JULY 9, 2025

  “I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.” 

― Abraham Lincoln

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” 
― Martin Luther King Jr.

JOB 40-42

7“Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

8“Would you discredit my justice?

Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

9Do you have an arm like God’s,

and can your voice thunder like his?

10Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,

and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.

11Unleash the fury of your wrath,

look at all who are proud and bring them low,

12look at all who are proud and humble them,

crush the wicked where they stand.

13Bury them all in the dust together;

shroud their faces in the grave.

14Then I myself will admit to you

that your own right hand can save you. (40:7-14)

ACTS 15:22-41

Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. 41He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

JOURNAL 

I’ve been sitting with the weight of tragedy. The kind that doesn’t make sense. The kind that stirs questions deeper than words and leaves silence where answers should be. The losses at Camp Mystic…also recently the faces of several I knew who are now gone. It doesn’t line up with what seems fair. 

And yet—Job. A man stripped of nearly everything, not because he failed, but because suffering, in some divine mystery, was allowed. He cried out. He questioned. And in the end, God didn’t explain. He simply asked, “Will you discredit my justice to justify yourself?” (Job 40:8). The answer Job receives is not information—it’s revelation. That God is infinitely wiser, infinitely just, and infinitely beyond me.

Still, what strikes me most is that Job’s story doesn’t end in despair. After the storm, after the silence, after the long ache of unknowing—Job is restored. Humbled, but held. Not because he earned it, but because God is both just and good.

In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas—two pillars of faith—don’t see eye to eye. They part ways, not with bitterness, but with mission. The work doesn’t stop. God uses even division to further the kingdom. The calling doesn’t crumble just because the path diverges.

So what am I learning in this season of confusion and sorrow? That God is God. That some things will remain unanswered on this side of eternity. That no amount of effort, planning, or understanding can insulate us from pain. But I am not called to understand. I’m called to endure. To live with purpose in the face of uncertainty. To sweep the street, write the poem, run the race—whatever my task may be—with wholehearted faithfulness. As Dr. King said, even the street sweeper can reflect the divine when he works with excellence.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.” That’s all I can do. In honor of those we’ve lost. In gratitude for the time we have. In reverence to the God who gives breath and meaning to each day.

I don’t want to waste a moment. Not sulking in what could’ve been. Not complaining about what I can’t control. But fixing my eyes on Jesus—the pioneer, the finisher—and running the race marked out for me (Hebrews 12:1–3).

Even in grief. Even in uncertainty. Especially then.

Let my life—whatever it turns out to be—be a quiet masterpiece of surrender and effort. Let it be said, “Here lived one who did his part well.”

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

HEBREWS 12:1-3