The Daily | Cypress Meadows Community Church

The Daily

Daily devotions and thoughts from Cypress Meadows

The Daily is a short but thought provoking reading from Bob Goff’s book: ‘Live in Grace – Walk in Love’. It will arrive via a text on your phone every morning and is designed to help you pause, spiritually center yourself, and let your soul breathe.

So find a space, take a few moments, and breathe in deep of the grace of heaven. Then go step back into you day “walking in love” and you will be a force to be reckoned with…

I'm on the cusp of the grandpa stage of life, and I'm over the moon about it. My mind often drifts to the mischief I want to get into with my grandkids. I think about banana splits for breakfast and skydiving on sixteenth birthdays. Rock climbing and motorcycle jumping. And hot air balloons. Several of them. My kids know exactly what kind of grandpa their kids are getting, and I'm sure that scares them just a tad.

I also want to be a wise counselor and help my grandkids chase the things that matter and not get too focused on being popular or rich or famous or good-looking. In other words, I hope to instill a joy in being exactly who God created them to be. Who knows? This might eventually mean they are popular or rich or good-looking, but those aren't the best pursuits. They're secondhand outcomes. I want them to be rich in friendships and people who wouldn't trade being kind and courageous for being merely popular or good-looking.

The pressure to conform starts early, on elementary school playgrounds and at sleepovers with classmates. It gains steam when we're made fun of for standing out, when our shoes are a little worn, or we can't stay out past the street lights. For some of us, it takes a lifetime to unlearn the messaging we received that we'd be more worthy of love if we were a little more like the popular kids and less like ourselves.

What I'm excited to tell my grandkids, every day for as long as they'll listen, is this: other people don't get to decide who they are. God decides who we are. He names us, and He calls us His beloved.

What do you think God feels toward you?

Like most parents, I was determined to be an all-star dad when my kids were born, but I didn't know what exactly an all-star dad looked like. So I turned to parenting books for answers.

After devouring all the books for new parents I could find, I learned there were heated debates raging in the world of parenting styles I had never even thought about. Experts warred with one another about whether to soothe an upset child, how to tuck them in at night, when to quit nursing, how to potty train, how to raise athletic children. By the time I finished my research, I was more confused about raising kids than I had been before I started.

We spend a lot of time trying to live into the rules people set for us. Some of these rules seem wise but others equally arbitrary. None of these rules measure up to the power the love of Jesus has for us. Raising boys, I realized early on it didn't matter if they grew into college football stars as long as they learned to live in grace like Jesus. And my wife and I learned we didn't need to worry about whether our daughter became the president; we just wanted her to walk in love like Jesus.

Not long after the kids arrived, we started getting together with other young families. It's hard not to compare your kid to everyone else's. Ours were learning to walk, and someone else's were running laps on the track. Ours said their first word, and someone else's had just memorized every past president's middle name.

The thing about God is this: He never compares what He creates.

We'll never be like Jesus if it's more important for us to be like each other. Stack up all the pressure you're feeling to be something different, and ask yourself whether the image looks like Jesus. If it does, you're moving in the right direction. If not, then spend some time examining His beautiful life and make Him what you compare everything to.

Who do you compare yourself to? Why?

When my kids were younger, we loved going to the pop-up carnivals that would come through town. One day there's a field or an empty parking lot, and the next day there's a Ferris wheel, a Tilt-a-Whirl, really unhealthy food, and a forest of games.

My sons, Adam and Richard, always darted to the most life-threatening roller coaster. My daughter, Lindsey, was in for the games with massive stuffed animals I'd strap to the roof of the car. I was always stopping by the person guessing weight to get the truth of things. Maria just liked to watch all of us with so much joy.

One thing we all loved was the House of Mirrors. Before we sprinted to our favorite spots, we'd all go through together, giggling that Dad was nine feet tall, that Mom's feet looked like skis, that Richard's muscles made him look totally ripped. We had fun with the momentary transformations. But what would happen if we lived every day in front of a funhouse mirror? Would we start to believe we could bench press five hundred pounds even if our arms were as skinny as ski poles? Would we be tricked into thinking we could dunk a basketball even if we were four feet tall?

While it's fun to imagine yourself differently, don't get trapped in a life of thinking you need to be different. God says you were fearfully and wonderfully made. He doesn't want us to be a better version of us. He want us to be a more accurate reflection of Him. God wants you to stand in front of the mirror that reflects a life like His.

What parts of you do you think God likes?

