The Sacrifice of Life for Freedom-Memorial Day 2022

Today, on this Memorial Day, America remembers those who fought in our battles for our freedom and lost their lives. It is a day to remember that nothing is free. Someone pays the ultimate price. With their sacrifice, we have the freedom to speech, to protest, to vote, to choose our own careers, to own property, and to have the right to education, along with many other freedoms that others may not have in other places in the world. Even though our country has its flaws and problems, as every other country in the world, we do live in a country that gives us freedom. 

In the past couple of years, we have realized that we must be grateful for our freedom. If we become irresponsible, we lose the freedom that we love and enjoy. We have the responsibility to take care of our freedoms. Even though we all have our own political beliefs, we must realize that it is not through a politician or a political agenda that will further our freedom. It is in our actions of how we treat our fellow Americans. We must become more loving. If there are many men and women who were willing to die for the freedom of this country, we must have the sacrifice to see Americans as human beings, and love them with the love of Jesus, which may take sacrifice.  

If we want to keep our freedom, we must sacrifice. We must sacrifice our own desires for the good of others. As Christians, we must think of the desires of others above ourselves. For everyone to enjoy freedom, we must all sacrifice. We all have something in our own lives that we must sacrifice. Our sacrifice comes because of the ultimate sacrifice given for us. 

As Christians, we have freedom from death because of the sacrifice of Jesus. He gave His life so that we can be free. He didn’t die when we decided to be good and attend church. He died for us while we were still sinners. “For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps some might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8, CSB) Jesus sacrificed his life, so we can have the freedom to live. 

With the sacrifices for freedom, it is why the church must begin to act. We cannot take our freedom for granted. Once we abuse it, we lose our freedom and become lukewarm in our faith. Faith without action is dead. (James 2:26) If we just wring our hands and claim that there is nothing that we can do because of the evil and wickedness in the world, then our faith is dead. All the heroes in the Bible fought for their faith, and with their actions, they were able to defeat the evil. 

This Memorial Day, we can all find one action that we can do for our own community that reveals sacrifice. It could be donating food and clothing for those in need. It could be volunteering with a community service for young people. It could be becoming involved with our own neighborhood and seeing who our neighbors are and sharing our freedom in Christ. The one command that Jesus gave us was not to hide in our comfortable homes, but to go and bring the gospel to every corner of the world. The corner of the world that needs Jesus most just might be right around the corner from where you live. So let us go and let our freedom ring! 

Dreaming Each and Every Day

 “You’re never too old to chase your dreams.” My pastor Erwin McManus spoke those words in March 2007, and my life has not been the same since. I remember that Sunday. It was the day that when I returned home after church, I began embarking on my writing career. I may not be a famous novelist or nonfiction book seller yet, but I have grown in the craft of writing. It all started because I heard the encouraging words of my pastor that I was not too old to chase my dreams. 

No matter what life has brought you, you are not too old to chase your dreams or to begin chasing a new dream. The barriers that stood in your way in the past must be removed. Once those barriers are removed, you will be able to see clearly what you must do. God gave us our passions and dreams because he uses them for his work. 

First, we must rid ourselves of comparison. We cannot compare our place on the journey with someone else. We all have different paths on our journeys. Some of us can travel in a straight line. Others of us, travel with every curve, hill, and valley. Every move we make is an adventure. No matter what part of the journey you are traversing, it is where you need to be. I learned this the hard way. 

In youth ministry, I began speaking in places other than my church. At an event, the disorganized leader, whom I had admired as someone who had it all together and took the straight route on her journey in youth ministry, created a mess. I discovered that her perfection for organization was a façade.  Not only was she disorganized, but instead of taking ownership of her own mistakes, she blamed everyone that she asked to do tasks. I took her hits, and I have learned not to do the same mistake. I discovered that on her straight path to success in ministry, she never learned humility or how to treat humans with genuine kindness when she made a mistake. 

I learned from that youth leader, that we both had our own journeys. Neither one of us were in competition with one another. We could both do the same tasks and receive results that were needed by the people we served. I struggled with comparison. Once I see my heroes flaws, I realize that I can admire, but not think less of myself and my own talents. 

Along with not comparing ourselves with others, we must push aside jealousy. Other people have their own struggles. When we find what their struggles in life are, we will let them have their success. I have learned so much from my own path on the journey with its twists and turns. I wouldn’t trade it for anyone else’s journey. We must follow Romans 12:15. “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” Christians are good at weeping with others, but we must work on our rejoicing with others. I have friends who have books published after taking on writing from a hobby to a career in a matter of two years. Others of us are still working. I rejoice with the publication of other people’s books. They didn’t write what I would write. It was never a competition, so jealousy does not need to exist. 

