Yesterday, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the third time this year. The decision was made in response to slowing job growth and elevated inflation.

The day before, President Trump spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania, telling supporters he has “no higher priority than making America affordable again.” The rally was one of the first salvos in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections, which are widely expected to be about the economy.

In recent polling, 74 percent of Americans say economic conditions are fair or poor. The partisan divide is striking: 44 percent of Republicans say the economy is excellent or good, while only 20 percent of Democrats agree.

According to White House spokesperson Kush Desai, Mr. Trump inherited the Biden administration’s “inflation and affordability crisis,” but the president’s policies to cut regulations and lower drug prices “have cooled inflation and raised real wages.”

However, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right American Action Forum think tank, suggested that blaming a president’s predecessor only works for “about a year,” after which “you own it, you’re in the White House, good or bad, it happens on your watch. You own it, and they need to recognize that’s how the American people behave, no matter what they say.”

How radio changed everything

There was a time when few Americans saw their president. Unless you made the trek to the White House and secured an appointment with him, you were unlikely to encounter him in person. Presidential candidates seldom campaigned on their own behalf, and the chief way the larger public knew of them was through newspaper coverage.

Then came the advent of radio. While Warren G. Harding was the first president to give a radio address (1922) and Calvin Coolidge also used the medium, Franklin Roosevelt transformed it into his personal platform. His famous “Fireside Chats” connected him directly and conversationally with the American public during the Great Depression, bypassing the press and making his voice and personality known to millions.

From then to today, the candidate most believed to empathize with the public is often the candidate who wins. We elect our leaders in the hope that they will make our lives better. But how can they do this if they don’t understand our challenges or care about our problems?

In this sense, our leaders are our servants. We employ them by voting for them. But if our lives do not improve as a result, we’ll elect others we hope will do better.

Why did Jesus come at Christmas?

Why did Jesus come into the world at Christmas? The obvious answer is so he could die for our sins on Good Friday and be resurrected on Easter Sunday. But if that is all his incarnation needed to accomplish, he could have entered our race as an adult and then been arrested and crucified by the Romans.

Pontius Pilate did not crucify Jesus because of the way he entered the world or what he did in the years prior to his arrest. It is true that the popularity generated by his public ministry threatened the Jewish authorities, leading them to seek his execution by the Romans (cf. John 11:45–53). But the omnipotent God of the universe could have arranged another way for his Son to die for the sins of humanity, one that did not require his birth or earthly life before his death.

Instead, our Savior chose to enter our race in the most humble manner imaginable. He chose to grow up in obscurity and then live in relative poverty, as we noted yesterday. He was tempted by Satan himself (Matthew 4:1–10). He experienced fatigue (John 4:6), thirst (John 19:28), grief (John 11:35), and anguish (Matthew 26:36–37). He suffered horrific torture on the cross, where his friends forsook him and he felt abandoned even by his Father (Matthew 27:46).

As Scripture says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

And Jesus continues to feel our pain even today. We are in his hand (John 10:28), his Spirit dwells in us (1 Corinthians 3:16), and he is “interceding for us” right now (Romans 8:34; cf. Hebrews 7:25). As a result, he knows all we know and feels all we feel.

The night I shook my fist at God

So, in a very real sense, Jesus is the most empathetic leader in human history. You might therefore expect me to use this fact to appeal for you to “elect” him as your Lord. His omniscience knows the future better than we know the present. His omnipotence can do all his perfect love requires.

Who better to lead our lives and be the “president” of our souls?

Here’s the problem: When we relate to Jesus as to another leader we elect, we feel the liberty to “unelect” him when he disappoints us. We feel justified in blaming him for our problems and then refusing to trust or serve him.

I have known scores of people over the years who were once faithful followers of Jesus but who turned from him when they experienced trials and travails for which they held him responsible. You may be in their number today. If not, you will likely face such a trial in the future.

If God is the supreme being and we are finite, fallen creatures, there will inevitably be times when we do not understand his ways and are disappointed by them (cf. Isaiah 55:9–10). We can then decide to reject him, but this only isolates us from his protection and provision. If a doctor disappoints me and I reject all physicians, I do not harm the medical community so much as I harm myself when I next need medical care.

Instead, we can express our frustration and pain directly to our Father, as Jesus did in Gethsemane and on Calvary. We can ask him for the faith to have faith (Mark 9:24). We can know that he is with us even in “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4) and claim his promise that “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isaiah 43:2).

And the deeper the darkness, the more we will experience his light.

I was in college when my father died at the age of fifty-five. That night, I went into our backyard, looked up into the sky, and shook my fist at God.

But he did not shake his fist at me.

He never will.

