If your car breaks down you have to take it to your mechanic. If your computer isn’t working properly you have to reach out to your IT department. If your coworker’s negligence is undermining the project you have to go to your boss.

When this happens our first thought is I gotta take this broken car to my mechanic, I gotta reach out to IT about this malfunction, I gotta go to my boss with this problem.

Yet, our first thought isn’t always to bring these or any of our problems to God. Sometimes we even pull away from him when he’s the only one who can help us because we think it’s not okay to complain or even be angry with God.

This week in our series, Becoming, we examine the often-neglected spiritual practice of lament, and why failing to practice lament can lead to the deformation of our souls.

If a seed could talk, fear might cause it to scream as it’s thrown into a field. You can hear it objecting to being buried in the dirt. You can imagine it crying out for help as the rain pounds down upon it. And if all that isn’t enough, the pain it must feel as its skin cracks and gives way to some unknown force breaking it apart from within.

But we know what the seed must learn the hard way: all of these difficulties are unavoidable and necessary parts of the process of a seed becoming the beautiful flower or mighty tree it was created to be.

As hard as it is to accept sometimes, the process of becoming who Jesus created us to be is often a painful one. But one that is worth it.

This week in our new series, Becoming, our friend Jeff Lucas takes us to the book of Acts to see how God has a knack for transforming unfortunate situations into catalytic moments that form our soul and our identity as the Body of Christ.

Maybe it’s your favorite professor in college who has asked you to be her TA. Perhaps it’s a graphic designer you follow on Instagram who is gladly giving you feedback on your work. It could be a mom in your community, a coach you play under, a business owner in your entrepreneur’s cohort, or anyone else you look up to who is investing in your life.

There’s no doubt you respect and admire them. You have every reason to want to learn from them and be in their orbit. Your opinion of them matters.

But it’s their opinion of you and their belief that you – yes, you! – are worth their time, their attention, their patience, and their investment that truly makes a difference in your life.

This week in our new series, Becoming, we explore God’s self-selected character traits so we can better understand the Jesus we aim to become more like. As we do, we discover that as important as it is to think rightly about him, it’s far more important and life-changing to realize what he thinks of us.

When you're training for a job, you're usually paired with a leader who knows the job inside and out. The process may involve reading some manuals and watching training videos, but the most valuable part of the training process is being with the leader in charge of your training, learning what they do so you can eventually do it yourself.

There's one nonnegotiable in the training process: you have to show up every day and be with the leader who's training you.

Being a disciple of Jesus is no different. If we want to be his disciples, reading books and watching videos about life in him will only get us so far. But we absolutely must be with Jesus if we are going to become like him.

If you’re trying to cut down on sugar but you have a hard time turning down chocolate cake, you need a good friend to watch out for you at birthday parties.

If you desire to be a peacemaker, but find it hard to keep your cool in political discussions, you may need to recuse yourself from these conversations for a while.

If you struggle to control yourself physically in romantic relationships, you probably need to keep yourself from being alone with the one you’re interested in.

What’s the common denominator in these examples? Who makes it hardest for us to make good choices? What is the biggest threat to us giving in?

Ourselves.

Our final message in our series The Life and Lyrics of David, we examine the truth about who we need to be rescued from most, and how we can position ourselves to stay out of trouble in the first place.

Bricks. Glass. Wood. Concrete. Mortar. Drywall. Carpet. Metal.

These things couldn’t be more different. But something incredible and beautiful is created when they’re unified: a house.

This week in our series The Life and Lyrics of David, we explore a psalm that celebrates the beauty of God’s people living in unity. Then, we allow the Bible to tell us how unity is possible.

If you’re trying to get on the freeway and you see a sign that says WRONG WAY, you’ve got to turn back immediately. If your labs come back saying your blood pressure is too high, you have to make changes to your daily habits right away. If your bank notifies you that you’ve overdrafted on your account, you’ve got to reconfigure your budget, pronto!

WRONG WAY signs, labs, and overdraft alerts are all forms of feedback. Many of us are good at listening to these kinds of feedback and altering our life accordingly. But when the people around us offer feedback, we often stop listening and start digging in our heals.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we listen as the narrator recounts a story from the end of David’s life where all Israel suffers because David stops listening to those closest to him.

If you want to run a marathon, you probably read a bunch of articles where others share their story of becoming long-distance runners. Chances are, you start filling more of your free time with videos and podcasts about running marathons. Eventually, if feels natural to join a running group.

Then, one day, you roll out of bed, eat a good breakfast, do your stretching routine, find yourself at a starting line, and before you know it, you run and finish a marathon.

A lot goes into running a marathon. But it all starts with telling yourself and immersing yourself in a story: I can run a marathon because others have run marathons.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we explore the story of the book of Psalms and how this story shaped how David behaved because it shaped the story he believed.

What do babbling brooks and paintings have in common? When we stop and sit with them we find something strange: they talk to us. Brooks babble, and their babbling soothes our souls. Paintings speak to us and move our souls.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we find other things that are surprisingly talkative. And if we're open to it, we'll find someone who is surprisingly talkative, too.

If you've got the flu, chickenpox, or COVID, you stay home. You keep to yourself for as long as necessary. The last thing you'd ever want to do is spread what you have.

But what if you've got overwhelming joy? Or an unexplainable peace? What if love comes pouring out of you every time you open your mouth?

We don't want you to stay home. We don't want you to keep what you've got to yourself. We're begging to be around you so we can catch what you've got.

This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we're journeying through a song of David that shows the power of spreading to others what we've received from God.

Sure, you can wrap your headlight in duct tape to keep it in place. You can absolutely use a few metal coat hangers to keep your muffler from falling off your car. No one’s going to pull you over for replacing your rear passenger-side window with cardboard and a trash bag.

But does that make it right?

When your car is broken, there’s a right way to fix it and a wrong way to fix it.
When your heart is broken, there’s a right way to fix it and a wrong way to fix it.
 This week in The Life and Lyrics of David, we explore a disturbing Psalm that helps us find the right way to right the wrongs that have been done to us.