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Three Little Words to Power Your New Year

Birds over beach sideways

The Power of a Focus Word

 

I first learned of the practice in my Mops group. A few years ago, we were led as a group through the process of individually choosing a focus word for the new year. In the last handful of Januaries since then, I have continued the practice of entering the new year with a word of God’s and my collective choosing. Not a resolution, just a word. A focus. A landing place for the hope that I will grow more fully into my potential in the coming year. In the weeks surrounding the ball drop, I take extra care to Read more

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Not a Waste

Rainy cross photo

With the world on pause…

we’re witnessing the God who is not

 

I came across a post about funny holiday cards this season. Breaking slightly from tradition, many felt an obligation to acknowledge this year as one like we’ve never experienced. Normally, I’m not a Christmas card sender (one less thing to stress about, among other reasons), but I decided to make a go at it:

 

Kruse Christmas card front Kruse Christmas Card back

 

It’s an age-old pearl of wisdom that intentionally reflecting on the past helps inform our future.

2020 was hard, but we’re not letting it go to waste

 

In a year that a lot was taken away from all of us physically, my hope comes from the belief that much was accomplished spiritually. Why? Read more

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When a sandwich works a miracle

picnic lunch with Don

Back in January, at one of the very first opening Sundays of our new church plant, the kids and I didn’t know what to do with ourselves after the first service ended. Justin was staying for second service to lead the student ministry, and we hadn’t yet established a rhythm for our new Sunday routine. I thought about sticking around and seeing if the kids and I could be utilized on one of the serving teams or just connect with people in the lobby, but it seemed mostly covered.

 

As such, we made our way out to the car– the kids started complaining about how hungry they were and suggested Read more

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Hope Was Born…For you. For 2020.

City Christmas light display

December reflections for a holiday like no other

 

“Every perfect gift is from God.” -James 1:17

 

If ever there was a time that our Christmas lists would look a little different, it seems this would be the year. When so much has been stripped away—the security of jobs, the simple pleasantries of dinners out, the elusive guarantee of good health, uncomplicated holiday plans—we are all reevaluating what matters to us. Not what matters most, just what matters at all.

 

It’s a family joke that my Dad is admittedly never short on gift ideas for his own big day or for Christmas (really, it’s helpful!), but he recently reposted the below tear-jerker, with a simple resounding “yea”: Read more

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Does “2020 Suck” in the kingdom of heaven?

Dad's Facebook repost

The other day, I was outside doing chores when a neighbor walked by with his dog and his son on training wheels. As the dad tripped up on the slack of the dog’s leash, his trendy t-shirt slogan had me doing a double-take. In big bold letters, the shirt said “2020 SUCKS.”

 

The sentiment is felt, man. In 2020, death and disease have overcome our news feeds. Fear has overtaken our communities. Confusion has found a place at the table. And injustice is rearing its ugly head all around us. Neither can we help but notice the uneasiness within. “2020 sucks” is a lucrative slogan—a money-making graphic to be slapped on everything. Recently, someone even sent me an image of the numbers 2-0-2-0 shaped into a flip of the bird.

 

The truth of the matter is, you won’t find many people who would argue that this year hasn’t been hard—there are many scary things playing out. Bad news never goes on vacation anymore, and we would give anything to take one. This is surely no Garden of Eden, and we would be right to lament over the brokenness around and within. As real suffering is felt all over the world, affecting all of us to some degree, we mourn it from a posture of “this isn’t how it was supposed to be.” Further, we yearn for it to be made right, for when Heaven will invade Earth and God Himself will wipe every tear (reference to Revelation 21:2-4).

 

But in the here and now, what are we left to do? Can we just cancel out 2020 in our minds and hearts, much like we cancel public figures when they throw us a politically incorrect curveball?

 

This blog is all about removing the scales and revealing God in our everyday lives. In Romans, Paul advises us to “be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”[1] Let’s break down this verse and see how we can apply it to this year of all years.

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The new I hadn’t perceived

 

When tragic life moments like what happened to #georgefloyd pass through our world, I could choose to shelter my ten-year-old white male child from the reality of the news blazing through my phone and on my computer screen. But I think he’s old enough, and he is curious. I chose to let him see the photo, watch the video (though I’m grateful the version he saw was not the heart-wrenching, kick-to-the-gut close-up eyewitness account I viewed), and witness the outrage. We have been talking about Read more

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Certain God in Uncertain Times

The sun rose this morning with its sherbet oranges and pinks, its cotton candy blues. The green blades of the soon-to-be daffodils pointed upward toward the master painting swooped across the sky. This has been nature’s backdrop on our way to the school bus stop for the last several mornings, only the blades are taller now, indicating their bright yellow arrival is nearer than it was yesterday.

 

Something else is different as well. This will be the last time Read more

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The One New Year’s Resolution Everyone Needs

The ball dropped. Auld Lang Syne was sung. Now the buzz of everyone making New Year’s resolutions is all you hear about in ads and on social media. I know, cliché. It’s just a number. I will be scribbling out 19 and rewriting 20 every time I write the date for at least a month. […]

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A Prayer at Christmastime

FOR ALL THE WOMEN IN MY LIFE

If anyone were able to relate to Christmastime stress, it was Mary. Though the weight of the world wasn’t actually on her shoulders, the one who holds the world in His hands dwelt in her belly! I venture to say the list of things that could have had her in a tizzy on that holy night and in the weeks and months leading up to it would have Read more

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When Jesus Comes

“To Seek and To Save”

Advent 2019

 

As one of the fullest and most complete encounters of Jesus’s life, my good friend Jenni challenged me to read the entire Book of Luke this Advent season. This particular Gospel also includes the most commonly recited version of Jesus’s birth story. I thought, why not and began by reading the brief description given in my childhood Bible preceding the opening paragraphs of Luke. What I found there were eight little words that cut right to my core and are becoming my theme for the entire Advent season. These eight words are emboldening me to come off survival mode, turn off auto-pilot that becomes “just getting through the season,” and embrace the choice to cherish an ever-deepening understanding of what the Christmas and Advent season is all about.

 

I’ll get to what those eight powerful words were here in a moment, but let me start with this: How many of you feel like you already messed up Advent season?! I mean come on, I left Thanksgiving early to participate in the Black Friday (ahem, Thursday) shenanigans at Target. Along with my brother and some of my cousins, we giddily walked out of the housewares haven with a red cartful of shopping bags and a 55-inch flat-screen lodged diagonally like a Keep Reading

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