To celebrate means simply to acknowledge a significant or joyful event in community and/or with an enjoyable activity. It is a way of not letting something that is good, that is counter to the brokenness of the world or defies the darkness, slip away into obscurity. Thus, celebration can also be an act of resistance–a proclamation that we belong to a greater reality and have a real hope.

We live in a noisy world full of distractions. Some of the loudest distractions are the voices in our heads saying, “You are not good enough! Work harder! Why did you do that? Nobody cares about you.” C.S. Lewis calls these the “wild animals that come rushing at us each morning.” When we are distracted, it is hard to listen to one another. Learning to listen to our God of love helps us in our listening to one another.

Engaging our minds to study, question and synthesize strengthens us for the journey. So often stagnation and exasperation occur in faith walks because followers are trying to cope with the complexities of adult life with a fourth-grade theology or while holding onto cultural beliefs that are untrue, such as: God helps those who help themselves. Our faith is to be simple but not simplistic. Getting investigation into our weekly rhythm expands our faith and feeds our spirit, leading to lives of greater integration and wholeness.

Without risk, our beliefs can be merely a collection of theological statements to which we give intellectual agreement. Our choices and actions can end up incredibly detached from what we say we believe. That’s why describing our faith in relational terms is essential: Who we follow leads to more life than focusing on religion. Following Jesus will move us into steps of faith. With each step our faith grows as we are transformed more into the image of Christ and encounter God’s presence and faithfulness. We become people who risk living like Jesus!

The Hebrew verb for bless (barak) means “to kneel or bow” and carries the meaning of giving a place of honor to God. When we “bless” God we show respect for who God is. When God “blesses” us, God provides for our needs and communicates our importance as human beings created in God’s image. When we bless another person, we give respect to who they are and communicate their worth and importance as people created in the image of God. And, we share of God’s abundant love!

Choosing to live generously places us in the front row to experience God’s activity. Things happen in our lives and in the lives of others. Counterintuitive as it may be, as we give of ourselves, the pressure of the question, “How much is enough?” begins to lessen; the grip of materialism begins to loosen and the excitement of participating with God’s activity in the world begins to take hold. When we live with overflowing generosity, we see lives and whole communities change as they encounter unexpected giving.

Nourish means to feed, to help grow, support. Every day our bodies depend upon being nourished to live. There are two problems: 1) We don’t trust that there will be enough for us. 2) There is a lot of false nourishment out there that just keeps us hungrier and wanting more. The same is true of our spiritual nourishment.​​ From the beginning humans struggle with trusting God.  To communicate our worth, Jesus, God in human flesh, entered this world to invite us toward wholeness and to be our daily Nourisher who is with us on our life journey. The overflowing blessing is that Jesus’ nourishment flows out of us, transforming us into nourishers who love one another as Jesus has loved us.