“I believe that Jesus would have given His life for just one person. Jesus emptied Himself, He humbled Himself and He so yielded Himself to His Father's love that He had no ambition of His own. He was not looking to build an empire, He did not want praise or adulation or to impress people with who or how many followed Him. He stopped over and over again for just one person, for just one life.”
JOURNAL
Everything about following Jesus is meant to awaken and activate within us a life shaped by love, truth, discipline, humility, surrender, and real power. Not the kind of power that dominates, but the kind that transforms. It spreads quietly and beautifully through ordinary people who simply choose to love. We become the conduits of His Spirit, carriers of His compassion, passing it along one life at a time.
Zechariah reminds us that obedience to God looks like caring for people who cannot repay us. Administer justice. Show mercy. Protect the vulnerable. Refuse to harm. Revelation reminds us that true worship begins with surrender, not admiration. To worship God is to align our lives with His heart.
So when I say I worship God, what I am really saying is that I desire to obey Him. And obedience always leads me outward toward people. Toward love. Toward sacrifice. Toward compassion. To love others in the way Jesus loved, I must surrender my need to protect myself or control outcomes. True obedience means God comes first, always, and my life becomes an offering of love to others.
Scripture promises that this surrender opens the door to peace and joy that go far beyond human understanding. It feels upside down in our culture. Everything around us insists that more possessions, more comfort, more affirmation will make us happy. We are tempted to love only those who love us back. Yet that way of living stands in direct opposition to the life and heart of Jesus.
The older I get, the more I understand why Christmas matters so deeply. We forget the story so easily. Jesus came into the world in obscurity, born in a place no one would envy, and His birth was first announced to nameless shepherds. People the world would overlook. I believe this reveals His mission. He came to meet us in the places where we feel least worthy, least polished, least put-together. And if that is the heart of Christ, then that must be our heart as well.
I am grateful to live in a place where I can celebrate Christmas openly. Yes, the holiday can become twisted and commercialized, but beneath all of that remains the truth that God stepped into the world in love and still reaches across time and space to call me His own.
So I return again to Paul’s words, choosing joy, choosing prayer, choosing gratitude, choosing to dwell on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. And then, not just thinking about these things, but doing them. Practicing them. Living them.
Because the God of peace really does meet us there.
Everything about following Jesus is meant to awaken and activate within us a life shaped by love, truth, discipline, humility, surrender, and real power. Not the kind of power that dominates, but the kind that transforms. It spreads quietly and beautifully through ordinary people who simply choose to love. We become the conduits of His Spirit, carriers of His compassion, passing it along one life at a time.
Zechariah reminds us that obedience to God looks like caring for people who cannot repay us. Administer justice. Show mercy. Protect the vulnerable. Refuse to harm. Revelation reminds us that true worship begins with surrender, not admiration. To worship God is to align our lives with His heart.
So when I say I worship God, what I am really saying is that I desire to obey Him. And obedience always leads me outward toward people. Toward love. Toward sacrifice. Toward compassion. To love others in the way Jesus loved, I must surrender my need to protect myself or control outcomes. True obedience means God comes first, always, and my life becomes an offering of love to others.
Scripture promises that this surrender opens the door to peace and joy that go far beyond human understanding. It feels upside down in our culture. Everything around us insists that more possessions, more comfort, more affirmation will make us happy. We are tempted to love only those who love us back. Yet that way of living stands in direct opposition to the life and heart of Jesus.
The older I get, the more I understand why Christmas matters so deeply. We forget the story so easily. Jesus came into the world in obscurity, born in a place no one would envy, and His birth was first announced to nameless shepherds. People the world would overlook. I believe this reveals His mission. He came to meet us in the places where we feel least worthy, least polished, least put-together. And if that is the heart of Christ, then that must be our heart as well.
I am grateful to live in a place where I can celebrate Christmas openly. Yes, the holiday can become twisted and commercialized, but beneath all of that remains the truth that God stepped into the world in love and still reaches across time and space to call me His own.
So I return again to Paul’s words, choosing joy, choosing prayer, choosing gratitude, choosing to dwell on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. And then, not just thinking about these things, but doing them. Practicing them. Living them.
Because the God of peace really does meet us there.
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