Many of us have anxiety about seeing family during Thanksgiving. As a sincere Christ-follower, a part of my anxiety is a feeling of inadequacy as I engage with non-believing family members. I feel the pressure to have all the right words and present my faith with a lot of wisdom and eloquence…

In our lives, we pour ourselves into various roles. At work, we are the boss or the employee. We are the mom, dad, son, daughter, or sibling at home. In our social lives, we take on the roles of friend, host, and guest. There is a kind of humility that comes from taking on these roles because they often require an emptying of ourselves for the sake of serving those around us. Jesus knows what this is like. After all, he humbled himself by taking on the role of being our Savior.

When we are young, most of us launch into our lives full of ambition, hope, and optimism. But given enough time, we find ourselves exhausted. If we're honest, we're not exhausted because we're "so busy." We are busy, but what makes life exhausting is that it's incredibly hard. Nothing works the way it should. Our exhaustion is rooted in our disappointment, discouragement, frustration, and disillusionment. What can reenergize us? What can give us the courage to dream again? What do we need to joyfully pursue the good work set before us with new joy and optimism?

The first words we hear Jesus saying in the Gospel of Matthew are, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) But what does it mean to be “poor in spirit?”

For the past year, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be confident. I struggle to operate in true confidence. I worry about being perceived as arrogant, so I sometimes present myself as overly “humble,” soft-spoken, and meek. At other times, I feel frustrated by my fear of arrogance, so I grit my teeth with the determination to pull up my “confidence pants.”

Years ago, I remember being startled by King David’s delight in the Law of God. I remember wondering how and why it was beautiful to him. I used to be a bit skittish regarding the Law of God. I didn’t have categories for understanding verses like the ones we see at the beginning of Psalm 119.

The opportunity to escape the pain in our lives is one reason why getting drunk is appealing. With enough alcohol in our system, it’s easier to forget, for a moment, the things that worry and trouble us. It can be a way to detach from reality and numb our wounded hearts. I get the appeal. After all, if you get drunk enough, you might even find yourself singing…

One of the biggest dangers I face is that I’m a fairly capable person. I can accomplish a lot, and I know it. In recent years, I’ve been feeling a bit disillusioned and disappointed. I’ve accomplished some things that I’m proud of, but on the whole, it feels like my efforts are being thwarted. It’s only recently that I’ve started to wonder if, like the tower of Babel, God is hindering my progress. And it’s only recently that I’ve also wondered if this might be an act of mercy.