Yesterday’s blog explored the idea that even though we’re imperfect people, God expects us to follow his commands and cooperate with God in his work. As the Winter Olympics winds down, it’s instructive to consider some of the lessons from these Olympians who have given their lives to pursue their sport, often with less than stellar results.

Mark Kizla, sportswriter with the Colorado Springs Gazette, wrote a beautiful piece: Why Mikaela Shiffrin and Ilia Malinin are the accidental heroes of Winter Olympics, February 15, 2026. Written before Shiffrin broke her 8-year medal drought with a win in the slalom on February 18, Mark opens:

The real big shocker of these Winter Games is how skier Mikaela Shiffrin and skater Ilia Malinin have become accidental American heroes.

Through the pain of their very public Olympic suffering, they’ve taught mere mortals like you and me a valuable lesson:

Choke happens.

If the pressure can get to Shiffrin and Malinin, considered the best at what they do on the planet, there’s no shame when muggles like us fail epically.

Eight long years since the exact date when Shiffrin won her last Olympic gold medal, she stood alone at the start gate on Sunday, looked down at the length of the giant slalom run beneath her skis and saw what a slippery slope world dominance can be...crossing the finish line with the 11th fastest time…

He continues:

In an imperfect world, the pursuit of perfection is a fool’s errand…Dare to be great…But assume nothing, because reaching for the stars is a good way to fall on your butt.  

He reports that Shiffrin reflected:

The Olympics ask us to take a real risk on the world stage. May we all champion one another, tread lightly on what we don’t fully comprehend and have the fortitude to keep showing up.

“…Have the fortitude to keep showing up.” May we do the same.

Expect Great Things From God. Attempt Great Things For God. –William Carey

And do that, not knowing what the results will be.

I’m meditating on John 9, the story of the man born blind, in preparation for a sermon on March 15. It occurred to me that the only person Jesus reached in that story was the guy!

He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. (John 9.38, ESV)

The Pharisees? Not so much:

Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” (John 9.40, 41, ESV)

Not even the great Apostle Paul reached everyone:

After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” (Acts 24.24, 25, ESV)

King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?” (Acts 26.27, 28, ESV)

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” (Acts 17.32, ESV)

Yesterday we looked at lists of commands / challenges / demands from God on how to live. Isaiah 33’s answer to the question, “Who among us can dwell with everlasting burning?” That is, “Who can stand before the Lord.” The answer? He who…

• walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who
• despises the gain of oppressions, who
• shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who
• stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and
• shuts his eyes from looking on evil. (Isaiah 33.15, ESV)

I don’t think this is a hypothetical list designed to compel people to say, “Oh, God! I can’t do these things! Please be gracious and forgive me in advance.” Yet that’s how we who understand grace often treat these lists. “God knows you can’t do those things so let’s be grateful for grace.”

My friend Ray Bandi in New Hampshire and I discussed this very thing last week. He was reading a devotional book by an author we both respect, but Ray was bothered by sentences like these:

• Grace is never partnered with works.

But the author is wrong: grace partners with works all the time:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15.10, ESV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2.8 – 10, ESV)

The author continued:

• All our good works are shot through with sin.

Ray and I are wondering, “What’s the point of saying that?” What’s the fruit? Guilt? Paralysis? Should we conclude, “I can’t be perfect so why try?” NO!

People, maybe thundering preachers, like to quote Isaiah 64.6:

…all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags… (NKJV)

But that’s not a permanent condition! The passage continues:

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look—we all are Your people! (Isaiah 64.8, 9, NKJV)

Back to our original discussion: neither my works nor I have to be perfect to be effective. As I’ve said in connection with people who are afraid to do anything because it might look like “works righteousness,” someone has to take the cinnamon rolls to the neighbor and shovel their driveway! Pastor Aaron Dorman in Estes Park says, “Not works righteousness; righteous works.”

After my conversation with Ray, I continuing processing with June. I’m not a great pianist, but people like to hear me play. I played piano recently for the men’s Christmas brunch at First Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, with part-time minister of discipleship and first class guitarist Jeff McCrory. The music Jeff and I did was GOOD. The men loved it. Perfect? Not even close. But more than “good enough.”

There’s a marvelous play called Two Pianos, Four Hands. (June and I saw it live in San Francisco in 1999, and I finally found the DVD of their last performance a couple of years ago.) It’s about two guys whose piano careers stalled at age 17. They weren’t good enough to play classical professionally. They weren’t good enough to play jazz professionally…or so their teachers said. But these guys can play the piano VERY WELL. And they went on to make a career out of telling their story in this play. You might be able to livestream it here. Spoiler alert: the two-person play ends with this exchange:

• “We are the best piano players in the country!” “No, we’re not.”
• “We are the best piano players in this city!” “No.”
• “We are the best piano players on this street!” “Yes, we are.” And they sit down to their pianos and knock out yet another difficult piece by Bach.

