Right place, right time?

But God’s Spirit has special powers!

Ezekiel 8:3 The Spirit transported me to the north gate of the inner courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem …

Acts 8:39-40 When Philip and the eunuch came up out of the water [after Philip baptized the eunuch], the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.

Getting from point A to point B in the city of São Paulo, Brazil (22 million people in one metropolis) can be tricky. Once after Dave traveled to another part of Brazil, a pastor friend died. Dave asked me to attend the funeral in his place. The catch: I would have to drive to the (for me) confusing and intimidating eastern zone of the city.

A view of one slice of São Paulo

I dropped our kids off at school and started out. I didn’t have a cell phone or GPS. I had a thick book of maps, each one a small piece of the city. The night before, I had pored over the maps, figuring out which page to go to from the previous page to take me to my destination. As you can imagine, this is much easier to manage with a navigator next to you!

On my way, I nervously watched at one intersection a car being burglarized. (Whenever possible, one doesn’t stop at intersections in São Paulo). A kilometer or so later, a car in flames in the middle of an intersection stopped traffic in all directions. I had to recalculate my carefully charted map plan to accommodate this detour, and then another: a road closure for construction. And then another, this time a three-car accident.

When I finally arrived at the church, the service was over, and mourners had moved to the cemetery. I navigated to the cemetery and found the correct grave site, only to see the last cars departing. I wasn’t able even to greet the pastor’s family to convey our condolences.

I took a deep breath, recalculated my return trip, and set out once again, arriving at our children’s school late enough to cause them anxiety. No cell phone, remember? As they climbed into the car (“Mommy, where were you?”), I sat trembling, so grateful I had made it back safely: no accident, no burglary, no car theft or breakdown, no getting lost—thanks to my trusty book of maps. Just a “wasted” day filled with “Lord, help me! Protect me!” prayers.

So, when I read about the Holy Spirit picking up Ezekiel and transporting him from place to place (eight times! Ezekiel 2:2, 3:12, 3:14, 8:3, 11:1, 11:24, 37:1, 43:5) and recall our long days of travel last week to Bogotá and back, I feel just a bit jealous. Except for the one where the Spirit took Ezekiel by the hair (8:3). And I’m not sure I want my destination to be a valley filled with dry bones (37:1), even in this month of Halloween, the American holiday I have never understood.

The thing is, God showed Ezekiel something important at each of the places he found himself snatched away to. So, I asked, “What did I learn from my apparently worthless trek across São Paulo?” I failed in my mission—to offer solidarity and comfort to the grieving family of a friend. I caused my children considerable anxiety when I didn’t show up at the end of their school day.

I realize now, though, two things: I have deep empathy for those who must drive to work in São Paulo every day, like my son-in-law. Moreover, I recognize that at no moment in that solitary challenge was I alone. The Holy Spirit accompanied, steadied, and guided me and brought me home safely. I see this now as a “dry run” for so many times after that when I had to navigate life alone, especially during the difficult Karis years when each day held enormous challenges.

But no, I wasn’t alone. For the Holy Spirit faithfully shepherded me, through each moment and each place Karis’s journey took us.

Breath of Heaven, Amy Grant

Hey, remember 750 years ago?

But God’s Spirit gives us rest

Isaiah 63:10-14 But they rebelled against him and grieved his Holy Spirit. … Then they remembered those days of old when Moses led his people out of Egypt. They cried out, “Where is the one who brought Israel through the sea, with Moses as their shepherd? Where is the one who sent his Holy Spirit to be among his people? … As with cattle going down into a peaceful valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.

Isaiah 12:4-5 Tell the nations what God has done. Let them know how mighty he is! Sing to the Lord, for he has done wonderful things. Make known his praise around the world.

The theme of remembering we considered in the last post continues in Isaiah 63, when Isaiah looks back 750 years to Moses leading the people of Israel in their great exodus from slavery in Egypt. Isaiah cries out for the Lord to show himself anew in his time as he did way back then.

Timeline by Anthony Scott Ingram. Isaiah prophesied approximately 750-700 BC. The Exodus occurred approximately 1500 BC.

