Now, I have to let you all know, this Thursday is finally my last day working with Harris
County.
Yes.
Oh, my goodness.
Very, very happy about this.
But it's been one of those things where it's like you're glad to do it, and then also you're
kind of glad when it's done.
But with it is there's been a lot of work to focus on affordable housing in the area,
so I'm glad to have been a part of it, and I think it would be a lot of different lessons
to take from it.
But something that stood out to me, one of the lessons that came out of it, was in interacting
with my team at one point.
So my job is supposed to be to get community feedback, find out what they see that they
need, and then make sure that where money is going takes that into consideration.
Well, one of the problems was that during one of our meetings, I'm sitting there communicating
what it was that we had just learned from all these surveys, and then I find out that
they'd already decided where all the money was going to go anyway.
And I'm just like, wait, but you're supposed to make sure that this reflects what the community
wants.
That's literally one of the stipulations for the funding, and it just kept going around
and around and around.
And finally, it was just like, when are we going to get the community feedback into
the plan?
And then I was written up for being too passionate.
And that feeling, the desire to be able to speak and to stand up for what's needed, at
the same time, oftentimes it kind of gets squelched by this idea that, yeah, you don't
want to rattle up too many people.
You don't want to ruffle too many feathers.
Well, what was interesting to me, though, is that after a few months, there was a lot
of turnover.
A lot of people got changed up, in part because a lot of things were not getting done the
way they were supposed to be.
Well, in that, though, one of my superiors, as she was leaving, said, Jason, don't forget
to still be passionate.
And what stood out to me was that, OK, how do I take that passion, but how do I guide
it in a better way?
And one of the things with that is some of the new people that were there, it was like
I had a chance to start over.
Well, in starting over, I started focusing on how do I teach more people how to do the
same work?
How do I encourage other people where they're at?
How do I make sure that other people see that I'm on their team, that I'm alongside them?
How do I make sure that whenever someone has done something great, I point it out, and
when something isn't the way it should be, how can I find a more productive way of doing
that?
And not only did it make it easier to get some of these jobs done, but also more people
were excited and happy to do those jobs in the first place.
And it ended up creating a stronger team.
Now, a lot of times, we might end up looking at these things as just sort of like a human
resources kind of an idea.
But it's interesting because in many spots, that's what we see Paul talking about in his
letter.
You see, oftentimes we miss out on the fact that the gospel is meant to change the way
that we look at the people and the circumstances around us.
Paul says that we are to acknowledge workers.
How often do we actually find people at work making sure that other people get credit for
the things that they've done when we're trying so hard to make sure that we get credit for
things?
How many times is it easy to live in peace with others?
And that just doesn't mean live in peace with others who are nice to you and making it easy.
Live in peace with others.
That doesn't exclude the ones who are making things difficult.
Or even things like warn the idol and the disruptive.
And sometimes we can end up going one way or the other.
I mean, people who are idle and not getting the job done, hey, I worked for government.
I totally get how that is.
With it is at the same time, how do you encourage them to stay on track and find ways not just
just tell them, go be productive because that's never going to work.
Or how is it that you convince them that they want to be doing more?
Or the disruptive?
How do you help people instead of putting their feet in the ground and saying, I'm not going
to do it?
How do you instead encourage a change of heart?
Encourage those who are disheartened, be patient with people and help them defeat evil with
good.
We're not used to defeating evil with good.
We're used to defeating evil with strength, with power, with snarky comments.
That's America, defeat everything with a snarky comment.
And with that is we're used to treating evil like evil.
And you have to make sure that people get put in their place.
And yet somehow we're being called to something different.
Because somehow the good that we're meant to do is what will actually stop the evil
that's in the world.
It's sort of like there's this, you know those memes that have the glass that's half
full or half empty.
And it'll show how different people respond to it.
So it might say like the optimist looks and says that the glass is half full.
The pessimist will look at it and say the glass is half empty.
But I love the engineer that says the glass was designed poorly and put way too much
space in there.
And I love that.
It's just a whole other way of looking at it.
And this whole idea of the circumstances that you see, the way that we view it ends up changing
the way we respond to it.
There was a story about a farmer.
It's a Chinese story about a farmer that one day his horse runs away.
And the neighbor comes up and says oh no, what bad luck you had, your horse ran away.
And the farmer responds with maybe, maybe not.
Well the horse comes back.
Well the horse came back with other horses.
And so then the neighbor comes back and says wow, what great luck.
You've got more horses now.
And the farmer says well maybe, maybe not.
But then when they were trying to tame the horses, the farmer's son falls and breaks
his leg.
And so the neighbor comes back again and says oh what terrible luck.
Your son's got a broken leg and the farmer says maybe, maybe not.
And then because they were forcing people into the military at the time, they saw, bless
you, that the son had broken his leg and said oh well we can't force you into the military.
And so the neighbor comes back and says oh what good luck.
He wasn't forced into the military because of a broken leg.
And what did the farmer say?
Maybe, maybe not.
And the original story is meant to explain that oftentimes things go back and forth.
You never know what's going to lead to a good outcome or to a bad outcome.
You really have no idea.
But more than that is that we know that it can be so easy to focus on the things that
are going poorly that we miss out on what God might be doing for our good and the good
of others.
And that's a tricky part about this.
Is that there are a lot of things that God is doing in our world around us but also through
us.
We don't necessarily understand today what God is doing.
It may very well be not only hard but frustrating and we might just see it as a curse but we
don't realize that tomorrow God is meaning to use it for something that we didn't even
get or it may be something that we never get to see in our lifetime why.
But a lot of times this view of how we view the things around us, it ends up turning
on the way we view God.
