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One of my kids, when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, used to reply, “Engineer.” Sometimes the impressed inquisitor probed further and inquired, “What kind of engineering do you want to do? Mechanical? Computer?” But their awe would fade when he clarified, “I want to drive trains!”

If we have kids, we want good stuff for them, right? We resonate with John, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” As Christians, we want them to become wholehearted followers of Jesus. 

Would you say you want them to be radicalized for Jesus?

Recent reports have indicated that ISIS, inspired by the Israel/Hamas war, have upped their recruitment efforts targeting younger people. The principals in several recently foiled terrorist plots have been 14 years old and even younger. 

Of course the appeal is complex, the blame multifaceted. As Christians we can say, “It’s the Devil’s handiwork.” Yeah, but through whose hands does he work? 

In addition to the grim conviction that no child deserves to be targeted by ISIS, two questions trouble me: 

1. To what degree is my country, by continuing to sell military equipment and ammunition to Israel, complicit in the creation of the next generation of radicalized Islamists?
2. To what end are my own kids being radicalized and what role do their mom and I play in that process? 

To be sure, there’s a part of me that wants them to become rich enough to happily and gratefully send my wife and I on wonderful, exotic trips. But more than that, I want them to rise up like, and with, Jesus as powerful, peaceful, loving and radical forces for the Kingdom of God. I see no other alternative if evil is to someday be overcome by good. 

Got kids? Got thoughts?

In case your church calendar is covered up by discarded wrapping paper or New Year’s confetti, can I remind you January 6th is Epiphany? 

No shame if you think, “Epipha-what-now?” In most of our church traditions, Epiphany is the shy middle child of holy days, sitting quietly in a corner between loud, first born Christmas and favored baby Easter. 

But for those of us who love Muslims and love the God who desires life for them and merits their deepest loyalty, Epiphany rocks. 

It celebrates, as you may know, the revelation of Messiah Jesus to the Gentiles (Which is super good news for most of us!). While some eastern traditions pin Epiphany to Jesus’s baptism, which is cool, most of us associate it with the Magi from the East finding and worshiping Jesus. 

Talking about this at youth group last night, my super smart wife said the Magi, “Traveled great distance at great cost with great expectation.”

I love that. 

It inspires a two-fold hope in me: 

1. That Muslims, including those who now live on the dirt from which the Magi journeyed, will find Jesus to be so compelling they’ll go great distances (of all sorts) and pay great costs (of all kinds) in order to bow before him. 
2. That you and I, and many others, would go great distances at great cost, empowered by the great expectation that Jesus came to bring abundant life to Muslims and God desires to be followed by some from every Muslim people group. 

Of course I don’t know what that specifically means for you. Heck, I often feel clueless about what it means for me! But as I write, I’m praying God will show us and give us grace and courage. None of us are as wise as we wish, but Jesus is worth the cost and the journey. 

Is your family feeling it? The post-Christmas let down? The “pretty soon we’ve got to get back to normal life” realization? Maybe toss in some tenacious germs and you’ve got a recipe for a malicious mid-winter malaise. 

Well, you’ve come to the right place because I’ve got a prescription to kill the Boxing Day Blues. 

Peace: Ask God to grow your understanding of shalom. This baby we’ve been celebrating actually is the Prince of Peace. The day will come (In our day? Who knows.) when peace will reign, when the way it was made to be will be the way it actually is. Hope is the light, the antiseptic, in which malaise can hardly hang on. 

To grow hope for peace, marinate in Isaiah 2.2-4 (praying for piles of plowshares in the Middle East), Isaiah 11.6-9 and Revelation 21.1-5. The wait is always longer than the waiters wish, but peace is out there. (Level up the hope: Click here and let Peace Train be the soundtrack as you ponder those prophecies!) 

Purpose: Kevin Kelly says, “Experiences are fun, and having influence is rewarding, but only mattering makes us happy. Do stuff that matters.” Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We matter and we have great purpose!

We can be a voice of love and balance as Muslims take the blows they’re gonna take in the coming year’s election cycle. We can band together and invite a certified refugee family into new life in the U.S. We can, some of us “for reals,” go and live among the most underserved Muslim populations from Catania out to Kolkata. 

So much good stuff is ahead for you, your family, your involvement with Muslims. May God grow in your life both the hope for and reality of great peace and purpose. 

This is the last week of my semiannual funding campaign. If you’ve considered giving, now is the time. If Muslim Connect is a blessing to you and God gives you grace to give, do so here (Scroll down to the “Select Designation” drop down and choose me). Thank you very much.

As I write, it’s the shortest day of the year where I live and tonight will be the longest night. If you look around right now, it feels like the night is long.

How are you dealing with the situation in Gaza? Over 20,000 dead. It seems so wrong to be in celebration mode while so many are wondering if the next hour will be their last. It’s not just Gaza. It’s Ukraine and South Sudan and other places I don’t even know about. 

