Stepping back in time, I wanted to hit the first four “month of” Sundays. Oddly enough, I missed a week of taking notes altogether. Surely, I was not that late to church. One of the things I did not want to do was feel like I was just repeating four weeks of sermons from my pastor within one topic. Not to worry as none of my notes even do that as one is from the series, one is from a special, one is from the campus pastor, and one week only has notes from a “Sunday School” class.

The “Sunday School” lesson was more organized chaos over one broad topic than a lesson. It was good. Good for the class members and good for the group. I call it a “Sunday School” class out of habit, but I have heard them called Life Bible Fellowship, Adult Fellowship, and every other name that does not invoke ideas of “unfun” school. For me, the goal of any of these groups is to gather people who are dealing with similar things and give them an opportunity to share life. “Couples without Kids” was a great class for us to start married life with and I support efforts to reach groups in non-standard ways.

The outcome for me of the class was to “Be that person.” God calls us to do unto others and the class leader left us with that phrase. Christ loves me and I need to share that love with others I meet.

The sermon from Revelations had two points for me. I am easily distracted when discussing Revelations, so there were probably more points. The big point was that God does not enjoy afflicting sinners. The 22 verse balancing of Lamentations was a good data point for the math guy in me, but knowing that God does not enjoy discipling us jives with having to discipline my own kids out of duty and not enjoyment. The other was that life in heaven is worshipping and serving Christ. It is not winning a race or winning a competition or beating anyone. It is about glorifying Him who is worthy.

The sermon that went along with communion was Rails to Ttrails and described the transition led by a college student to turn the decaying rail system around Atlanta into a system of parks. He likened the Old Testament to trying to stay on the rails of the 613 laws. He contrasted that with the New Covenant of living on the trails and having freedom to use our new abilities of a heart of flesh, eyes to see, and ears to hear. Our new abilities, like new wine, were freedom from sin and death, power from the Holy Spirit to follow His lead and plow new trails.

The final piece was to kick off a “Daniel” fast as our church prepares to follow Him in the new year. This part of Daniel’s story contrasts the culture we are in (the world) with the culture we belong to (heaven). The captors wanted Daniel to eat like a king and he wanted to eat like his Lord God told him to. The goal was to link the trial Daniel experienced in captivity with the trials we experienced in 2020. Trials can bring us deeper devotion to God, deeper understanding of the flexibility we have, deeper understanding of the simplicity of the life we are called to, deeper understanding of what the sovereignty of God looks like, and that we can build on devotion with determination and make a difference. Determination is us deciding that we will make a change.

I summed it up as I want to determine that I will change “I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it” to “I will do what God wants me to do when He wants me to do it.” It appears as a huge hill to look at and climb, but it is a mental decision, made all at once, that can, and will, bring change.

So I have determined that I want to be that person, that I want to live worshipping and serving Christ, that I am willing to blaze new trails to do so, and that I am deciding to follow and not deciding to decide.