Think about that for a moment. What do you know about your history 750 years ago, in 1275 AD? That date means nothing to me. I asked Google what was going on in the world back then:

“In 1275 CE, the English King Edward I issued the Statute of Westminster to define landowners’ rights, the Marinids captured Algiers, and a significant British earthquake occurred. In the East, Kublai Khan sent more ambassadors to Japan, leading to the execution of messengers and prompting the Japanese to fortify Hakata Bay. Marco Polo reached China and entered the service of Kublai Khan, beginning his significant journey across Asia …”

Then I asked Google what was happening in Christianity in 1275 AD:

“In 1275 CE, a key event was the arrival of Marco Polo in China, where he presented letters from the previous Pope, Gregory X, to Kublai Khan. This followed the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, which Pope Gregory X had convened to attempt to reunite the Eastern and Western churches but ultimately failed to provide a lasting solution to the Great Schism.”

The Great Schism, I learned, “was the formal separation of the Roman Catholic Church in the West from the Eastern Orthodox churches in the East in 1054, a division that continues to this day.” A rupture in God’s family never repaired, except perhaps in individual relationships.

What I can’t ask Google is what was happening in my ancestors’ lives 750 years ago. Did they love and serve the Lord? Did they see him do mighty acts on their behalf?

What was God doing among his people in 1275 AD, not just in major historical ways, but personally? I don’t know. I don’t even know my own family story—not in any detail—past two generations before me. We haven’t done a great job of passing down from generation to generation God’s great acts in our lives.

I can’t change the legacy I received. But I can change the legacy I pass on, by recording the miracles God has done in my life; the works of the Spirit that I have witnessed. I want my great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren to have a record they can look back to, as Isaiah looked back to Moses: a testimony to God’s faithfulness that may bolster confidence that he sees and cares for them too.

In the long run, this may be one of the most important things I ever do. You too?

When I wrote the Karis book, I was thinking only of my grandchildren, yet unborn. Perhaps, though, later generations will read it. If they do, I hope they will see that God is alive, active, and attuned to their needs as he was to ours. I hope they realize he sees them.

Our youngest little this week, turning 3.

Lord, look down from heaven; look from your holy, glorious home, and see us. Where is the passion and the might you used to show on our behalf? Where are your mercy and compassion now? Surely you are still our Father! … Return and help us, for we are your servants (Isaiah 63:15-17).

Too heavy

But the Spirit shares the burden June 23, 2025

Numbers 11:1, 11, 14-18 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said. … And Moses said to the Lord, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people? … I can’t carry the burden of all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy! … Then the Lord to Moses, “Gather before me seventy men … I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put the Spirit upon them also. They will bear the burden of the people along with you, so you will not have to carry it alone.”

As we picked raspberries in her father’s garden a few days ago, my granddaughter Juliana, 2 ½, said, “Grammy, I mulch. But sometimes it’s too heavy, so my Daddy helps me.”

Juliana (right) “camping” with her sister and cousins in Grammy and PopPop’s back yard Friday.

I’ve been smiling over that ever since. How many two-year-olds do you know who say with pride, “I mulch”? How many have tried to carry a 40-pound bag of wood chips?

But Juju’s statement went deep into my soul. I, too, try to carry burdens too heavy for me. And my Father helps me. Thank you, Father.

In your life, what is too heavy for you to carry by yourself?

My friend Rhonda and her husband Jim have carried gardening burdens for me this spring, a responsibility too heavy for me as I have faced other challenges. I am so deeply grateful.

Moses found himself desperate for help with dealing with the complaints of the people he shepherded for forty years in the desert, a burden too heavy for him alone.

God, who called us through Jesus to live “freely and lightly” (Matthew 11:30 in The Message), promises not to give us more than we can bear. He calls us to share the weight of our burdens with other people.

If life feels overwhelming right now, I invite you to think about these Scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit who can share your load. I’m doing this exercise myself today.

Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations (peirasmos, testings) in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Galatians 6:2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

I will give you rest Sing through the Bible

Find freedom in faith

But God’s faithfulness never ends May 29, 2025

Galatians 5:22-23 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith [many translations say faithfulness instead of faith], gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Lamentations 3:22-23 The faithful love [hesed] of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

“Great is Thy Faithfulness,” we sang at my dad’s funeral, his favorite hymn. “Morning by morning, new mercies I see.” God’s faithfulness anchored him through incredible challenges and trials, even through failures.

And Dad’s death was just the beginning of his story. After his death, we sibs let our imaginations fly as we pictured him in Heaven with all the time in the world to indulge his many passions and interests. Why could we do this? Because God’s faithfulness is ETERNAL. It doesn’t stop here.

“One day at a time” has been my instinctive response when people ask me how I survived the Karis years. “Sometimes one hour at a time. Counting on God’s faithfulness, his manna for this one day.” Thinking about an elusive “tomorrow” was too overwhelming. I gripped God’s faithfulness for this moment, this challenge. And then the next one. I lived this way for 30+ years.

