What name could I breathe to make darkness flee
Who else can I call to see giants fall
Whose feet can melt the highest peaks
Whose glory makes the heavens sing

​It’s a name like no other
It’s a love like no other
It’s a grace like no other
Jesus

What love gives its life for an enemy
Who crawls in this ditch just to rescue me
What love would pursue me across the sea
What grace carries me through all my grief

​It’s a name like no other
It’s a love like no other
It’s a grace like no other
Jesus

Jesus
​Jesus

You’re a name like no other
You’re a love like no other
You’re a grace like no other
Jesus

​Well, we’re stuck inside our houses
With the people we claim to know and love best
And now, with televisions, laptops or radios tuned in
We discover something called worship, online.
And it’s not the same

​Weird without the coloured lights
The sound of a hundred speakers
And people—hundreds or more—just beside

​But now:

There’re no dimmed lights
No loudspeakers
No crowds
​
Instead we have dizzy sunlight,
Gleaming through familiar frames
And tinny sounds from only one speaker
A couple of people—family
And nowhere else to go

​Suddenly
The sounds of family nearby
Are loud
We can hear every breath
And the exact way that they might sing
And the sound of clothes rustling
No more big, dark, comfy spaces to throw loud voices into
No more forests of raised arms to secure our own hands
No more dimmed lights to hide expression
And, suddenly
My soul is vulnerable
In a different way than before

Can I still worship in such a way?
When the world,
The people around me
Refuse to fade away?
When even closing my eyes seems wrong
And engaging is suddenly so much harder

Because I can hear the kids next door playing
And construction down the street
Someone sneezing
Somebody laughing too loud
I can hear cars and sirens and neighbours
And I can hear dishes clanging in the kitchen
I can smell the spices of home food

I am too distracted to worship!

But all these distractions
Aren’t they just the simple things that were always there?
Gifts
That we’ve forgotten in spectacle—lights, crowds, stages

Maybe I am learning to appreciate
Richness

​The copious aroma of life

​Spicy, sweet, tangy
Salty, savoury, tender flavour
The taste and touch and feel of life--
In everyday moments

​I can no longer block out
That the people around me are more precious than spectacles
And that God can be worshipped by us too
Together, in a way that doesn’t deny

This rich aroma
Of our everyday lives

Now I share with God
The kitchen cooking, dishwashing, couch-sitting, pillow-fighting,
Debating, laughing, crying, smiling,
Secret handshakes
Nicknames, chores
Pet projects, pet peeves
Smallest thoughts
Biggest dreams…

The smell of home-cooked food
My everyday life

Because God loves to see life

​Life
Is Richness

When I survey the wondrous Cross
Where my Savior died
My richest gain I count as loss
​and throw away my pride

I see from Your head, Your hands and feet
Sorrow and love pour down
Here perfect love and sorrow meet
and thorns make a Victor's crown

I am free from the shadow of my sin
You've won it all
You've won it all
Your victory is where I start again
You've won it all
You've won it all
You've won it all

Here at the Cross our seas of pain
Forever drain away
Oceans of war and waves of hate
All break on Jesus' name

We are free from the shadow of our sin
You've won it all
You've won it all
Your victory is where we start again
You've won it all
​You've won it all

Greater than all our shame
Deeper than all our pain
Your Cross is big enough
Your Cross is strong enough
You've won it all
You've won it all

The local church here in Pretoria is currently busy with a theme called Faith for Tough Times.

One of the first things I thought when I saw the phrase "faith for tough times" is that perhaps one of the greatest, and most important, acts of faith during tough times is to avoid closing oneself off from God and from others.

Maybe it's related to the whole "fight, flight, or freeze" thing. But often, when hard things come, we humans close off. We close off relationships when someone hurts us. We stop investing in organizations, family, or church when we a group or leader fails us. We stop tithing or giving offerings in times of broad economic or personal financial crisis.

It's natural, and intuitive. But I'd like to suggest that it's counterproductive.

A dear friend of mine said something crazy to me in 1993. He'd just been betrayed, profoundly and painfully, by one of his closest associates. The individual had quietly conspired with about a third of my friend's contacts, luring them away to start a competing venture. It was a costly, difficult, and painful time. As the dust was beginning to settle, we were chatting late one night in a parking lot and I asked him what he was going to do.

I've never forgotten this. I was pretty young in 1993 (and pretty stupid, but that's another story for another day...), and I've always been grateful to have heard this message of forgiveness, trust, and living richly before I ever went through anything difficult myself. What a response! It's easy to be cynical. It doesn't take a lot of courage to believe the worst in others.