Quote for the day:

“The great mystery is not the cures, but the infinite compassion which is their source.” —Henry J. M. Nouwen

Our latest website resources:

• How can Christians face anxiety without losing faith?
• A review of “2 Chairs: The Secret that Changes Everything”
• What does the Bible say about Santa Claus? How to turn holidays into holy days
• When are kids old enough to have a smartphone?
• Why do we have Christmas trees? How a “pagan symbol” became an integral part of our Christmas traditions

Denison Forum

I need to begin with a warning: If you read the rest of this paragraph, you are likely to ingest a musical “earworm” that will not stop playing in your brain all day. According to a survey conducted by FinanceBuzz, the “most annoying” Christmas song in America is Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Paradoxically, it is also the most popular Christmas song in America.

If you now can’t get the song out of your mind, don’t blame me—you were warned.

But seen in a theological light, there’s a surprising message here, one that turns the Christmas holidays into holy days that transform our lives all year.

What does Jesus want for Christmas?

Jesus owned only the absolute minimum necessary for life in this world. This was true from the moment of his birth, when he came into the world in a borrowed stable and was laid in a borrowed feed trough. This was true to the moment of his death, when he was crucified on a Roman cross, prepared for burial through the generosity of others, and laid in a borrowed tomb.

During his earthly ministry, he lived in Capernaum at the home of his friend Peter. When he visited Jerusalem, he stayed in Bethany at the home of his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Regarding home ownership, he said, “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).

And yet, not once did he ask anyone for anything except for their good. He asked a Samaritan woman for water so he could lead her to “living water” (John 4:7–14). He invited himself to the home of Zacchaeus so he could bring salvation to his “house” (Luke 19:1–10).

Everything Jesus did, from the moment he entered our world, was intended to bring us to himself:

• If he could be conceived in the womb of a virgin, he can come into any heart and life (cf. John 3:16).
• If impoverished residents of a town so small it’s not mentioned even once in the Old Testament could be Jesus’ family, anyone can be part of his family (cf. 1 Peter 2:9).
• If field hands so ritually unclean that they could not enter a synagogue could join the celebration of his birth, anyone can praise him today (cf. Revelation 7:9–10).
• If Samaritans, Gentiles, demoniacs, tax collectors, and lepers could join his movement, anyone can follow him today.
• If those who forsook him, denied him, and persecuted his followers could be forgiven, anyone can be forgiven.
• If a worshiper exiled on a prison island could experience him personally (Revelation 1:9–20), anyone can experience him in worship today.

I say all of that to ask this: If you were to give Jesus what he wants most for Christmas, what would it be?

“A chamber in the heart of God”

Speaking of Jesus’ mother, Br. Curtis Almquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston notes:

We, like Mary, have God’s attention and God’s love. We, like Mary, have something utterly unique about the life God has given us. There is no one like us; never has been; never will be. We are known by God. We are favored by God in an even more unique way than we are to our most precious relationships. There is a chamber in our heart which only God can enter; and there is a chamber in the heart of God into which only we can enter.

How shall we respond to such love?

When Gabriel invited Mary to become the mother of God’s Son, she replied: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Br. Almquist similarly advises us: “Keep the verb surrender in the vocabulary of your heart.”

This verb is God’s consistent demand of his followers:

• “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
• “Submit yourselves therefore to God” (James 4:7).
• “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter 5:6).

Why is this? Why does Jesus want us for Christmas? All of us, surrendered fully and unconditionally to him?

Is this because he is a despot bent on the submission of humanity as his subjects?

Or could it be that our Lord’s response to our surrender is his greatest gift to us?

“I will give you a new self instead”

Br. Almquist quotes the nineteenth-century Quaker author Thomas Kelly:

The paradox is that as we surrender and are willing to do God’s bidding, our lives unfold in a way that is much more magnificent than we could ever have humanly orchestrated. Life becomes extremely simple, and oh, so good.

This only makes sense. If we trust our lives to an all-knowing Father who sees the future better than we can see the present, an all-loving and all-powerful Lord who can do all that is best and nothing else, how could the outcome be anything but his best for us?

And even more, as we give our lives to the One who gave his life for us, we experience Jesus himself. His Spirit manifests his personality and character in ours (Romans 8:29). Jesus continues his ministry in the world in and through our lives (1 Corinthians 12:27).

1. S. Lewis gives voice to our Savior’s invitation today:

I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your money, so much of your work: I want you. . . . Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. I will give you myself.

Could there be a greater gift than this?

Quote for the day:

“Let God have your life; he can do more with it than you can.” —Dwight Moody

Our latest website resources:

• How can Christians face anxiety without losing faith?
• A review of “2 Chairs: The Secret that Changes Everything”
• What does the Bible say about Santa Claus? How to turn holidays into holy days
• When are kids old enough to have a smartphone?
• Why do we have Christmas trees? How a “pagan symbol” became an integral part of our Christmas traditions

Denison Forum

Pantone, a company that calls itself “the global authority for color communication and inspiration,” has announced that Cloud Dancer is its “color of the year” for 2026. I would call its selection “white,” but I’m in no sense a color authority.

However, I was interested in the stated reason for the choice: according to Time, “This year’s pick is meant to represent serenity and tranquility, which Pantone says is ever in need ‘in a frenetic society.’”

