Category: Personal

Confession Brings Freedom

The other day while reading (which, full confession, I do kinda frequently), I read this statement by Craig Groeschel…
“It’s so much better to confess your sins and enjoy forgiveness than to be caught in them.”
Wow, how true is that?
Rather than confess, I’m more likely to hide my sins, flaws and mistakes. And, I actually think this isn’t just true for me; it’s a human response. In fact, if you read Genesis 3, this is exactly what you see when Adam and Eve sin. Rather than confess to God and find forgiveness, they hide their sin and are eventually caught in sin.
The truth is just this: Whenever we let sin dictate our decisions, hurt isn’t far behind and hiding never brings healing. Forgiveness brings freedom, whereas hiding brings more guilt and baggage. The beautiful thing is that God is a God of forgiveness; it’s actually what He does best.

So today, I’m probably not writing something you don’t already know. But, it isn’t in the knowing that we struggle, it’s in the acting. I write all this to remind us of one little thing: “It’s so much better to confess your sins and enjoy forgiveness than to be caught in them.”
I know that’s something I need to not only hear, but to act on too. And maybe you need to as well.
by Andrew Mills

Love Your Stage

I’m not going to lie, I was tired on Christmas Eve. After being part of five really wonderful Christmas Eve services, I was pretty spent. I got home and wanted to spend some quite time with Krista, but we got to bed late after getting ready for the morning. And, to be quite honest, the morning came much too soon.
Our kids were bouncing and ready for Christmas well before the sun was up. And so I dragged myself out of bed and tried to make coffee, while kids ran around yelling, “It’s Christmas!!” (and the boys quite literally dragged Eden out of bed while she was still sleeping).
As this happened, I looked out our main bay windows and saw no other lights on, on our street (that being because everyone on our street is 30 years older or more). But something hit me at that moment, while I was briefly jealous of everyone sleeping in – I’m in a stage that won’t last forever. And, so are you.

The truth is, having kids run around yelling and getting so excited about Christmas is a beautiful stage. When Asher opened his stocking, he screamed and yelled, “Dad, you got me Paw Patrol socks! I love socks! You’re the best daddy!”
This stage of loving socks as gifts will not always last.
I write this all as a reminder to myself, as much as hopefully you, to appreciate and love the stage you are in. Because each stage of life has beauty in it. Each stage of life has things to appreciate. And, each stage of life changes as time goes on.
So, whatever stage you might be in today and whatever place you may find yourself, may you appreciate all that you have – even if that means getting up very very early. 🙂
by Andrew Mills

Sharing Jesus

sharingjesus.pngThis past November, I had an odd experience that left me, well, wanting to be a bit more courageous.
I was driving in my neighbourhood, about a block from my house, and an elderly gentleman with a walker was raking leaves. I noticed him, so I stopped, got out and asked if he needed some help. I said I had a half-hour to help clean up his yard.
While it was difficult to understand him, he made it clear that he was fine. He said he had “lots of time.” So I said, “Okay” and went to wish him well, but, before I left, he gave me a small card and spoke to me about the importance of Jesus Christ. In essence, he sought to share Jesus with me. I graciously thanked him and then continued on my way.
I bring this all up because it really got me to thinking… Do I have that kind of courage to share Jesus like that?
Now, while I obviously think that the best way to share Jesus is in the context of relationship (in which people invite that discussion), and I also probably won’t adopt or promote his personal method of sharing Jesus, the point for me lingered… Do I have that kind of courage to share Jesus with my family, friends and neighbours? What might it look like for me to be a bit more courageous in sharing my faith or a bit more bold when the Holy Spirit leads me?
I’m not talking about bulldozing or manipulating people, or trying to insert Jesus into conversations in weird places. What I’m talking about is not listening to fear when opportunities come to share Jesus and to take a step instead. Because I think we stop sharing when there are clear opportunities to. We worry what someone will think, we worry what their response will be and we listen to fear. What if we simply tried to share in humble, simple and approachable ways?
So, all of this is just meant to be a simple encouragement. When you feel moved to share Jesus, why not try it? Why not step out?
I had stopped to see if this elderly man needed help and it turns out he helped me seek to be a bit more courageous. Because Jesus is worth sharing.
by Andrew Mills