Karis’s move to Heaven–I’m so curious about what she’s been up to there in her ongoing experience of God-s faithfulness!–didn’t automatically change me. Living intensively in the present, without margin in my life for worrying about the future, became so habitual that for better or worse, it’s with me still. I’m able to engage with this morning, or today—maybe that stretches out now to thinking about this week. But I plan for and set personal longer term objectives in only the vaguest of terms, such as “I want to publish three books this year, so I’ll have them to take to homeschool conventions next spring.”

(Unless I see that my lack of planning will negatively impact others. That somehow feels different, requiring more detailed attention to “how” something could be done.)

“How exactly will you accomplish this?” my husband asks of my vague desires. He wants a Plan, as do our mission leaders. I’m immediately flooded with stress and a compulsion to retreat, to give the whole thing up. I think, “If God wants me to do this, he’ll show me how.” But my ideas about what I want to do aren’t the most important thing. I need to stay flexible to understand what God is asking of me on any given day.

Is that the kind of faith Paul is talking about? Or is it irresponsibility; just an excuse handily available (principally to myself) if I don’t reach my “goals”? The jury is out.

Vine’s says pistis, the word Paul uses in Galatians 5:22, is used in the New Testament always of faith in God or Christ. It’s not faith in myself or faith in other people or circumstances. It’s not even faith in God’s promises. It’s persistent trust in God’s faithfulness, rooted in personal surrender to him, himself.

For me, this is freedom. It’s not all up to me. The weight of the world is on HIS shoulders, not mine. I just have to do my wee part.

Here’s the cool thing: even faith in God’s faithfulness is not something I have to generate. It’s something the Spirit produces in me.

My part is giving him space in my soul to do his work. And then letting his faithfulness motivate me to live faithfully.

Faith and Wonder, Meredith Andrews

Happy birthday, Karis!

But God’s mercy never fails

Isaiah 43:2 When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.

When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up;

the flames will not consume you.

Lamentations 3:22-23 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness. His mercies begin afresh each morning.

By Earth time, Karis would have turned 42 today. I woke up with the song Goodness of God in my head:

I love You, Lord
For Your mercy never fails me
All my days, I’ve been held in Your hands
From the moment that I wake up, Until I lay my head
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

And all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
In the darkest night You are close like no other
I’ve known You as a Father; I’ve known You as a Friend
And I have lived in the goodness of God

And all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

‘Cause Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me
Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me
With my life laid down, I’m surrendered now
I give You everything
‘Cause Your goodness is running after, it’s running after me [and you, too]

Our great Ebenezer

But God faithfully keeps his word

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, it was necessary for him [Jesus] to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God.

John 1:14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.

In Chapter 7 of her book In His Image, Jen Wilkin identifies the written word of God, the Bible, as “our great Ebenezer, a memorial stone to the faithfulness of God. … Between its covers a glorious truth is repeated for our great benefit: God is worthy of our trust” (pages 100-101).

What does she mean by calling the Bible a “great Ebenezer”? 1 Samuel 7:12 says, “Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!” Samuel did this to memorialize a time when God intervened with a mighty thunderstorm to save his people from an invading army.

The Bible is full of wonderful “But God” stories of God’s faithfulness, to encourage us in our own hard times. Jen continues, “When we spend time in the Bible, our lives begin to bear witness to its faithful message. We ourselves become stones of remembrance for those around us, giving faithful testimony that God is worthy of our trust, no matter what (page 101).

Yesterday, Dave showed me this picture of fifty pastors and leaders in Venezuela who had just been gifted with the Biblia de Estudio para el Discipulado (Discipleship Bible).

The picture triggered a memory of God’s faithfulness to Dave. For six years after Karis and I came to Pittsburgh for intestinal transplant, Dave and I lived on two different continents, always expecting Karis to get well enough for me to go home to Brazil. Finally, Dave realized Karis wasn’t going to get better, so he needed to move to Pittsburgh.

This felt to Dave like a punch in the gut. He was 100% engaged in ministry in Brazil. What would he do in Pittsburgh? Yet in agony of spirit, he took the necessary steps over the next year to obey what he knew God was asking him to do: give up Brazil and join Karis and me here.

But God had a plan. The week before he left São Paulo, Dave received a call from the Brazilian Bible Society asking him to write a Discipleship Bible in Portuguese.

