The Thursday Update

JANUARY 30, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

Let me begin this week’s post with the reminder that while I am a New Orleans Saints fan, I was pulling for the Buffalo Bills to go to the Super Bowl this year. I’ve said that the past two Sundays at church and I meant it. Let me also say that they played a good game last Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs and I am sad that they lost. I really am. I really like QB Josh Allen and Head Coach Sean McDermott. But they lost.

With that said, the Bills the past few years are like money in a lot of ways. How so? They tend to promise so much for a while but only end up disappointing us in the end.

Let me explain.

All year long, the Bills were playing great football. They had a great record, Josh Allen is a Most Valuable Player finalist (yeah, I do hope he wins it this year), and they beat the Chiefs earlier in the season, one of only two losses KC had all year. But in the end, when it really mattered and “the money was on the line,” they fell short of going to the Super Bowl.

So much promise, but so little delivered in the end.

Money is a lot like that. It always promises so much: status, comfort, vacations galore, happiness, security, success, and the like. But in the end, it can’t deliver on these promises. Money was never designed by God to be able to do that. If you doubt that, think about the last five things you bought that you thought were so great a few months ago. I can almost guarantee that they don’t bring you the same level of satisfaction that you thought they would. In fact, you may even wish you never even bought some of them in the first place.

It’s only in the Person who owns it all, the Person who gives us the ability to create wealth, and the Person who satisfies us in places nothing or no one else can, that we’ll find a promise that can be fulfilled. In fact, unlike money and possessions, He will actually satisfy us more than we ever thought possible with the passage of time!

So let’s remember that money has its place, it’s just not something that can promise to meet our deepest needs. Only a Person named Jesus Christ can fulfill that promise. So let’s look to Him to meet our needs, starting with the spiritual.

And for the Bills fans reading this, there’s always next year!

Warmly,
Vince

JANUARY 23, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

Have you ever watched someone do something and after seeing it say, “If I were him, this is what I would do…” Maybe you were presented with a hypothetical scenario and you responded with something like, “I would do this or that or the other” with absolute certainty. Or, perhaps, it could be that you heard about something that someone did wrong and you thought, “I’d never do that!”

It’s really easy to say what we would do in any given situation when we aren’t actually faced with it in real time and in very real circumstances. The truth is that sometimes we idealize ourselves in ways that don’t actually align with what we say and do. We can easily think that we are above the powerful “pull” of making bad choices. I know this is true for many reasons, but the one story that always sticks with me as prime evidence is Peter’s response to Jesus in Matthew 16.

Just after Peter made the profound declaration that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16), he made a “this is what I would do” declaration that revealed his idealized view of himself. In response to Jesus saying that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die (a reference to his crucifixion), Peter said, “I won’t let that happen. It will never happen as long as I’m around.” (Matthew 16:22). Jesus rebuked him strongly. And of course, as Jesus predicted would happen, Luke 22:54-62 tells us Peter disowned Jesus three times.

It’s so easy sometimes to say what we would do and yet so hard to actually do what we think we will.

The better thing to do is to humbly say that, by the grace of God, we would hopefully do the right thing (see James 4:13-16). Afterall, God knows our heart and it is only by Him and His grace that we can make good choices in hypothetical or future situations that we may face.

When it comes to money, this same challenge of what we would do with more of it always crops up. The good news is that God tells us how to be prepared in advance in the parable of the Shrewd Manager.

Let’s all do our best to be careful about what we say we would do by focusing in on what we are presently doing. Because what we are doing is the best indicator of what we will do.

Warmly,
Vince

JANUARY 16, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

The multiple and separate fires that are taking place in Los Angeles are having a devastating affect on many homes and many lives. Entire neighborhoods are being devastated by it all.

Can you imagine if that happened to you?

I’ve heard lots of reactions from many people. How should we respond to this all? Here are a few thoughts that I have.

1. When other people are hurting, it’s an opportunity for us to show compassion. Rather than make judgmental comments about the government in California or Hollywood, let’s offer up prayers for the people who have lost so much.

2. Loss ultimately reminds us to appreciate what we currently have. In a culture where only “more” satisfies us (and by self-definition, it never will satisfy us because only “more” will), it takes intentionality to appreciate all that we have right now. Take time to thank God for all you have right now.

3. This incident reminds us that material things are never guaranteed to be ours forever. They will come and go, and we have limited control on “if” or “when” they will. So let’s be sure to accumulate the true wealth that Jesus talked about in Matthew 6:19-24.

Warmly,
Vince