Imagine watching a horse race and seeing the leather squares over the horses’ eyes. These blinders serve a critical role, blocking out everything around and behind the horses so they can focus solely on the path ahead.

In many ways, we navigate life with our own blinders, fixated only on what directly impacts us. This narrow focus can make us oblivious to the broader world and the people who are suffering within it. It’s time to remove those blinders. We are meant to live for something greater than ourselves.

Humbling ourselves before God is vital, but we must also extend that humility to others. When we do, we shift our focus from our own needs to asking, “How can I serve others?” The ultimate expression of love is prioritizing the well-being of others and taking action, just as Christ did when He sacrificed Himself for us. Look around you. When you see someone in need, take the initiative to love and support them.

Demonstrate the love of Jesus by making your life less about you and more about your readiness to be His hands and feet.

Be encouraged to go and prioritize the needs of others today.

Pastor Chance

Luke 14:28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?

Peter had a deep love for Jesus. When Jesus talked about His upcoming death at the Last Supper, Peter boldly said, “Lord, I am ready to go with You both to prison and to death!” (Luke 22:33). It was a heartfelt declaration, but when the moment of truth came, Peter denied Jesus three times out of fear.

It’s easy to make big promises when we’re feeling close to Jesus. Statements like “I’ll go anywhere You lead” and “You can have it all” feel right during worship or church services. They sound good, and we might even mean them sincerely. But saying the words is just the beginning.

Are we making these passionate promises without thinking about what it really takes to live them out? We often confuse enthusiasm with true commitment, forgetting that real passion includes enduring hardship. Many of us Christians quickly say we’re ready to lay down our lives and follow Jesus. But like Peter on the night before the Crucifixion, do we back down when challenges arise?

If we truly want to follow Christ and fulfill His purposes for us, we have to be ready to give up our comfort. Are you prepared to make that payment?

In what ways is God calling you to get out of your comfort zone today?

Pastor Chance

The good news is that we don’t get our value from things but from the creator of all things! The good news is that Jesus can heal this insecurity, just as He gently rebuked Peter when he asked about John. Jesus reminded Peter that he was valuable and unique. Jesus says you are worth the cost, created to be unique, part of the royal family, and good enough because He made you so. You are set apart before time and he likes you. We have no reason to look at others because we are not like others! Focus on your own race, your own calling.

To live the abundant life Christ desires for you, listen to the voice of truth and tune out the lies. Remind yourself daily that comparison kills joy, what God has given you is enough and it makes you special, and that you are a unique gift to the world. 

A song from Casting Crowns: 

“But the voice of truth tells me a different story The voice of truth says “Do not be afraid!” And the voice of truth says “This is for My glory” Out of all the voices calling out to me. I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth”

Mark is is a character in my musical, El Camino, who may be a little inspired by my own journey. He’s a pastor with many years of service who is wondering If he might have “lost his way along the way.” The call to be a pastor is a blessing, but it can also be confusing and frustrating. Mark admits that “I started out with confidence, everything was clear,” but “I lost my way along the way. My heart and soul have debts to pay.” Like many other pilgrims who have ventured to walk the Camino he hopes that he will encounter the spirit of St. James, one who know how to walk the way of Jesus.

God has high expectations for those who accept the call as a pastor. But God also showers abundant blessings upon them. When I was ordained a pastor by my bishop to serve Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Chicago he said, “remember Andy, you are called to be a good shepherd but Jesus is the Good Shepherd.” Sometimes the best thing a pastor can do is simply follow Jesus hoping the flock will follow. Mark asks Santiago “Will you go with me all of the way to the end? I will need your courage my good friend.” We can all take comfort from these words of The Good Shepherd:

Matthew 11: 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Pastor Andy

Trevor is a man on the run. He’s got places to go and people to see. He’s “pushing the boulder slowly up the hill.” But he’s “starting to wonder if he has the strength or the will.” He’s a true success story on the job but in life he’s on the way to a heart attack. Forced to take vacation, he decides to “do the Camino” and add the 500 miles of the trip to his growing list of achievements. We all know the type. We may be the type. We like to blame life for our frenetic pace when the truth is, we wouldn’t know what to do if we actually slowed down and smelled the roses.

Jesus knows the type and shares this advice: Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,[a] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! Trevor’s problem is that he’s running scared when he could be peacefully walking the way with his loving Savior. On the Camino, he has a powerful experience, like that of St. Paul, of the sun blinding his eyes. That turns out to be the moment he truly sees the life is not a race, its an opportunity to experience the marvels of God’s creation in the company of fellow travelers.

We should carefully watch ourselves and those “Trevor’s” around us. They may seem to be “running for fun,” when they are “just running scared.” Invite them to walk, not run, through this life we have been graciously given.

Pastor Andy

It’s so easy to plan the journey until you have to leave. Leading You

In my musical “El Camino,” we meet a young women named Penny who should be excited and optimistic about her future. Instead, she feels anxious and apprehensive and, most of all, alone.

We may joke about young people in this situation as being “failures to launch.” But most of us can recall times at that age when we wondered if we really were up to the challenge of making our way in the world. Although I had finished three years of seminary training and a year of internship, I recall feeling totally unprepared when I began leading my first congregation. What business did a 26 year old have preaching to people two or three times my age?

Penny is blessed on her Camino by a middle-aged woman named Selah. Selah does not coddle or comfort Penny’s fears. She does something greater-she believes in her. Selah has no problem making Penny get up and get on the road despite her protests. And Selah pushes the pace each day, challenging Penny to realize that “you were more than you had dreamed.” Complaining to Selah, Penny accuses her of “leaving her.” Penny replies, “ I was not leaving you, I was leading you.”

So often when we think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, we think of him protecting us, feeding us and bringing us comfort. We forget that Psalm 23 also says “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley…” Sometime following the Good Shepherd will take us where we must go, not always where we want to go. If we choose to follow Jesus, he will train us to go faster, further and farther than we ever imagined. Those who believe in him will discover he believes in us.

Pastor Andy

1 Corinthians 13:1–7 (ESV): If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love is not always saying I love you or I will pray for you. At times it means sacrifice. Many times we choose to wait for God or someone else to move the mountains in the lives of others. Instead we, like the soldier’s fiancé, need to climb into the belfry and cling to the clapper until it beats us silly in order to move the mountains for those we love. I find we are very quick in our self righteousness to point out the faults in others but much slower to be beat silly for them. For the sake of the gospel (this includes our enemies), we are to bear all their burdens, believe their statements, hope with them to the end, and endure whatever may come. As the clapper beats us against the bell, the Cromwell’s of life will take note and be moved to say, “Curfew shall not ring tonight!” A mountain will be moved and God will be glorified not in a fancy statement or prayer but in a personal act of devotion to all who we choose to love.

Pastor Aaron