This is always such a great time of the year for me. I don’t mean to brag or be self indulgent, I’m just trying to make a point, so go with me here. The end of December into the beginning of January is one of my favorite times of the year. I walk around with a little jump in my step, I feel inspired, excited, expectant. Some might say its because I’m naïve enough to buy into this ‘fresh start’ idea that’s so popular around New Years time, and that might be true. But whether if you take this idea seriously or not, that’s exactly what the New Year is, a new start. The coming of the New Year is a chance to turn the clocks back and start things off clean again, to look off into the coming year with expectations and the hope of greatness.

As with most things in life, the attitude surrounding the New Year can, in fact, teach us a lot about our life with Christ. Scripture clearly states that with God, His mercies are new every morning. The beautiful reality of the life lived by the grace of God is that everyday is a fresh start. It does not matter what we did yesterday because with Christ, everyday we can look forward with expectations and the hope of greatness. We need not wait until December 31st to make a list of all the changes we wish to make, all the bad habits we wish to leave behind; we can give that list to Christ every morning and his grace is sufficient to wash it away and give us that fresh start we’ve been looking for.

Accept the gift of a new start not just on January 1st every year, but every single day that we wake up with God’s promise of new mercy, and a fresh start.

-jon

I’ve heard it said that there is nothing more beautiful, nothing more awesome, nothing more breath taking then to see the love and grace of God change someone’s life. When you witness someone have an encounter with their Creator, and you know that from that day on, they will never be the same, there is nothing better than that.

I was lucky enough to witness this first hand on a trip I took to Nicaragua one summer. At our team meetings before the trip I met a guy named Luke. Luke was about twenty four, average build, with obvious fashion sense. But throughout these meetings as we learned that Luke was unemployed and from a family of questionable faith, I began to see that he was in a place that I would like to call stuck. Unmotivated, lonely, unsure of where to go or what to do, this is stuck.

During our week-long trip towards the equator, however, I watched Luke dive into every circumstance with a curiosity and a desire to learn rivaling that of Simon Peter. Luke laughed, Luke wept, Luke questioned, Luke screamed, Luke got frustrated, Luke rejoiced, and on the last day of the trip, I had the pleasure of watching Luke get baptized in Lake Managua. I have seen many baptisms in my life but Luke’s baptism I will never forget, as he rose out of the water and pumped two fists in the air. All of his toil and all of his searching had not come in vein, and I knew right there that I had just witnessed the grace of God touch somebody’s life.

Luke is still one of my closest friends and brothers today, he encourages me, keeps me accountable, and pushes and pulls me towards God as we like to say. He lives his life with a faith and joy that most people only dream of. He is a living testament to the truth that there is nothing more beautiful, awesome, breath taking, or powerful than the grace and love of God changing someone’s life. These are the greatest stories.

-jon

The Christmas season has finally reached it’s climax, and with New Years fast approaching, in a few days the season will be all but over. The celebration of Christmas is always so long approaching, so widely anticipated, only to fade away so quickly. Billions of people prepare for this celebration all throughout the month of December, or even November if you’re like some people I know. By the time we finally get to the day itself however, it comes and goes so fast we barely take the time to breathe, and Christmas was once again, not what we expected.

The arrival of Christ, the coming Messiah, for the followers of the God of Israel was the most anticipated event in the history of the world. God’s people had been waiting thousands upon thousands of years for the anointed one to make his move. They were expecting a strong, flashy, firework type king that would overturn the Roman government and carry them on his back into a kingdom that he would forever rule over. But by the time Christ came as a baby, grew up, did three years of ministry, was betrayed, beaten, and hung on a cross, most people hadn’t taken the time to stop and breathe, the Messiah was not what they expected.

Too often, gifts from God come and go and we don’t take the time to stop and recognize them. But we need not despair at this, because the gift Christmas is never out of season. The same goes for the gift of Christ the Messiah. We know from scripture the Christ is alive and well and living in each and every one of us, as is the Christmas spirit.

Throughout the month of December I’ve been reflecting on what Christmas is really about. After much quiet, prayerful time, I have come to the conclusion that Christmas is simply about all of the things that everyone says it is. Hope, love, family, giving, joy. The only difference is that we use Christmas as an excuse to celebrate these things when the only excuse we need is the fact that Christ, our Savior was born thousands of years ago, and he is still alive today, and what he stands for is still alive today, and what he celebrates is still alive today. Christmas is a reminder of a celebration that should be happening year round. A celebration of hope, love, family, giving, and joy that doesn’t stop on December 27th but pours out of our hearts and our homes for the entire year.

This year, as the Christmas season comes to a close, do not let the spirit of Christmas come to a close in your heart. Continue the celebration, continue the hope, the love, the family, the giving, the joy, and help keep Christmas alive.

-jon

My family loves board games. We love sitting around a table and engaging in some friendly, and sometimes not so friendly, competition. Plus, we own just about every game that's been created since 1990, so we have a lot to work with.

The beauty of the board game though, I think, is it's competition, or the acknowledgement of the competition. I believe that in life we are all too often playing a game , especially in our culture. Who has the bigger house, the better car, the higher paying job? We are constantly in competition with one another, but no one ever wants to admit it. Because if we admit we're playing a game, then at some point we'll have to admit when we're losing.

The beauty of the board game is that it allows us to acknowledge competition, laugh, and have fun with it, therefore freeing ourselves from it's grip and opening us up to the possibility of some honest, sincere connection with those we love the most. We drop the facade that we are so important or that we are invincible and laugh at our mistakes and even celebrate them, because after all, it is only a game.

When we remove the need to be the best, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable to Christ like community.

-jon

I believe in the power of creativity. I believe that God created each and every one of a us with the ability to be creative. God, as the original creator, design you and me in his image, the Imago Dei, so that we could follow after our Father and be creators ourselves. This does not mean that everyone should be an artist. Not everyone is called to write books, or play instruments, or take photographs, but we are all called to be creative, to be innovative, to listen to the voice deep within us that is calling us to something more than assembly line living, in whatever sort of medium appeals to us. When we begin to create, ‘artistically’ or not, we begin to connect with the Father, we begin to build a relationship with him, because we see what our Dad is doing and we want to do it too. We want to be part of creating a better world, a world free from the bonds of sin.

Track with me on this; right now, we do not live in a world where everyone knows the grace of the Savior Jesus Christ and is free from the bonds of sin, right? Now, three hundred years ago, we did not live in a world where people can travel from one side of the world to the other in less than a day. Today we do live in that kind of world (if you fly the right airline). What happened to make us move from there to here in the last three hundred years? Someone created something, a plane! Then the original model evolved into something bigger, better, more effective. That is what God wants to do with our creative ideas. Progress is near impossible without creativity. To enter into a future where God is at the center of our culture, we must follow his promptings and create that future together.

-jon

I was thinking today about the mind of a five year old and how vast and amazing it is. I work with children around that age for the majority of the summer. Their imaginations inspire me; a five year old has the ability to create entire worlds in their head and to live in those worlds with such commitment. Their resilience baffles me; a five year old will slip, fall, cry for two minutes, then get up and be one hundred percent again. Their belief humbles me; whatever a five year old believes in, they believe it with all of their heart, mind, and soul.

Picture a world where we’re able to combine the knowledge, influence, and wisdom of an adult with the imagination, resilience, and belief of a five year old. We would be unstoppable. The things we would create, the glory we would bring, it would be indescribable.

A lot of us have left our five year old selves in the past. But true growth is often more about adding on, not leaving behind. Let us re-awaken to child like spirit in all of us this Christmas.

-jon