

Many Christians even diminish the nature of unbelief. I recently read a book by a popular pastor who claimed that Jesus didn’t call his followers to believe,

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Who Do You Critique Loudest

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Who Do You Critique Loudest

What comes to mind when you think of a Pharisee? A self-righteous finger-wagger? An arrogant rule follower?

Jesus was a Pharisee.

There were two major Jewish groups during Jesus’ time: the Pharisees and the Sadducees (a smaller number of Jews were part of the Essenes, a separatist group). The Pharisees and Sadducees both emerged after the Hasmonean dynasty (The Jewish rulers who gained independence after the Maccabean revolt (167-160 BC) were known as the Hasmoneans).

The Sadducees controlled the Temple and had political favor with the Romans. They accepted only the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and rejected oral tradition.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Parents, we’re doing too much again: Melissa Edgington says, “We’re too often in constant contact with our children. They don’t have any opportunities to learn critical thinking skills because they text us every question in their brains to get quick advice about what to say, which door to walk through, which paper to fill out, and on and on forever.”

  2. Don’t do everything for your kids: O. Alan Noble agrees, “Parenting and guilt seem to go hand-in-hand. Why is that? Society constantly pressures us to Do More and Be More and Get It Right. We are told to practice the latest techniques in parenting to ensure the health and prosperity of our children.”

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Semper Reformanda

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Semper Reformanda

This week, while many celebrate Halloween, Protestants reflect on a much more significant holiday: the start of the Reformation. In commemorating the Reformation, we don’t merely look back at an event that took place 500 years ago, but consider the spirit of reformation that we pray remains in us as followers of Jesus Christ. Ecclesia semper reformanda est: “The church must always be reformed.” It is the unofficial motto of the Protestant church.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his document, the 95 Theses, to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg. For that reason, October 31st is still celebrated as Reformation Day by Protestants.

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Escape

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Escape

“What’s the thread between your addiction and your longings for your future?”

“Escape,” he responded.

Given his story, escape made perfect sense. How else could he cope with the overwhelming weight of life? When pain comes—as it inevitably does—we are tempted to seek escape. We often avoid hard conversations in hopes of escaping conflicts and let downs. In an attempt to numb the hurt, it’s easy to scroll, eat a bowl of ice cream, buy something on Amazon, or watch porn.

The global market for pain management drugs is substantial and rising. In 2023, the market was valued at $80.1 billion or $84.07 billion.

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Go ahead, bring a knife to a gunfight: Tim Challies says, “They say you should never bring a knife to a gunfight. It’s a colorful little proverb that emphasizes the value of proper preparation, yet I’m not sure it’s a proverb God cares much for. I sometimes think of the biblical judge Shamgar, who entered a battle armed with only an ox-goad—a stick used to poke oxen to get them to comply with directions. Shamgar brought an ox-goad to a sword fight, yet emerged victorious and with 600 Philistines dead at his feet.

  2. Help! I think I’m a bad parent: Adam Griffin says, “Our inadequacy in parenting is a great gift. If we weren’t inadequate, when would we run to Jesus?

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A Prayer for the Loud Lord

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A Prayer for the Loud Lord

Today I have the opportunity to share another one of my daughter, Camille’s poems. She wrote this poem during her time serving at the Grand Canyon this past summer. –John

a prayer for the Loud Lord

 

You are loud here. winds wind through royal blue stone, drowning my breath.

so small. so fleeting. so futile. but the vapor of a whisper.

i don’t need to go anywhere to find you. You are here. 

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Shame and Single Serve Vodka Bottles

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Shame and Single Serve Vodka Bottles

What is the most frequent item I pick up during my prayer walks around our campus?
Mini vodka bottles.

They’re everywhere — three billion of them are sold annually in the U.S. I’ll find them tossed onto the roadside, likely flung from moving cars. But more often, I find them in quiet clusters, tucked into corners of our church parking lot. Every bottle tells a story. Every bottle raises questions.

Why is the most common brand I find unflavored vodka?

Why would someone throw a mini bottle out of a moving vehicle?

Why pull into a church parking lot…just to drink?

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This Week's Recommendations

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This Week's Recommendations

  1. Are we the idols? Andrew Noble says, “It is strange to become an idol, isn’t it? It’s hard to wrap your mind around. Yet every day, people are morphing into something like mud. Instead of functioning as images of God, they worship idols and turn into lifeless dust. Life goes wrong when we don’t worship right.”

  2. Weakness in God’s economy: Kirsten shares, “As I consider my heart, my struggle does not come in whether or not I believe that God is able to heal; I believe that God is able to do all that pleases him. Rather, my struggle comes in believing whether or not God is willing; at least in the timeframe I am hoping and praying.”

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