You see, this idea that whatever we do or don't have is still meant to be a blessing.
This Sunday is sometimes a tricky Sunday.
See, it's the one right before Advent.
This is also oftentimes, since it's right after Thanksgiving, it's also the one that
a lot of churches like to spend their time making sure is stewardship Sunday.
So everybody needs to know that they need to give money to the church that week.
And I get it and it makes sense.
But more than that is that if we don't already realize how blessed we are in Christ to the
point of wanting to share what we have, then how is one day of giving going to actually
matter?
Because it's more than just trying to convince people to be kind but rather is to say what
is it that God has already done in your life that then we can share with others.
I mean, for crying out loud, the kids got it pretty easily.
How often do we not get it?
But with that, is it then goes into something where it says, do not quench the spirit, do
not despise prophecies, but test everything, hold fast what is good.
We oftentimes get confused on what that prophecy part is meant to be.
We can sometimes think, oh, that just means you're prophesying about what's going to
happen in the future.
But that's not necessarily what prophecy means.
Rather it's saying test what people are saying to you in God's name.
See the thing is that no matter where you go, you're going to come across a lot of different
teachers having a lot of different ideas, a lot of different ways of trying to explain
what they say God would want you to do.
But here's the thing.
Does it actually match with what God has said and done already?
You see, when Jesus predicted his death and he said that the Son of Man will be taken
and will be killed on the tree and then on the third day will rise again, the reason
why that prophecy was so important was because everything Jesus said was completely reframing
what people knew.
And he had to show them that what he was doing was truly coming from God, the God who could
point and say what was to come.
But do we do that?
Do we spend the time taking what it is that we hear from other people and actually comparing
it to what God has done, who God is, and what he's called us to be?
If something sounds like a good idea, then asking the question, is this actually going
to lead us somewhere that we know God would want us to go?
See, the thing is that oftentimes we can end up getting so distracted from doing things
that we think sound like a good idea, but we miss asking the question, is this actually
something that God is leading us to do?
Here's an example.
Whenever I was young, we used to have to memorize a bunch of verses.
So what we had to do is if we wanted to go to camp, we wanted to go to camp for free.
We had to memorize verses every week for several months, and we had to say them in front of
the congregation.
So imagine all of my confirmation students, imagine that I may all come up here every single
week for half a year and you had to say a verse in front of everybody in the congregation.
Yeah, I know, right?
I'm very, very nice.
With it is that we spent so much time making sure we had the verse perfectly right, but
at no point did we spend time seeing, yeah, but did we understand what the verse was meant
to be about?
Whenever we were going through all this stuff with COVID and we had to meet online a lot
of times, it was really hard to pick and choose what is it that's going to be important and
what is not as important.
And at the end of the day, I had to ask how important is it that I make sure every one
of the kids memorizes the Apostles Creed, and I had to decide I'd rather make sure that
I know that they know for sure what it's about, and then I'll just tell them you should probably
learn it later.
So yeah, I think all of you got it memorized by now though.
Yeah, all my good students, all my good students, there we go.
And that's the thing with what we follow as being God's desire is that oftentimes we spend
our time focusing on the things that we think make sense.
We understand if we do this, I can clearly see how I'm going to get where I want to go,
and then we stop and we pause and we say, yeah, but is that where we actually see Jesus
leading us as well?
There was a quote, it's a C.S. Lewis quote.
He wrote in his book, Mere Christianity.
In it, he says, if I am drowning in a rapid river, a man who still has one foot on the
bank may give me a hand, which saves my life.
Now should I shout back in between my gasps?
No, it's not fair.
You have an advantage.
You're keeping one foot on the bank.
That advantage, you can call it unfair if you like, is the only reason why he can be
of any use to me.
To what will you look for help if you will not look to that which is stronger than yourself?
In a nation that has prided itself on, I can do it.
I'm strong enough.
I'll pull myself up by my bootstraps.
I still don't know what a bootstrap is for the record.
And I will make sure that I get it done.
Because that's kind of part of the problem.
We keep coming up with solutions to things that satisfy what we think will work instead
of looking to the one who actually conquered death for us.
That's a hard part.
But that's also where all the difference is made.
See, as we're finishing our study of 1 Thessalonians, we end up seeing Paul finish off with
what sounds in many ways like, it's just kind of a nice way to finish up something.
Just kind of a good conclusion.
Just sort of like, take care.
Don't forget to write your mom.
Make sure you eat your vegetables, all that stuff.
And he says, brothers, pray for us.
Greet all the brothers with the holy kiss.
I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Nobody greet me with the holy kiss, please.
That'd be very awkward.
But with it, though, is to realize that it's actually revealing the whole point of this.
We are meant to pray for others.
Because as you're praying, is what you're feeling toward that person something that
God actually wants to hear from you?
When we pray, it's also a chance to be reset to where God wants us.
Greet people with love.
Do we really go to the people around us and focus on how am I loving this person?
Read the scriptures.
Sometimes the most obvious ones are the ones that we miss the most.
Because this is where God focuses us on who he is and what his word is proclaimed.
And the grace of Christ.
Because here's the thing.
We've got all sorts of different ideas and speculations in our world about what's going
to fix things.
Whoever has the right plan or the right economy or the right discussion points or makes sure
that they get people riled up in the right way.
But the only one who can actually bring any hope is the one who suffered through everything
we had to throw at him.
And still come out the other side with new life.
So if we truly wish to see this world become what God has wanted it to be, let's let go
of what we think is going to work.
And go after what God has called us to in Christ Jesus.
His forgiveness and his mercy is the only thing that will truly make the difference.
Thanks be to God.