Memorial Day 2026

 In 2013, I got to walk across Arlington Cemetery and noted the many soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our freedom in this country. I realize that they represent only a fraction of those who sacrificed their lives for others. As a Christian, I have the understanding that Jesus sacrificed his life for my sins. I understand that I don’t always show gratitude for that sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed everything. We struggle to sacrifice a little bit of our time to serve others.

Jesus said, “No greater love has this that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13. I see similarities between Christians and Americans who focus their energy on politics. Both do not understand true sacrifice, gratitude, or how to truly love their neighbor. Jesus loves everyone, including those who don’t believe or follow Him. He desires for all to come to Him and enjoy His salvation. Social media has revealed that many people do not understand how to love because they refuse to love difficult people in their lives, or people who refuse to do what they demand.

Love requires sacrifice. Sacrifice comes from a pure heart. This last week some old adults tried to get young people to sacrifice their dreams and education for politics. They want others to sacrifice. That’s not sacrifice. That’s gaslighting and guilt-shaming at its finest. You sacrifice when you give from your heart even when you know you just gave everything. You do it with a heart of joy knowing that someone will be blessed for it, yet you do not expect or demand a note of gratitude. Love does not tell others to sacrifice. You just sacrifice expecting nothing in return.

Sacrifice comes when it hurts. Sacrifice comes when we do it with love and selflessness. It never comes from pride or self-serving. It comes when we take the time to pray for what we can do without a thought of what others may do.

Both Christians and Americans must become more grateful. Social media becomes louder when people have extra time during holidays. Instead of being grateful, people insult and judge others. Gratitude starts with focusing on what you have and not on what others have. Envy can be a root sin that becomes difficult to repair. We want what we see others have because we think that they have a perfect life.

Social media has made jealousy a top issue with our current society. We think people get to live each day as how they post. Most of us only share the good things in our lives. We want to be positive for others, or we want to inspire others. Envy kills all of it.

In the church, envy can be in the form of gossip for our leaders. We find flaws with others because we only see that life has given us misery. When we don’t look at the good things in our lives, we become ungrateful and judgmental. A grateful person sees the good in what others do.

Life does not turn out the way anyone expects. For most of us we struggle to get to the point where we are in life now. Some people achieve greatness because of many factors. The Bible states that we must rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. Christians do a great job mourning with those who mourn. My Twitter feed had all the words of comfort for the family of race car driver Kyle Busch. Even the Mars company had his sponsored M & M’s crying. Christians love on those who hurt, but scowl at those who succeed and wonder what sin they committed for them to get to that success.

Look around at your life. What do you have that you can be grateful for? Write down one thing every day that you can be grateful for. It has to be a different thing every day. Soon, you will start to see the good things you have in your life. You will stop judging others because you will start to see the good in them instead of their flaws.

Once we understand sacrifice and gratitude, we can then begin to love others as Jesus loves. Love does not mean we have to agree with you on everything or accept everything you do. I have friends who have murdered, stolen, and had addictions to drugs and alcohol. I don’t agree with their actions, but I love them for how I see Jesus working in their lives.

Love means we give grace to those who believe and think differently. Love in action requires us to listen to the entire story of those in our lives. Love means we think before we speak, and many times we make the choice to not speak. Love means we pray for our enemies. We do good things for them rather than insult them. The Bible says that God will take revenge, and if we do good to our enemies, we heap burning coals on their head.

This Memorial Day, take the time to reflect on your life. Scroll through your social media posts and see them as Jesus would read them. Would he see you as a loving, grateful and sacrificial person, or someone who must tell others how horrible they live their lives? How would other people see your social media posts? Do they see them as encouraging or judgmental?

On this holiday, reflect on how you have lived. Then, since you still live, take the time to make the changes to sacrifice, love, and be grateful. It doesn’t take much. It just takes looking outside of life on social media and see the people that God created in His own image.

Peace in the Chaos of Christmas

With all the tasks that must be done by Christmas morning, many of us can get caught up in the chaos and not in the beauty of the peace that Christmas brings. We have presents to buy and wrap. We have brunches, dinners, and sweets to bake before Christmas Day. We have people to contact, and church services to attend. In all the chaos for Christmas Day, we must continue to live our daily lives. We long for a moment of peace.

