We ordered a jigsaw puzzle to work over Christmas, especially since Melody and family were going to be with us for over two weeks. Mark made significant progress on December 22, Melody worked it off and on until she left on January 2, and June and I finished it on January 16. Did I say that the puzzle was a bit harder than we thought it would be?

If you study the picture, you’ll notice a lot of oddly shaped pieces, curving rows, and difficult color patterns. For example, does this part of a tree go in the upper left or upper right of the picture?

Here are some lessons learned:

• Perseverance: all puzzles require starting by faith, putting in one piece at a time and persisting until the finish. With this one, I had to make a decision after everyone left whether or not to finish it (it was less than half done). I remembered a story told by a Navigator decades ago. A former Marine, Bob said he had committed to a project with his son: I think it was building a model ship. Bob said the project proved to be way harder than he had thought and would take significantly more time to finish than he had allotted. The solution? “I had committed to finishing the project, and so I finished.” I thought it would be worth it to Melody, especially, now back in China, to finish. So we did!
• Attention to detail: as I said, the pieces were oddly shaped, and it turned out at least two pairs of pieces were nearly identical. So much so that they were interchangeable. I was looking for a particular piece, and the only one I had of that size and shape wasn’t right. Finally, I found the missing piece…already in the puzzle! In the picture below, I was looking for the top piece with the bottom piece in my hand. The top piece was hiding on the other side of the puzzle from where I had a hole. See it? I didn’t discover another mismatched pair until after the puzzle was completed.

• Proper placement: there’s another lesson there besides attention to detail. Something in the wrong place throws everything off. God gives us many gifts, but if we get the order of things mixed up, tragedy follows. For example, we can’t live long in this country without money, but when acquiring money becomes the goal rather than the means, we’re in trouble.
• Pattern: having the box with the puzzle’s picture on it is indispensable. We build according to the pattern. When we teach disciple-making in a church, we talk about “Profile of a Disciple.” What does Jesus say a disciple looks like? How can we get there from here? I will share Jesus’ definition of a disciple from the Gospel of John in a subsequent blog.

We haven’t put the puzzle back in the box yet. There’s a place for it in the den, and I think I’ll leave it on display for a while. After all, it taught some valuable lessons!

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like…a willingness to stick with things…we find ourselves involved in loyal commitments… (Galatians 5.22, MSG)

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6.9, 10, ESV)

Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8.5, NIV)

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. Philippians 4.9, NIV)

Speaking of whining, I have just a quick observation on an editorial written in support of Queen Elizabeth and her handling of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan checking out of royal family duties. In case you missed it, Harry and Meghan want to be “independent,” perhaps in North America. The Queen’s response was very gracious:

Today my family had very constructive discussions on the future of my grandson and his family My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family. Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working Members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.

The Queen chose not to cut them off while making it clear that she’s at least a little disappointed that they have quit their job as “full-time working Members of the Royal Family.” I’m sure you know if you follow things in the U.K. even a little, you know that the Queen and the Family are expected to be “on performance” all the time and have a full slate of public appearances. It may seem easy, but many of us would find that routine tiresome. And Queen Elizabeth has been at it since 1952! Coming up on 68 years.

Anyway, William McGurn, in an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal published on January 13, wrote in praise of the Queen, with some disdain for Harry and Meghan. I’m intrigued by this sentence:

Not everyone is cut out for a life of service and sacrifice.

When I first read it, in the context of Queen Elizabeth, my first reaction was, “Yes. The Queen has certainly exemplified service and sacrifice, and that’s more, apparently, than Harry and Meghan are willing to do.”

But after some reflection, I’m hard-pressed to think of any relationship or job that does NOT require service and sacrifice. Marriage? Raising children? Taking care of aged parents? Serving in the military? Showing up for work, day in and day out to…deliver mail, pick up garbage, serve in a restaurant, issue drivers’ licenses at the DMV, write code, stock grocery stores, make cars, build houses… The list is endless. Practicing Holy Moments also involves service and sacrifice.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. (Philippians 2.5 – 8, MSG)

Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. (Ephesians 5.25, MSG)

Servants, respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God. (Ephesians 6.5 – 7, MSG)

A fellow I don’t know complained on the NextDoor site that his homeowners’ association dues had gone up. Someone was so shocked at his post, he asked if it were a joke. Why?

The fellow complaining lives in a very high-end subdivision (not mine!). The houses are on 2.5-acre lots, have 6,000 square feet or more, and I’ve not seen a house in that neighborhood with anything smaller than a 3-car garage. The increase he’s complaining about? His annual dues increased from $300 to $316, the first increase in over 10 years.

$16?! A year?!

I think we’ve become a nation of whiners. May our lives be different!

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2.14, 15, ESV, emphasis mine)

Be cheerful no matter what…thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. (1 Thessalonians 5.16, 18, MSG)

I haven’t said anything about Clemson’s losing the championship game. I had predicted to friends that they would win. I was wrong. However, I was right on another prediction: that the sun would come up Tuesday morning and life would go on. And it has!

I was proud of the way Coach Dabo Swinney, who builds his teams on love, was gracious in defeat, continuing to give glory to God, and continuing to love his players, win or lose. And now here’s something else to be proud about: the kind of men Dabo is building there. Men (not all, I’m sure) who are unashamed of Jesus and who make decisions for reasons other than immediate financial gain.

Everyone thought Clemson’s top running back, Travis Etienne, who just completed his junior year, would declare for the NFL draft. He was predicted to be picked very high and be offered A LOT of money. Here’s his decision as he tweeted it on January 17. It needs no comment. (If you can’t see the picture, go here.)

Seth Godin has written a compelling Martin Luther King Day blog talking about “trillions of tiny acts,” what we’ve been calling here: Holy Moments. Here’s some of what he said.

We’ve been sold on the idea that difficult tasks ought to be left to heroes, often from somewhere far away or from long ago. That it’s up to them, whoever ‘them’ is.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. quoted Theodore Parker: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” But it’s not bending itself. And it’s not waiting for someone from away to bend it either.

It’s on us…Even when it’s difficult. Even when it’s inconvenient. Our culture is the result of a trillion tiny acts, taken by billions of people, every day…

Sometimes it takes a hero like Dr. King to wake us up and remind us of how much power we actually have.

Dr. King, a pastor, understood that church attendance alone wouldn’t get it done as he often quoted from Amos:

Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5.23, 24, ESV)

Jesus said:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5.13 – 16, ESV)

When I served as Minister of Discipleship of a large church, I wrote a monthly column for the church newspaper. This article, first written in November 2004, speaks of the “Heart, hands, head” rubric that Joel Witzel first mentioned in a comment and that I reiterated in yesterday’s blog. Here’s some of what I wrote then…

It’s commitment season at our church. What does God want us to do? If we’re not careful, we’ll perceive mixed signals and get an incomplete message.

“Heart” is not enough. For some, church seems to be about “heart”—feelings. Our worship services are designed to create a worshipful atmosphere and make us more receptive to hear God’s Word. But just feeling good about God is not the objective. Even having strong feelings about serving God is not really enough. The wise men in Matthew 2 had enough heart to travel a great distance to look for the messiah. But they went to the wrong place. That’s inspiration without information. Paul wrote about his fellow Jews:

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10.1 – 2, ESV)

Zeal (“heart”) without knowledge of what God’s will is, is dangerous as the actions of some Muslim radicals demonstrate.

“Hands” is not enough. Our church excels at service. We have raised volunteerism and service to levels rarely seen in churches. The result is that there are some among us who might be tempted to think that service is all God wants. As long as we are busy for God, everything will be OK. Jesus himself debunked that perspective, refusing to ask Mary to quit listening to Jesus to help Martha serve.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10.38 – 42, ESV, emphasis added)

“Head” is not enough. That brings us to “head”—Bible study—which many perceive is what “Bob’s Discipleship Ministry” is about. (By the way, it’s not my discipleship ministry—it’s all of ours!) In our church, we might perceive the worship leaders as the “heart” guys, the Minister of Service as the “hands” guy, and Bob, along with with the Adult Education Director, as the “head” people. Nothing could be further from the truth.  First, the Bible is clear from start to finish that just as “heart” and “hands” are not enough; neither is “head.” “Study” is NOT a synonym for “discipleship.” Paul put it this way:

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. (1 Corinthians 8.1 – 2, ESV)

God wants all three. Discipleship is heart, hands, and head. One of the earliest sermons in history has Moses reminding the people of God just that:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6.5 – 7, ESV, emphasis added)

I wrote back on January 11 about the insufficiency of theoretical knowledge when it comes to a practical skill like installing a car’s headlight properly. I observed that sometimes in our churches we seem to be more interested that people know “theology” at the expense of actually teaching them to live the Christian life. My friend Joel Witzel wrote an excellent comment which needs the attention of a full blog rather than a cursory response. Here’s what Joel said:

This reminds me, too, of the Jan 4 post about DOING vs. BEING. I won’t discount either. KNOWING has its value, too. I think we run into difficulty when we diminish the value of any of these.

