#275 Question from a Parent

Dear people who go all-out with Halloween decorations,

I hope that you've had a wonderful celebration of October 31. I am impressed by the amount of time and effort you've put into your decorations. I appreciate your generosity in handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. However, I'm not sure I understand your goals. Why do you want a bunch of small children to come up to your house for candy? Can't you see that they're terrified by the whole atmosphere? They don't really understand what's going on; they just know it makes them afraid. I'm not at all saying you can't decorate or get into character or scare some older kids and adults. Maybe I just don't get the thrill of being scared. But if you love Halloween and want little kids to enjoy Halloween, is scaring the living daylights out of them the best way to go about it?

Grace and peace,

BMH

#274 Comparisons

We human beings love to compare ourselves to others when it comes to how good or upright or moral we are. We've been doing it ever since Adam pointed his finger at Eve and argued—essentially—"Sure, I ate some of the forbidden fruit, but she was the one who gave it to me." Because we're not dumb, almost without fail we compare ourselves to other people that we think we're better than. "Sure, I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not a liar/drunk/cheater/fill in the blank yourself like they are."

I would say that for Christians there is—at least in general—no value in comparing ourselves to others. If we want to make comparisons, we have two valid choices. First, we can compare ourselves to who we were in the past: a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago, before we believed in Jesus, etc. Second, we can compare ourselves to Christ Jesus Himself. I think we need both of these comparisons. If we only compare ourselves to the people we used to be, there's a danger that we'll get too complacent. We might think that we've grown enough and stop striving to mature as Christians. If we only compare ourselves to Christ, we could become so discouraged by our sinfulness and imperfection that we want to give up, thinking we'll never make any real progress. But the two comparisons together should keep us balanced. We'll see that we still have a long ways to go in living up to the perfect standard of Jesus, but we'll also recognize how Jesus has been helping us little by little to become more like Him.

I know that what I've written here isn't groundbreaking. But it's something that I constantly need to remind myself of, and I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Rather than looking around at everybody else to evaluate my performance in living as a Christian, I need to look up to Jesus and look down into my own heart. Then I'll really see where I need to grow. Then I can pray for forgiveness and help to change. Thankfully, Christ loves to make us new.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#273 The Student Becomes the Teacher

This fall I started teaching the Heidelberg Catechism (one of my church's statements of faith and a good summary of the Bible's main teachings, for those of you who don't know) to a few teenagers at our church. It's my first time teaching a full-length class on the catechism, since we did not have a high school Sunday school class at my first church. I've met quite a few people that really did not enjoy catechism classes when they were growing up, but I liked studying the Heidelberg Catechism a lot. For my peers and me, catechism classes weren't about rote memorization but discussing what we believe and what it means for our lives. I really appreciated getting a better understanding of my faith. That it made faith feel more personal and helped me develop a more fully-formed worldview.

So I'm excited to go through the Heidelberg Catechism with a new group of students. I hope that I can communicate my enthusiasm effectively. I hope that I can help them get a clearer sense of not only what our church believes but what they believe. I hope that this class will be part of equipping my students for life as Christians. And I'm hopeful that I'll keep learning myself.

And now for something completely different. Nine weeks ago I promised to update you on how my half marathon went. My race last Saturday was… okay I guess. I was training to run the 13.1 miles in 90 minutes. I fell off pace in the middle of the race and ran out of gas toward the end, finishing in 94:35. That's not a horrible time, but it certainly wasn't what I wanted out of the day. At least it felt good to get more serious about training again. Maybe I'll try another race sometime in the future.

Grace and peace,

BMH

#272 That's G!

Lately we've had a bunch of Gatorade in the Hofman house. It's not something I drink regularly. I understand that Gatorade has a boatload of sugar and really isn't an ideal beverage. But after a hard run, especially after a long run, Gatorade sounds so good to me. Sometimes in college when I needed a little extra motivation to finish a training run at the end of a tough week, I'd promise myself a trip to the Bootsma Bookstore Cafe for a Gatorade. After my recent double-digit-mile runs on Saturdays, Gatorade has seemed like a refreshing reward. Now if only Tess and I could agree more on flavors…

Grace and peace,

BMH