January 8, 2025

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

The True

The End of the Story

Do you have faith in the end of your story?

It is a critically important question for Jesus followers living in a broken world (that is all of us)! Why? Because each of us has been promised an eternity free from death, pain, and suffering (Rev. 21:4), and yet we live in a deeply broken world (our headline stories will, as they always do, reveal this brokenness).

Your future—the end of your story—is written. It is already accomplished, and it is one of wholeness, beauty, and rejoicing!

But your today—the middle part of your story—is being written amid brokenness. You have circumstances in your present day—in your here and now—that are anything but free from death, pain, and suffering.

So I ask again: As you live from the middle of your story in a place riddled with brokenness, do you have faith that the end of your story is still both whole and good?

You can, and you should, but if you are like me, you need reminded how to do so.

This week, our family is celebrating the life and memory of my wife, Brooke’s, mom—our beloved Mimi. You have walked this journey with us (we are so grateful for that), and it has been a vivid and painful reminder that the middle of your story and mine is anything but pain-free. In fact, the middle of the story includes significant struggle with pain, sickness, agony, heartache, and ultimately, death. There is every temptation to internalize these realities, and to allow them to write the overarching narrative of our lives.

In short, it is easy to lose faith in the end of the story.

Take a moment now to consider where this is most true in your life today. It likely took just that—the briefest of moments—for you to identify where it is you are tempted to lose the thread of your life’s ultimate narrative. Perhaps it is in a relationship with your spouse or your children or your parents. Maybe it is in an illness for you or a loved one. For some of you, it is in a struggle to find identity and purpose in your vocation or your livelihood. For others, you are walking through a season like our family—one marked by the loss of the human form of someone you love.

Whatever it is, that loss is real. You live in a tangible world. Ephesians 6:12 calls it a world of “flesh and blood,” and in the same breath reminds you that your struggle is not against that tangible world, but rather against spiritual forces that war against you. Your struggle is against a power who tells you that the end of your story is authored by the events that occur in the middle of your story.

It is a lie.

The Truth you can stand on today is that the Power in you is greater than the power who utters those lies (1 Jn. 4:4). The pain you are experiencing today is real, but it is not forever.

The end of your story is already written, and it is good! In the end of your story, you are whole. In fact, in the end, your story is full wrapped up in the Author’s story, and that is how you can be confident it is good!

So this week, let’s you and I walk this out together. Our family will shed some tears. It is very likely yours will too (and if not this week, soon—it is a reality of these middle chapters we are living). But they do not have to be tears without hope (1 Thes. 4:13).

The end of your story is held and protected by the Most High God. You can have faith in it even as you walk through the most intense of suffering. Your God is good, and He is still writing your story!

U.S.

New Year Attacks

New Years Day arrived in tragic fashion in both New Orleans, LA and Las Vegas NV.

In New Orleans, an attacker identified by officials as Shamsud-din Jabbar drove a truck around police barricades and down a crowded Bourbon Street shortly after 3:00a.m., killing at least 15 and injuring dozens. Jabbar was later identified as a U.S. citizen who has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

In Las Vegas, a U.S. Army veteran took his own life in the process of exploding the Tesla Cybertruck he had parked in front of the Trump hotel. The soldier was identified as Matthew Livelsberger, and authorities found multiple notes suggesting he was struggling with intense mental trauma, and wanted the incident to serve as a “wake up call” for the country.

Analysis and eternal perspective: Joyous occasions have increasingly become targets for those who would do harm and inflict evil. As is so often the case, these two acts of violence are marked by deep brokenness. In one case, the assailant pledged allegiance to a terrorist group and in the other there are the all-too-familiar signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

In both cases, however, we see a world trending toward chaos. This reality does not surprise you, and in fact you have likely come to expect it. One of our collective goals at The Equipped is that we would be a people who respond to brokenness with the tangible healing and restorative power of the Gospel. While both of these events leave behind a trail of wounded and grieving people, your God draws near to the grieving, and He does so through you.

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps 147:3).

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18).

Brokenness will mark our world until we slip the bonds of Earth. But you, as a follower of Jesus, are not defined by that brokenness. In fact, you are specifically designed to carry to healing power of a loving and compassionate God to those whose spirits are crushed.

Who in your world is crushed? Bind up their wounds this week.

U.S.

A Speaker and a President-Elect

By contrast to recent history, each of the two events went off without a hitch.

First, when the 119^th Congress convened on January 3, 2025, a Speaker—Mike Johnson—was elected on the first ballot. While it was not without a bit of drama—President-elect Donald Trump had to call and convince two Members to change their votes to push Johnson over the top—it was far more straightforward than the last two Speaker elections, one of which took 15 rounds of voting and the other 22 days.

Next, when a joint session of the 119^th Congress met on January 6, 2025 to certify the 2024 election, the certification proceeded without delay—even amid a significant snowstorm in Washington, D.C. For the first time since Al Gore in 2001, the President of the Joint Session—current Vice President Kamala Harris—was the defeated presidential candidate in the election being certified. The joint session certified the electoral college result of 312 electoral votes for Donald Trump and JD Vance and 226 electoral votes for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Analysis and eternal perspective: Each of these two events is prescribed by the U.S. Constitution.

​Article I, Section 2, Clause 5 says: “The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”

​Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, while a bit longer, includes the operative instruction for Congress: “The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President.”

As always, you should read each constitutional provision for yourself (linked above). The Founders gave us a wonderful gift in an attainable and understandable Constitution to form the foundation of American law. You should be familiar with this framework, and in doing so, will find it far less complex than some would have you believe.

As a Jesus follower, you should also be aware that this week’s relative lack of drama does not suggest a conquering of chaos. In fact, should the Messiah’s return tarry, there will certainly again be contested Speaker elections and disputed presidential elections. When those days come, you will continue to seek the peace and prosperity of your current homeland (Jer. 29:7) and are empowered to live with power, love, and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7)!

World

Prime Minister Trudeau Resigns

The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, has announced his resignation. Trudeau was facing significant dissatisfaction from Canadians and failing support from his own cabinet (his Finance Minister resigned last month). As a result, Parliament will be suspended until March 24 while a new leader of Trudeau’s Liberal Party is chosen, and it is nearly certain a new election will be called shortly thereafter.

Analysis and eternal perspective: The Creator placed a desire for freedom deep within the heart of man, whom He created in His own image (Gal. 5:1, Gen. 1:26-27). For as long as humankind has attempted to organize and govern itself, it has struggled with the tension created by the reality that a free individual will often choose a different path than the one preferred by the government of the current day. As a result, all of history is marked by an ebb and flow in the relative strength and stability of governments and empires.

The current political scuffle in Canada is far from an isolated event, as people all over the world are expressing dissatisfaction with their current form of government. Despite that common strain, there is a huge dichotomy between those with the freedom to accomplish a change in their self-governance and the many without.

If you live in a system where your thoughtful participation contributes to your own self-governance, cherish it and participate in it! If you live in a system without any real measure of self-governance, take heart in the truth that you are a citizen of heaven and were created for an eternity beyond this Earth (Philip. 3:20).

The Beautiful

Revealed by the Storm

The snow is finally here, and with some punch! Our little neck of the woods received a heavy winter storm this week, much to the delight of our entire family! As the drab color of our winter woods was gradually covered with a beautiful and clean covering of white, it afforded a new perspective on so much of what had been camouflaged. This beauty would have been hard to find before the storm, but in the snow her subtle colors are plainly visible.

I’m wondering today…what beauty in your life is the current storm intended to reveal? What aspect of God’s glory is meant to shine through your adversity? It is quite possible that beauty was difficult to discern before the storm. Do you see it now?