Today is President Trump’s 100th day in office, the unofficial political watermark of presidential achievement. Both Trump supporters and detractors will be scrutinizing his performance in office thus far.

But contrary to current practice, not all presidents have had to worry about how they started their presidency. In fact, the idea of the first 100 days became popular when FDR used the term to refer to the achievements of the 73rd Congress between March 9 and June 17––not his own administration’s accomplishments. However, because these programs and actions took place during his first days in office, the term has become associated with the president, and all subsequent presidents have been held to this standard.

Michael D. Watkins in his article “Why the First 100 Days Matter” printed in the Harvard Business Review describes why new presidents should not be judged on how quickly they come out of the gates. He quotes David Greenberg who says, “New presidents tend to be clueless about governing. Even running a large state can’t prepare them for the responsibilities, attention or demands to act quickly — just as they need to find their footing. (FDR’s term hardly defined his legacy; many of his greatest achievements came later.) Sizing up presidents based on their hundred days is like judging a rookie from his first cuts in spring training.”

However, one thing is true. At the end of his presidency, President Trump, like all presidents before him, will forever be remembered for what he did and didn’t accomplish.

Though we as Christians may not experience the same scale of public scrutiny as the president, we are under public scrutiny. People are watching to see if our walk matches our talk. And we too will be remembered, judged, and credited (both by man and God) for what we did during our lives.

I went to a World Help conference in January and on the table was a paper metric measuring “stick” marked in centimeters. The founder, Vernon Brewer, had all of us calculate the age we thought we would live to be based on family history and our current health. Using the “stick,” we were told to tear the paper at that number. Then we were to tear it again at the age we currently were. What fell to the floor was our life to date. What was left were the possible number of years we had left to make a difference for God. It was a sobering but inspiring visual. What lie on the floor we could do nothing about. The time left in our hand was still usable. I have pinned this remnant to my bulletin board as a daily reminder that life and time are short.

Our takeaway should be this: Live life purposefully. As always, the Bible has stated it so simply. Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” If we do, then we will hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21).

Watkins, Michael D. “Why the First 100 Days Matter.” Harvard Business Review. 23 Mar. 2009. https://hbr.org/2009/03/why-the-first-100-days-matters

There are many words that can describe spring, but for me, the word that best describes it is “unsettled.” Spring is a season of extremes . . . beautiful skies and perfect weather one day and then sudden storms the next. Nothing is predictable and even though it is a beautiful season, it can leave our plans in a state of flux.

Our lives often mirror spring. During times of change, whether planned or unplanned, welcomed or not welcomed, we can find ourselves in unfamiliar terrain. Our routines are disrupted, and we don’t know what to expect. The weather patterns of our lives shift or change daily. Gone are the predictable, comfortable, and secure days of routine, purpose, and meaning.

Less than a year ago, I retired from thirty-six years of teaching, and while I was looking forward to the freedom retirement would bring ( A LOT!), I have to confess, my life was “unsettled” for a good portion of this year. The job that had filled my days and had brought purpose and significance to my life was now gone, and I had to work at finding my footing again. I needed to develop a new routine of sorts and a new avenue through which to find purpose and significance.

True, as Christians our significance comes from who we are in Christ, and our ultimate purpose is to serve and worship Him, but we also need human relationships, and our serving is most often through earthly venues, so when one opportunity ends, we must look for another.

As always, I have learned that waiting and listening to God is better than becoming restless and worried. Therefore, I have grounded myself in Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

We don’t have to know all that is in the future. We just need to remember that our future is in His hands, and if we listen to Him, that future will unfold one step at a time.

Yesterday was Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion, and tomorrow is Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection, which makes today the “In Between”––the day after all hope seemed lost and without knowing that the next day would bring a new eternal hope. So what was going on in that day in between?

It actually began the night of Jesus’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Despite His predictions of what the future would hold and His references to scripture, the disciples obviously did not understand, and they were overcome with fear:  “They all forsook Him and fled” (Mark 14:50). Peter denied knowing him three times in less than twenty-four hours (John 18:15-27 ); only John is mentioned as being at the crucifixion (John 19:26); any specific mention of the other disciples in public is only alluded to as Luke 23:49 does say that “. . . all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.” When Mary Magdalen went to tell the disciples that Jesus’s body was missing, they were all hiding, which is where they still were when Jesus came to them after His resurrection (John 20:19).

To put it simply, they were lost, confused, and afraid.

Like the disciples, we often have our “In Between” times.  Life is going well, right on track, and we feel a great peace when suddenly, our world shifts and we are faced with loss, disappointment, rejection, illness, or uncertainty. Our future as we knew it is gone, and now we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t know if or when a new hope might appear. At these times we too forget God’s promises to us and become lost, confused, and afraid.

