Go big or go home.
It’s a familiar phrase, especially when facing decisions laden with the potential for life-changing impact. And one would think that—considering the stakes of what Christians celebrate each year at Christmas—there could be no more fitting scenario for “go big or go home” than God’s work of healing the human heart and restoring the entire cosmos.
Yet if there’s one thing the Christmas story makes clear, it’s that the God revealed through a baby born in a feeding trough has different priorities.
God’s approach, it seems, isn’t
big,
flashy,
self-promoting,
giving the masses what they want,
fulfilling others’ expectations.
Rather, God’s approach is marked by
smallness,
patience,
humility,
subverting expectations,
giving love space to do its work.
At Flourish, we give our broken best to learn from and embody that second set of values even though American culture (and much of the American church culture!) pushes us towards the first. This is good and beautiful work, though often slow and unassuming.
This Christmas, we hope the same for you and your families as we do for the churches we partner with: that you might find a deepened sense of purpose, meaning, and connection with each other, with your neighbors, friends, and all who cross your path by walking the patient path of humility, breathing in and exhaling out the spaciousness of love.
Merry Christmas, friends!
