Three Invitations to End Your Year Well
As the calendar year draws to a close, we find ourselves bombarded with year-in-review notifications. Spotify tells us which songs we played on repeat. Social media platforms compile our photos into tidy videos. Everything gets wrapped up in a neat digital bow, showing us a carefully curated version of our lives.
But here's the question worth asking: When was the last time you paused to consider what God has done in your life over the past twelve months?
The difference between an algorithm's summary and genuine spiritual reflection is profound. One shows us data points and highlights. The other invites us into transformation.
A Very Jewish Christmas: Making Room for Surprise Company
The Christmas story we think we know so well holds surprises we've never considered. While our nativity sets feature shepherds and wise men, there's a missing element that changes everything: Orthodox Jews standing in wonder before the infant Messiah.
This overlooked detail isn't just a footnote in Luke's Gospel—it's a profound invitation to understand Christmas in its fullest, most challenging dimension.
The Beauty of Surrender: Lessons from Mary's Yes
In a world that celebrates control, achievement, and carefully curated images, the concept of surrender feels almost countercultural. We plan our days down to the minute, manage our reputations through social media, and work tirelessly to ensure our lives unfold according to our designs. Yet in the Christmas story, we encounter a young woman whose life teaches us something radically different about what it means to follow God.
Mary was an ordinary teenage girl living in Nazareth, going about her daily routines—drawing water, grinding grain, learning the skills needed to manage a household. She was engaged to a respectable man named Joseph and likely had dreams about her future wedding and married life. Nothing about her circumstances suggested she was destined for anything extraordinary. She wasn't wealthy or influential; when she later brought the purification offering to the temple after Jesus' birth, she could only afford two doves instead of a lamb—the offering permitted for those of limited means.