John Newton became a Christian when a storm struck his ship as it was returning from a trip to Africa. He decided to follow Jesus in 1748, and he stepped off his ship in England a new man. You might have heard of John Newton because he wrote the hymn ''Amazing Grace."

You would think the guy who wrote this amazing song was as perfect as freshly fallen snow. But Newton was also part of a time in human history when people owned and traded slaves. Even as a Christian, he continued his work as a captain on a slave ship for years and invested financially in slave operations even longer.

Decades after he started following Jesus, Newton woke up to the horror of the slave trade and began working to end it in England. He said his time in the business would always be a humiliation to him, and he joined leaders in the abolitionist movement in his country.

Testimonies like John Newton's always resonate with me because I know my whole life didn't turn around the moment I decided to follow Jesus. It's been a lifelong process of waking up to new things I need to hand over to God so I can grow. What we do right doesn't get us in, and what we do wrong doesn't rule us out.

What I love about John Newton's story and the experience of so many people of faith is this: we are always given the opportunity to become someone new. When you wake up and realize you don't like who you've become, just move in a new direction. Is it going to be easy? Of course not. Do it anyway, and give yourself a little time and grace to get there.

What parts of you have changed already? Which parts are still being changed?

Doesn't it feel like a bit of a gamble when you invite a friend to church? Even if your pastor is inspiring and the people are welcoming, there's still some risk. Church doesn't always feel like the safest place to take new friends.

Most of us have sat through services where the speaker makes sure every person in the pews knows they're a sinner. Many have said it in ways that make us feel like God's an angry dad who wishes He hadn't brought us into the world. And even if we have a pastor with softer tones, many of us never outgrow our anxiety about what we'll hear when we show up.

We already know we're far from perfect. A lot of us live with loads of guilt. We know we miss the mark, and we don't need to hear again that something's broken inside of us, because we live with the knowledge every day.

What we need to hear, more than anything else, is that God sees all our flaws and He couldn't possibly love us more. God knew we were bound to blow it, so He sent Jesus to take care of this inescapable problem for us. We need to hear God loves us so much that He's given us a new identity. We aren't our successes or failures; we are His.

If you're around people who don't emphasize God's love enough, read the stories of Jesus one more time and turn up the volume on His voice. God doesn't love you because you've earned His respect. He loves you because you are one of His unique and creative expressions in the world.

Why do you think God loves you?

Jesus had a friend named Matthew who was a tax collector. Matthew wrote down things about Jesus so we could learn about Him more than two thousand years later. Matthew told a story about a master who entrusted his money to three servants-ten bags of money to one, five to another, and one to the third. When the master returned to settle accounts with them, the first two managed to double their amounts, but the third buried his bag in the ground and only had the same money to return. The servant was crippled by fear, so he chose not to act at all.

God didn't create us with so much love to give so we could spend all our time calculating the risks of doing something with it. When we do hide it rather than invest it, God's not angry with us. He's not a disappointed dad who scrutinizes our every move, waiting for us to get it wrong. He's a proud dad, eager to celebrate the moments when our passion explodes into acts of love.

I don't think the direction we go with our gifts will matter as much as the fact that we went. We moved. We saw a need in the world-a need in the people around us-and we did what we could to meet their need. We didn't bury our faith or our love.

Next time you find yourself sitting still out of fear, remember God absolutely delights in you. You don't need permission or approval. Don't put in a hole what God wants to put into play. You've got all the green lights you need to do something beautiful with your life and your love.

What talents do you have that you can more fully entrust to God?

Anyone who knows me for five minutes will hear the two best words in the English language I know: Sweet Maria. Anyone who knows her for five minutes will understand why I think those are the two best words around. She is considerate and giving, empathetic and kind, generous and creative. But she's also strong and willing to have hard conversations. She's willing to push her own boundaries and find ways to grow.

Okay, so I adore her. That's not too strange, I suppose. But one of the things I've seen in marriages and other close relationships is that people start to blend into each other. Know what I mean? They start to have the same habits, use the same catchphrases, like the same movies and songs. There's not really anything wrong with that. We tend to become more like the people we spend the most time with. When we got married, the pastor said the two of us would be "one." At first, Maria thought we were both going to become her. But here's the deal. I'm not trying to be like her, and she's not trying to be like me. We're trying to be like Jesus.

This takes all the pressure to be the same off the table. Maria is a homebody. I travel eight days a week. She's thoughtful and measured. I talk first and ask questions later. She plans it, then checks the plans again. I'm more a ready-shoot-aim guy.

We both have a lot of room to grow, but we're making sure it's in the direction of the One person we both want to be more like-Jesus. We won't get there by trying to be like each other. Our target is to be like Him.