For years, I dreamed of a quiet and peaceful Christmas, just like the one Jesus had. One year, my mom asked what I wanted for Christmas, and I responded with a day of sleep. I didn’t get that. We had a day of fun, but I wanted what I thought would be a day of peace. It has taken me years to discover that peace comes with the chaos, not instead of it.

If we take a close look at that first Christmas and the birth of Jesus, we find the utter and total chaos that accompanied Jesus’s entrance into the world. First, Mary has an angel tell her she will give birth to a son that she will conceive through the Holy Spirit. That makes sense to us now because we know the entire story, but for Mary, it sounded confusing. For Joseph, it sounded blasphemous, so he decided to divorce her.

In a dream, an angel tells Joseph to marry Mary, and that he would be the father of the Messiah. He obeys. Then, the king calls for a census. In our modern society, that doesn’t mean much, but at that time, people had to travel to the land of their ancestors. His hometown happened to be Bethlehem. So, he loaded up his pregnant wife, and they traveled to Bethlehem. Yes, Mary and Joseph traveled for that first Christmas.

Just like our lives today, Joesph and Mary encountered chaos in their travels. Bethlehem resided as a small town. So, the one place to stay didn’t have any rooms, so they offered Joseph a barn, where Mary gave birth to Jesus. She placed him in a manger, or a feed trough. Imagine giving birth to a baby in a barn and not a warm room with midwives helping.

Imagine the shepherds out at night walking through the fields and seeing the stars and enjoying the peace and quiet. The angel appeared to them suddenly and told them not to be afraid. Their quiet and peaceful night got interrupted, so with all that interruption, they went to see Jesus.

Joseph finally found a place to stay, and then Magi from the East came and brought gifts for a king of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The gifts sound atrocious to the casual reader, but if you read into the story, Joseph used those gifts for passage to Egypt. He had to get Mary and Jesus out of Bethlehem in Judea and fleet to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath who wanted to kill Jesus and all babies two years old and under.

Jesus came into this chaotic world with chaos, but he brought us peace. He doesn’t give us the peace that the world has, but a peace that reassures us of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him. Jesus came into our human world and experienced all the chaos that we experience. He understands us. He loves us with all our chaos that we bring to Him.

This Christmas, as we try to find moments of peace, may we remember to always look to Jesus in the chaos and know that peace is always with us. 

Being Thankful Changes Everything

 We have so much information at our disposal, and yet we continue to choose embellished stories so we can explain a narrative. When the pilgrims and Native Americans had a meal together, it did not denote the first Thanksgiving. That event became visible because of an editor of a magazine who wrote about it to help boost the holiday of Thanksgiving.

Abraham Lincoln wanted his troops to have gratefulness and reflect on the good that God had done in their lives. So, he declared the last Thursday of November to be a day of giving God thanks, Thanksgiving. Gratefulness requires us to reflect. Gratefulness brings us into a state of peace and reminds us of our purpose in life. Maybe Lincoln knew that more than the editor who wanted to sell the magazines.

Taking the time to reflect on the good in our lives may require us to turn off the noise around us. Sometimes, social media can be part of that noise. With social media, we get caught up in what we don’t have, that we may not always see the beautiful things God does in our lives every single day.  

To see the good things in life, I have found that I must take the time to reflect. Thanksgiving gives us a day to reflect on what we have and not compare ourselves to others. God created each of us with uniqueness. With all the preparations that we must do, sometimes we let busyness get in our way of being grateful. I have found that taking the time to be grateful gives me peace and content in my life more than trying to please others with my busyness.

Whenever I cook or bake, I am reminded of all the good things God gives me. I have the food, the beautiful appliances, and tools to create meals that give me satisfaction with my hunger, and when I focus, it’s tasty too! With that thankfulness, I don’t become angry over things I cannot change.

Society does not want us to be grateful. See, when you become grateful, your anger dissipates. When you become grateful, you begin to manage and control your emotions and responses to those who may attack you. Society wants to control and manage you. They want you to be angry so you will not be rational. Thankfulness makes you rational.