Busy, Busy, Busy

busy-busy-busy
“The spirit of our times is joyless urgency…” – Marilynne Robinson
Read that line again, and if you don’t have time, well there is the irony right there. The spirit of our times is joyless urgency.
Doesn’t that capture where we are at as a society, as a culture, as a people, even? Aren’t we rushing from one thing to the next, always busy, always hurried, unable to even enjoy all the things that rush past us?
Marilynne Robinson is known to be an astute observer of our times and she resonates with me. Sometimes that’s exactly how I feel – a joyless urgency to continue rushing forward to the next thing and the next thing after that.
But, when you live like that, chasing one thing after another, you quickly end up just feeling like a “thing.” Because to be human isn’t to rush from one thing to the next; it’s to appreciate life in all of its complexities and nuances. Being human is to have space to experience joy and grief.
So, if you are rushing from one joyless experience to the next, I have a remedy. It’s old, and it’s often admired and untried. It’s called Sabbath. 
Take one day this week to rest. To relax. To unplug. To cease the endless rushing and to live in whatever space you may be in – good or bad. Stop the joyless urgency and running, and slow down for one day. You may feel bored, you may feel purposeless or even inefficient (that’s almost a synonym for sin in our culture), but my promise is if you do it consistently, you will feel healthy.
The spirit of our age is joyless urgency, but that doesn’t need to be your spirit. Sabbath.
“If there is any truth in relevant statistics – I doubt them all – perhaps health and longevity are not the effect of diet, of fish, vegetables, and olive oil, but having a little time to oneself, with family and friends.” – Marilynne Robinson
by Andrew Mills

Discipleship in an Instant?

Marshall McLuhan coined a pretty famous phrase that says, “the medium is the message.” This means that the medium does actually shift, alter and change the message. And, while I don’t want to spend 3,000 words unpacking that today, I want to draw our attention to something that is happening in our culture.
We now live in a world that is about speed, convenience, newness and simplicity.
Here is the tie in to McLuhan’s phrase… When everything is fast, easy, new and simple, we can then unconsciously adopt the posture that anything that is slow, difficult, older and complex is not only odd, but is also wrong.
When our TV shows, food, Amazon Prime shipping and our friendships with social media are almost instantaneous (clear, newly refreshed and right at our fingertips), it can be difficult to appreciate the reality that some things take time. Some things are incredibly hard. Some things ancient matter. Some things simply aren’t simple, but incredibly complex.
It doesn’t take a genius to notice that our current cultural expectations of speed, convenience, novelty and simplicity will have a disastrous effect on discipleship.

Because, here is the truth… Discipleship is not fast, it’s not convenient, it’s not new and it’s anything but simple. The honest truth is that following Jesus is a long journey, it requires you to give up a lot, it’s actually pretty ancient and it often places us in difficult situations in which complexities abound.
So, my point is, the current cultural trends do not fit well with the life of discipleship that Jesus calls us to follow. And, I’m not lamenting that fact actually, because this gives us a chance to truly stand out and be different than the culture around us.
Often, we want to be counter-culture morally (and we should be!), but what if we also became counter-cultural in a different way? What if we, as believers, praised and valued a long obedience in the same direction? What if we didn’t always try to be new, but focused on being faithful? What if we praised doing the next right hard thing over just the easy thing? What if we really sought to never reduce people or ideas to cultural clichés, but sought to enter fully into the complexity of life?
What I’m pondering, and even challenging us to do, is this… To counteract the instantaneous, easy, new and reductionist world around us by living like Jesus. To value slow and long-term change. To value doing the right hard things over the easy things. To value living faithfully over novelty. To value the complexity of our stories over reducing them.
In essence, I’m asking what it might look like for you and me to live differently than our culture. Because, that might just be the thing that actually changes our culture.
by Andrew Mills

Living Out Christmas

livingoutchristmas.pngChristmas is one of my favourite times of the year. I’m not going to lie – we get our decorations up pretty early and leave them up pretty late. The truth is, I just love this time of year. Some aren’t as into it, but I am.

I bring this up for a very specific reason…This time of the year is a great time to actually show God’s love in real, practical and tangible ways that don’t come off as weird. You can actually reach out to your family, friends and neighbours in real ways without it seeming odd.

1. You can invite neighbours over for a Christmas party

2. You can make cookies and drop them off

3. You can give small and meaningful gifts to co-workers

4. You can actually invite people to a Christmas Eve service

These are all simple and pretty straightforward things to do, and I mention them because I believe that Christmas is a time of action. The reason we gather together as Christians at Christmas is because God acted. The reason we give gifts to one another is because God acted. The reason we have hope in this season is because God acted.

Again, I bring this all up to remind you of something pretty simple… If God acted on His love for the world, so should we.

So, what might it look like to love those in your world? What might it look like to tangibly remind people that they matter? What might be a way you could surprise someone with an example of their value? The message of Christmas is that God surprised us with His actions, giving us something we weren’t expecting. What might that look like in your life?

I know we all live in different contexts and places, but one thing each of us can do is to show love in those different contexts and places.

So, invite people over for a party, drop by cookies, share a gift, write a note, do something. Remember, we are here today becauseGod did something, so let’s follow His lead this Christmas.

by Andrew Mills

Don’t Forget About Trust

you are a leader.pngYou might not feel like it, but I bet, in some area of your life, you are a leader. I bet there are some people with whom or places in which you have influence or impact. I know this is true in my life, and I want to make sure that my leadership is not only healthy and good, but also impactful.

Sometimes, when we think of leadership, we think of principles, strategies and management tips and tricks. But, what I think we should think of is this: trust and relationships. 

Stephen Covey writes this, “Trust impacts us 24/7, 365 days a year. It undergirds and affects the quality of every relationship, every communication, every work project, every business venture, every effort in which we are engaged. It changes the quality of every present moment, and alters the trajectory and outcome of every future moment of our lives – both personally and professionally.”

Trust does alter all of that and trust does matter.

So, today, I write all this to remind you of something that is easy to forget: you are a leader and good leaders focus in on trust. Whether you are trying to lead a three-year-old, a project at school or a team or company, I think it’s easy to focus in on the task (getting the three-year-old to eat, getting an “A” in school or getting better exposure in business) and forget about trust.

But, again, good leaders focus in on trust. So, today, do something that builds trust for those with whom you have influence. Don’t just focus on getting something done; focus on being present for someone. Because great leaders not only lead, they also know that trust undergirds everything.

by Andrew Mills

Asher’s Prayer

Asher Prayer.pngParents, have you ever had a moment of fear about what your child was about to do next? You know, that feeling when you realize that what is about to happen probably isn’t good…and generally that always happens in public.

Are any of you with me?

Well, last month, we were at this large family gathering. It was actually a blending of two families and we were trying to get to know one another, and it was pretty great. Then, it came time to pray for the food and, just as the prayer was about to begin, Asher yelled and screamed, “No!” and said that he wanted to pray.

I instantly had that feeling come over me as a parent – when I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I knew it wouldn’t be good.

I was ready for more yelling, silliness or for Asher, in particular, more wrestling with his brother. But, here is what happened…

Asher said, “I pray” and then he started, but stopped and told us all to close our eyes first. Then he prayed, “Dear Jesus, thank you for being here at Grandma’s with us, for the food, let’s have fun. Amen.”

I looked at my wife and my jaw dropped. Because, Asher has never done this. In fact, I don’t think he’s ever really prayed out loud before. Most of the time, he’s the one talking through my prayer. In fact, he’s more likely to yell during grace than to do anything else.

So, I share this with you, not because I have perfect kids, but for this reason…sometimes things stick and shine through, so have hope!