Is there someone in your life who replaced Jesus as the target?

We all doubt God's love for us from time to time. We know ourselves. We know the times we've lost our temper and the mistakes we've made. Since we know God witnesses every moment of our lives, we fear He doesn't love us as much as He would if we were the kind of people who prayed more, the kind of people who didn't have to apologize so much.

Do you ever stop to interview the voices telling you God would love you more if you were better behaved? Find out where the voices came from, because they didn't come from Jesus. When we read about the people Jesus hung out with and the way He loved them through all their failures, we see grace and forgiveness. Even when His disciples asked if they should call fire down from heaven to destroy people who didn't welcome Jesus, He just corrected their crazy idea and then moved on to a new town to make new friends.

Despite all the ways Jesus' friends got it wrong, they were still His people. They were called because they were loved. They were invited because they were wanted. Their value wasn't dependent upon their behavior or performance but in their identity as children of God. The same applies to us.
Our worth isn't tied to our performance. It's tied to Jesus. That truth keeps us humble when we're flying high, and it lifts us up when we've hit a low. Just like the disciples, we are called because we're loved, and we're invited because we're wanted.

What is love inviting you to today?

There's this boat race called the Transpac Race that goes from California to Hawaii. I live on the water in San Diego and wanted to sail across the ocean, so one year I was like, Why not? It takes about five hours to fly from Los Angeles to Honolulu at five hundred miles an hour. So the boat trip at ten miles an hour is pretty long. I wasn't really sure how long it would take, so I bought a bunch of beef jerky, a couple of cases of Stagg chili (bad move on reflection), and a couple of buddies, and I started sailing west.

You can go wild preparing for this race. Charting your course, preparing your boat, buying matching outfits. Sextants and maps of ocean currents and star charts, not to mention all the tech gadgets. Or you can just untie from the dock and go.

While the Transpac is a really famous race, for myself I called it a trip. I wasn't in it for the trophy but for the adventure. Too often we turn what should be an adventure with a few course corrections into a race with others where we overprepare, overthink, and assume that winning is the only goal. When I left harbor, it was a chaos of careening boats and guys spinning things to make the sails taut. But once you were out in the wide ocean, it was just you. There was no point in comparing-the goal became somehow finding Hawaii at the end of the race rather than missing it and ending up in Japan.

Hear this: comparison will rip your sails, sink your boat, and blame the weather. Don't buy the lie that an adventure with God is a race with everyone else.

Who do you need to stop comparing yourself to?

My friend Doug has been by my side through some of the best mischief He was there when I used to shoot BB guns as a teenager, including the time he shot me and then tended to my wound with gum and leaves. He's also the friend who introduced me to Jesus. He told me God became friends with messed-up people like him, and I thought if God accepted Doug, maybe He'd accept me too.

Doug and I have been buddies through high school and college, during our years as camp counselors and then as young professionals. We stood by each other on our wedding days, and we've played pranks on each other in the decades since. Doug and I have seen each other at our best and worst and everything in between.

People often ask what makes for great friendships. I think a big part of it is choosing to celebrate one another rather than competing. Every time people around us succeed, jealousy tries to get our attention. It says we deserve the blessings they received. It tells us we should be noticed, too, and probably more. When we stop celebrating with them and start comparing ourselves to them, resentment creeps in and puts wedges between us.

My friends and I see one another as cheerleaders, screaming for the winning goal and encouraging when the inevitable loss happens. The more beauty we find in someone else's life, the less we'll want to compare it to our own.

Who's your greatest cheerleader?

The United States took a devastating hit in 2001 when airplanes flew into the World Trade Center. I remember rushing home from work to explain to my kids what had happened. I didn't want them to hear it from anyone else. As we held hands, trying to process the tragedy together, I told them it was okay to feel sad, but we didn't have to be afraid.

A lot of the rhetoric quickly started to sound like fear. People feared other countries and other religions. Some of us feared refugees who had been driven to the United States by wars in their homelands. Tragedy can incite major fears in us-sometimes irrational fears. I have friends in some countries where a great deal of violence happens. These friends are nothing like the extremists. They're kindhearted and hospitable. They love their kids and they love their neighbors. They're a lot like us.

While our country has recovered from the tragedy in 2001, we tend to find reasons to fear one another still. Some of this is well placed, but most of it isn't. God doesn't want us to live in fear; He wants us to engage the world with love. God's brand of love casts out fear. When we become friends with people who are different from us, love begins to take hold and grow. Love grows as we sit around tables with our neighbors who live across the street or across an ocean, sharing meals and stories. We can't love our neighbors if we don't know them.

