Two Truths and a Lie

Articles

  • Enough

    As a new year approaches, I wanted to share some thoughts as I reflect on a tumultuous year from my past. A little over six years ago, I resigned my position as youth pastor at a wonderful church in Oklahoma. In the midst of striving to serve God and help others, I had allowed my own soul to drift, and I began to make poor choices that led me to a place where I was no longer able to lead in a spiritual capacity. In the months after resigning, I went through a personal identity crisis, unsure of how to view myself apart from who I was as a pastor. I realized that my sense of self was deeply tied to who I was professionally, and when my professional ministry role was stripped away I felt empty. I also wrestled with shame and guilt, feeling like a fraud for encouraging others to follow Jesus with their whole heart while not addressing problems in my own life.

    In the months that followed my resignation, I realized that I had a deep dissatisfaction that always kept me in a state of striving. I strove to do well in school, to work hard to impress others, and to be the best husband, dad, and pastor I could be. However, many times I fell short. In my effort to be the best person that I could be, my failures led me to turn on myself. My inner voice became so self-critical that I began to feel shame over the areas that I fell short and disappointed God, my family, or those around me, and this shame fueled a cycle of destructive decision-making that led me even further from God and those around me. Like Adam and Eve, I chose to hide in my shame, which led me into deeper isolation rather than healing.

    Just before the calendar rolled into the wild year that was 2020, I had prayed about a word from the Lord to provide a focal point for my own restoration, and I was clearly led to the word “enough”. I spent some time reflecting on this word and trying to discern what that meant for me. If I was never a pastor again, would I be okay with that? If my vision for the future never materialized, would I be content? Was God enough for me or did I need to have something else? I quickly realized that God wanted me to believe He was enough for me. No matter how the course of my life played out, if I sought him I would always have enough. This was an encouraging thought for me, but I soon realized that wasn’t all that word meant.

    Not only did God want me to realize that He was enough for me, He wanted me to realize that I was enough for him, and that He loved me in spite of all the ways I perceived I had fallen short. God didn’t need me to be a pastor. He didn’t need my good works, my intellect, my preaching, my reputation, or anything else. He simply wanted me. All of me.

    As I sit here typing this, I’m still overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude and awe. First, I am thankful because I know that no matter what 2026 holds, God is enough for me. Not his provision, not his blessings, just Him. I am in awe because I can’t get over the depth of God’s love for me. I love the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases the Apostle Paul: “God put his love on the line for us by offering his son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him” (Romans 5:8, MSG). Other translations say “while we were still sinners”, but Peterson gets at the part that really amazes me. In terms of what I can do for God, I don’t really have anything to offer that He needs. Sure, God asks people to do things for Him, but that is more an invitation to share in his work than an actual necessity. Yet, I am enough for Him. Nothing I do can impress him more or make me more valuable to Him. Yet, I am so valuable to Him that Jesus gave his life for me. He is enough for me, and I mean so much to Him that He gave everything for me.

    Perhaps you have also wrestled with shame over past decisions or felt the relentless pressure of being a self-critical person. Many people believe that if we live good enough lives we can impress God so that we can improve our standing with him. It is true that sin separates us from God. However, many also believe that if we are disgusted with ourselves that God must also be disgusted with us, and this can lead us into shame and hiding. Instead, be encouraged that you are enough to God. If you have failed to do what he wants you to do, that doesn’t change the fact that he wants you, and you are enough even if your good works are lacking. Bring that mess to Him, not only can He handle it but he also wants to remove the weight it places on you. What we do for God is meant to be a natural outflow of our connection with Him, not a pathway to find that connection. If you would like to learn more about what it means to experience God in this way, please send me a message. I’d love to help you find peace with God and end cycles of shame and striving.

    As we close the books on 2025 and turn the page to 2026, my prayer is that God will be enough for you, and that you will recognize that you are enough for Him. Go ahead and set some resolutions, try to be a better person, and tackle some goals, but don’t let those things define who you are or paralyze you with shame if you fall short. Dream big dreams for your family, your health, or your job, or your church, but don’t forget to embrace what matters most: you already have everything you need in a God who loves you and is always ready to embrace you when you turn to him. Happy New Year, and may your year be filled with true blessings that can’t be taken from you!

  • The Key to Heavenly Peace

    The Key to Heavenly Peace

    Last night I had a dream where I was attending something like a church service. Among the people in attendance were many people I have known from the churches I have attended in the past, including people I love, people I barely know, and even some people who have caused me pain. There were pastors, people of all ages and races, faithful saints and some who have at times caused division or left churches.

