Love.

We all want to be loved, and most of us would agree that the world would be a better place if everyone loved one another better. Which means we cared for those we disagreed with politically or morally. That there would be less violence and more peace, which means there would be less fear and more hope.

The Gospel is God’s great demonstration of love. That he would care for those (all of us) who have turned from God and fallen in short in various ways. That he would even love and be willing to forgive the most heinous of people, that no person, no matter what they have done, is beyond God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus.

This idea that God and the Bible is really all about love is a popular concept even among non-Christians (and that’s not a bad thing!). We often hear people wonder why Christians seem to get hung up on any particular issue when they should be more concerned about being loving and graceful to others. After all, isn’t that what Jesus was like?

When I was in high school Facebook started to really take off. Now as I’m sure you have observed, Facebook changes a lot. They change their layout, how the news feed works, what actually goes in the newsfeed, etc.

Now, people don’t often click the “about” section on people’s Facebook profiles (I know I don’t). However I remember in some of the early Facebook designs, your “about” section was easily seen as it was displayed on your main page.

And I remember I used to think how interesting it was in the way some people talked about themselves, and perhaps you saw this as well.

Let’s be honest, it’s not always easy to be thankful. Especially when you begin to think of all the things you need to get done, bills that need to be paid, and plans that need to be made.

But there is one key thing you to do to fight against worry and stress: be thankful.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

-Philippians 4:6

The more thankful we become, the less we worry. Why? Because when we begin to see how much we do have, we begin to see what’s really important (i.e. people) and what’s not so much (i.e. things).

Think about all the blessings you have to be thankful, and I promise you’ll have a more thankful thanksgiving.

What’s one of the things I am thankful for this year? A health baby girl.

Ever seen one of those terrible American Idol auditions? The ones where the person singing is so horrible that all the judges can do is laugh? Those are funny.

But then you have the ones where not only is the person auditioning terrible, but they are defiant and adamant that they in fact are good vocalists, and they claim that the judges have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

It’s amusing because we know the singer can’t sing. Even if you can’t sing, you can tell when you hear someone who can’t sing. And so we all laugh and roll our eyes that some people can be so blinded by their own lack of talent.

We laugh because we know what good singing sounds like, and that certainly is not it.

Love is not so different.

About a year ago I was in a conversation with someone who wasn’t a Christian. They showed me this picture they saw online that depicted how huge our universe is, and beside that showed someone committing some sin. The point was to say that we are really small in comparison to everything around us, and it is doubtful God really cares about the minor things we do.

My friend showed me this and said, “this really puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?”

What he didn’t realize is that we saw two different things. To him, and maybe to you, he saw that we have all these galaxies that make up a ginormous universe, so if there even is a God, surely he’s got enough going on and isn’t really concerned with human decisions.

Mitch Beauman is Worship and Arts Pastor at Lifepointe Church in Raleigh, NC. Recently Mitch underwent surgery on his throat. If you want to read more about his journey and what he is learning through all of this, he writes here.

I asked Mitch some questions on what this season has taught him as well as his experience as a worship leader.

What happened to your throat and what did they have to do to fix it?

A polyp developed on my right vocal fold, and surgery was required to remove it. They simply cut it from the surface of my vocal cords.

How long is the recovery and what does that look like?

This week Christina and I are in northern Ohio at our church planter assessment with Stadia, the church planting network we are working with.

All planters planting through Stadia go through this assessment, and they hold a few of them throughout the year. So we will be joined by many others as well!

It’s a really busy week with things going on all day and all evening. We’ve also been told it’s a pretty tiring week. However our six month old daughter Finley will not be with us, and considering she still isn’t much a fan of sleeping, there’s a good chance we will be more rested than we have been for a while!

Out of the assessment, we will have a greater sense of what it will take to move forward with the church plant.

I will be sharing some exciting stuff regarding the church plant in the coming weeks. If you would like to stay informed, be sure to subscribe by clicking here.