Next time you find yourself fearing an entire group of people you don't understand, find a way to connect with them. Figure out an experience you can share with them, no matter how small. This is where the good stuff always starts.

So, who will you reach out to?

When you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, there's a reason so many of them say they want to be firemen or police officers. It's less about sliding down the poles and riding on top of trucks and more about their earnest desire to be courageous. They know these heroes run toward danger so the rest of us can run away from it, and little kids want to grow up to have big courage.

We see in these public servants a glimpse of Jesus, whether they claim to follow Him or not. They risk their lives to protect us every day, and many make the ultimate sacrifice so we can live in freedom. It's what Jesus did for us. He knew we wouldn't be free as long as death had the last word, and He gave His own life so we could live ours.

These brave men and women who daily walk the path Jesus walked are living examples of the sacrifice He made for us. Let's make sure they know how thankful we are for their service. If you know any local leaders who keep our communities safe, send them cupcakes and thank-you notes. Offer to babysit their kids so they can have date nights. Whatever it takes to make sure they know how much we appreciate the freedom they've given us.

Make it a point to look for the heroes in your everyday life. It's impossible to celebrate them too much.

What simple thing can you do to show appreciation for the servants in your community?

I was reading the other day about an art exhibit themed around ancient Egypt. One of the centerpieces is a massive statue of this old guy named Ramesses II, a powerful pharaoh from thousands of years ago. On the back of his seventon bust are a few lines of hieroglyphics, and if you look closely, you'll see the world's oldest typo.

Turns out, someone goofed. When the original makers were completing the writing on the back, they made a print of the bird symbol facing backward. Apparently they had to stick mud over their mess-up like ancient white-out. Their mistake gets studied by experts, their momentary lapse gets put under a microscope.

Whenever you feel like airbrushing your mistakes, just remember, they probably won't be big enough to be seen thousands of years later. God isn't taking a microscope to your failures. Perfection doesn't need grace, and for misfits like us, we need to understand our need for grace over perfection. Perfection will not give us what we're looking for, and in fact perfection tends to change its definition whenever we think we've attained it. Exposing your flaws gives grace a chance to do the healing instead of covering yourself with false perfection.

When we aren't comfortable with ourselves, it's easy to get tied up trying to be someone else. Grace doesn't want to meet anyone else but you. God tells us every day we're accepted. It doesn't mean God doesn't want us to make moves from where we are. It just means He sees our flaws and loves us no less.

How have you been acting like you're not accepted?

If you follow the news, you'll see the headlines are full of people messing up big in their lives. Sometimes it's even pastors, and we hear about moral failures. When I hear the news of a friend with problems, I get on a flight as often as I can to spend some time with them. Sometimes they're old friends and sometimes they become new friends, but either way, I know they need a friend. Some people wag a boney finger when we run toward someone who's messed up. But isn't that what God does with you and me? Forget being right; be Jesus.

Many of the people who have messed up p􀀃blicly have been struggling privately for a long time, but they were expected to be perfect. They lost the joy in the faith they used to know because their faith was always up for public scrutiny. These friends usually feel a lot of shame, but it's coupled with an odd sense of relief-relief that they can finally exhale and tell the truth about what's going on inside and get some help.

We don't always feel free to tell the truth about our doubts and struggles. But Jesus never asked us to look like we're well behaved or to sound like we're theologically sophisticated. He just asked us to follow Him and keep it real while we do. Just like it did with the disciples, following Jesus will look like getting it wrong a lot and receiving forgiveness every time.

When it matters more what our faith looks like than what it is, it's time to start over.

How have you been focusing more on appearances than on reality?

One time I saw this show about a world-famous pop musician who was pretty edgy at the time. And she appealed to a lot of young girls. One part of the show stood out to me. There was this clip of the musician giving an interview after a concert, and then it cut to an interview of one of the girls who was there. This fan dressed the same, talked the same, and was clearly trying to be just like the musician. It showed me that we become like the people we watch.

Maybe you didn't have a superstar for a role model growing up. But think about the star student whose intellect you wanted to imitate. Or the star quarterback or prom queen. We watched them because everyone else seemed to be watching them too. Whether we realized it or not, spending too much time watching them was our attempt to become more like them-and a little less like ourselves.

Our tendency to fixate on people doesn't stop as we get older. Sometimes we do it out of a sense of envy and sometimes out of admiration. But Jesus never told us to be like other people, even the ones who get idolized. He told us to be like Him. It's hard to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus if our eyes are on each other, because who we watch shapes what we'll become.

If we keep our eyes on Jesus and follow in His footsteps, it won't be long before we'll surprise ourselves with the shape our lives have taken.

Who have you been fixing your eyes on?

I was recently talking to a young friend of mine who's an artist. She caught me up on her life and told me she had a business online where people commissioned her to do drawings for them. She said she had to scale back a little bit because she was losing a sense of her own style as she threw herself into the commissioned pieces other people wanted her to create.

She said she learned a lot studying famous artists and imitating their styles, but it also had begun to limit her imagination. She missed the days when she had the space to dream up images and then sketch never-before-drawn pictures in her notepad.

I'm not an artist, but I could relate to my friend because I've done the same thing in other ways. There's always the temptation to watch the people around us and try to emulate them in our work. We do it when we start nonprofits or give speeches or go on adventures.

It's okay to learn from other people, and we should all do a lot of that, but we lose the unique ways God created us when we stop using our imaginations to try to copy someone else. It's like copying their art in our lives, and it limits our ability to do the things we do best.

God didn't settle for second best when He created you. You're not a carbon copy; you're an original. Play your own song, write your book in your voice, make your own painting, not someone else's. Keep your eyes on Jesus and let Him fill your imagination with your own unique gifts to bring to the world.

What do you have that you can give to others in love?

One of my favorite qualities ofJesus is the way He responded to interruptions. Read the Gospels and try to count how many of the stories involve a couple of interruptions. He and His friends would be on their way to a city, and suddenly a woman would approach Him, desperate for relief from an illness she'd been plagued by for over a decade. Or He would be on His way to heal someone, and He'd get word that He was needed elsewhere-a young child had stopped breathing, and they thought maybe He could help.

Most of us get frustrated by interruptions because we think they get in the way of the real work we're supposed to be doing. But Jesus didn't see it that way. When Jesus experienced an interruption, He saw people in need. Loving people wasn't something on Jesus' to-do list or something to squeeze into His schedule when He had time. His whole life was about loving people, and whoever was in front of Him was the most important person to Him in that moment.

Jesus showed us love isn't something we do; it's someone we become. You'll know this is happening in your life when you see how you respond to the interruptions in your day. What's really happening on our insides comes pouring out when we're tired and pressed and in the middle of something urgent and are interrupted. Those moments reveal what we're made of and for Jesus, those moments revealed love.

The more we become like Jesus, the more we'll stop resenting interruptions and start embracing them. Look for moments of love in the midst of interruptions, and you'll be like Jesus for someone else in need. Following Jesus means a lot of constant interruptions. Prepare to be interrupted.

Who's trying to interrupt you these days? How can you turn your heart toward them today?

I like to pop into shops when I travel. I'm always on the lookout for gifts for Sweet Maria. Recently I popped into a jewelry shop just to take a peek into the glass cases. A kind lady casually approached me and asked if I was looking for something in particular. Then she launched into a story about how the concept for the store started.

She said the jeweler and his wife were artists before they were jewelers. Their paintings and sculptures were featured in galleries across Europe. But when the jeweler met his wife, his love for her moved him to try his hand at jewelry for the first time because he wanted to create something that expressed his love for her. The piece of jewelry he made for her was the beginning of the story that now led to all the rings and necklaces in the glass case in front of me.

Art is usually the overflow of beautiful, intense feelings people carry inside them. They want to bring their emotions into the physical world, and out comes a song or a poem or a painting or an engagement ring.

I think God did the same thing when He created beauty. He wanted us to know how He felt about us, so He painted a sunset and put iridescent wings on a butterfly. If you ever doubt God's love for you, remember that of all the beautiful things God created, He said you were the most stunning.

What beauty do you see around you? How does that beauty point you to God?

If you played sports when you were younger, you knew your roles. If you were a parent, you were there to help those young stars become better in practice, and you were there to lift the team's morale. A parent's responsibilities include cheerleading, grabbing water for timeouts, and buying pizza afterward. If you were a kid on the team and were not very good, you probably got to know the bench well like I did. You knew you also would occasionally get in the game when the team had a big lead.

Sitting on the bench gives you a lot of time to fear what might happen. You fear this will be another night of no playing time, where you've suited up and warmed up and then end up shivering on the sidelines. You fear you're letting down the people who came to watch you and who you wanted so badly to impress. You fear you're wasting your time devoting yourself to something you're obviously not very good at. You fear failure. These are the things that go through your mind on the bench.

Most of us still feel like the kids sitting on the sidelines even though it's years later and we've grown up. We remember our dreams to change the world, and now we're just left with doubts. Or we've messed up, and we wonder if we've been benched again.

Remember this: fear calls out our doubts, but God calls out our names. The dreams He put in your heart are dreams He still wants to fulfill through you today. He didn't create any of us to just be practice buddies or water boysthere's no sideline in God's story of redemption, and there's no bench.

What would change if you got off the bench today?

If you've been in church long, you've probably heard a lot of testimonies about people who used to be drug addicts or were caught up in destructive cycles. They talk about how they were spiraling out of control, and then they met Jesus, and everything radically changed. It's amazing, to be sure. We hear these stories and remember God can turn around our lives in the most miraculous ways. These stories remind us that who we've been doesn't dictate who we'll become.

But wouldn't it be great to hear more stories from people who were doing just fine, maybe getting a B-minus in life, and then they decided to live a better story? They didn't want their lives to be defined by their jobs, so they started measuring their days by the love they gave away instead of money they made.

We don't hear enough stories of transformation from being people who found their self-worth one day and then did an internal overhaul driven by love. They might've stayed in the same job and lived in the same community, but the way they interacted with the people in their lives changed everything. These stories are even more relatable for many of us.

Many of us might not need to be delivered from a life of drugs and a gambling addiction but from something even more insidious-finding our worth in success or approval. When Jesus invited us to follow Him, He invited us to become new people. His invitation was for all of us to leave behind who we were so we could start bringing loads of love to everyone we encountered.

God decides who we are, not our past.

What do you think God thinks of you?

All the great heroes I know have been ordinary people. They didn't run countries, and they don't have museums named after them.They're moms, dads, and teenagers who saw a need in the people around them and did what they could to meet those needs.

When I think of heroes, I think of people like Dorothy Day, who lived among the poor so she could better serve them, and my friend John, who started an organization to train governments in other countries on how to end human trafficking. I think of Mother Teresa, who held people as they breathed their last in Calcutta, allowing them to die with dignity, and I think of my friend Jeff, who uses his gift with words to make people feel less alone. Even the famous ones tried to stay under the radar.

Heroes come in every age and size. Sometimes they're household names, and sometimes they're unknown. But what binds them together is this: they heard about a need in the world, and they figured out how to use whatever they could to alleviate suffering in other people.

We don't need more degrees or status to change the world. We only need eyes to see a need and a faith that believes in redemption. Jesus wouldn't have said we'd do greater things than Him if He didn't think we could do it. Stop listening to the voices saying you can't make a difference, and start listening to the One telling you He wants you to take your next step.

What's your next step?

One of my favorite movie moments is a scene from the Pixar film The Incredibles. It's the part where the superhero dad is trying to get a new uniform, and he's really into having a cape as part of the design. His quirky designer gives him example after example of other superheroes who chose style over functionwith catastrophic results. "No capes," she tells him. I think Jesus agrees. Not seeking attention gets God's attention.

Anytime Jesus did something miraculous, He would follow it up by saying to the people nearby, "Tell no one." Doesn't that seem counterproductive if you're starting a movement? Jesus was introducing us to another way to change the world-one that doesn't require any marketing taglines, self-promotion, or capes. He wanted to show us that all those things meant to draw attention to ourselves can actually trip us up.

God always seems more interested in working through those who don't need any affirmation outside of His. Perhaps it's because He wants us to point people toward Him, not ourselves. Being secretly incredible means you've found a way to be awesome without spinning up a ton of unnecessary attention for yourself. You just do awesome things and are content in knowing God sees what you've done.

The most interesting people I've met are the ones not trying to look interesting. We don't have to impress to earn the right to be on God's team. He wants our attention. He's not impressed with our activities. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and just go be awesome. No capes needed.

What quiet act of love will you do today?

I know almost all photos today are taken digitally, but when I was growing up, Polaroid pictures were all the rage. You could snap a photo and see it in a couple of minutes. It was wild. The thing about a Polaroid picture is that it needed light to develop and it took a little while for this to happen. People ended up shaking the pictures in their hands in the hopes it would develop a little faster. It didn't work with the Polaroid images, and it doesn't work with people either.

If you're going through a hard time or making some bad choices, you don't need to stay cooped up in the darkness. What you need is light to help a better picture come into view. Give yourself a little grace too. The image of who you're becoming isn't going to instantaneously emerge. It's going to take a little time. We don't need to shake people up while we're waiting either. It doesn't speed things up by a second.

