Nothing in 2019 came easy, there have been some setbacks, but some significant victories too.
In many ways 2019 reminded me a lot of the whole decade just past. At the very end of 2009 my family and I moved to Gig Harbor in Washington State from Johannesburg, South Africa. The most difficult thing I have ever done!
By God’s Grace we are still here, I'm not in the best of shape, but we have survived and we’ve had the privilege of bringing God’s Kingdom with us.
On Thursday this week, around tables laden with turkey and pie, +300 million Americans will make lists of thing they are thankful for. Now that's a very nice sentiment, but it is not thanksgiving.
Webster’s defines “molt” as the “casting off or shedding of feathers, skin, or the like, in the process of renewal or growth.” I see it first-hand as my chickens go through a molt in the early Fall. For a few days, they lose piles of feathers, then they are almost naked for a few days. They look horrible and miserable. However, when the whole process is finished, they look young and beautiful again with clean, strong, new feathers which will keep them well-insulated through cold winter months.
This year, as I watched my chickens go through the molting process, I saw it as a picture of my own life in Christ lately. The Lord seems to be ridding me of my old ways of dealing with life that are not helpful for my faith in Him. My “old feathers” need shedding to allow the new, healthy, strong ones to replace them.
Recently in a sermon I read a rendition I wrote of Paul's poem from Philippians 2:5-11.
This small piece of scripture was written as a poem and should, I think, be read as one:
