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![]() This week Joe and I are packing suitcases for a trip around the world to visit the amazing people we’ve been blessed to work with for the past five years. Right now, it feels like the entire house is in disarray as we try to figure out how to cram everything we need for a month into two suitcases. I have visions of bouncing up and down on top of mine to get it closed, only to hear that it is over the weight limit when I check in. Surrounded by irritated travelers looking at their watches, I throw things out helter-skelter, no time for rhyme or reason. (This may or may not have happened to me a time or two in the past). That suitcase seems an apt metaphor for the way many of us feel about life today. Hemmed in on every side, pressured by things that must be done and decisions that can’t wait, we end up tossing things out helter skelter, oblivious to what we’re losing in the process. Driven by the tyranny of the urgent, we fall into bed at night exhausted, only to wake up with dread that we have to do it all over again. For the full devotional, click on Week Four below. (Or if you're new here, begin with Week One!)
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![]() He has been dubbed one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, having received four Pulitzer prizes. He was a prolific writer, with some of his poem titles imprinted on our cultural psyche. One of my favorites is The Road not Taken, in which Robert Frost opines the struggle of choosing between two paths, wondering if he’ll one day regret which one he took. In the end he chose the less traveled one, and that path, his final line notes, “has made all the difference.” Speaking of paths, did you know that your brain is like a massive transit system, with major freeways and highways, medium-sized roads and smaller pathways that are continually being formed and reformed by the signals your billions of neurons send to each other? ...This explains a little how those negative messages from painful experiences end up like earworms we can’t get rid of (Week Two).
For the full devotional, click on Week Three Below. (Or if you are new here, start with week one!) WEEK TWO: An earworm you say???![]() Since our theme for these devotionals is “all things new,” here’s some interesting trivia. People who like doing new things are more likely to experience earworms. What’s an earworm, you ask? The Germans coined the word to describe those pesky songs that get stuck in your brain on an endless loop, kind of like a worm crawling around in your ear. I had an earworm over Christmas that drove me nuts. It started when I heard The Prayer sung in our churches’ Christmas show. It’s a beautiful song and I found myself singing it throughout that day and the next. But then I heard it again on the radio and suddenly I could not get it out of my mind-day and night. Before long, a song I’d once loved had become a nuisance! For the full devotional, click on WEEK TWO below! WEEK ONE![]() I wouldn’t call her a role model given her felony conviction for lying about insider trading, but when it comes to all things homemaking, Martha Stewart has been a trusty guide. From pie crusts to flower arrangements to furniture placement and kitchen makeovers, her creativity and simple steps have shown millions of people ways to make their homes places of beauty and enjoyment for decades. I get new ideas every time I watch one of her old shows. Martha is known for her one rule of life--learn something new every day. I thought about making that a New Year’s resolution, but...I don’t do resolutions. It did, however, make me think of a powerful invitation that Jesus gave related to learning: To read the rest and get WEEK ONE DEVOTIONALS, click below: We are approximately 360 hours into the new year, and if you are like me (and pretty much everyone else), the feelings of promise and possibility that ushered in 2025 are now a distant memory. Resolutions have faded away; routines have been interrupted, and busyness has swept aside the hopeful rhythms we intended to change our lives. Time—the one commodity we can never get back—stops for no one, and with every year, we feel it flashing by faster than before. We scratch our heads and ask, “Where did it go?” knowing that there is no answer that will satisfy. ![]() The reality of this makes Jesus’ first public message incredibly good news, since he ushered in a new concept of time, one that might encourage you right about now. In proclaiming, “The time has come, the kingdom of God is at hand,” he used the word kairos, describing some perfect opportunity, like the sun cutting through the clouds on a rainy day just as you set out to take a walk. Kairos has nothing to do with clocks and calendars and schedules, but everything to do with the God of the universe breaking into our lives, often when we least expect it. Jesus’ view of time—the kingdom view—is one of opportunity, of hope, of promise and possibility, much like that New Year’s sense of anticipation that we seem to lose too soon. Do you see the wonder of this? Because God is outside of time, he has an unlimited storehouse of kairos--of fresh opportunities and amazing experiences—to pour out on you and me, whether it’s January or June or December. ![]() While we cannot create kairos breakthroughs, we can set our hearts to recognize them when they come and receive the blessing God intends. That will be our goal in this five-week series. Though we will focus on one “new” thing from Scripture each week, our primary purpose is to turn our gaze Godward where perchance he will grace us with the kairos we need to experience our kingdom birthright of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). The format we will follow each week is:
Day One:
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Tricia McCary RhodesAuthor of 7 books and pastor of Global Leadership Development at All Peoples Church in San Diego, Tricia specializes in helping others experience God’s presence through practicing soul-care. Archives
February 2025
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