I think a fearful response to unexpected or unwanted change is just human nature, our default mode, and I don’t think God faults us for that. Approximately forty-four times in the Bible it says “Do not be afraid” or “Do not fear” and almost all of these involve an unexpected change in the future for the individual addressed. People such as Abraham, Jacob, the Israelites, Mary, Joseph, and Peter. Well, plus there might have been an angel involved, too. That, too, could shake a person up a little.

But there is a another word mentioned more than three times as often in the Bible. Trust.

Though fear may be our first reaction to many of life’s changes, once we remember that God is still on the throne and in control, if we remember the promises He has made to us, then we can shed that mantle of fear and trust in the One who has our lives in His hands.

I hope you have a blessed Easter and have accepted that eternal hope for the future.

I was taking an early morning walk the other day and saw the mist rising from a meadow near my home, and immediately the words of the old hymn “In the Garden” came to mind, and I started singing. Even though I hadn’t sung it since grade school, every word came easily to mind, and though I didn’t sing it well, I did sing it effortlessly.

This is the power of song--lyrics can resurface years later.  And this is why product jingles stay with us and educational programs use songs to help commit facts to memory. It is also why the musical cadences of the King James Bible make it so much easier to memorize than other versions.

Songs cover the gamut of human emotions––from love to heartbreak, hope to despair, joy to anger––and it doesn’t take much to trigger a memory and consequently a song.

The national Christian radio station KLove challenges its listeners at the beginning of each year to listen to only Christian music for 30 days––not to disparage popular music or have people remove it from their lives, but to remind listeners that Christian lyrics add one more dimension to each of these emotions. They add a supernatural depth to the love and an eternal hope to the heartbroken. They provide a rock solid foundation for the joy and a remedy for the anger.

I hope you are one of those individuals who has your radio on full blast and sings at the top of your voice and from the bottom of your lungs. But if we realize what a lasting impression a song can have, perhaps we should have more than just catchy jingles or snappy dance tunes come to mind. Perhaps we should also have songs in our memory bank that bring back words of encouragement and hope.

Do you have a favorite hymn or current Christian song?

 “Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’” Luke 9:23

There is something that many non Christians claim not to understand about Christians, and that is their decision to deny themselves some things that are pleasurable. The irony is that often these same people will chose to do the very same thing.

Many people in pursuit of better physical health or a slimmer body will often deny themselves certain foods or ingredients. They will even go so far as to remove those temptations completely from their homes. They know that proximity often leads to a downfall as one bite will often lead to many more. Individuals trying to quit smoking will often do the same with cigarettes.

Therefore, these individuals realize that denying themselves in certain areas is, in the end, not a bad thing at all. It is a good thing. And while the process is not always easy or painless, it brings them a certain peace and joy to know that their obedience to their diet or cessation plan is bringing about positive physical, mental, and emotional results.

In the very same way, good spiritual health (which also affects physical, mental, and emotional health -- Psalm 32:3) requires denial as well. Each of us may have practices or thoughts in our lives that are not pleasing to God, that God expressly sees as sin. And though these thoughts and practices may bring us temporal pleasure, in the end they will not bring us permanent joy and will damage our relationship with God because to purposely continue in them is to be  willfully disobedient.

Just as for the dieter, the process is rarely easy. Being obedient to God’s will often requires loss and can be painful. But God has promised to be with us through the journey (Deuteronomy 31:6), and, through Jesus, has experienced those very same temptations we face and so can both empathize with us (Hebrews 4:15) and help us (I Corinthians 10:13).

God offers those who trust Him and are obedient to Him peace as well, but a different kind of peace than the world offers, a peace which  “surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:6) and is “perfect” (Isaiah 26:3). God’s peace never fails. Worldly peace can be shattered by a word or a look as we have seen both in our personal lives and in the failure of international peace agreements. But the peace God provides endures.

Wesley Hill in his book Washed and Waiting talks about the pain that often accompanies God’s desire to purify us from sin through our obedience. He says, “ . . . God isn’t tame or safe. True, he is merciful, but his mercy has sharp edges. God judges sin and transforms sinners in a way that often feels as if it is ripping apart our deepest selves" (128).

But he follows this statement by providing encouragement to all who are struggling with denial, when he says, “. . . . even on our loneliest roads, when the valleys are so shadowed that day feels like night, God is watching, rejoicing over every inch gained, gazing down as the Author who cares about every twist in his story” (128).

So I pray that we all stay the course, so that not only will we experience perfect peace and everlasting joy while on earth––despite the pain--but also that when we come face to face with God, we will hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23).

Hill, Wesley. Washed and Waiting. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI, 2010. Print.