How are Christians to interact with the culture they live in? If you’ve attended church for any length of time, you’ve likely heard that we are to “be in the world, not of it.” But what exactly does this mean? What does “being in the world but not of the world” look like? Well, Jesus makes it clear in His famous Sermon on the Mount.
In just a few days, families all across America will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. But for many people, this year’s Thanksgiving will look very different. At-risk family members may be absent from gatherings. Special food dishes may be no longer affordable and go unprepared. Christians may not be able to gather in their churches to sing and give thanks to God. This year seems to have not given us much to be thankful for. Instead, it has given us a lot to be anxious and worried about. Our heads are filled with questions like, “When will I go back to work? When will my kids go back to school? What happens if I get sick? Will I have enough money to buy Christmas presents this year? When will things return to normal?”
While these questions and others like them are “normal,” they are not something that we should spend a lot of time dwelling on.
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What was your word of the year for 2019?
A word of the year can be two different things. It can be a word you choose to define the upcoming year – kind of like a resolution of sorts. Or it can be a word that describes or summarizes your previous year.
The word of the year I chose for myself at the beginning of 2019 was “abide”. My goal or resolution for this past year was to abide with God. I wanted to be more dedicated to a daily quiet time, and I wanted to be intentional about reading theology and Christian living books. I wanted to learn more and more about God every day.
And while I want to continue abiding with God this new year, I chose to have a new word of the year for 2020. The word I chose is joy.
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