    I thought about this strange dream for a bit this morning, and then I realized that God was showing me a partial picture of what heaven will be like.  Believers from all over, from many different backgrounds, will be together worshipping God. Some we may have experienced as kind and faithful, while others we may have seen at their worst. Then another thought hit me. This is why you can’t enter heaven if you do not forgive others. This is even more clear when you consider that some people who have hurt you will also be in heaven, since the pathway is opened not by perfect living but by faith and God’s grace. If you have been in the church as long as I have, you are bound to have been hurt by church people. The only way to enter a place of eternal peace and joy is to embrace both repentance and forgiveness. After all, you’ll have to get along forever, so it’s important to learn how to do so now, otherwise your exclusion will be what enables that peace.

    Perhaps Stephen the martyr (Acts 7) was the first to greet Paul in heaven. Maybe children whose parents were stoned for believing in Jesus ran to him and gave him a hug. If that is hard for you to imagine, there is work to do in learning to forgive others. Keep in mind that in this life forgiveness doesn’t always mean restored relationships or proximity. Sometimes we need distance for our own well-being or safety, but we still have to do the hard work of releasing the wrongs committed against us. It is not for us to decide who gets into heaven and so we can’t choose to treat people poorly simple because we expect they will not be there.

    In Matthew 18, Jesus tells a story of a man who was jailed for refusing to have mercy on one of his debtors after his own debt had been forgiven.  He says in verse 35, “this is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” For context, this parable immediately follows teaching about how to deal with sin between people in the church. That’s no accident. Forgiveness always matters, but Jesus knew that some of the deepest hurts come from those we expect to be righteous and treat us with love and kindness. If you’re a Christian and you’ve been hurt by people in the church, it’s time to forgive. If you know you’ve hurt someone, it’s time to repent.  You can’t afford not to, not if you want to be part of the greatest gathering that will ever take place.

    If you are reading this as someone who has never considered or understood how to be a part of heaven and live in eternal peace, please reach out and I would be happy to answer any questions you have. You don’t get into heaven by the good things you do. It is only by placing your faith in Jesus, who graciously offers forgiveness that we can be experience this peace. He offers it freely with a word of instruction: freely you have received, so freely give. If you’re ready to begin a new kind of life, embracing the radical teachings of Jesus that lead to eternal peace and joy, I would be happy to help you begin that journey. Reach out and let’s talk!

  • What is two truths and a lie?

    What is two truths and a lie?

    Perhaps you’ve been in a group of people you don’t know before and played this common icebreaker game.  To get to know each other better, everyone shares three facts about themselves, two of which are true and one which is false. The rest of the group must guess based on first impressions which of the three statements is false, and in the process, everyone learns some interesting nuggets about the person sharing the statements. If you’re competitive like me, you might think the most fun part of the game is being the sharer and trying to find a lie that is so believable you can deceive everyone else. Or maybe your truths are so outlandish that it throws others off the scent. Either way, this game is a lighthearted illustration of how the most effective forms of deception work.

    The reality is that we have an enemy who constantly schemes to deceive us (Ephesians 6:11, 2 Corinthians 2:11). In fact, Jesus calls Satan “the father of lies” and says that lying is his “native language” (John 8:44). The primary strategy he uses to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) is deception, but he is incredibly subtle in the ways he lies to us. Just like the game two truths and a lie, his attempts to deceive us often come in the form of partial truths or even wrapped between truths to confuse us.  Consider the first temptation in Genesis 3. The serpent told Eve that eating the fruit would open her eyes and even suggested that she might not die. When Adam and Eve ate of it, they did not immediately die, at least in a physical sense, and in a way their eyes were also opened to know good and evil. Similarly, when Jesus was tempted in John 4 Satan used Scripture to try and entice Jesus to make a foolish decision.

    I’ve discovered in my own life that when I sin or make poor decisions it is often because I have believed a lie, and many times that lie is neatly wrapped in a partial truth or two. The goal of this blog is to encourage you to grow in your understanding of truth and ability to recognize harmful lies by growing in the skill of self-reflection, learning to know God and listen to his voice, and to study the word of God with an open mind to learn the truth, even when it confronts you in uncomfortable ways.

    If you haven’t figured it out yet, this is a spiritually oriented blog written from the perspective of a Christ-follower who wants to help you examine the thoughts you believe and separate truth from lies. I’ve heard many well-meaning Christians oversimplify this by saying “I believe the word of God, it is always true!”  I agree with that statement, but a genuine desire to understand truth requires a soft heart and diligent mind. As Jesus says “he who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15).  It is possible to know something, believe it is true, and still latch on to a harmful lie in the middle. I’m not going to pretend I have it all figured out or that this blog should be considered truth on the same level of Scripture, but I would like to invite you on a journey to mutually discover and discern truth by committing to a deeper study and understanding of God’s word, honest self-reflection, and listening to the voice of the Spirit.

    Thoughtful, respectful conversation is always welcome, as engaging with others who challenge our beliefs is often a critical part of how we refine our understanding of truth. My prayer is that this blog may encourage you, challenge you, and inspire you to seek and know the truth as it transforms your life.