Saul was having a bad day. David had come back again from battle, and the crowds were hailing him as ten times more successful than him. A secure spiritual father would have rejoiced in the success of his son. But Saul never made it that far. He was an insecure man who could not stand to have someone else looking better than him. His insecurity led him to try to kill David several times. It led to him being dominated by an evil spirit. And eventually, it led to him ending his life consulting a medium.

There are some Bible verses that can definitely strike you the wrong way. One of them is this: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Ouch! It sounds like spiritual masochism. Part of our problem is we tend to read it the wrong way, as if Paul meant to say, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for these circumstances are the will of God for you.”

The Christmas letter I wrote for many years has gradually morphed into this end of year update. It’s a little less personal, but enables me to give a brief description of what we’ve been doing to so many of you who have prayed for us, supported us and in general taken an interest in our lives.

Christmas in church is not Christmas without singing Joy to the World at least once. Few carols are as popular, yet none is as misunderstood.

In fact, Joy to the World is not a Christmas carol at all.

No longer.

I don’t think there’s ever been a year where the power of the media became such a subject of public focus. Somehow, we have always assumed — naively, perhaps — that for the most part what we saw and read was a reasonable representation of reality.

No longer.