Instead of jealousy, we must celebrate the success of others. I realized that when I celebrate others and encourage them to continue, it reminds me that I too can celebrate my small successes. Even if a human being does not celebrate, I can. God celebrates our successes. Jealousy becomes bitterness, and creativity cannot exist in a bitter world. After time, our passion for our art decreases because we are just bitter over what others have. Our talents must be used to build others up. When we use our talents for others, bitterness, anger, and jealousy cannot exist within us or our talents. 

Chasing the wrong dreams can be a reason we are not achieving them. I love watching the Olympics, but I am not, never was, and never will be a world class athlete. It is not something that I have been given the gifts to be. Sometimes, it’s not the wrong dream, but the wrong venue. 

So many people come to Hollywood chasing their dream to be in the Hollywood world, and so few of them can succeed or receive jobs that will pay the bills. Maybe we are meant to use our talents for a smaller community than the whole world. The movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus reminds us that serving others and making a difference in the lives of others around us daily is more important than being famous or chasing our original dream. 

Whatever your dreams are, you can find a way to establish a path to achieve them. You may have to discover another means to them. Our dreams were given to us to serve God. If your dream is to just be rich and famous, it will not serve God’s purpose, and you will not be fully satisfied. Our hearts are full when we accomplish the passions that God has given us. Those passions are our dreams. Let us fulfill our calling and chase those dreams that God has given us. 

Springing into Life in a World of Chaos

 Turning on the news or scrolling through social media, we discover that our world is full of violence and brokenness. We have a choice of how we live our lives. We can choose to live with kindness or wickedness. As Christians, we must choose kindness. With that choice, we must make changes and growth in our hearts, actions, and our churches. 

Chaos. Some people love the world of chaos. I always know the students in my classroom who will create chaos as they will tell me that they do not want “drama” in their lives. Every single student who has said that has been involved and even created the drama circling around their persona. They live for the chaos. With the chaos, they either receive attention, or they can divert the attention off them and spread it onto others. Their victims get hit and their lives are turned upside down until they can gain control again. We cannot always control the chaos, but we can control how we respond to other people’s chaos, and we can choose not to create chaos for those around us. 

Christians must choose not to create chaos. We choose chaos when we choose to berate and insult people in real life and online. When we attack people online with our words, we don’t realize that they may have difficulty springing to life as they have chaos in other dimensions swirling around them. We must choose kindness and use our words to inspire them. They may have done wrong, but insults and cruelty will not change their actions but their attitudes toward those who are insulting them in a negative way. 

Our words must be full of love, truth, and kindness. Yes, we can speak the truth, IN LOVE. Without speaking the truth in love, your words are worthless and create chaotic situations. I have had to learn not to reply to everyone online who make statements to incite arguments. I have also learned to not ask those people questions. I don’t want to incite chaos. I have, and the result is not fun. Let’s all work to inspire others with love, truth, and kindness. 

When we choose our words with love and kindness, we are changing, and our change creates growth in us.  We don’t have to comprise our beliefs, but we can compromise our strategies and be innovative and think of new ways to approach people. Imagine a world where people are striving to be more kind with their words. The truth would prevail with love. Change in everyone would occur. We change when we hear the truth, and it touches us. We don’t change when someone tries to force us to believe the truth. Force is never used in scripture where the gospel is concerned. 

The church must become a place of restoration and healing. It should never be a place of blasting those that believe differently than us. We restore relationships when we show that we care more about the person than the issue for which they are standing and fighting for. The church is to be a hospital, not a museum. A hospital is full of people restoring others to health and life. A museum is full of relics and death. Our love for traditions and rightness cannot outweigh our love for humans. Restoring people to health requires that we communicate and serve with sacrifice. 

We must become peacemakers. We must admit that our own words and actions can inflict others and inspire them to do good or evil. There is no place for racism in the church. The most insane action the church has done is to go on the mission field to other countries proclaiming the gospel, and then at home segregating ourselves from those same people and their culture. God brings people into our lives. How we respond to that action reveals our faith and love in God. 