Longfellow famously wrote in U.S. Civil War days: 

“Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Though I’ve suffered nothing like Longfellow, I get it. Hate is strong, both far and near, and it mocks the song of peace. 

I wonder how much time passed between writing that stanza to the final one: 

“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Sometimes it’s a quick transition for me. Other times it takes prayer, will and a white-knuckled grip on the promise that the little boy we celebrate this week actually changes things, that someday justice will flow like a river, evil will be destroyed, God will be praised by all and peace will reign on the Earth. The sooner the better, don’t you agree? 

I’d like to ask you to consider two things in response to this:

1. Join me in watching this Christmas Eve livestream from Bethlehem on Saturday morning. Let’s open our hearts to our sisters and brothers in these tough days. 
2. Please consider a year end donation to the Muslim Connect effort. As we near the seven year anniversary of Muslim Connect, I’m honored to reach out to you each week. If this is a blessing to you and God gives you grace, make a gift here (Scroll down to the “Select Designation” drop down and choose me). Thank you.

I know, I know, Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace, calm and joy. I just want to invite you to calmly, peacefully wrestle afresh with one of the questions that has knotted knickers since the dawn of time: Fate vs. Free Will? Destiny or I Decide?

Do we have a choice, and as followers of Jesus, how do we come to answer that question?

Turns out, Muslims have debated this within the ummah for a long time as well. (Not as long as us, since they’re younger overall, and us not as long as our Jewish forebears.) 

If you’ve hung out with Muslims much, you’ve heard, “Inshallah.” (If God wills.) Maybe you have on rare occasion dropped to my level and thought, “Oh, don’t blame God. Just decide to show up!” Similarly, Christians will sometimes add to prayers, “If it’s your will. . .” 

According to Justin Parrot, the debate for Muslims goes back to their early days, “This question led to one of the earliest sectarian schisms in the Muslim community, between the Qadarites, who believed in absolute human free will, and the Jabarites, who believed in absolute determinism and fatalism. Each of these groups developed an extreme and misguided theology.”

On our side of the divide, we have Calvinists and Arminians. Do you identify with one or the other?

Maybe as Justin tries to show in the article referenced above there is a middle, or multiple middle, ways. At any rate, it’s a fun debate that gives me opportunity to examine my assumptions. 

Sitting here by the fire and the tree and in the midst of my family, I’m happy that however God actually orders reality in reference to this debate, we are assured that when, “the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman. . . .” (Galatians 4:4)

If you’d like to kick this challenge around on Facebook (and can be nice!), join in here. 

A couple times a year, I invite Muslim Connect readers to contribute to keep the email going and growing. If you’ve found value in the weekly offering, and God gives you grace to do so, I’d be honored to have you make a gift here (Scroll down to the “Select Designation” drop down and choose me). Thank you.

You know those things you wish you could do, but can’t? Bring down inflation. A pull up. Get a woman on a major Bible translation committee. Find a new hiding place for the Elf on the Shelf. Life’s hard that way. 

But in the first of three pre-Christmas Muslim Connect editions I’m going to give you one thing you might be able to do, one you can do in the minute following reading this email and one you could do if you get a green light from your spouse, bank account and Jesus.

1. One of the challenges with reaching out to Muslims is actually reaching out. You know, crawling over or pushing through the barrier of culture, language and habit. Here’s an idea for the next month: Ask a Muslim what their family thinks of Christmas and if they celebrate it at all. If a door opens, you can chat about how great Jesus is or maybe open another door and invite them over for some Christmas cheer. It’s a dumb question last summer, but it might work right now. 
2. A dear friend of mine has been walking a tough road with a Pakistani family from a Muslim background. It’s a bit of a story, but right now they’re desperately in need of expedited asylum in Canada. I’m hoping you’ll sign this petition to help them. I have.
3. Finally, I’d like to invite you to give a gift to keep Muslim Connect going and growing. You can give the gift of attention by inviting your friends, your church and your pickle ball club to subscribe. Simply copy and past this link. You can also help with a financial gift. Muslim Connect goes out to 3300 people. With your help we can push for 5000 or even 10,000. Should God lead you to contribute, you can do so here. (Simply scroll down to the “Staff” drop down and choose me.) Thank you. 

How does the “family factor” play into your holiday fun? Does it produce joy or angst? Pleasure or pain? How about as you expand out to your broader community? Does that bring you some good Christmas vibes?

In many Muslim cultures, family and community matter in a way people from a more Western culture (like me) can’t really grasp. My conviction is that this is largely good. But like most good things, there can be excess or a dark side. 

As an advocate for God’s blessing to Muslims, have you felt any dissonance this week as you watch or read Muslim reactions to the war between Israel and Hamas? Does the solidarity among Muslims in support of Palestinians that we sometimes see give you pause? 

I lack the experience and expertise to declare such solidarity an abuse of community connections, but I wonder if it’s an example of the ummah (the whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion) gone overboard. 

With caution for that possibility in mind, I think we can actually learn from some of the more corporate aspects of many Muslim cultures. The culture Jesus and the apostles inhabited looked more like theirs than mine in this regard. 

