J-Curve

For many years, my favorite Bible passage has been the Apostle Paul's words in Philippians 3:10 - "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death."… But somehow, in the blindness of my flesh, I forgot or ignored the words which told me how my Father in heaven would make it happen.

God is the one taking action in Jesus’ resurrection. The Apostle Paul is pointing out something that's really important for love: we do the dying, but God does the resurrecting. This doesn't mean that we’re completely passive in resurrection. But the energy, ideas, and the people that help—all of that is from the father. It's the father's gift to us...

Philippians 2:5-8 is like an x-ray of Christmas – it’s the story behind the story of the manger. In this passage, Paul describes four steps to what we're calling the descent of love that help us understand not only Jesus' love for us, but also our love for others.

Do you anticipate a somewhat turbulent Thanksgiving or Christmas? The J-Curve is no guarantee of smooth skies (in fact doing the work of love often makes them bumpier) but it can steady you and bring the joy of fellowship with Christ into the darkest of places.

My heart is full of worship and thanksgiving when I see how God has allowed the many J-Curves of the "J-Curve" over the past 15 years to overflow now into his Church as comfort.