November 26, 2025

Viewing all things through the lens of the True and the beautiful!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! Thank you for being in The Equipped community and we pray blessings on your household!

The True

Exploding Slippers

The slippers exploded out from under me.

It would have been a normal game of chase with our youngest son, Parker, but for the fact I neglected to change my shoes. I always wear house shoes (which is really just a manly term for slippers) when I’m inside because I’m old and my feet hurt if I go barefoot. So when Parker ran out the front door hollering for me to chase him, I should have changed shoes before engaging his game. Instead, I slowly walked out the front door in my slippers.

Parker was giddy with excitement that the chase was on, but I continued my slow walk at first until the moment he glanced away. That was what I had been waiting for, and I burst into a full-speed sprint toward him! The plan worked . . . until it didn’t.

Within a few strides, I was close to catching Parker. But then my slippers literally exploded out from under me. The soles collapsed, the right slipper was thrown off and over my head behind me, and the left one was even more problematic in that the sole slipped off the side of my foot but did not come completely off. The result was a high-speed (and yet somehow slow-motion) crash to the pavement.

It would have been hilarious to watch, but unfortunately it ended with the back of my head smacking into the pavement. Not exactly the ideal situation for a middle-aged man with a history of concussions!

It was weeks before the knot on my head finally disappeared. But the lesson of that day remains with me, and I offer it to you today:

Being ready for the adventure God has for you requires more than a decision: It requires preparation.

Your God has instructed you to, “Go and make disciples” (Matt. 28:19-20). As a follower of Jesus, there is only one appropriate response: You must go!

The course of action is simple and straight-forward, but you also have a duty to figurately put your shoes on as you walk out that door! Ephesians 6 is the familiar passage that outlines the armor of God, and in verse 15 you are told to have “your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”

In other words, put your shoes on to chase the adventure God has for you! Better yet, keep them on!

It is a wonderful thing to be used by God! In fact, it is the only way to truly live! But if you dash out into that hostile mission field with your spiritual slippers on, your readiness is going to explode out from underneath you. Your mad dash will end with a crash to the ground!

Your readiness for the adventure comes from putting on the gospel of peace! Some translations say, “having your feet shod.” I rather like that translation because of the visual image of a shoe that is both strong and permanently attached! It provides the wearer with the ability to immediately pick up and run at a moment’s notice, and also the strength to sustain the road ahead!

How about you? Are your shoes on? Are your feet shod? Is the gospel of peace affixed to you? Or are you still wearing slippers?

Your mission is to go. Slippers won’t do the job. They will explode out from underneath you. Put your shoes on. Leave them on. They will prepare you, protect you, and carry you into all that God has prepared in advance for you (Eph. 2:10)!

World

Mass Abduction at Nigerian School

The recent spate of attacks on churches and schools in Nigeria continued on Friday when 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers were abducted from a Catholic school. Fifty of the 303 managed to escape over the weekend but the remainder are still in captivity. The attacks are the latest in a long string of violence carried out on religious minorities—particularly Christians—in Nigeria. Two people were killed and 38 briefly kidnapped at a church on Tuesday in what has been a sustained targeting of churches.

The violence previously led the U.S. State Department to designate Nigeria a “country of particular concern,” which initiates a process to craft and implement a plan to combat the violence. This week’s events add urgency to that process.

Analysis and eternal perspective: “You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matt 10:22). A story like this one is horrific and shocking, and yet it is consistent with what scripture says about how the world will treat Jesus followers. Following Jesus comes at a price—a reality that is easy to take for granted when living in relative peace and safety.

Scripture is also abundantly clear about both God’s view of the persecuted and our role in responding to the persecution of our brothers and sisters.

First, God calls the persecuted ‘blessed’ and says the kingdom of heaven belongs to them (Matt. 5:10). The following verses instruct the persecuted to rejoice when they are persecuted, because it bonds them with the prophets of old and seals a reward in heaven (Matt. 5:11-12). In sum, God’s heart is with the persecuted and He has promised to restore them to Himself for all eternity.

Next, you and I are to intentionally choose solidarity with those enduring persecution. Hebrews 13:3 instructs us to remember the persecuted “as if you yourselves were suffering.” Human instinct is to create separation from suffering as a defense mechanism, but you and I are called to be with those suffering to the point the world sees no distinction between them and us. This may very well mean taking on more personal persecution than we otherwise would have, but remember, you will be called ‘blessed’ and inherit eternity as a result!

U.S.

Face to Face

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday. The meeting came after months of high-profile hostilities—mostly over social media—between the two men. Mamdani is a self-described democratic socialist, a fact that has earned vociferous critic from Republicans and even some Democrats but did not deter New Yorkers from electing Mamdani amid the largest voter turnout in more than half a century. Both the President and the Mayor-elect maintain they have strenuous disagreements with each other but insist they will work together when they can find common ground.

Analysis and eternal perspective: It was somewhat surprising for the much-anticipated meeting to present more pleasantries than hostilities. For some, it was a welcome change, while others on both sides were alarmed.

The American political system, if it is to work as envisioned by our Founders, requires both open disagreement and debate as well as shared authority between conflicting viewpoints. It is a rather stark feature of the republic, and one too often overlooked, that power is distributed widely between federal, state, and local authorities—a reality that ensures significant disagreement on all manner of issues. This disagreement requires debate and cooperation even with those who hold opposing viewpoints.

It is messy. It is hard. It is also by design.

Our Founders intentionally rejected “efficient” government, as they knew firsthand the perils of efficient and consolidated power. In a very real sense, they saw around the corner to a moment like this week when the nation’s president and the mayor of the nation’s largest city would have opposite views on the most important issues of the day. They saw that reality coming, and they intentionally chose it.

We as Jesus followers should strive for civility and endeavor to love our enemies as ourselves (Matt. 5:44). It is easy to interpret that command as an admonition to avoid disagreement, but in fact we are called to embrace the refining process of weighing various perspectives (Pr. 18:17, Pr. 27:17, Pr. 11:14). Taken together, those three passages encourage us to hear both sides, to onboard a variety of counsel, and then to submit to the refining input of others.

Even after all of the above, disagreements will remain. What great confidence you can have in standing on our foundational promise here at The Equipped: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

You need not shy away from differences in perspective. When all is said and done, you can stand on the final authority of God’s holy Word!

U.S.

Illegal Orders and Sedition

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly is trading barbs with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The spat follows Sen. Kelly’s participation in an online video encouraging members of the military and intelligence community to “ignore illegal orders.” Secretary Hegseth responded to the video by announcing an investigation into Kelly’s actions.

Analysis and eternal perspective: Talk about a prime example of the competing viewpoints discussed in our last story! On one side, Sen. Kelly and his colleagues believe the administration is giving unconstitutional commands and they are encouraging servicemembers and intelligence personnel to defy those orders, and on the other side Sec. Hegseth believes Sen. Kelly is violating military law and should be prosecuted.

There appears to be no common ground here. Even so, there is a common dependence on the rule of law. Both Sen. Kelly and Sec. Hegseth are utilizing provisions of the law to support their position (Sen. Kelly by appealing to the servicemembers’ oath to uphold the Constitution above all else, and Sec. Hegseth by invoking the continuing jurisdiction of military law for retired servicemembers such as Sen. Kelly).

It is messy. It is hard. It is also by design. (Have you heard that before?)

Sen. Kelly has a First Amendment right to speak his mind and is correct the Constitution is the highest law in the land.

Sec. Hegseth has a duty to protect “good order and discipline” in the military and is correct that Sen. Kelly remains subject to military law.

Each man has protections under the law to utilize. This fact does not necessarily make the current spat a productive one, but it does underscore the brilliance of America’s adversarial system.

As for you as a Jesus follower, there will be every temptation to take a default position in favor of whichever official you are more naturally inclined. Instead, proactively decide to walk out Proverbs 18:17. Consider the substance of the video in question and the responsive investigation. As always, remember to aim for flourishing and ask yourself how to personally achieve an impact toward that end.

The Beautiful

Gratitude

A spirit of gratitude accentuates the beauty in your life! This Thanksgiving, we at The Equipped pause to thank you for being in community with us. Thank you for choosing to view your world through the lens of the True and the beautiful, and thank you for deliberately and sacrificially aiming at eternity.

Our world is more beautiful because of you, and we are grateful. Happy Thanksgiving!

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