We have a choice. We can choose to love others with the love of Jesus and repair relationships, or we can continue to defend our rightness and destroy relationships with people who need to meet Jesus. We say all the right words on Sunday mornings. It’s time we take our Sunday morning talk outside of the church and into the streets with our friends who need Jesus. Let us love with our words and be peaceful. It all starts once we decide to spring into life and let the life of Jesus shine through us. Maybe this next weekend we can have stories of people helping and saving others instead of killing them. 

These lives needed our world to be full of peace and love. Let’s change and be full of love and kindness in their memory. 

Roberta A. Drury

Andre Mackneil

Katherine Massey

Margus D. Morrison

Heyward Patterson

Aaron Salter

Geraldine Talley

Ruth Whitfield

Pearl Young

Duking Out Our Words with Wisdom from the Sports World

Duking Out Our Words with Wisdom from the Sports World

Discourse and debate are on the decline in our country, especially on social media. We throw memes, articles, and insults at those who do not agree with us. None of those devices would win anyone a debate championship in the world of debate. As an English teacher, I have had to teach my students how to have a debate and not use any of those devices. Then, as we were reading an article in class, one which I’ve read a dozen times, I realized why so many people do not have debate skills. They do not cheer for the most hated teams in sports. 

Some of my friends are sports fans, and they defend their teams. However, defending the Los Angeles Angles is one thing. Defending Duke basketball or the New York Yankees in any sports conversation takes it to a whole other level. (By the way, from small research, the most hated team in sports is the New York Yankees and the second one is Duke basketball.)  We can learn from the discourse of those of us who must defend the dark side. 

First, we cannot just use a cliché or a meme for defense. That’s just a conversation starter. It never just makes a mic drop point for everyone to gasp and move forward. It just brings out the fodder. As sports fans, we know this. It is why sports fans use this. We see memes and clichés as fun. As a sports fan of the most hated team in college basketball, I know when I’m poking people and pushing buttons with memes and any other gimmick. Trust me. I’ve had to take it, especially this year, from North Carolina fans when Duke loses. No meme or silly cliché will rescue me. You know what rescues? Admitting that my side is wrong and flawed and that the other side has a good point. Whoa. What a concept. 

Next, throwing insults does not stop people from discourse and debate. It just makes us angry. In sports, we insult the team or player, not the person defending the team or player. If we do, it leads to a fight. Just because someone is a Houston Astros fan does not make that person a cheater. (By the way, in future polls, they may become the most hated sports team, at least in Los Angeles.) We must stop throwing insults at people because of their beliefs or how they vote. No one is going to come to your side because you insulted them. We will question your integrity, your friendship, and your character. Insulting people is the lowest form of communication. 

I’ve been on both sides of it, and it has just created loneliness for me. I may have been right, but I was not righteous. I may have been right, but I was not loving, which made me worse than the person I insulted. For those who threw insults at me, they lost my respect. I wonder why we cannot communicate well anymore. Many times, insult throwers have difficult relationships with many people. 

Along with insults comes our blindness. As a Duke basketball fan, I know that not all the players have been angels. I cannot defend a player who purposefully trips others on the court. I agree that he should have had more reprimands than he received. As a Christian, I can see the good in what others believe. That’s how we start a discourse. We find what areas we can agree. If I’m in a debate with a North Carolina fan, I must admit that they had a great run this year. I don’t have to become their fan. I don’t have to switch sides or teams. I won’t. 

All your chastising and holiness of how right you are will not lead me to your side. It just won’t. It will force me to look to see the flaws of what you are defending. I find them. When I use them against you, you fall apart and start insulting because you have no defense. It’s a vicious cycle. 

We cannot be so blind to our flaws or the flaws in our belief system that we insult people and walk away as if we are holy, good, and righteous. We’re not. We become so ugly when we insult because we are blind. 

People are more important than our rightness. I can see your point of view and even acknowledge that it is a great point. I still don’t have to switch sides or believe the same thing. Why? Because I would never do that with my favorite sports teams. I stand firm in whom I support and in what I believe. Most of us do. 

When we do change our beliefs and who we support, it is through a lot of instances, thought, research, conversations, and even counselling. It doesn’t come from your quip on social media. It is usually an event in our own lives that takes us through the change. When we do make this change, if you have been rude, we will probably never admit that you were right. At least I won’t. If you were kind and know how to have good discourse, I will acknowledge you. 

Let us strive to be kind over right. Let us defend our beliefs and whom we support with discourse and debate that is civil. People listen to civil conversations. We haven’t had those in a few years from social media, or even from our leaders. We can’t wait for others to change and make a difference. We cannot change anyone but ourselves. You will not change my beliefs. You will not change my attitude. I will do that. I cannot change you. You must do that. Change doesn’t come with peer pressure. High school is over. Most of us learned that peer pressure led us down a dark path. A path of light comes when we go through a change that is beyond those who do not know us on a deeper level. 

Sports fans of the most hated teams can take the razing when our team loses. Our team deserves the insults. As a person, we don’t. We won’t switch teams because your team won. That’s a bandwagon fan, and true sports fans don’t jump on bandwagons. We stay with our team, even if we are the only one on the wagon. Again, if we ever do change, it will be with the utmost decision making on our part that will involve an event in our lives, not a meme, anyone’s quips, or quotes, or name calling. We stand strong. 

We can learn from sports fans. Listen to our conversations. Debate and discourse can happen with civility. It starts with each one of us being civil and treating each person as they are a precious person that Jesus loves and created, because they are. Then, maybe, we can have resolutions that will bring more unity into our lives rather than hate. It all starts with how we communicate. 

 

Christians: Stop Public Shaming!

 “You’re doing it wrong!” The frustrated kindergartner looked up at my friend who was subbing in his class. My friend is an amazing disciplinarian when it comes to working with middle schoolers. This class confounded him and within the first half hour when he switched up the schedule, this little guy let him know he was doing it all wrong. The kindergartener was not impressed. He thought my friend was not intelligent and wanted the person who did school right back. He wanted his teacher who was real and truthful, even if this teacher was giving him an extra recess. It may appear right, but it was not right. 

I want to reiterate those words to Christians who keep blasting other Christians in public. “You’re doing it wrong!” Look, we all sin. We all make mistakes. We all at some time need someone to sit down with us and explain to us how our sin is affecting their lives and the lives of others. Jesus gave us a clear path to do this, and yet we continue to scream with our megaphones of how sinful other Christians, especially leaders are. We are doing it wrong. 

If we have the steps to do it correctly, why do we do it wrong? The answer is simple. We are sinners. We sin when we decide to be judge and jury and call out people’s sins in public, which includes social media. People blast Christian leaders on social media all the time. We consistently inform the people who follow us how sinful those leaders are. 

It’s not just that we are sinners and sin too, but that we refuse to repent of our sins. We blast other people so that they will not see our sins. Serial killers are notorious for this action. They behave the way everyone wants them to in public, but in secret they are destroying human beings. If we call out people’s flaws and sins in public, we are destroying human beings. We are not fixing or changing the world. We are making the world a bigger mess. It’s time we begin to clean up our own mess. 

I confess. I am guilty of having done this. It took one passage to come to life for me that made me stop. Even though Jesus informed us in Matthew 18 how to confront people. We are to go to them one on one first, then bring witnesses, then the whole church, and then treat that person like an outsider if he or she does not listen to all the steps. There is another passage that gives us how to confront someone who has sinned. Oh, and the first two steps are done in private. Jesus never shamed anyone. We must stop guilt shaming people. It is wrong, and it doesn’t work. 

There is a passage that tells us what to do when we know someone is in a sinful life. In James 5:16 it states that we are to confess our sins to each other. If we do that, then, we can heal. Then we pray. Once we pray, the prayer of a righteous person will be powerful and effective. Look at that first action. If you are going to tell someone their sins, you must confess yours to them. I don’t see people doing that on social media. In fact, I don’t see people doing that very often in real life. People just want to point their fingers and blast other people for their sins. 

Just like our secret sins, social media gives a place to hide. Usually, what I see on social media is outright blasts. Some people call it criticism. Some people call it trying to help someone. I call it a super righteous person pretending to be perfect calling out others for their sins and yet, never mentioning theirs. You know why they do this? They don’t want you to see their secret sin. They don’t want you to see their flaws. They want to appear super righteous, holy, and good. These people do more damage to the church and to other people than they realize. I know because I have been on both sides of the fence. I’ve been the one to put others on blast, and I have been blasted. 

Dear Christians, it’s time we stop screaming. It’s time we stop being right, and we start being loving. Just because a person is well-known does not give you the right to put them on blast in public. All the passages in scripture that involve confronting someone requires a relationship. We must build relationships with other people before we confront them. Notice that Nathan was a trusted friend of David’s when he confronted him with his sin.

We must begin to love. Do you want to be put on blast? Do you want everyone to tell the whole world of your sins? If the answer to those questions is no, then let us all stop doing it to others. Now more than ever, our world needs the love of Jesus. Once people come to Jesus, he will change them. We cannot change people, but we can change ourselves and inspire other people. We want the church to change the world. Let us change from the inside out. 