This Thanksgiving, find a few minutes to be by yourself, reflect on your life, look around your home, and begin to thank God for what He has given you. Make a list. Put it in a place that you can see and remember it every day. Life has its tumbles, but God has given you many great things, that far outweigh the tumbles.

When we focus on what we have and not what others have, we become content. Once we have contentment, we can focus on how to continue to move forward in life and not be blinded by the obstacles in our way. We can leap over the obstacles or push them out of the way when we see how we have done it in our past.

The Bible mentions thankfulness over 365 times. Being grateful for one thing each day of the year will build in us a strength that no one can tear down. So, go, enjoy the day of Thanksgiving. Have a feast with delicious food and count your many blessings and see what God has done.

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself

 As we approach Halloween, I wonder what we really fear. Do we fear political leaders whom we think will destroy our lives? Do we fear those whom we think have power over us because of their status or wealth? Do we fear failure or embarrassment? Do we fear that we don’t think we measure up to the standards that we or others have put on us?

 

I think many people fear the last items, but they focus on the first few items, so they don’t have to face their real fears. We blame political leaders or corporate leaders because we refuse to look inside ourselves and face the true fears that lurk in our souls. Fear stands in opposition to trust, which stands as a synonym for faith. We don’t trust that God can carry us through our insecurities to become the purposeful human being that he created us to be.

 

Unless you give them permission, no one can control your thoughts and beliefs. We cannot blame other people for the mistakes that we make. We must face our own failures, pick ourselves up, and move forward. The problem lies that we refuse to admit to our own mistakes because we fear what others, or even ourselves, will think about us.

 

Admitting to our own failures and mistakes has become our biggest fear. We have become accustomed to a society that claims being wrong equates to being a horrible monster. Being wrong does not make you a monster. Claiming perfection can be monstrous. As Christians, we must confess our sins to Jesus. That means, we admit that we make mistakes and can be wrong.

 

As young children, we feared the invisible and non-existent “Boogeyman.” As adults, we have created the “Boogeyman” within us. We have followed the false words of those on social media and in the mainstream media because it’s easier to follow a falsehood than the truth. Jesus never promised us that we would have an easy path if we followed the truth. He said that He would be there for us to give us comfort during the difficult times.

 

Fear comes from outside sources. Trust comes from within us. We choose if we will trust the outside forces that lie to us, or if we will trust the truth of God within us. We can walk with God without it being easy. The only reason we want life to be easy comes from our false perception that if we follow Jesus and do the right thing, then we will have a nice easy life. Nowhere in the Bible does anyone claim we will have an easy life. In fact, we were told we will have trials. (James 1)

 

The scary part comes when the truth becomes muddled. We must study God’s Word and learn the truth, not just the parts that make us feel good, but the uncomfortable parts that make us confront our own sin in our lives. We don’t want to confess our sins, because we fear the change that will occur within us when we recognize the sin. We will be empowered to get the sin out of our lives. We must embrace that act and not fear it. It creates a path that allows us to get back up when we fail.

 

We can be wrong. We can fail and come back from failure and succeed. the most successful people in the world have failed. Without failure, you don’t grow. We have allowed our fears to stunt our growth because we refuse to admit to our wrongs and sins. We must grow and not let sin reign in our lives.

 

We must embrace challenges and veer away from what seems easy. People want to entice us with a smooth and easy life that in the end will be difficult. We must trust God. We must face the fearmongers and not allow them to strike any kind of fear into us.

 

Fearmongers will make you afraid of everything going on in society. Truth tellers will empower you to do what you can do to make a difference in the world no matter what the circumstances. Make the choice. Will you be afraid? Will you have faith and trust? The best life will be lived with faith and trust. The best life will stray from fear and lean into the truth and trust.

The Adventures in Life Build Faith

 I have started the first day of school with my room not completely set up because we had one too many faculty meetings instead of taking the time to set-up our rooms. I’ve started on the first day of school with no textbooks, before online, because the shipment got stalled. This year, we started the first day of online school with a broken platform. The students didn’t enter my classroom until an hour after class started.

