From the Root of Jesse's tree (AKA the House of David) will come one who makes all things well. When Isaiah spoke these words, the king who arrived made things better, but they didn't stay better for long. Destruction and exile eventually came. These words of the prophet point to what a messiah, a savior is and does. They come from the House of David, and they set things right. Some Old Testament kings did that in limited ways and for a while. Christ does it for everyone and for always.

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Jesus is actually quite clear about trying to predict the end times. He essentially says, "Don't bother. Even I don't know." Instead, we should focus on being spiritually ready, living our lives with hope, and trust that at some unknown point, God will make all things well. That there is an end point is meant to motivate discipleship - not rampant speculation. We begin each Christian year with an image of the end to remind us of what God has done, is doing, and will do.

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Imagine yourself at your worst moment. Picture in your mind's eye being pushed, painfully, to the brink of death. How would you react to the people responsible for putting you in that situation? How would you treat those around you? This is the context of Jesus offering forgiveness to persecutors and to the penitent thief as he hangs on a cross. Jesus is actively and painfully dying and spends his remaining breath offering forgiveness to the guilty. This is the brutal hope of God's grace. It's forgiveness that can contain the breadth of human brokenness.

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The ending of Isaiah projects a beautiful image of the world made right. Jerusalem restored. People live to an advanced aged. The lion eats straw. The serpent is not longer a problem. For a people deeply traumatized from the experience of exile and now returned home, there are probably images that felt both comforting and true. There world, once rocked and destroyed, had massively improved. However, it was not yet the perfection described in Isaiah's vision. Indeed, that level of perfection still eludes us. So, we find trust in the promises already kept to find hope in the promises still out there to be fulfilled.

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Purity Culture is a thing - quite a thing. It was all the rage in youth groups across the nation and fed in part by Joshua Harris's I Kissed Dating Goodbye. It put an extreme focus on saying literally everything until marriage and turned pre-martial sex (particularly for young women) into a kind of uber sin, a sin that there's no coming back from. Good news! None of that's in the Bible, and Joshua Harris has disavowed his own book that he wrote at the age of 21 (the age where everyone always has it all figured out).

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Contemplating the meaning of life is one of humanity's eternal challenges. We want there to be meaning - to have our existence be more than simply a set of memories that evaporate with us. Our relationship with God hold the answers to these questions and fears. While our earthly life does end, God does not, and when we invest our lives into our relationship with God and with others, our existence and relationships go on forever. It's not just that our work and efforts out live us. It's that cease being a part of what God is doing - eternally.

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Two men pray, but the one that doesn't match the traditional social script is the one that walks away justified. Part of God's deep beauty is the way that God, unlike the bulk of humanity, looks purely at a person's heart. It's not about being from a righteousness focused group or being the wrong kind of person. God sees through all of that into a person's reality and deeper motivation. So, as we approach God, we should do so with our genuine selves because we can't hide anything from God.

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Talking about prayer can stray to some difficult directions extremely quickly. When we have story about being persistent in prayer and about God's goodness, we need to balance all of that being truth with the fact that plenty of people end up feeling like they're prayer didn't get answered. That persistence isn't simply about banging down God's door. It's about staying in our relationship with God even when the answer that we get doesn't align with our desires.

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Jesus concludes a conversation with a particularly thankful leper that his "faith had made him well." Ten lepers all received physical healing just because they asked. This one who turns around and actually thanks Jesus gets something additional. It all points to a kind of wellness or wholeness that stretches far beyond the physical. Thankfulness and a deeper connection with God are all part of a much deeper and holistic version of being well.

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2 Timothy positions Paul at the end of his life - reflecting on what it meant and trying to pass something onto the next generation. Timothy represents that next generation. He grew up in the church and marks a major shift in church leadership to second generation Christians. He's the first youth group kid that made good. We see an early iteration of what has become the eternal work of the church - to prepare and inspire the next generation to continue the great relay race of faith.

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