Had Dave stayed in Brazil, he would never have found the time to write. In Pittsburgh, though, this work became his great joy, an eight-year project into which he could pour all that God had planted in him about being and making disciples of Jesus: 450 small group studies, notes for disciples of Jesus on every page, highlighting practical applications, introductions to each book noting what it had to offer disciplers, and a comprehensive index and cross-reference system.

The Discipleship Bible was published in 2018 in Brazil, and last year in Spanish, in multiple printings already.

Dave was faithful to what he understood God was telling him to do, though the cost to him was great. God was faithful in giving Dave a project he could work on in the “foreign land” of Pittsburgh. All so people across Latin America and Brazil who want to walk closely with Jesus, open themselves to transformation by his Word, and help others do this also, could have access to the years of experience and all the passion and wisdom about disciplemaking God had poured into Dave across his lifetime.

What tough thing is God asking of you? Can you trust his faithfulness, even though you can’t yet see it?

All the Lord does is just and good,
and all his commandments are trustworthy.
They are forever true,
to be obeyed faithfully and with integrity.

Psalm 111:7-8

A new heaven and new earth

But God says, “Make every effort”

2 Peter 3:13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth God has promised, a world filled with his righteousness. And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.

The most memorable statement in the sermon about Jesus’ ascension yesterday, I think, was “Jesus decided to work from home.”

One day, we’ll share his Home (Revelation 21). Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit, first poured out to the believers on the day we celebrate next Sunday, Pentecost, joins us in the trenches as we stay the course, faithfully pursuing “long obedience in the same direction,” as Eugene Peterson so famously put it.

Like perennials, Jesus will come back!

Jesus warned us there would be bumps and bruises along the way. “Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows” (John 16:33). Why are we surprised and resentful when this proves to be true? Could it be that we’re seduced by the idea that this is all there is, that life ends with death?

I had the interesting experience Saturday of attending a memorial service immediately followed by a birthday party. Funerals, of course, always make me think of Karis. Perhaps that’s why I found myself telling someone at the birthday party that Karis longed to go Home. In her last year of journaling, she wrote repeatedly, “Father, I can’t do this anymore. Please take me Home. Please.”

So in our sorrow and missing her, we know Karis is exactly where she wanted to be, living her best life. Glimpsing ahead of time the “new heavens” promised to us.

The writer of Hebrews tells us the heroes of faith “agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. … they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland” (11:13, 16).

I think the promise of a new heaven and new earth, where there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4) gives us perspective on our trials and motivation to make the most of our time here, doing with the energy the Spirit gives us whatever God has asked us to do. Peter and other New Testament writers liked the phrase “make every effort,” or “work hard” as some versions translate the phrase:

Make every effort to respond to God’s promises (2 Peter 1:5—see also 1:10, 1:15).

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone (Hebrews 12:14).

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3).

Make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification (Romans 14:19). … Never pay back evil with more evil … If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:17-18).

Some versions use the word “harmony” instead of peace. Peace, of course, begins in our own hearts. Worth thinking about, for as long as we’re on this side of the story.

This World Is Not My Home, by Albert Brumley, sung by Jim Reeves.

You will find rest

But God always keeps his promises

Psalm 145:2, 4, 13-14 I will praise you every day. … Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles … I will share the story of your wonderful goodness. … The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does. The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads.

It helps. It really does.

When Karis and I came to Pittsburgh in March 2004 for the terrifying prospect of intestinal transplant, not knowing anyone, feeling completely alone and vulnerable, leaving a fruitful and creative life behind, I made a decision. I would find something to thank God for every day. No matter what happened, I would look for what God was doing. “I will praise you every day.” It wasn’t easy, because terrifically painful things occurred, and sometimes the battle for Karis’s life seemed endless.

But I learned a way of seeing, in, through, and beyond the circumstances of a given day or hour. That practice continues to shape me. When troubling and difficult things happen, I know that’s not the whole story. God is keeping his promises today, even with the hard thing I face now. Whatever it is at a given time.

God is gracious in all he does. He helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads.

What weight are you carrying today? Allow the Lord to bear it with you. Ask a friend to help you do this. Maybe you’ve picked up more than is meant for you. Maybe you’ve let others overload you. Perhaps saying “no” can be a good thing, for you and for others. I need this kind of help a lot.

What is tripping you up? Stretch out your hand to his strong and loving and faithful one. Let him help you get back on your feet. Perhaps the physical hand grasping yours belongs to one of his people. We are all called to be the Lord’s Body in the world, helping each other as Jesus would if he still lived physically among us.