But this: this took courage. My friend wasn't planning (or advocating) blind trust in folks with proven poor character. He was resolving to continue to build relationships, allow others to share in his life's work and passion, and to continue to live richly towards others, even when at times he gets "burned".

Counter-intuitive. Counter-cultural. Brave.

I took a decision that night in that parking lot, and I'd like to invite you to join me in the decision. The decision?

I've chosen to love and trust the people God's allowed me to have in my life. I don't "check the wind" to determine whether or not to love and invest in others. As another friend of mine says, "I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

The Message paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 6 paints a beautiful picture of living richly towards others, in good times and in tough times. Check it out:

He's described a few good times and a lot of hard times. Now, dig his response:

Christ's life inside of us is so magnificently, expansively, great! He is greater than every offense, every betrayal, every economic downturn, every "you-name-it"!

And that's why--He's why--my family and I have decided to always live richly towards God and towards others. Won't you join us?

We traveled to Kinshasa, then spent a week in Kananga before finishing our journey in Lubumbashi. Kinshasa, located in the far southwest, is the capital city of the DRC (the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Kananga, a large but profoundly poor city, is the capital of DRC's Kasaï-Occidental province and lies near the Lulua River in the south central part of the country. Lubumbashi is in DRC's extreme southeast, a large city fueled by a booming mining industry.

Pastor Willy Tshipamba pastors Ambassade du Royaume de Dieu (Embassy of the Kingdom of God) church in Kananga and leads a network of churches that covers most of southern DRC. Pastor Willy invited Pastors Johan and Electa Potgieter of Hatfield Christian Church to continue the Church Development Plan.  Chandra and I were part of this team, and we ministered to nearly one hundred pastors between the three cities.

It takes good leaders and healthy churches to effect kingdom advance. As such, the Church Development Plan takes a "hearts, heads, and hands" approach to developing pastors and leaders who will build strong churches. Rather than solely dispensing information, the Church Development Plan focuses first on impartation and heart formation of church leaders. When the heart is healthy, then information (heads) becomes more relevant and useful, and there is proper motivation for increasing practical skills (hands). I also adopted this approach for the worship workshops I was able to give in Kananga and Lubumbashi.

Several years ago, Pastor Willy's church in Kananga started a school in their city. They modeled the school after Hatfield Christian School here in Pretoria. They planned for a small beginning of fifty students, but finally had to stop enrollment at one hundred. The school has been so successful that the government has asked its leadership to help them establish more schools based on the same model.

During our stay in Kananga, Chandra was invited to minister to around fifty teachers and faculty at the school. She spoke on the value of a child. There was a beautiful impartation  as she ministered, and afterward she was able to pray with many teachers and staff members. We are looking forward to visiting the school next year and building relationships.

I was able to encourage senior pastors and leaders in all three cities on corporate worship and relating to worship leaders. These sessions were fun and fruitful! In Lubumbashi, there were also several worship leaders, musicians, and vocalists in attendance. An extra session was scheduled in Kananga with the local church's worship team and choir. We had a great time practically applying the principles we looked at! I have been invited back next year to host an extend worship workshop in both Kananga and in Lubumbashi.

​We recently witnessed a wonderful move of God at Hatfield Christian Church, the local church out of which we work in the communities surrounding Pretoria.

During corporate worship a group of children found their way to the front of the auditorium, waving flags and dancing. They didn't look like mature worship leaders or professional dancers. They looked like kids having fun. Someone in leadership saw them, and rather than shut them down, he invited them onto the platform to dance and wave their flags before the Lord in full view of the congregation.

Before long, there were reconciliations happening all throughout the building. Generation affirming generation, male honouring female, and every tribe and race embracing and celebrating one another, all in the context of glorious praise to God in at least five languages. It was stunning! And we pray that what God has begun among His people will cover this scarred nation, a salve bringing healing and peace.

Psalm 8:2 says that God has ordained strength from the praises of children to silence the enemy. Everyone's praise is always powerful--because of a mighty God! But there is something special when God moves amidst children's praise. What better to silence the jaded, demonic voices of bitterness, gender tension, and racial strife than the wonder-filled praise of all-powerful God coming from innocent lips!

The millenia-old saying is still true today: there comes a beautiful clarity in the spirit when children praise. What would happen if you and I praise today? What would happen if you and I empower our children to praise today?

Most of the book of Job is a long conversation among Job and three of his friends.  When the younger Elihu finally speaks, his words are marked with awe and wonder.  In a sense he is appalled with the matter-of-fact manner the others had discussed God and His ways. He begins with rebuke, but he concludes with worship: