When I started The Son Do Move, it was an acknowledgement of the fact that our relationship with God is an active endeavor.
If you stand still while following Jesus, you won’t be following Jesus very long. Because Jesus isn’t stationary. He’s always pursuing. Always seeking another lost sheep. Always knocking on another door. Always absorbing the worst that humanity can dole out, only to give us the best that divinity has to offer.
Each time we complete another revolution around the S-U-N, I like to take a beat to meditate on the many things I’ve seen and learned while following the S-O-N.
Here are some reflections on my 2023:
1. I couldn’t be no politician.
Little known fact about me: I’ve long entertained the idea of running for office. Starting locally and maybe seeing where things went from there. That desire was nurtured by a fascination with the US experiment in representative government and a genuine desire to affect positive change for our neighbors. But a few things happened this year that showed me I’m better off remaining an amateur historian and trying to affect change in other ways:
I took on the executive pastor role at my church. Running a church is hard enough. I’m no longer curious about whether I have what it takes to run a staff of people charged with responding to the interests of thousands of people I don’t even know.
I wrote a book. It turns out that what brings me the most satisfaction is helping people see a loving God more clearly.
October 7 showed me the futility of our current political paradigm. Some things are complicated. Some things are simple. Terrorism is bad. Ethnic cleansing is bad. Using people as human shields is bad. Using the behavior of terrorists to justify razing entire cities and communities with people still in them is bad. I don’t have it in me to navigate a system that requires me to focus test all of these statements to make sure telling simple truths won’t cost me my job. I like being able to call bad stuff bad. I like being able to point people to better, more courageous possibilities. And I don’t think I’d be able to do that as a politician. Because our political system does not value truth.
Thinking about current politics reminded me of story that set a lot of (pretty bad) things in motion for the Israelites in the book(s) of Samuel.
The Bible tells us that Israel started as a bunch of loosely affiliated tribes. They didn’t have a central governance or a capital. They didn’t have a standing army. They didn’t even have a temple yet. But the nations surrounding them were different. They had kings and armies. They were beginning to form alliances and build empires. And Israel wanted to be more formidable. So they asked Samuel to help make a king for them. This isn’t what God wanted. A king would determine who Israel was. God said following God’s code should be sufficient for defining Israel. Samuel warns the people that looking more like the other nations would come at a very high cost. It’s worth looking at Samuel’s warning in full:
11 “This is how a king will reign over you,” Samuel said. “The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. 12 Some will be generals and captains in his army, some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. 13 The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. 14 He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own officials. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants. 16 He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle and donkeys for his own use. 17 He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the Lord will not help you.”
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. 20 “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.”
21 So Samuel repeated to the Lord what the people had said, 22 and the Lord replied, “Do as they say, and give them a king.” Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home.
-1 Samuel 8:11-22 (NLT)
Samuel relents and anoints a king (Saul). And literally everything he warned them about came to fruition. A long line of kings and bloody fights for succession, Civil War, endless warfare, and the eventual destruction of not one but TWO kingdoms.
A few thousand years later and we haven’t learned our lesson about the inevitable results of worldly political systems.
But the Son leads us to places where we can imagine a different sort of kingdom. If only we’d be bold enough to do away with these other ones we keep begging for. As comfortable and familiar as they may feel, they’re not very good.
2. I COULD be a theologian.
A public theologian to be specific. (Public theology is Christian engagement and dialogue within the church and especially with the larger society.)
I’d shied away from describing myself in this way for a bit. I hate labels. I don’t like giving people expectations I might not feel like meeting all the time. But it doesn’t make sense to do that anymore. I gotta be honest with me and with y’all.
Writing Theologizin’ Bigger was sort of a coming of age moment for me. I have never felt more comfortable doing anything in my life. It felt like I was finally doing exactly what I was meant to do. Taking years of study and ministry experience and sharing lessons with people who may never enter a church again (or for the first time) made sense of so many things I’d once been confused about.
It was almost as though God was holding a mirror up to my face and saying, “See? It doesn’t look so bad, does it?”
When I followed the Son where he was leading me—to the place I’d been resisting for so long—I felt at peace in a way I’d never experienced before.
3. Things are better when I’m not in control.
Writing a book was easy. I can pretty much control that entire process.
Selling a book? That part is a lot harder. Or at least it was. When I felt like I had to do it by myself.
But this year has shown me a LOT about the importance and power of community.
When I was thinking about signing a publishing contract, I wasn’t too excited about how the numbers looked. I’d spoken with agents and a few publishers. I spoke with some friends who were kind enough to talk about what their structures looked like. The publishing world isn’t very friendly to authors (unless they’re already famous).
But I had this crazy idea where I’d seek an unconventional publishing arrangement where I provided enough money to move the royalty structure in my favor—but would still receive the support and expertise of an actual publishing house. The problem? I didn’t have any money.
So I took a gamble. I crowdfunded. And the “crowd” responded. When I shared my dreams with the world, a community of people who believed in that dream responded.
I went ahead and wrote that book. Then I literally lost sleep about how it might sell. I was worried that I might embarrass all the people who believed in that dream. I couldn’t control book sales. I’m not about to buy all them books myself. I already spent all my money on making the book! After a few weeks of preorder availability, I realized that the people hadn’t stopped believing. I have nothing to be embarrassed about.
This isn’t just a story about how taking some risks in writing my first book paid off.
It’s a story about how worrying ourselves to death can distract us from the fact that sometimes the Son will lead us into a community of people who are ready to see us become our truest and best selves, and to help support us however they can.
That has changed the way I experience the world.
And it has made me so excited to share with everyone every chance I get one critical truth:
The Son do move. If we follow him? We might mess around and find our lives changed.
These are thoughtful reflections and insights, and I think also encouraging and very hope-filled. I'm excited for the book to arrive in a couple weeks. Keep doing what you're made for, and God bless every bit of it!
I love this post so much.
And yeah. Pastoring does kind of give some insight regarding what being responsible for a whole bunch of other people feels like!