Jesus is Risen, and It Changes Everything!

 Jesus was dead. His followers were afraid and were mourning his death. Blood and water had flowed from his body. Joseph took his body and put him in a temporary tomb. The soldiers guarded the tomb because they understood that Jesus said he would rise again. So, they thought that Jesus’s disciples would come and steal his body to prove that Jesus rose from the dead. Little did the religious leaders know, the disciples didn’t understand that Jesus’s words were literal. They thought that he was being metaphorical. Before we berate the disciples for their unbelief, we may need to recognize our own flaws of not emphasizing the life of Jesus with his resurrection. 

It's easy to comprehend the events in the Bible that make sense. We understand the marriages and births. We understand how Joseph was faithful to God and his character when he was enslaved in Egypt. We even understand the miracles. We struggle to understand how Jesus being dead can be alive again. You know how I know this? It’s simple. We continue to equate the deity of Jesus with the traits of being a human. Jesus walked on this earth as a full human, but he was also fully God. As Christians, we must worship Jesus, the living God. 

All other religions have a Friday. Their god has died. Christianity is the only religion that has a Sunday in which our God has risen from the dead, but if you listen to our speech when we are in despair, you will wonder if we serve a risen Savior or if we just like to sing that line in an old hymn that we cherish. The risen Jesus is more than our traditions, type of worship music, or set of guidelines for which we should live our lives. 

With a risen savior, we no longer need to blame him for the actions of human beings. Jesus is superior to any human being living or has ever lived. Once you realize that and really worship that Jesus, then you become less judgmental to your fellow human beings. Here’s why. When I realized that Jesus was greater than humans, I had to work on my own flaws and not be concerned with the flaws of others within the church. I was grateful to the risen Jesus and not just the human who walked on earth. I no longer live to impress humans. I live for Jesus. 

Instead of demanding that everyone behaves within my moral ground and believes just like me, my superior savior has taught me that He can breathe into existence the love I must have for those people. Then, as I love them, they will recognize the Jesus who not only died for them, but also came back to life. 

We must be grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, but we also must be grateful that he is living. He is not dead. He physically rose from the dead. That’s what this Sunday is all about. It’s not about the clothes, a bunny, candy, or even church attendance. It is about worshipping and serving a living Savior who is superior to all other gods because he is living. 

Christianity would not exist without the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection is what separates Christianity from all other religions. We do not worship a dead god. Our God is alive. Our God conquered death, a feat that no one else in history has done. It then makes Christ more than a good teacher or a good man who was kind to the poor and women. It changes everything for every human. 

Jesus has power. He is not a political leader because his power is greater than that. We must stop reducing the power of Christ to a political agenda. The Pharisees struggled with that. They wanted their Messiah to rescue them from the political powers that oppressed their people. Jesus didn’t do that, and he’s not going to do that today. His rescuing is from the sin in our lives. We don’t want that because then we must face the sin in our lives. Once we face the sin in our lives, we must get rid of it, which is not easy and sometimes we struggle not to desire that sin. 

If you face the sin in your own life and recognize the resurrected Christ, your faith will grow beyond following rituals and following rules. If our faith grows in Christ, we follow him doing what he has asked of us. We don’t need to hover over everyone and continue to expound our greatness of our following rules that we never intended to break. We repent of the sins that we have committed and have broken us. 

Our all-superior Christ does not have sin in his life. Humans have sin. Humans hurt us. Jesus does not. If we believe that because Christians have hurt us than Jesus has hurt us, then Jesus is not a resurrected all-powerful God. He’s nothing more than a mere human. If we confess that Jesus is greater than all other gods, then we understand that mere humans sin and hurt. Jesus is sinless and because he is sinless, he heals. We can put our faith in Jesus who heals. 

This Sunday, let us worship the resurrected Christ. Let us worship the one who is greater, the one who is perfect. Forget about the people around you. Stand with Jesus. See him as omnipotent. The one who conquered death. Instead of focusing on Friday, let us see this Sunday as the greatest moment in history. Once we see the resurrected Christ, we cannot keep it a secret. We must share it with others. That is why our churches will be full. People come with the curiosity of this risen Savior. Let us embrace them and love them with the genuine love of Jesus so they too can worship the living Savior. 

Palm Sunday Changes Everything

 The audience stands and applauds at the remarkable words you have spoken. The event is a success. Then, at the next event, they follow the crowd and taunt you. For some people, that is their existence every day on social media. One post and everyone loves and likes it and you are a genius. The same in real life too. The next post you are slandered and considered horrific, in real life too. Jesus understood these two polar opposites from crowds of people. 

It's a sunny Sunday morning. Jesus asks his disciples to go get a colt or a young donkey. As they bring the donkey back to Jesus, they notice that crowds of disciples are gathering around him. They were all at the entrance of the city of Jerusalem. Some of the disciples laid their own clothes and blankets on the colt and helped Jesus on it. People who were wandering the streets noticed that a large crowd was gathering around a man on a donkey. They peered at him and recognized him. 

In royal fashion, the disciples created a red-carpet event for Jesus, even though they did not have a red carpet. They took their outer coats and laid them down on the road for the donkey to step on them as he entered the city. Their voices rose in jubilation and some of them grabbed palm leaves off the trees near them and began waving them in celebration of Jesus. Their voices rose so loud that everyone who had gathered in the middle of town noticed and joined in with the crowds. Everyone loves a celebration. 

Everyone was joyous except for the few who always grumble. The Pharisees shouted above the noise for Jesus to silent his disciples. Jesus replied, “If they were to keep silent, even the stones would cry out.” (Luke 19: 40, CSB) The people cried out their exaltation. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”  (Luke 19: 38, CSB) They called him their king. They claimed that he came in the name of the Lord. They knew who he was and is. 

Four days later, everything drastically changed. The celebration took a sudden turn to death. The chanting crowd that celebrated Jesus on Sunday, was calling for his death on Thursday. On Friday, Jesus was crucified, but the following Sunday, three days later, brought the entire event to a full circle. Jesus rose from the dead. Many of us know the basic story of Jesus’s death and resurrection, but have we ever recognized that the Sunday before Jesus died changed everything. It was on that day that the religious leaders recognized that Jesus had more power over the people than them. It was that day that the religious leaders realized that if Jesus were to continue, their impurities would come to light. So, they intervened, but had no idea that they were part of the plan for everything to change for the best. 

On Palm Sunday 2011, people entered my church rejoicing with celebration that the following week would have pomp and circumstance celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Then, my pastor made the announcement. “Join us next week for Easter at our NEW LOCATION!” That’s right we received information that day that we were moving! There was no planning, no committee meetings, no arguments. Everyone was surprised. That day changed everything for our church. 

We moved to the corner of La Brea and Hollywood Blvd. We have remained there for eleven years. We moved quickly because we received free rent for a year. Why would anyone have weeks of discussion and waste money? I have been involved with churches as a member and a staff member that would have resisted this change. Like the Pharisees, they could only see the present. They were blind to the future of the resurrection. It is a common blindness with most people, even in the church. 

That little gathering grew. We adapted when we had to go online. We have had thousands come to Jesus. We have a beautiful leadership team that creates an atmosphere of love. We have a praise team that creates our own worship songs. Hollywood has come to embrace us. None of it would have occurred if we didn’t allow for that change from that Palm Sunday to the following Sunday, Easter. 

Jesus told the resistant Pharisees that even the stones would cry out if they silenced the human beings. Jesus will receive praise, whether people gather around him or not. What the Pharisees did not understand is that if they create chaos, Jesus will create change. We may not enjoy or appreciate the process of the change, but once we realize the end result, we praise Jesus. 

Change is difficult. Before the pandemic, I used to claim that I loved change. I’m not so sure if I love to change as much as I appreciate the result of change. The process of change can be painful. It can require a sacrifice. Even though many Christians claim to be supporters of sacrifice, it’s not easy. There are days when I don’t want to sacrifice. I want others to finally sacrifice something to make my life more comfortable. Life works best when we sacrifice instead of waiting for others to sacrifice. 

At the end of that week with Palm Sunday, Jesus sacrificed everything for us. He changed the script. He moved the world in just a few days. He fulfilled the law. He loved everyone in the entire world and made the greatest sacrifice. His enemies thought they won on Friday, but Sunday came, and many of his enemies became his followers. 

It all started with a celebration. It all happened because Jesus is the change maker. When we follow Jesus, we must change our direction in our lives to follow him. We may not like the process of the change. We may have people in our lives that do not understand and judge us, but the end result will be a life of faith, love, and hope. The greatest result will be love. As we enter this week, let us enter it with an understanding that change is coming. Jesus is going to change everything! Let us change with him.