We’re not perfect, and that’s why salvation is by grace through faith. But God allows us to cooperate with him in his work. “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15.5), but with God, we can and should live well and work well.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! (Romans 6.1, 2, NKJV)

And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful. (Titus 3.14, NKJV)

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: (1 Peter 4.10, ESV)

Now may the God of peace…equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. (Hebrews 13.20, 21, ESV)

…we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. (2 Thessalonians 1.11, MSG)

There are some gems in Isaiah 33 starting with:

O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble. (Isaiah 33.2, ESV)

The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure. (Isaiah 33.5, 6, ESV)

“He will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge” reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1.30:

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. (ESV)

Then a question and an answer reminiscent of Psalm 15:

Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? (Isaiah 33.14, ESV)

It sounds like a rhetorical question expecting the answer, “No one,” but it’s not. Once I asked a friend who played professional baseball, “How do you hit a 100 mph fastball?” I was expecting, “You can’t.” But no, he proceeded to tell me step by step how to do it. Isaiah is the same. Who can dwell with everlasting burnings?

He who…

• walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who
• despises the gain of oppressions, who
• shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who
• stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and
• shuts his eyes from looking on evil,

He will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. (Isaiah 33.15 – 16, ESV)

Those things are doable. As I say, Psalm 15 asks the same question and gives a similar answer.

O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who…

• walks blamelessly and
• does what is right and
• speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and
• does no evil to his neighbor,
• nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
• in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
• but who honors those who fear the LORD;
• who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
• who does not put out his money at interest and
• does not take a bribe against the innocent.

He who does these things shall never be moved. (Psalm 15, ESV)

Also a doable list. Psalm 24 is similar:

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who…

• has clean hands and a pure heart, who
• does not lift up his soul to what is false and
• does not swear deceitfully.

He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah (Psalm 24.3 – 6, ESV)

Those of us who understand that we are “saved by grace” that we can’t earn (see Ephesians 2.8, 9) often default to a position of, “Therefore, there’s nothing I can do to please God.” That attitude is contrary to these lists in Isaiah 33 and Psalms 15 and 24. Let’s explore a bit more tomorrow.

Yesterday, we introduced Lent with our annual Ash Wednesday meditation: dust to dust. But since we’re still here (not dust…yet!), let’s think about Lenten practices.

A number of years ago, some folks in my church were talking about what they were going to give up for Lent. One said, “I’m going to stop being angry at other drivers.” I responded by pointing out that we can’t give up something for Lent that we ought not to do anyway!

A pastor suggested that giving up for Lent is OK, but why not add in a special practice or discipline? That’s good counsel. Our pastor has suggested using Lectio 365. It’s a very well done app with three devotionals per day: morning, noon, evening. I downloaded it yesterday and as a “newbie,” I was presented with a challenging meditation from the call of the first disciples, Matthew 4.18 – 22. It reads in part:

Four fishermen quietly plying their trade. But then Jesus turns up: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” With these ten words he catapults these brothers from

• The shores of Galilee to the ends of the earth
• From anonymity into unimaginable influence
• from predictable stability into lives of perpetual pilgrimage

The call to follow Christ has not changed. He remains the Great Disrupter, challenging me to trade what I know for the great unknown, and all that I own for a greater cause. – Pete Greig, Lectio 365, introductory meditation, bullets added

Now I’m challenged! How will Jesus disrupt my life (again – we didn’t expect to move last summer)? To give myself more of a chance to hear from Jesus, I’m cutting back on daily crosswords and word puzzles. I’ll stay with Wordle since it keeps score and doesn’t take very long, but everything else can be put on hold. I’m reading a heavy-duty historical novel on Pearl Harbor, which I’ll stay with, and there are two other serious books, recommended by men I trust, which I’ll read as I have time. But no light novels like the Agatha Christie mysteries I enjoy.

What to add in? Here are a few things:

• Think about new goals
• Watch The Chosen one episode a day, 40 episodes in all.
• Read Lectio 365 three times/day

I’m praying we will ALL hear his voice always, but especially at this time of year.

But Jesus would withdraw to desolate places and pray. (Luke 5.16, ESV)

It’s Ash Wednesday…

It’s the time we remember that our time here is limited. Last week, while we were at a local resort celebrating (pre) Valentine’s, we had to take a break for a memorial service.

Our friend Rich Hughes, retired Air Force Brigadier General, our age exactly, born 9 days after June, went to church on Sunday, January 11. A friend of mine saw him in Sunday School. He came home with his wife, Georgeann, and collapsed. EMTs rushed him to the hospital. Dead within two hours. First class guy, in apparent good health. Dead.

Which of us is next?

Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. – God to Adam, Genesis 3.19

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. (Psalm 103.13 – 16, ESV)

I don’t think we recognize as much as we should that righteousness is a good thing. That recognition is certainly not always the case “out there.” I don’t keep up with all the details of the seemingly never-ending Epstein affair, but there are folks resigning from high-profile positions because of their association with him. I expect some of them might be thinking, “I wish I had been a bit more interested in doing the right thing than in indulging in the wrong thing.”

