Stephen De La Vega

  Some countries have already celebrated Thanksgiving this year. My country will celebrate next week. It’s a time of looking back with family or friends to acknowledge our blessings (or harvest, historically). But it’s not always a positive reflection. Sometimes there’s baggage. Maybe often. Sometimes it’s our baggage or our shortcomings. We might even feel like walking away from God. Or maybe we already have. If we carry this into Thanksgiving week, or just in life, this Resolution 11 is for us.   We began our “ Journey to Resolve ” in July 2024. (Sorry it’s taking so long to cover all 15 resolutions!) The articles in this series have been New Year’s resolutions throughout the year, not just at the beginning. So far, we’ve enjoyed some very brief book surveys and stories that highlight important parts of Israel’s history. And our last two resolutions were drawn from two books of poetry and wisdom: Job and Proverbs. We circle back now to a sweeping look at Israel’s history...

  Tell my feet not to falter Tell my lips what to say Tell me walk on these waters Tell my hands what to pray Overwhelm, when I’m overwhelmed Overcome, when I’m overcome These are lyrics from a song called Companion by Tom Mottershead . Sometimes life overwhelms us. It overwhelmed Job whose experience with naysayers was featured in Resolution 9, Rise Above the Naysayers . We ended Resolution 9 with encouragement to entrust ourselves to God. Job realized: He doesn’t have the perspective to understand the why. Nothing can compare to the authoritative power of God. His limitations should be accompanied by humble trust in God’s wisdom and character. And he said this in response: My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6 Job bowed in humility. He lost everything and he would never fully understand why. We don’t understand the why behind the winding in the ...

This is the framing of the lower floors of a planned 24-story office tower that will open its doors next year. It will boast dramatic 360° views of San Francisco, the Oakland Hills, UC Berkeley, and the surrounding areas. Shorenstein Properties ‘dubs’ it 601 City Center , and I highlight ‘dubs’ because it's just a block away from the Golden State Warriors headquarters. Shorenstein broke ground in Q2 of this year and they expect to build for another couple of quarters. That’s about a year of construction. Occasionally, you might find a person or two staring at the work, but, for the most part, people just walk by this everyday activity. Business as usual. We are more amazed when buildings are demolished. We have a peculiar fascination with the quick destruction of something grand. What takes months, maybe years, to build, can be destroyed in only days, or even hours. Society pays more attention to the quick fall of the mighty than it does the day-to-day, continued effo...

Paul was a man on a mission. Why wouldn’t he be? He was commissioned by God. God chose Him, told Him what to do, and empowered Him. Paul committed to God’s plan and got it done. He was a doer and he pursued God’s plan with boldness and tireless passion. The sobering truth is God also commissioned us… Maybe we see Paul as a superhero, or, humanly speaking, a really, extraordinary person.   The one-of-a-kind guy we’re tempted to emulate using the social media shortcut.   He’s a luminary we might celebrate in history books, but maybe not the type we’d ever attempt to become ourselves.   He’s just too far off the charts.   I mean, it’s nice to dream, but we’re not Jesus, right? No, we’re not Jesus and we really are severely handicapped when it comes to living as He did.   We are “prone to wander…to leave the God [we] love,” as Hymnodist Robert Robinson penned in 1757 ( Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing ).   But Paul, though human like us, someh...