 

My day started with a student informing me that he couldn’t see the classroom online. I didn’t want to tell him to let me make my coffee first. Text messages, emails, and phone calls came at me like a storm. In the meantime, I got an email out that the system didn’t work. My administration and other teachers became overwhelmed, and I’m over here thanking the Lord I got my coffee.

 

Life doesn’t always go as planned. When it falls apart, how you react reveals your faith and character. Do you blame other people? Do you get so mad at God that you refuse to believe in him? Do you find a way to move forward even though you have a detour? Maybe, just maybe, God wants to build your faith and give you a life not go as you plan but as He planned.

 

In youth ministry, I discovered at a conference that when we go to places and get lost, explain to the students that we’re just taking an adventure because life is an adventure. Let’s just say I took many adventures. I had to rethink and find my way to the destination through another route. Of course, we did not have GPS, and this generation doesn’t know how to take an adventure.

 

Maybe because when I grew up, life took a drastic turn, and I learned from my mom that you pick yourself up and move forward that I begin to think of alternate routes when life doesn’t go as planned. At the age of nine, my parents divorced. We moved from a three story house in Michigan to a three bedroom trailer in Daytona Beach, Florida. (That third bedroom, mine, was more like a walk-in closet.) I went with the flow because my mom did.

 

In Michigan, I would have been part of a popular group. In Florida, I became the quiet one that most people didn’t notice. I found a few friends at school, but my closest friends came from the church. I had to learn new things and become independent as my mom went to work. I began to see life as an adventure. I found fun in challenging myself to try new things to do and places to go. I may not have been popular, but I had something better, faith.

 

When life goes as planned, we claim that we have great faith. We go to church, read our Bible, pray, encourage others and tell everyone that Jesus has our back. The moment one little thing goes awry, some of us struggle. It’s in those times that our faith gets tested. Our response to the messy parts of life reveals our true faith.

 

So many people believe that they have failed because their lives did not go as planned, or as some young people will claim how others said it would go. No one can predict the future. People can help you plan, but if those plans get thwarted, you must find a way to redirect. That’s when the adventure starts.

 

You can follow the path that you thought would lead you to a happy and comfortable life and still not receive it. Life cannot be happy and comfortable all the time. In fact, Jesus claimed that we would have trouble, and we can turn to him for His comfort. Jesus said, “In this world you will have troubles. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33; NIV) Jesus didn’t say He would take the troubles away. He said he has overcome the world.

 

When people see the word, “overcome,” they think it means that the problem will end, but it means prevailing or having mastery over a challenge. The challenge does not end or change. You change how you will handle it.

 

Take the time to plan. Pray over your plans, and then, take the time to pray that God will guide you when life goes awry. Strengthen your faith in times of trouble instead of running or blaming others. In those detours, pray, read your Bible, and go to church and fellowship with other Christians. Take the narrow road that many don’t travel because on that road they will have troubles, but they know that Jesus has overcome those troubles on the road, and He walks alongside them on that road. Join the road with Jesus.

 

 

You're Not a Christian If...

 If you scroll through social media or listen to the news, you will discover people who say that if you align your life with their values and political side, then you have a righteous life. They make the claim that only people who think and believe like them have a relationship with Jesus. We must follow Jesus and not people.

For centuries, people have used guilt-shaming as a manipulative device to get people to believe or do what they want. In my younger years, I allowed people to guilt-shame me. With maturity of age and growth in my faith in Christ, I refuse to give into it. I know the tricks because I’ve done them.

Some of the guilt-shaming phrases begin with the following: “If you’re really a Christian you would…” “How can you be a Christian and do…” “Here’s a verse that says you can’t do this…” You know what all these phrases have in common? Jesus never used them. Jesus said, “Follow me.” “Have faith.” “Repent and believe.” “Go and make disciples of all nations.” See, those words require action from each of us.

When I reflect on my life politically and spiritually, I can see similarities. I changed because I worked with people. I changed because when I did something to make a difference, policies got in the way, and the people I served lost and became oppressed both in the church and in the community that I served. My views changed because I remembered the most important thing. People, including politicians, cannot save you. Jesus saves.

