May 16

So we can plant things, some to look at, some to eat. We will do this knowing that they will all die. It's Alaska. I am who I am. The plants will come home to us already under a death sentence. The Genesis 3 curse is real.

I had a job one college summer where I drove a forklift for a Home-Depot kind of store. I didn't have much to do. I would spend the morning moving a pile of pallets from one end of the lumberyard to the other. In the afternoon, I would move them all back.

Strangely, in the most pointless, mundane (even dumb) backyard endeavors I seem to do my best thinking. (The fact that I sit at my desk for hours most days should tell you something.)

I've written both Baccalaureate and Commencement speeches, even wedding ceremonies while mowing the lawn.

But, when doing whatever outside, I've seen how easily I can use false resources to analyze my world and answer my questions. My alternative sources can include reason, or emotions, or experiences. My cynical nature is easily led to rely on false narratives.

When pondering the question, "Do I love Jesus enough?" I can quickly land on the negative.

Yet, 1 John 4:10 offers me an alternative. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

The question is not how much I loved God this week. Instead, the question should be, Do I see how much I am loved?

The Father loved us before any of us had even a drop of love for Him. He loved us by sacrificing His own Son to pave the way for us to know His love. Jesus accomplished what we could not, so the Father's anger against our sins could be "propitiated" (satisfied, never to return.)

Even in moving dirt, essentially digging graves for new plants, I can reorient my thoughts toward the reality of God's love for me.

And that will make for a very good Saturday.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau