Humility > ___________

The opportunity is presented almost hourly for us to act out in pride or superiority. Seems like I have an opinion on almost every topic lately... total sign of a puffed up and proud heart. I find in my internal monologue I'm a leadership/political/Chicago Sports/theological/lifehacking expert. Ask me about what I think of Israel's PM visiting America. Ask me about what should happen to Derrick Rose's knee. Ask me who will run for President. I know what I think. But I also know myself well enough to know that I'm not that smart, and the majority of my thoughts are riddled with incomplete information and prejudice. And when I keep that in mind, I find myself looking back on actions, conversations, and moments when I've chosen not to share my opinions and I realize this: humility is always the right posture.

So here's to reminding ourselves daily to not think higher of ourselves than we ought...

In > Through

Recently I was asked by someone at church, "What have you been thinking about lately?" This question is brutal. I swear I'm ADD and thinking about a hundred things all the time. So I had to actually stop and think about it for a second, and this truth bubbled up to the surface of my soul:

God is more interested in what he's doing in you than he is through you.

In a season of life where I'm finding myself giving a lot, sacrificing a lot, and being busy a lot, I can be tempted to evaluate my life based on my external actions. I can lull myself into an artificial sense of growth, given the tons of activity going on around me. But God's almost always looking inward to grow me, not just what's around me. He cares about the work, but even more the worker.

Where We're Going in 2015

I'm not a big fan of January 1... the post-Christmas let down, the resolutions, the swell of people at the gym... the hype never really matches reality. But this year in our home will be much different than previous years. The final hours of 2014 will find us wrapping up our ministry at Harvest Naperville and the first hours of 2015 will find us starting a new chapter of ministry at Bethel Church in Crown Point, IN where we'll be working hard to launch a campus in Hobart/Portage. That is where we're geographically going, and we're pretty excited about it!

Our next step as a family is to experience a ton of change in a short amount of time. Our house goes on the market this week. I begin to commute to Indiana on Friday, and we'll begin as Campus Pastor for the Hobart/Portage Campus. In March we're expecting our newest addition to the family - a baby boy. We're also aiming to move around then to Northwest Indiana.

With all this happening, I was reminded of the old preacher's adage, "Preach the gospel to yourself daily." In the midst of all that needs to be done, my Martha's Heart (a reference to this sermon) has been waging war against the need to let my soul rest in Jesus. The reality of where we're heading as a family is to press into Jesus daily, to allow him to work out details of our move and our family and the ministry. To spend our days in prayer and see God move in our daily surrender and obedience.

I'm expectant of God to move in our family in 2015. Even in the chaos of transition, meeting new families and a new community, my prayer is that we'd be led clearly, given vision, and would be used by God to lead others to Jesus. Where our family is going in 2015 is to let God grow us in our faith as we step out and trust him completely.

Where's God taking you in 2015?

Teaching Hard Topics (and why my wife is a better communicator than me)

The past few days in the Jacobsen family have been fun. Sunday evening at Harvest Naperville's HSM we finished up a series called #nowtrending, where students had the opportunity to ask any question about faith, God, or the Bible and we'd do our best to answer it. The overwhelming question students asked was this: "What does the Bible REALLY say about Same-Sex Attraction?" So that was fun.

And then on Wednesday, Kristin had the privilege of teaching high school girls about lust at Aurora Christian School, and following her message, I gave a message to the middle school students on the same topic.

The messages were good. They were deeply biblical, full of compassion, conviction, and hope. Jesus was the hero. But the response was very mixed. And so it caused me to reflect on the issues surrounding teaching hard topics in student ministry and I've been challenged by this one thought:

You can attack the dragon of culture all you want, but until you win a heart, you can't win at all.

I received this e-mail from one of our small group leaders after our discussion on Sunday night. She wrote,

This was an interesting meeting to say the least. We had half of the girls who were very vocal about being pro-homosexuality. The other half felt like it should just be accepted because it is so prevalent today. Unfortunately it did not seem like their opinions changed much after the lesson. I believe they pretty much shut down and were not receptive to hearing another point of view.

This should solidify in pastors the need to address tough topics, for sure. Culture is big, it is pervasive, and it is collective. Our students default to the societal norm if we don't put before them God's wisdom.

Yet, our aim isn't to overthrow culture, it's to win hearts.

This is what my wife has taught me so well, and is why she's naturally a better communicator than me. Watching Kristin prepare for her message to these girls was a bit like watching a friend train for a marathon - there was a lot of questioning, a lot of discipline, and a lot of anticipation. But what I love about what I saw in her is this - when she takes an issue, she wraps her heart around it so she can connect God's Word to the heart of her listeners. And it's warm, personal, true, honest, and convicting.

It's easy to get sidetracked on the logic, clarity, and urgency of the message. But when I can let God use my heart in preaching, communication results in change. This was a super timely reminder for me... "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks."