Resolutions abound around this time of year. Learn a new language, drop a few pounds, and exercise more. I’m all for it. The basis of a resolution is the need for resolve. Meaning, built within the fabric of being human is the regular need to do hard things. There’s a guy I recently discovered named David Goggins—a former Navy Seal who served multiple tours in the Middle East. He initially became famous for his YouTube workouts. He broke the world record in 2013 for the number of pull-ups in a single day. 4,030 pull-ups. You read that right. Goggins will run an ultra-marathon and then finish it with a two-hour workout. He currently jumps out of airplanes into forest fires to dig ditches to restrain the fire. This guy is half inspiration, half-crazytown. But he affirms one truth—we’re made to do hard things.

May I invite you to something hard this year? May I invite you into a church community in 2024?

This invitation has difficulty baked right into it. I tell you that on the front end because while the church of Jesus is beautiful and good and there is nothing like it on planet Earth, it’s also downright hard. Going to church can be hard for a few reasons. For starters, you’ll be new. And it takes courage to step into anything new. New place and people and songs and language. Being the new person or new family requires resolve. It’s also hard because the church is filled with broken people…you included. The church is a lot like a spiritual emergency room. Every person comes in a little bloody and beat up. Meaning, that you don’t typically go to the E.R. to feel good, you go to get well.

But the church is also good and beautiful and powerful. When we gather around the only One who truly sees us and holds the power to heal us, there is faith that rises in the room. When we hold our frailties and wounds up to God as our offering, he receives them and in exchange gives us the wholeness that is found in Himself. In the church, we find wisdom for life. In the church, we find friends who give us the courage to have faith for the impossible. For many, the church becomes a home. A family. And like any family, it can be beautiful and good and hard.

I would encourage you, do something hard this year. Go to church and see what God might do in your life!

There are so many good churches in our city. Check out a couple of lists HERE and HERE.