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On December 31, 2017, I started a new New Years tradition. I grab my journal, my Bible, a few pens or markers, and make myself cozy under a warm blanket. I skim my journal entries, think about the books of the Bible I read that year, recall the struggles and heartaches, and try to list the lessons learned.

Then, I wonder what themes from the past year God invites me to carry into the next. I choose a word to represent each theme, and I write the words on a sticky note.

Ecclesiastes 3 begins by saying, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Eccles. 3:1, ESV). Every day is an opportunity to demonstrate the goodness of God to our colleagues, but the new year provides a great opportunity to refocus our efforts on sharing the goodness of God with our coworkers.

Winter Park is an incredibly charming community, complete with brick-lined streets and quirky intersections. However, the Amazon driver who mistook the railroad track for a road no doubt does not possess such charmed thoughts. Last week about 6:00 pm I drove-up on a bizarre situation.

Panic! Perhaps you’re feeling it. The countdown is on. Holidays are quickly approaching. Family and friends are coming! There might be decorating to finish, food to prepare, tables to set, plus dusting and dog fur to vacuum. If you’re hosting at your house this year, you’re likely feeling some pressure. If a gaggle of family is invading, you’re likely thinking, “How will I get it all done?”

While our American tradition of observing Thanksgiving is not a holy holiday, it is an opportune time to pause and be thankful. A heart filled with gratitude makes all the difference. It soothes the soul when loneliness or hurt or depression rule the day. A spirit of thankfulness promotes humility and joy and selflessness, while at the same time consuming the sin that misshapes our hearts. All of these move us closer to holiness and into greater communion with our Heavenly Father.

We are in for a treat today. Dave Strunk, senior pastor—Church of the Redeemer in Blount County Tennessee—graciously agreed to share a couple of his poems with us. I can already sense the eye-rolling that may be going on by some of you, but please keep reading. If poetry is not your thing, that is okay, but it does not mean there is not value in dabbling in it occasionally. Poems have a way of looking at life that sometimes is missed. This genre has a way of speaking to the heart, which is one of the reasons the Psalms are such favorites.

One of the most devastating realities of our day is the pervasive tribalism that seemingly has no boundaries. It is everywhere and while it maybe easy to make excuses for the secular culture, the church has no excuse.

It is October and while some are excited for the changing colors of leaves, there are hordes of baseball fans that are cheering their teams on in hopes of winning a pennant. Even the casual baseball observer pays a little more attention to the reporting of scores and may even turn on their television mid afternoon to catch a playoff game. I used to work with a guy who always left his office door open until the tenth month of the year read on the calendar. As September ended, his office door would close so the cracking of bats and the roar of the crowds would not draw attention to his obsession with baseball. (For the record he was kidding no one.)

Is it a stretch to place so much emphasis on ensuring the integration of art and faith? Is it out of the question to say the whole Church must have a cursory understanding of art to understand the Incarnation of Jesus Christ? The subject of art and faith is an uncommon theme in the Church. How often do you hear sermon references to art in the Bible, or how believers ought to consider thinking about the arts?

We live in a me centric world and Christians are influenced by this as well and so we tend to catalogue our lives as “my money” and “my business.” And as long as I give some of it away, I am good. We have for too long worked off the premise that business and Christianity are not to be mixed much like the separation of church and state.