Has someone you trusted betrayed you? Have you betrayed a promise to someone you love? Lean into God’s faithfulness. The promise-keeper can help you repair and heal your heart and give you strength to live faithfully.

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” Matthew 11:28-30).

Remember and tell!

But God stands by his covenant

Psalm 105:1-2, 7-8 Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. … He is the Lord our God. His justice is seen throughout the land. He always stands by his covenant—the commitment he made to a thousand generations.

Matthew 26:28 This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.

I was only thinking of three generations when I wrote Karis: All I See Is Grace: my own generation, my children, and my grandchildren, yet unborn. I wanted my children’s spouses and my future grandchildren to know what God had done in our family through his faithfulness to Karis. Verses 1 and 2 of this psalm were part of what motivated me to persist through the three years it took me to write the book, along with Psalms 78:4-7, 102:18, 107:2, 118:17, and 145:4 and 12. All of them instruct us to remember and to tell what God does for us.

Imagine making a commitment to a thousand generations! I know that number means “all the generations to come,” but if we think about it literally and conservatively, choosing twenty years as the length of a generation, a thousand generations is 20,000 years. God keeps his covenant for at least that long. All recorded history is a small dent. Here we are, in our generation, still praising God for his faithfulness to us. If we notice what God does for us when it happens, remember it, and tell others, we’ll be part of Asaph’s vision in Psalm 78.

Last week in Idaho, my sister Marsha and I put together the “reunion puzzle” our daughter Valerie created from photos of the members of the extended Elliott family, in keeping with our reunion theme, “Pieces of a Whole.” The progeny of my parents, Ray and Helen Elliott, now numbers 81, with three to be born in the next three months.

Our reunion puzzle
*Three more babies coming, in September, October, and November!*

As the beloved faces emerged in the puzzle, I prayed for each of us to remember and celebrate God’s covenant of love for us, in the past, in the present, and stretching into the future to those not yet born and those yet to be brought into the family by marriage or by adoption.

Keeping covenant is costly. It’s not simple or easy. It cost God the life of his son. That’s the measure and standard he set for us. Today, my 68^th birthday, I’m asking him to show me day by day in this next year how to live out his covenant; with more boldness remembering and telling, “so the next generation will set its hope anew on God” (Psalm 78:4-7).

But God saves everyone who calls on his name

Acts 2:17-21 “In the last days,” God says, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams… And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below… But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[Peter, quoting Joel 2:28-32]

I often hear people say they think we’re entering the “last days,” when eschatological promises will be fulfilled. My husband Dave sometimes looks up at the clouds and says, “Jesus could come back today!”

Yes, he could. Interestingly, Peter himself, two thousand years ago, thought his generation might be the last on Earth as we know it. And that theme has echoed down through the centuries, especially in times of crisis. For my novel, Horse Thief 1898, I’ve read a lot about the 19^th century. People were so passionate then in their belief that the world would end any day that entire communities sprang up around that theme, especially in northeastern U.S. along the Erie Canal. Some preachers named the date they thought Jesus would return.

“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen. Only the Father knows,” Jesus told his followers in Matthew 24, after he too quoted the prophet Joel. “If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward.” Jesus then told the parable of the three servants entrusted with their master’s goods while he went on a trip. On his return, he honored the two who invested and multiplied what the master had asked them to steward.

But the third servant, consumed by fear and insecurity, had simply buried the master’s money. He hadn’t lost or squandered it, but he hadn’t creatively multiplied it either. The master calls him “wicked and lazy.”

Yikes! This story speaks directly to me today. I love to write, but I find letting people know about what I’ve written very, very hard—so challenging that I’m often tempted to give up, to “bury” this passion which I believe the Lord entrusted to me. “The market is so crowded,” I tell myself. “My voice doesn’t really matter. I’ll do something easier; something with more obvious and immediate impact.”

But that’s not the point, is it. The question is whether I will be faithful to what God has given to me, investing as well as I can in those who do hear my voice. I haven’t heard God telling me to become a bestseller. I have heard him say, “Write what I put in your heart.”

When Jesus returns, will he find you and me actively and creatively engaged in the work he has entrusted to us, in our small corners of the world, energized by the Spirit he pours out on us? Might someone call on the Lord and be saved (the verb sozo means the action of delivering or rescuing another from a dangerous situation, either physical or spiritual) if we trust him enough to do our part? If you think of it, please pray for me to lean into the Spirit, because I don’t find this work easy. And I’ll be delighted to pray for you, too, if you communicate with me specific needs you have in seeking to be faithful to the gifts God has given you, as we both await the return of our Lord.