It's tempting to keep things hidden. Think about a time when a friend came to you and said they needed help. Did you scoff in their face and walk away? Of course not. You had sympathy and expressed empathy for them. You loved them, and you asked how you could help. Sadly, we don't often extend the same grace to ourselves. Instead, we listen to lies we tell ourselves about how we'll just be a bother if we tell a friend we're having problems. We tell ourselves we don't deserve their presence. We think God is disappointed in us. Don't fall for this.

If you think God might love you more when you act like you have it together, you're believing a lie. God sees you at your worst, and He's nuts about you. God knows life happens to us and it can leave scars on our hearts. He wants us to be patient with ourselves and the people around us. What He's creating in us is going to take a little time and a whole lot of light to develop.

What dark parts of your life does God want to shine in?

I saw some artwork a while back where this guy painted himself into scenes of a city. I don't mean he painted a city and disguised himself in it. I mean he went to an actual location, took a picture, went back to his studio, and painted a tight-fitting suit that he would wear and look exactly like a spot in the real place. Then he'd go back wearing his city-suit, stand in the same spot, and someone would photograph him like a human chameleon. Trying to find him was like a human Where's Waldo game.

This got me thinking about God and how He saw that we had gotten ourselves into a big mess with wars and factions and hate. He saw us turning on one another and using one another for our own ends when we were made to give ourselves away. Instead of scolding us or sending fire to consume us, God painted Himself into creation. But unlike the artist, He wasn't trying to hide in what He had made. He was trying to help. In short, Jesus jumped onto the canvas and got down into the mess with us.

When you look around you and see something you don't like, try to resist the urge to criticize from afar. Be like Jesus and throw yourself into the situation so you can be a part of the change. It's easy to hide and criticize, to stay hidden and lob your insults or discontent across the fence. I've never met a courageous cynic. Paint yourself into the picture instead.

What have you been criticizing, and when will you stop?

There are passages in the Bible that talk about God knowing all these precise details. He made the entire universe, and He formed you in your mom's womb. He determined the speed of light and numbers the hairs on your head. When we hear these descriptions about God, it helps us understand His scope and enormity just a little. But there's a hidden point in there too. God, who can see you down to the very core of who you are, is crazy about you. I mean, just head over heels about you. Not someone similar to you-actually you.

This makes me wonder why so many people are trying to be like someone else. There are so many comparison traps, from accumulation to success and even to things like sacrifice and service. We look around and ask the question, Do I measure up? And if we feel like the answer is no, we get started changing things. In those moments I think God is saying, Wait, hold up. Why are you moving away from the version of you I created?

Comparison seems to be a way of life, but what if it isn't God's way? What if we settled into how God made us and celebrated others who did the same? If God is head over heels about you, you should be too. When God makes something, he does it right the first time. No regrets, no mistakes, no do-overs.

What parts of who you are do you think God is most happy about?

Remember elementary school days when we got a little too rowdy for our teacher's nerves? I was that kid, which resulted in a lot of quality time with my principal in his office. Short of sending us out of the room, our teachers had a few strategies for calming us down, and my personal favorite was the silent, confident eye lock. They didn't shout over us or call the troublemakers out by name. The teachers just stood at the front of the class with their hands folded, quietly waiting for us to hush.

I was always struck by the authority of their silence. When they shouted, it kind of brought them down to our level, and when they called us out by name, it made us defensive. But the silent eye lock reminded us of who was in control. It reminded us there was one person in charge in the room and none of us was that person. It calmed us down without shaming us. It brought some order to a load of chaos in our lives.

I've noticed God uses similar tactics to get our attention. He doesn't try to speak over the noise in our lives. He won't compete for our attention. He wants our hearts. He lets us carry on in our often clueless ways until we come to our senses and look to Him. Then, once we've quieted down long enough to let Him speak, He locks eyes with us and gently takes up where He left off.

God is strong, but His strength is often most evident in His tenderness. He won't force us to submit to Him, and He won't fight for our attention. He'll wait for us as long as we need to realize He is in control and then continue talking to us about the things that matter most to Him.

How are you experiencing God's patience?

I know a guy who wrote a book in which he came up with a way to understand love through five main "languages" we all use. It's actually a brilliant bookyou should check it out some time. One of the five is "gift-giving." Some people feel deeply loved when you give them a physical present. Granted, we all like getting presents, but this is different. To them, receiving a gift is like a deep token of true expression-when they receive a gift, they feel more deeply loved and seen.

