If there is one axiom I come back to more than any other—one I find myself saying out loud when things start to tilt—it’s this:

Jesus is with me.

Not it’s not over.
Not if I die, I die.

Those are good words. They’ve got grit in them. But this one goes deeper.

This one holds.

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When I’m over my skis.
When the diagnosis lands and everything shifts in a moment.
When a relationship fractures in ways I didn’t see coming.
When the darkness gets loud and starts telling its stories—

There is one truth that can carry the full weight of that moment:

Jesus is with me.

Because when that is true—and it is—what else is there?

What nightmare, what victory, what valley, what fire could possibly outshine the simple, steady reality of what He said:

“Lo, I am with you always.”

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About That Word

Now I know—lo doesn’t technically mean what I want it to mean.

It means behold.
Pay attention.
Look here.

But when I hear it, I can’t help it—I think of low places.

I think of valleys.
I think of those stretches of life where you can’t see ten feet ahead of you, where the road drops out and you’re left feeling your way forward.

And somehow… He’s there too.

I don’t know how this day is going to work out—but Jesus is with me.
I’ve got that conversation I’ve been putting off—but Jesus is with me.
I don’t know how the end of my story will unfold—but Jesus is with me.

That’s the secret hiding in plain sight at the end of the Great Commission.

We read the command—go, make disciples, baptize, teach—and then we tend to rush right past the final line, as if it were a closing formality instead of the whole foundation:

“And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
—Matthew 28:20

It’s not our talent that carries us.
It’s not our intellect, or our abilities, or our strength—or even our best intentions.

It’s not our looks—thank the Lord.

The secret is the traveling companion.

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One Word

There’s a story about G.K. Chesterton that I’ve never been able to shake.

He was stopped on a London street corner by a reporter who asked him:

“If the risen Christ appeared right now and stood behind you—what would you do?”

Chesterton didn’t hesitate. He looked him in the eye and said:

“He is.”

That’s it.

Not a theological argument.
Not a carefully framed answer.

Just a quiet correction of reality.

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Waking Up to What’s Already True

Teresa of Ávila, a 16th-century nun who spent her life learning how to pray, wrote these words in The Interior Castle:

“We know quite well that God is present in all that we do.
Our nature is such that it makes us lose sight of the fact.
But the Lord, who is near at hand, awakens it.”

That’s the whole thing, isn’t it?

We don’t conjure His presence.
We don’t summon Him with the right tone or the right words.

We wake up to it.

This isn’t magic.
It’s memory.

It’s the soul shaking itself awake to what is already, permanently, unchangeably true.

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Say It Out Loud

There is no mountain, no fire, no villain, no diagnosis, no setback, no conflict that I will ever face alone.

Not because of who I am—

—but because of the One who is with me.

So when the day comes apart—and it will—say it out loud.

Say it in the car when you’re gripping the steering wheel a little too tight.
Say it when the phone rings and you already know it’s not good news.
Say it when you feel like you’re fading, like you’re disappearing into the noise of everything.

Say it until your heart catches up with your words:

Jesus is with me.

Not as a wish.
Not as a hope.

As a fact.

Lo. He is.

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A Prayer

Jesus—

You said it plainly, and You meant it:
I am with you. Always.

Not until it gets too hard.
Not until we fail one too many times.
Not until we wander too far.

Always.

Teach us to live inside that word.
To say Your name in the dark and mean it.
To stop looking for You somewhere out ahead,
and realize You are already here—

already with us,
already enough.

Amen.

You’ll know Him when you see Him.

He carries the likeness of no mortal man.

He will turn you upside down and shake you until your pockets no longer jingle. 

He will turn the heat up until meltdown occurs.

He can swallow galaxies.

He can stand on the hairs of your thumb.

He will take your personal certainties and make them uncertain.

He will take the earthly securities and make them insecure.

He will do all this for His own reasons

They are His and He won’t tell.

Not today.

Fearing Him is glorious.

He smells the fear as worthy sacrifice. 

When He comes, don’t hide or run.

Die and He will roll the stone  from your lifeless resting place.

This reading could be utilized as a solo reading, duet, or group reading.

Reader 1: “For we do not preach ourselves.”

Reader 2: We don’t strut our talents.

Reader 1: We don’t flaunt our riches.

Reader 2: We don’t tout our strategy.

Reader 1: We don’t sell our style.

Reader 2: We don’t rely on our wisdom.

Reader 1: We preach “Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves” as the 21st-century representatives of Christ.

Reader 2: Anything more is tainted;

Reader 1: anything less is obsolete,

Reader 2: We speak Jesus into the darkness of a lost, chaotic world.

Reader 1: “For God, who said,”

Reader 2: “‘Let light shine out of darkness.’”

Reader 1: That same God “made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Reader 2: So who are we?

Reader 1: We are the containers:

Reader 2: we are the tank,

Reader 1: we are the glass,

Reader 2: we are the bowl.

Reader 1: We have our cracks;

Reader 2: we have our imperfections;

Reader 1: we have our nicks.

Reader 2: Where is our value?

Reader 1: Where is our worth?

Reader 2: Where is our glory?

Reader 1: Look inside our hearts?