Righteousness is not only God’s requirement, it’s his recipe for the good life. It’s right there in Isaiah 32:

…until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. (Isaiah 32.15 – 17, ESV)

“The effect of righteousness will be peace”

“The result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.”

The section concludes with:

My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. (Isaiah 32.18, ESV)

Not, “Who wouldn’t want righteousness?” but “Who wouldn’t want the effects of righteousness?”

If righteousness is obedience to God and his laws, wouldn’t we better off righteous? Like a father trying to direct the family, doesn’t life run smoother when the kids cooperate?

God made us and gave us a maintenance manual. If we run the creature according to the manual, we get a minimum of friction and a maximum of joy and peace. – Skip Gray

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16.11, ESV)

We considered yesterday how the Israelites were bound and determined to go “down to Egypt” (it’s always “down to Egypt” in the Bible) even when God told them not to. Why? What’s so bad about Egypt?

Chapter 31 gives us a clue. It’s not Egypt so much as the people’s trust in Egypt (which they can see) versus trusting and consulting the LORD (whom they can’t see except by faith):

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! (Isaiah 31.1, ESV)

The psalmist captured it:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (Psalm 20.7, ESV)

In the U.S., our money proclaims, “In God we trust.” Do we?

Isaiah 30 takes on a journey from rebellion to blessing. It opens with a warning not to go down to Egypt, a warning the people do not pay attention to:

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! (Isaiah 30.1, 2, ESV)

The people do what they want, and they don’t want to be told otherwise.

And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 30.8 – 11 ESV)

Jeremiah experienced the same rejection over the same issue. During the exile to Babylon, the people left in the land asked Jeremiah whether or not they should go to Egypt. Jeremiah said, no, don’t go. (See Jeremiah 42). So Jeremiah 43 opens:

When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all these words of the LORD their God, with which the LORD their God had sent him to them, Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie. The LORD our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there.’… (Jeremiah 43.1, 2, ESV)

Back to Isaiah 30, the promise and warning are clear

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. (Isaiah 30.15, NIV)

But then a change of heart: after God punishes them, he promises clear direction to which the people will listen:

For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. (Isaiah 30.19 – 21, ESV)

And the people will get rid of their idols, and God will bless them:

Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!” And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder… (Isaiah 30.22 – 24, ESV)

They will turn to God, from idols, just as the Thessalonians did under Paul’s ministry:

…you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God… (1 Thessalonians 1.7 – 9, ESV)

It’s Valentine’s Day, and June and I have just returned from a pre-Valentine’s getaway to a local resort. I hope your day was blessed.

There was a big competition last week – not the Super Bowl, which Seattle won handily – but the 150th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, held in New York City. On February 3, World Magazine reported:

Historically, the breed most likely to walk away with the top award is the wire fox terrier, which has won 15 times—almost twice that of any other type of dog.

The wire fox terrier, who would know? Asta, in the 1930s detective comedy The Thin Man, was a wire fox terrier:

Skippy, the dog actor who plays Asta, apparently brushing up on his lines…

But no, this year’s winner was NOT a wire fox terrier. Meet Penny the dog, a Doberman:

I don’t even like Dobermans, but that is a magnificent dog. Chest out, ears up. “You can take my picture if you like.”

Penny weighs about four times as much as a wire fox terrier, who weights about four times as much as the average chihuahua. On the other hand, the St Bernard is twice as big as Penny!

Such variety!

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12.4 – 7 ESV)

And most people’s dogs will never even compete at a local dog show, must less win at Westminster. But they love them just the same. Most of us won’t win any prizes either…

And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. (Jeremiah 45.5, KJV)

…and God loves us:

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1.4 – 6, ESV, emphasis mine)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2.4 – 7, ESV)

Wow. We ended on a Valentine’s Day theme!

A chilling paragraph in Isaiah 29 that can be applied to scripture:

Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).

And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.” (Isaiah 29.9 – 12, ESV)

This picture of the sealed book has always impressed me (or depressed me). There are a lot of folks who believe that they can’t read the Bible for themselves. To them, it’s a sealed book. For example, when a friend tried to encourage his father to read the Bible to hear from God, his father replied, “If the priest wants me to know something from the Bible, he’ll tell me!”

It’s sad because…

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. (1 Corinthians 2.12, ESV)

The warning about the sealed book is followed immediately by another warning:

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” (Isaiah 29.13, 14, ESV)

From The Message:

The Master said: “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren’t in it. Because they act like they’re worshiping me but don’t mean it, I’m going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears. The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing.” (Isaiah 29.13, 14, MSG)

The chapter closes with a promise that things will turn around:

Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? In that day

• the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and
• out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.
• The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and
• the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 29.17 – 19, ESV)
• …
• And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction. (Isaiah 29.17 – 19, 24, ESV)

PS Happy Friday 13th! I hope you don’t have paraskevidekatriaphobia.