Archives

The first few chapters of Acts are glorious, describing the ascension of Christ, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and Peter’s astounding first sermon. But in the middle of all that beauty, a sentence that stops me in my tracks every time is the one about Judas, the disciple who betrayed the Son of God for a bag of cash.

An inspection of my own heart reveals evidence that I’m sometimes a fraud as well, displaying a level of righteousness that I do not possess. I prop freshly painted facades in front of my life, careful to display the good fruit out front while conveniently hiding the rotten apples in the back.

“And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness”. The chapter ends. The page of my Bible ends. And so my life should end, in the darkness I’d chosen….Then, at that definitive, crushing conclusion when all hope is lost, a word appears: but.

The good news is that God created a painting for us to step into, and it’s right outside our front door. Yes, those descriptions are poetic, but so is the God who breathed them, in whose image we are made.

It was every planning nerd’s nightmare. After a church meeting, I placed my planning notebook on the roof of my car so I could jam a large salad bowl into the back seat, and I drove off. The instant I arrived home, it hit me. My planner!