the top lessons I'm committed to learning this year
"Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it."
Don Herald
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"
1 John 3:1
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In Today’s Newsletter
A Parable
Two Quotes
A Paradigm
A Prayer
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EMPTYING THE CUP
Part of the danger of being a Christian for thirty years, and being a Pastor for twenty-five years, is that you come to know a lot of content and ideas about God. However, knowledge about God is not the same as intimacy with God. As J.I. Packer noted:
“You can have all the right notions in your head without ever tasting in your heart the realities to which they refer; and a simple Bible reader and sermon hearer who is full of the Holy Spirit will develop a far deeper acquaintance with his God and Savior than a more learned scholar who is content with being theologically correct.”
After being in church for so long, you end up knowing way more than you can live out, and your opinions become stronger than your actions. So, 2025 may be a year of emptying out information and replacing it with revelation. It may be a year of humility and relearning.
I was reminded of this while reflecting on this classic story of the professor and the master.
A university professor went to visit a famous Zen master.
While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen.
The master poured the visitor's cup to the brim and then kept pouring. The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's full! No more will go in!" the professor blurted. "This is you," the master replied, "How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?
What do you need to empty your cup of this year so you can be filled with new revelation?
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FORMATION, NOT OPINION
As the political transition heads our way, opinions and hot takes will be on full display. This can always be a dangerous time for our witness as we can pontificate about things we can do nothing about instead of becoming the very thing we are passionate about.
Our world is not starving for opinionated men, but it's aching for transformed men.
Thomas à Kempis reminds us of the importance of living what matters, not just talking about it.
“Of what use is it to discourse learnedly on the Trinity, if you lack humility and therefore displease the Trinity? Lofty words do not make a man just or holy; but a good life makes him dear to God. I would far rather feel contrition than be able to define it. If you knew the whole Bible by heart, and all the teachings of the philosophers, how would this help you without the grace and love of God?”
Where do you need to focus on formation, not opinion this coming season?
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GETTING AFTER IT
We all know we should pursue the right things and resist the wrong things, but actually pursuing things well can be a kind of mystery. How do we sustain devotion when we run out of emotion? How can we be disciplined when disappointment sets in?
I love how clearly Dallas Willard breaks down the inner journey of pursuit and desire. To really pursue and take hold of something in our life, we must have….
1. Information about the thing. (Research)
2. Longing for it to be so. (Desire)
3. Affirmation that it must be so. (Insistence)
4. Invocation to God to make it so. (Intercession)
5. Appropriation by God's grace that it is so. (Receiving)
What do you really want from the Lord this year? How can the above framework help you get after it?
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WORK, DON’T WAIT
So often, we limit the work God can do through us because we don’t think we are far enough along. We think we are holy, knowledgeable, empowered, or educated enough. In reality, all we need to be is available enough for God to use us. As George Eliot reminded us…
“The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.”
What can you do now, with what you have, where you are?
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A PRAYER OF SURRENDER
A reminder of this beautiful prayer by Tozer.
“I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame, and I choose it above all things on Earth or in Heaven. Amen.”
May God give us grace to choose His will above all this year
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Thanks for reading.
Hope to see you in person in 2025 somewhere down the road.
Cheers.
Jon.