Sweet Maria and I have a friend who we're pretty sure is one of these people. She seems to love giving gifts as much as she loves receiving them. I think one of the ways you can spot a gift-giver is by how much time and attention they spend on the wrapping. Me, the gifts I wrap are a tangle of butcher paper and tape. There's no mistake that a guy wrapped it. But her gifts are works of art unto themselves. Every fold, crisp. Every piece of tape perfectly placed. Sometimes I don't even want to open these presents because I don't want to ruin the wrapping.

Did you know you're a gift too? We're His masterpiece. God gives Himself away through people who follow Him. We are all special to Him, but we're just packages carrying the real gift, which is the spirit of Jesus. The trick is to try not to make too much of ourselves, because we know we're not the main event at the end of the day. It's all about Jesus. God loves to give gifts, which is why He sent Jesus. But He's also big on the wrapping, which is why He created you.

What keeps you from believing you're God's masterpiece?

When I was growing up, my parents were big on me taking piano lessons. Their style wasn't to encourage and compliment me as I tried to get better. Instead, they installed a seat belt on the piano bench and buckled me in for as long as I could take it. Here's the problem. I just wasn't into it, nor was I very good. On the day of a big recital, I had to follow this other kid who played my same piece flawlessly. He had a real gift, and the crowd loved him. As I walked on the stage, I thought, I'm about to make that kid look even better.

There's no surprise twist to the plot. I completely tanked, and I felt pretty bad about it afterward. Why? Because our culture thrives on competition. We're told a story from the time we're born that success looks like standing out, it looks like winning, it looks like beating the rest. Nope. Jesus told us success looks like service. It looks like putting other people first even when they play a few bad notes.

Part of loving others means paying attention to how we can best be a gift to others. It means knowing our strengths and serving in ways that make us come alive too. We're not going to get there if we start comparing ourselves. The comparison game always lies to us. It comes from a place of insecurity and says who we are isn't good enough unless perhaps we're a little bit better than the person next to us. Do you want to do something awesome for God? Forget what other people are up to. Go be you.

Who do you need to quit comparing yourself to?

When I worked as a counselor at a Young Life camp, we used to take teenage boys out to a pit in the middle of the night for some serious mud wrestling matches. We jumped in what felt like a swimming pool full of mud and would dunk each other and sling it around. We didn't care what we looked like-girls could've shown up and we wouldn't have thought twice about our appearance. We were in it for the experience.

Those nights often come to mind when I read about Jesus healing people with mud. One time He came across a blind man, and the Bible says Jesus spit in the dirt to make some mud, then rubbed it on the man's eyes to restore his sight. I always wonder why He spit in the dirt and created mud to bring the healing. He could've just said a couple of words or waved His hand and the healing would've happened all the same. The truth is, we don't really know. One thing we do know for sure is that Jesus never cared about appearances. Just like my friends and I wrestling in the mud pit, Jesus was more concerned about the experience than the appearance. He came to start a movement, not put on a display. He released His Spirit to spread love all over the world, and love doesn't depend on people looking pretty.

The world will try to mislead us about the need to present ourselves a certain way, but God remains unconcerned. He cares about our hearts more than our appearance. If you find yourself consumed with how you look in the eyes of other people, remember this: Jesus could care less. He wouldn't have used mud to heal people if He cared what we looked like.

Whose opinion about your appearance matters most to you? Why?

My favorite label is the warning label. As a kid, I was captivated by power tools and flammable objects. Anything that could create a minor explosion was on my Christmas list. I spent most of my younger years with my eyebrows burned of£ My buddies and I saw warning labels as windows into a world of possibilities, while the adults around us reminded us they were there for a reason. We continue to assume t􀀊e reason was to alert us to the possibility of massive amounts of fun.

When I got older, especially when I had kids, I began to realize warning labels were actually a pretty good idea. I also picked up on a different kind of warning label that creates its own kind of destruction: the warning labels we put on people. We often speak about certain kinds of people as "issues" or "problems." And we're usually referring to people who are different from us, have different beliefs, or rub us the wrong way.

The warning labels are less overt than the ones on heavy equipment, but they nevertheless say we're better off not getting too dose to these people. Perhaps we think engaging them in friendship could cause an explosion because we'll be misunderstood for reaching out. When I look at Jesus, though, He didn't seem. very concerned about what onlookers might think about Him. He went to the fringes and found the ne'er-do-wells, the dropouts, and the junkies ... the rejected, the odd, and the disenfranchised, and He drew them in close. He touched them when no one else would.

Loving people like Jesus means doing the unlikely. If people look confused when they look at your life, you're probably on the right track. If they're distancing themselves from you because of who you're getting close to, that's a pretty good sign you're living out your faith the way Jesus did.

Who would Jesus spend time with if He were in your shoes?