Reader 2: If you see Christ at work,

Reader 1: if you hear the sound,

Reader 2: if you feel the beat,

Reader 1: if you see the shine of Christ,

Reader 2: you’ve seen our glory.

Reader 1: “We have this treasure in jars of clay”

Reader 2: “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

Reader 1: We don’t boast in anything outside of Christ.

Reader 2: How foolish,

Reader 1: how unthinkable,

Reader 2: to claim that we are anything outside of Christ.

Reader 1: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.”

Reader 2: Who can crush the power of God?

Reader 1: We are perplexed from time to time:

Reader 2: we doubt,

Reader 1: we disappoint,

Reader 2: we fail,

Reader 1: we have skinned knees

Reader 2: and calloused hands.

Reader 1: We run into our share of walls, obstacles, and predicaments:

Reader 2: “perplexed, but not in despair”;

Reader 1: down, but not out;

Reader 2: “persecuted, but not abandoned”;

Reader 1: “struck down, but not destroyed.”

Reader 2: Because we are vessels of God’s glory.

Reader 1: So, it’s OK if I fail.

Reader 2: If we speak the truth, and no one accepts it.

Reader 1: If we run through the fire, and we are left without a friend.

Reader 2: If we are far from the applause of our peers and families.

Reader 1: If no one sees a thing we do for Christ,

Reader 2: it doesn’t matter.

Reader 1: We don’t have to obsess over how we look,

Reader 2: what we accomplish,

Reader 1: where we are sent.

Reader 2: The only thing that matters, at the end of the race, is what we carry, and into whose arms we fall when we gasp our last breath and cross the finish line.

Reader 1: As long as “we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,”

Reader 2: “so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

Reader 1: We are infinitely more than what we could be on our own.

Reader 2: “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.”

Reader 1: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away.”

Reader 2: The sands of time keep pouring down.

Both: “Yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

Reader 2: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

Reader 1: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”

Reader 2: “For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Reader 1: The glory of Jesus Christ.

Reader 2: The passion of the call.

Reader 1: The freedom of His grace:

Reader 2: His time,

Reader 1: His plan,

Reader 2: His heart,

Reader 1: His home.

Reader 2: So what do you say, oh jars of clay?

Reader 1: Let’s pop off the lid and let His power flood every corner of our souls.

Reader 2: It’s not a cakewalk,

Reader 1: but it’s not a funeral dirge, either.

Reader 2: It is eternal.

Reader 1: It is thrilling.

Reader 2: It is the real thing.

Reader 1: It is beyond us.

Reader 2: It is through us.

Reader 1: It is for us.

Reader 2: It is before us.

Reader 1: So open wide every chapter of today;

Reader 2: open the windows

Reader 1: and fasten your seat belts.

Reader 2: You contain the heart,

Reader 1: the DNA,

Both: the mind of the everlasting Champion!

Actor mimes holding a baby in his arms, beaming with pride. He speaks to the audience.

This has to be the greatest moment of my life! And I got it all on videotape. The whole process was such a miracle. Michelle did great. (to God) Lord, how can I ever thank You for this child I’m holding? I give him over to You. I promise I’m going to give 100 percent to the task of parenting. You can count on me. I never dreamed being a dad would be so satisfying. I feel complete. I promise I’ll be twice the dad my father was to me. (to himself) He needs a strong biblical name: I think we’ll call him Absalom.

Actor turns his back momentarily, then begins to speak to his son (not seen by audience) in an angry tone.

Absalom! How dare you defy me! You are going to be in hot water when we get home. No laughing or running in church! You are embarrassing the whole family! Can’t you see that? You aren’t a baby anymore! You are five years old! (Suddenly turn his focus toward the unseen pastor. He suddenly transforms from anger to all smiles.) Oh, hi Pastor Ted. Just talking to my boy. Yes, he sure is growing. We all enjoyed your message today.

Actor turns around again and has a seat in a chair. He pantomimes holding a phone to his ear.

I know it’s the third night in a row, but this is what they pay me to do, Honey. I’m a manager now, and I think I have a good chance of becoming a vice president. (Listens) Well, you certainly enjoy the extra money, don’t you. (Listens) That’s not fair! Everything I do is for you and Absalom. I’ll be home in an hour. Michelle? Michelle? (He hangs up the phone and turns around.)

When actor turns back around, he is pantomiming a repair.

Absalom, hand me that Phillips. Not the flathead, the Phillips screwdriver, son! How was youth camp? (half listening, but focused mainly on the repair) What’s that? (listening) You want me to teach you what? To pray? I thought that’s why our church hired a youth minister.

Actor turns, then faces the audience, stooped and older.

Lord, I know I promised I would give You my son. I meant to do that. I meant to take the time out of my schedule to really teach him. I guess I was so wrapped up in trying to make a living that I forgot. I thought if I gave him a lot of material things, you’d handle the spiritual. I was wrong. He’s on the west coast now. I haven’t seen him in two years. But, what hurts even more is that, even though he is distant from me, he’s even more distant from You. “‘O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you.’” (whispered) “‘Absalom, my son, my son!’”

Scripture: 2 Samuel 18:33