In our current hyper-individualistic,bowling alone, society, where do we find such community? In MAGA-land? In our denomination? For most of us, it’s probably not in ethnicity or geography. Can it be in broader Christianity, when it’s taking so many forms that trouble us? 

I’m grateful for my bio-family, my adopted family, my church family and you all (though I wish you’d come over for coffee more often!). But I feel some sadness today for those of you who face the holidays alone. If you’re fine with that, great. If you’re not, I’m sorry. I really do wish you could come over. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope your day is filled with good food and grateful hearts.Thanks for taking a moment to read this brief note. 

Today I’m thankful for you. It means a great deal to me that you open and read the emails I send. I’m encouraged to think you make Muslim Connect, and actually connecting with Muslims, a part of your life. Grazie mille!

Secondly, I’m thankful for my family; for hugs and hope, for giggles and growth. 

Finally, I’m grateful to God for redeeming me, forgiving me and inviting me (and you!) to partner with Him to bring the love and blessing of a good God to bear on all the families of the earth.

That’s it. I’m done. Thank you. Thank you, God.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

But if you’ve got a little more time, there’s this:

Gratitude rocks. It’s like a drug with no side effects. It gives you all the benefits of exercise without the stress, strain and pain! It’s the cheapest, quickest way to amp up your happiness. 

A habit of gratitude facilitates obedience to the Bible. (Which makes us Christians happy!)

Legit research studies show it provides measurable benefits in all areas of life. 

If you’re a visual learner, here’s the simple schematic. 

Wanna practice? 

• Tell God thanks that you’re alive and when you are no longer, you’ll have leveled up. 
• Send me a note with the top five things you’re thankful for. 
• Give a legit thank you to someone today who’s just a little hard to thank. (That person who just came to mind? Yep, that’s the one!) 

I’m a sucker for a story. Are you? Novels, Twitter threads, old dudes saying, “When I was a kid. . . .” And movies. I love movies. A lot. 

Most stories have a good guy and a bad guy. The more the good guy looks like me and the bad guy looks different from me, the happier I am. I must not be alone in that because a lot of movie bad guys look like non-human creatures, Nazis, fleshy-faced Russians and, of course, Muslims. 

This being Muslim Connect, let’s think about that for a sec. Can you, off the top of your head, name a movie with a Muslim good guy? If you can, please tell me about it. My first thought is The Visitor, which I heartily recommend. If you can’t, there’s a reason for that: Most Muslims in movies are bad guys. 

In fact a couple film buffs in Britain developed a way to measure this reality called The Riz Test. Based on the originally tongue-in-cheek Bechdel Test that evaluates the representation of women in movies, The Riz Test asks five questions of films in which at least one character is identifiably Muslim. If any are answered yes, the movie fails the test.

Is the character:
1. Talking about, the victim of, or the perpetrator of terrorism?
2. Presented as irrationally angry?
3. Presented as superstitious, culturally backwards or anti-modern?
4. Presented as a threat to a Western way of life?
5. If the character is male, is he presented as misogynistic? Or if female, is she presented as oppressed by her male counterparts?

Maybe we could be a little more mindful. Representation does matter. 

If you see a movie that passes the test, talk it up! Let’s amplify the laudable in culture. And if you have a movie I should watch this weekend I’d love to hear about it. 

Are you familiar with Samuel Zwemer? If you hang with people who hang with Muslims, you’ve probably heard the name. He’s a hero in a number of ways; there’s even a study center named after him. I don’t know him as well as I should. He did die in 1952, but, no excuses, there are books! 

Even a cursory look at Zwemer’s life offers lessons and modeling for people like us who want to see Muslims live in the love of Jesus for them. 

1. He pushed beyond what was considered doable in his day. “Muslims?! Surely you jest!” I’m scheming and dreaming these days with some friends about the day when there will be no more unengaged peoples, Muslim or otherwise. It can feel paralyzingly undoable. (Click here to see what uupg’s may live in your favorite country.)
2. He found a good wife! Since he poached Amy from another agency, he was required to reimburse them for the travel expenses they’d incurred to get her to the Middle East! Turned out to be a good investment: She founded both a school and a hospital that are each still in operation. 
3. He sacrificed in large and small ways. He and Amy buried two of their five children in Bahrain. He criss-crossed the globe in a day before they put wheels on suitcases. He famously only saw five Muslims turn to Jesus at his invitation.
4. He wrote like crazy. As Muslim Connect nears its five year anniversary, I’m awed by the number of books Zwemer wrote: Fifty books in fifty years!
5. He mobilized workers, pray-ers and senders. This is near my heart: He used his experience and influence to inspire and encourage many to consider lives of similar sacrifice and investment.

Want to flex some mobilization muscles? Consider inviting your church to connect to Healing Nations. We’ll help you build a relationship with a vetted missions partner to initiate a multi-year collaboration to bring good news where it’s desperately needed.