“Frenetic” is something I know something about. I suspect you do as well. Glance at these headlines:

• “For Gen Z-ers, work is now more depressing than unemployment”
• “Thailand–Cambodia fighting spreads along border as death toll rises”
• “Drone-damaged Chernobyl facility’s shield can’t confine radiation, nuclear body warns”
• “Japan rattled by 7.5-magnitude earthquake, authorities warn of aftershocks”

Even in our fallen world, however, there is a path to “serenity and tranquility.” The paradox is that recognizing the former is essential to the latter.

How my parents helped me clean my bedroom

A wise mentor once told me, “People don’t do what you expect—they do what you inspect.” I already knew this to be true, however.

Growing up, I was responsible for the cleanliness of my bedroom. My parents scheduled weekly inspections to this end, but they soon discovered that I could (and did) wait until an hour before their examination to do a week’s worth of cleaning. So they began drop-ins as well. These unannounced visits were most unwelcome, but they did have their desired effect with regard to the state of my room.

The fourth-century theologian St. Ephrem the Syrian similarly explained why Jesus said, “You do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42):

He has kept those things hidden so that we may keep watch, each of us thinking that he will come in our own day. . . . He promised that he would come but did not say when he would come, and so all generations and ages await him eagerly.

Then Ephrem added this observation I had not considered:

Keep watch; when the body is asleep nature takes control of us, and what is done is not done by our will but by force, by the impulse of nature. When deep listlessness takes possession of the soul, for example, faint-heartedness or melancholy, the enemy overpowers it and makes it do what it does not will. The force of nature, the enemy of the soul, is in control.

When the Lord commanded us to be vigilant, he meant vigilance in both parts of man: in the body, against the tendency to sleep; in the soul, against lethargy and timidity.

“A shadow of what is to come”

The Bible consistently calls us to prepare for eternity today (cf. Titus 2:13; 1 John 2:28; 1 Peter 4:7; Hebrews 10:24–25) As Jesus exhorted us, “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44).

Why is such readiness for the final Advent so imperative?

One obvious reason is that we are one day closer to eternity than ever before and have only today to be ready. Jesus could return to the world today (Acts 1:10–11), or we could step through death into eternity today (John 14:3).

But there’s another reason: living in the light of eternity today transforms today.

If you knew Jesus would return next week, what would you change this week? What would you do or stop doing? Whom would you forgive? From whom would you seek forgiveness?

Here’s the point: Living this way is the best way to live every day, even if we have many years before we see Jesus again. There is a “serenity and tranquility” to living in God’s perfect will that is found nowhere else. First15, Denison Ministries’ devotional resource, explains:

Without a real revelation of eternity, this life will be marked by hopelessness and a sense of aimless wandering. Only when our destination comes into view can we rightly see the circumstances strewn along the journey of this life. . . .

When we live seeking satisfaction from the things of the world, we live as if heaven didn’t exist and God didn’t usher in his kingdom through Jesus. The things of this world only have value in the Giver of all good gifts. So our possessions, relationships, and work only have value here because they are a shadow of what is to come when all things are made new.

Five biblical reminders

Being in God’s will every day is the vital commitment that leads to his “abundant” life and our best (John 10:10). So, how can we live in his perfect will every day?

Let’s close with five biblical reminders:

One: Remember the brevity of life every day (Psalm 39:4–5; 90:12). Thomas Ken advised, “Let those who thoughtfully consider the brevity of life remember the length of eternity.”

Two: Submit to the Holy Spirit every day (Ephesians 5:18; Romans 12:1–2). Scripture teaches, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). In today’s My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers warned: “Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your independence.”

Three: Think and live biblically every day (John 8:31–32). John Calvin noted: “Scripture is like a pair of spectacles which dispels the darkness and gives us a clear view of God.”

Four: Seek intimacy with Jesus every day (John 15:5). In the Proslogion, St. Anselm (1033–1109) prayed:

Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me when I seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor find you unless you reveal yourself. Let me seek you in longing, let me long for you in seeking; let me find you by loving you and love you in the act of finding you.

If one of the greatest theological geniuses in Christian history needed to pray this, how much more do we?

Five: Share Christ with the world every day (Acts 1:8). A mentor once asked me, “When you see Jesus again, if he asks you, ‘Whom did you bring me?’, what will you say?”

How would you respond today?

Quote for the day:

“There comes a moment when we all must realize that life is short, and in the end the only thing that really counts is not how others see us, but how God sees us.” —Billy Graham

Our latest website resources:

• What does the Bible say about Santa Claus? How to turn holidays into holy days
• When are kids old enough to have a smartphone?
• Why do we have Christmas trees? How a “pagan symbol” became an integral part of our Christmas traditions
• Ukraine, Hegseth, American work, box office booms & college-football chaos
• Managing holiday loneliness, controversial cloning, and the spiritual revival of Millennials and Gen Z

Denison Forum