My New Year’s tradition has become finding a word of the year that expresses my hope and shapes my thinking for the months ahead. This year I have settled on the phrase, Choose Joy. I believe that I may be running a low-grade depression, like most everyone I encounter these days, because of the dreariness of a constant stream of bad news everywhere. I need a refocus for 2025. It is always appropriate to grieve, cry, and face sadness, just like any of the other emotions we experience every day. I just want to remind myself to choose joy as often as possible.

Joy is a choice of rebellion against the doom-scrollers. Joy is radical when the crowds around you wallow in the muck of tedious complaints. Joy is not necessarily optimism, but optimists look for the joy. Winston Churchill is often quoted as saying, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  I clipped an article once on The Seven Qualities of an Optimist:  1) They express gratitude. 2) They donate their time and energy. 3) They are interested in others. 4) They surround themselves with up-beat people. 5) They do not listen to naysayers. 6) They forgive others. 7) They smile. 

Optimist is not a Biblical word, but joy is. To me the seven qualities listed here reflect a Biblical lifestyle of  joy and faith. Those who live by faith, joy, and hope express gratitude to God and others every single day. They donate their time, energy and money in service and ministry. They are genuinely interested in their neighbors. They surround themselves with likeminded believers and mentors. They pray about the critics and the discouragers. They forgive and forgive. And they take joy in walking everyday with their Lord. This is more than positive thinking; it is confident living. It is more than seeing the opportunity; it is embracing the very call of God. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Choose joy. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Our neighbors across the street from us have added a spotlighted outdoor nativity scene that is classier than ours. Much classier. We still have not gotten ours unboxed. It has been a busy month.  Many of the houses around us are decorated with all kinds of lights and displays, with an occasional star mounted up high. Santa and the reindeer are everywhere. So are snowmen and multicolored trees. But the display on the lawn or in the window does not mean much unless the Christ of Christmas is in our heart. Each year I look to some of my favorite carols to point the way to our newborn King.

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. The unsuspecting town, filled with grumbling taxpayers and weary travelers, becomes the focal point of God’s divine plan of redemption. The King is coming.

Come Thou long-expected Jesus, Born to set Thy people free. From our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee. The King is born with a kingdom mission of forgiveness, salvation and grace. Cast your deepest, darkest burdens before Him, and He will give you rest.

O come, desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind. Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease; fill the whole world with heaven’s peace. The King, who is the Prince of Peace, longs to heal the broken-hearted, mend broken relationships and fill the world with Good News of great joy. Trust His word. Trust His love.

Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for a slave is our brother, And in His name all oppression shall cease. The King’s life example, His unmatched wisdom, His cruel death on our behalf, and His resurrection overcoming all sin, guilt and even death itself, cause us to bow before Jesus, The King of Kings, and honor His Great Commandment to love others as He loves us.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. For He alone is worthy!  And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Sometimes a malady comes along for which there needs no better a descriptor.  Brain Rot, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration. Brain Rot—is what you might know as endlessly scrolling Facebook, SnapChat, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp, We Chat, Threads, Truth Social, X, You Tube, and on and on. It is like watching the same television station hour after hour, or the opposite, constantly channel surfing. Brain Rot is the 2024 Word of the Year. According to the OED, the term was first used in 1854 by Henry David Thoreau, in his book Walden, comparing the devaluation of intellectual ideas to a mental form of potato rot. I have run across a sub-set of the malady called PDF Brain Rot, a classification afflicting students and employees required to read vast quantities of digital books, research papers, and AI summaries of such materials.  

There is a remedy for brain rot. I suggest three simple ways to lessen the brain rot that may be infecting us.  1. Make something. Use your creativity—draw, cook, sew, plant, build, write, sing, listen.  2. Help someone. Find a need. Make a visit. Serve a meal. Volunteer.  3.  Develop a new spiritual discipline. Explore a time of simplicity, fasting (not just food), generosity (not just money), confession, humility, silence.

As with all forms of fungus and mildew, actual sunlight is the best disinfectant. Take a walk around the block or sit in front of a sunny window. You will begin to feel a real difference.  Brain rot happens because we are bored, exhausted, or unfulfilled in some areas of our inner being.  Read Psalm 37:30-40 and examine yourself before God. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Let in the light. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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 by Kevin Avery

When following Jesus, there are no shortcuts. Life doesn’t become easier simply because we love Him and trust Him—Jesus is not a genie in a bottle. Neither does it mean life will always become harder just for believing in Jesus, though persecution certainly happens when we follow Him with all our heart. We oversimplify to assume Jesus will make our life easier or harder. Either perspective needs to be transformed because the truth is: Life is Jesus. Truth is Jesus. The same thinking applies to the journey we are taking. The journey is—at least should be—Jesus. I do not mean this in a philosophical way like when Pilot asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). I mean it in a transformative way. 

In John 14:6, Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. When John wrote this verse, he was using Greek. Often, the Greek term ὁδός (hodos) is translated as way, as when Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. However, it can be translated literally as road, path, or journey, or figuratively as way (or manner) of thinking, feeling, or deciding. Most English translations of John 14:6 use the figurative way. However, I believe all these possible translations have much merit. Everything about a believer’s life, whether literal or figurative, should point to Jesus and be about Him. 

In this manner of thinking, I understand that whether we are blessed with treasure—like being married to an amazing wife—or afflicted with adversity—like dealing with an autoimmune disease—everything is a part of our journey to know our Heavenly Father through Jesus. Each day as Hebrews 12:2 tells us, we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. Every difficulty or joy we encounter is a chance to know Jesus better. In addition, we are on this journey together, even if some members, like me, are homebound. Thankfully, at Braden Park, homebound members are just a phone call away, and prayer is not limited to a location. As Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, it begins: Our Father who is in heaven … and what a blessing it is to pray for and pray with other disciples of Christ Jesus.

Rev. Kevin Avery is our former missionary to China. Through his on-line ministry with ITEE Global, he encourages and prays with pastors in Asia, Africa and the US. (iteeg.org)

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