I like HEAD, HANDS and HEART.

I’d agree, though, that we are too (more?) often guilty of lack of follow-through and keeping our word. However, I sense there’s a deficit of truth and identity that leads to the lack of doing. So which is the problem: be, know, or do?

It’s a non-trivial question, as Joel knows. He and I have very similar backgrounds: retired Air Force officers, doctorates in education, involved in training and education in the Air Force. The age-old question when designing a training program is: How much do the students need to know? There is always more that can be taught, but within the constraints of time and money, what is the optimum level of knowledge and the optimum balance of knowledge and skill? And neither is worth anything if the student doesn’t want to actually use the knowledge and skill. Hence, as Joel said, “Head (knowledge), hands (skill), and heart (attitude).”

And we can’t neglect any of them. Tomorrow, I’ll share some of a column I wrote on Heart, Hands, and Head when I was on church staff.

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven… Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock…But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. (Matthew 7.21, 24, 26, ESV)

I wrote recently about the will of God and a helpful question, suggested by Andy Stanley: What would love require?

Here’s another challenge, this one from marketing blogger Seth Godin. Speaking of mass media on January 12, here’s some of what he wrote:

If it [mass media] is not for you, about you, or something you need to engage in, then who put it on your agenda?…Here’s something to consider: the world doesn’t get better when you spend more time engaging with mass media…But it does get better when you spend more time doing things that matter. Actions matter. (Emphasis mine)

Wow. There’s a question: will what I’m doing make the world better? That’s a good perspective on things we can be about:  good work, well done; deeds of love and mercy (holy moments); modeling godly character, ministering grace and love, … Small but intentional actions do change the world, and that may be a subject for another blog!

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5.15, 16, ESV)

Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10.42, ESV)

[Jesus] put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” (Matthew 13.31 – 33, ESV)

Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3 closes with the familiar affirmation:

And as Jesus rose up out of the water, the heavenly realm opened up over him and he saw the Holy Spirit descend out of the heavens and rest upon him in the form of a dove. Then suddenly the voice of the Father shouted from the sky, saying, “This is the Son I love, and my greatest delight is in him.”. (Matthew 3.16, 17, Passion Translation)

“This is the Son I love, and my greatest delight is in him.” My friend and former pastor Jim Singleton used to say that this blessing and affirmation came BEFORE Jesus had done anything. But that’s not quite true. He had done something: he had grown up in an obscure town, patiently waiting for the right time, and in the meantime, no doubt, he was working in the carpenter shop. 

Jesus knew the Isaiah prophecies of “the voice,” so by now he knew he had to wait.

And the Father is well pleased with him, maybe primarily in his identity as my friend Jim suggested, but the Father also was well pleased with his submission to his mother and his years of preparation. Prep time counts!

Paul originally charged off into ministry, but God shunted him off into the desert. “You need some prep time.” (See Galatians 1.15 – 18).

June is undertaking a 3-year program of study to be a spiritual director. Prep time! God is pleased with that.

On a daily basis, I need prep time! I can’t just get up and charge off into the day. Time in the quiet counts. I should also take a weekly sabbath and a monthly or quarterly day of prayer. God’s pleasure is in the quiet as well as in the bustle of activity. 

So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. (Luke 5.16, NKJV)

I wrote back on January 5, 2020, the day I completed one year of publishing a blog every day, that there was something important about a streak. I quoted baseball’s iron man, Cal Ripken, about the importance of a streak, just the daily discipline.

Now Seth Godin, who has blogged continuously for 20 years(!), has written about another aspect of a streak. Here’s some of what he said:

Fear of falling behind is a good way to enforce compliance.

But it turns out that real progress comes not from measuring ourselves against everyone else’s pace, but in building habits. And habits come from streaks.

You’re almost certainly never going to win a 26-mile marathon, but if you train every day, you’ll finish one.

Drip by drip, day by day. Habits lead to commitments and commitments create learning.

A culture of streaks can’t help but be mutually supportive. If there’s no behind, then there’s no ahead. But if we’re supporting each other in building new habits, we discover that opening the door for someone else also benefits us as well.

Writing this daily blog has been transformative for me. I pray that it may not only be encouraging and instructive for you, but that it will also inspire you to start your own streak…of holy moments, daily time with God, or some other contribution or discipline.

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9.23, ESV)

Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD. Proverbs 8.34, 35, ESV)