Read that again…sometimes things stick and shine through, so have hope!

Sometimes, after fighting through grace at meal times, fighting through bedtime prayers amidst yells from your kids that they don’t want to go to bed and fighting through reading Bible stories while your kids wrestle…sometimes things stick and shine through.

Jesus talks about it in Matthew 13 when He asks us to sow seeds. And, here is the thing…seeds take a long time to grow, but sometimes they sprout and grow, and you get to see this when you least expect it (like at a family gathering when everyone is watching).

So, I share this with you to encourage you to hold onto hope. Parenting, grandparenting and seeing change in any relationship takes a long time. Sometimes, it just feels grueling, like you’re toiling for no reason. Sometimes, in beautiful moments, you see that it’s stuck and it shines through.

So, don’t give up, because Asher sharing a deep and beautiful prayer when least expected has reminded me, we never know what’s going on underneath.

by Andrew Mills

The Most Radical Spiritual Gift

spiritualgift.pngI think that in today’s day and age there is one really needed and really radical spiritual gift. It’s not seen in a lot of places and it’s certainly undervalued in most places. And, it’s just this…hospitality.

Hospitality is the gift of opening up a space so that others feel safe, loved and valued. Read that sentence again. Because, isn’t that what our world needs? Isn’t that what our family, friends, neighbours and co-workers need? A safe place to feel loved and valued.

The gift of hospitality is used when we really welcome people into our lives without any preconditions or expectations. We simply welcome. And, I think if we want to change lives with Jesus, it begins with learning this gift and this art. Opening up our lives, homes and hearts to others with no expectations other than giving them a place to feel loved and valued.

To do this, though, is really difficult because it first requires us to be centred and whole in our own identities. If not, we try to make people into what we think they should be, rather than loving who they are. And, no one likes being changed.

Henri Nouwen puts it this way: “True hospitality is welcoming the stranger on her own terms. This kind of hospitality can only be offered by those who’ve found the center of their lives in their own hearts.”

So, how do we practice this really radical gift of hospitality? Well, I think the first step is to actually welcome the hospitality that Jesus has for us. Because He welcomes us as we are, and loves us right there and then. So, for some of us, before we take the step of opening up our hearts and homes to others (which we absolutely need to do!), perhaps the step for today is to just remind yourself that you are loved by God exactly as you are. He actually likes you, loves you and wants to be with you.

And, once this starts to shape who you are, you’ll be able to share that love with others. Once you accept that you are accepted by God, you can start accepting and loving others.

Of course, we all have unhealthy areas in our lives that need to change. I’m not saying those don’t exist. I’m saying that people want to be loved firstand that love changes people, not our judgment.

So, today, practice the radical gift of hospitality by welcoming someone in as they are or by allowing Jesus to welcome you as you are. Because that’s what our world needs and what I know I need.

by Andrew Mills

Confident Humility

confidenthumility2Today, I want to talk about the paradox between confidence and humility. If you’re a parent, you know that you want your kids to grow up with confidence, but not too much, so that they become arrogant. You want your kids to grow in humility, but also to stand up for themselves and what they believe. So, there is this little paradox, at times, between these two values, because we need both.

So, how do you resolve or think about this?

Well, I recently read a little line by a blogger that I thought made the point really well. Glennon Doyle Melton writes this: “I am confident because I believe that I am a child of God. I am humble because I believe that everyone else is too.”

And, I think that’s right on.

We can be confident and secure because we are all made in the image of God, and He loves each of us. We can have a secure identity in Christ and, when we come to know Him, we are made new in Him. So, we can be confident and secure in Him.

But, we can also be humble because God loves everyone else too. He is our Father and we are all made in His image. Everyone has intrinsic value because God created everyone and died for everyone.

So, the point today is that we can be confident because of what Jesus did for us. We can also be humble because He didn’t just do it for us, but for everyone else too.

We can be both confident and humble because of Jesus. And, I think that’s a good thing.

by Andrew Mills