? (this is also available as a pdf here)
Hey, y’all! As this is our first letter of the year, we hope you all had a blessed Christmas and are now well recovered from it 
. We had recovered from it, but then the potential buyer we had for our house fell through and so we’ve been suddenly thrown into our own personal episode of “Sell this House”. I don’t know how many people they have working behind the scenes to do all that in two days- it sure takes a lot more work from our perspective. So, that would be prayer request one, that we would be efficient about getting the work done so we can get our home on the market (the second request being that it would indeed sell ).
Karl has been wrapping up work for our old team and beginning to learn about his future role as well as being our handyman. We are now getting Keynote emails with exciting stories about what God is doing and can’t wait to get there. He’s also been figuring out how much financial support we will need before beginning to work full time for Keynote. Thanks to a number of surprises from various sources, we are happy to say that our initial goal has already been cut by more than half and at this point we only need to raise about $500 monthly! Please say a big thank you to God as you pray for Him to provide the rest of our needed support (and we say a big thank you to all of you!!).
I just finished taking a grad course called Humanity/Christ/Salvation. It’s one of several courses CCC staff take to complete a Biblical Studies certificate. I must admit, that I am not known for liking to study systematic theology (Karl does, however ). All that hard thinking was worth it, though (which is truly saying something when it took me six hours to read one chapter!). The work was hard and frustrating, but the end result was so sweet, I’m glad I did it, because the point of theology is not for its own sake (that really would be a waste of energy), but for the sake of knowing how awesome our God really is and falling even more in love with Him.
Have you ever heard an astronomer talk in detail about how big our universe really is? When I just look at the sky, it’s pretty, but when I hear just a taste of the depths of it, I’m in awe. That’s what this was like. We get used to hearing how Jesus died for our sin, but when we look at the details of the magnitude of our fallen condition and the enormous lengths to which God went to reconcile us to Himself, while not contradicting His own character, I feel overwhelmed with His love and care. So, if you get a chance to think hard like this, I highly recommend carving out the time and the brain power to make it happen.
I’ll leave you with a C.S. Lewis quote that I found challenging regarding how we should view all people:
It is a serious thing…to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations…it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to (these possibilities), that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal… But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. (The Weight of Glory pp. 14-15).