Jesus sacrificed his life for our sins. We don’t do anything to be saved. We accept Jesus and his grace. We don’t have to believe, think, or vote a particular way for the salvation of Jesus. Once I remembered that in my earlier years, I lived my life with the purpose to serve Jesus in everything I do, especially with my career.  

Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1; NIV) Jesus does not need us to go around and point out the flaws and sins of others like the Pharisees did. He needs us to look in the mirror and repent of our own sins. If everyone did one thing to improve their life every single day, then no one would have the time to agonize over the actions or beliefs of others.

When we focus on what we can do, we get so busy that we don’t have time to fret over what others do. I tried fixing everything with my voice in education. It didn’t work. When I got into the trenches, I saw the root of the issues, and now, I am finding ways to defeat the root issue. God put me in places that I could see the root cause of the issue. I had to see God’s hand in all of it.

We can guilt-shame others, berate others, and disassociate with others who do not agree with us, or we can go and make a difference in the life of someone else and bring them into the presence of Jesus. You get to choose. Jesus saves with His grace through your faith. Jesus does not guilt-shame because he forgives. We all get to choose to follow Jesus or not. No one decides our Christianity for us. 

Leaving a Legacy

 One of my students became inspired by two seniors who prayed at their high school graduation. He wanted to do that. My mentor, Al Siebert, gave me a better goal for my student to do. He encouraged me to have my student start a Bible club at school and leave a legacy. My student did, and to this day, over twenty-five years later, the Bible club still exists. His legacy lives on.

I remember and appreciate many of the words of wisdom that Al Siebert gave to those of us who led youth ministries in the Long Beach area in the 1990s. He even continued to mentor me when I moved to Los Angeles until I left youth ministry in 2007. Al Siebert, who worked for Campus Crusade for Christ unintentionally challenged me to leave a legacy instead of a memory.

Even though Al Siebert’s words of wisdom challenged my student, when he gave those words, I longed to leave a legacy. At first, I pined after what would be things of glory and fame. After maturity, I realized that a legacy comes with the use of our gifts, talents, and passions. I also realized that being consistent and being with people brings a legacy to your name.

Leaving a true legacy requires work and passion. It also means we must fulfill God’s purpose. One Sunday at Mosaic Church in Hollywood, Erwin McManus said that you have a desire to get out of the job where you currently work, but God may have you there to fulfill His purpose. I remember that on days when I feel exhausted or frustrated with teaching. In fact, I begin to look for what God has in store for me when things don’t go the way I want them to go.

In our current society, people scream on social media that they have left a legacy with their posts and screaming of their super righteous thinking. Others on social media want fame and believe that it will leave a legacy, but it usually leaves fifteen minutes of fleeting fame. Fame does not build into a legacy. A legacy goes beyond entertainment.

Our social media posts will last forever on the Internet. Do you want them to be your legacy? Could you do more than just post on social media? Can you find a way to connect with people beyond social media? Paul writes in Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (CSB) If all your deeds and words begin to glorify God, then you will begin to leave a legacy. We must strive to glorify God.

Reflect on what you do daily. How can you use those tasks to glorify God? The people you serve, must see Jesus. You glorify God when you serve God through people, not serving people just to serve them. It took me decades to understand this. Once I began serving God, I could say, “No,” to tasks that did not bring glory to God but to someone who didn’t want to do the task. The apostle Paul also stated that he would not please people but God. “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I am trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10; NIV) God wants us to serve Him and leave a legacy that reveals our love for God so others can come into the presence of God.

You don’t have to do something super large. You just use your talents, gifts and passions to serve those around you. Think of how your gift and talent will impact someone in the future. Your legacy lives within you. It’s time to let it out and share it with others.

One day, a student will enter a Bible club on a campus in a public school in the Long Beach area and meet Jesus. That student never met Al Siebert, but Al Siebert’s thumb print exists all over that club. You never know how your words of wisdom or your gifts and talents will impact someone in the future. Begin to day to find how to leave a legacy.