Faith in Focus #3

A reflection from Connection Church and other spiritual events from the week

Faith in Focus is a weekly reflection on what God has been teaching me throughout the week regarding my faith. Whether it’s personal interactions, reading, or the Sunday sermon, God speaks through it all, and I hope this helps you focus on His mission.

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This week’s reflections turn personal, tracing a journey that began in 2020, when a divorce left me at what felt like the lowest point of my life. “Rock bottom” barely captured the depth of the isolation and depression that followed. Yet in that season, I also became acutely aware of a constant presence I had long taken for granted: God’s.

A particular song has since become emblematic of that period. Its chorus mirrors the questions and eventual clarity that shaped my path forward:

“Lord, why are you keeping me here?” Then He said to me, “Child, I’m planting seeds. I’m a good God and I have a good plan. So trust that I’m holding a watering can. And someday you’ll see that flowers grow in the valley.”

In the years since, I’ve watched those “seeds” grow in ways that could only be God’s hand in motion. The heartbreak ultimately led me back to my faith. Do I wish I would have done this on my own accord and not through divorce, Yes. Do I believe God did this because it was the only way for me to see Him again, Maybe. But at the end of the day, I am so grateful that it happened. Just as the song says, I’ve started thanking God for the rain in my life because I now get to see the flowers that come from it.

One year after the divorce, I purchased a home. At the time, in a frenzied housing market, it felt like settling. But circumstances quickly suggested otherwise. My neighbor, Scott, whose early conversations with me included stressful discussions about fencing and dead trees, turned out to be a man deeply rooted in his faith. While we compared landscaping projects, he extended a simple invitation to attend church with him.

Little did I know that accepting that invitation would alter the trajectory of my life. At Connection Church, I found a community defined by love, support, and authenticity. The Gospel Community (what we call a Bible study) I joined soon became a spiritual home, leading me to become a covenant member of Connection. The timing felt uncanny; the impact, incomprehensible. While I thought I was settling, God was moving mountains.

So just remember, whatever valley you may be in right now, God is still planting seeds that will blossom into beautiful flowers in your life. They just take time to grow.

Ben’s Spiritual Song of the Week: Flowers - Samantha Ebert

Sermon Reflection: Nine Verses, Nine Turns to Christ — The Identity We Can’t Lose

Based on Jonathan Land’s sermon, Connection Church Sioux Falls, Nov. 16, 2025. (watch here)

This week we focus on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9. Only the salutation section of the letter, but as is Paul’s custom, even this is littered with encouragement and intentionality.

Jonathan Land opened this week’s sermon with a line many at Connection Church have come to love: “When we open the Bible, it tends to open us.” It is hard to find a passage where that is more true than the opening nine verses of 1 Corinthians.

Paul hasn’t yet corrected anything. He hasn’t challenged their divisions, confronted their moral failures, or untangled their theological confusion. Before all of that, he does something far more radical: he tells them who they are.

And in a culture like ours, where identity is treated as self-constructed, self-curated, and self-defined, Paul’s greeting feels like fresh water after a long drought. Before Paul deals with their behavior, he re-anchors their identity. This order matters.

Walking the Passage

In these nine verses, Paul references Christ nine times. It’s not accidental; it’s architectural. The entire letter, its encouragement, corrections, and comforts, rests on this foundation.

Paul calls them “the church of God”, a phrase that asserts belonging before performance. He speaks of them as “called to be saints,” not because they are particularly impressive, but because God is particularly gracious. As Jonathan observed, “Our gifts are not proof that we are great but that God is immensely gracious.”

Identity is not something they discover. It is something they receive.

This is the subversive beauty of biblical identity: God’s thoughts about us are more stable than our feelings about ourselves.

For years, my sense of identity was defined by my divorce and the belief that it marked me as a failure. Yet over time, I found that the faithfulness of God proved stronger than any personal shortcoming. Within many Christian communities, this idea is central: an identity rooted in Christ offers a stability that our own shifting emotions cannot.

Believers often point to Scripture’s assurance that God’s view of humanity, created in His image, remains steady regardless of how we or others may judge ourselves. In contrast, today’s cultural messages frequently emphasize “finding yourself” or “living your truth.” But any identity built apart from God is ultimately fragile, shaped by trends that inevitably fade and let you down.

For Christians, the call is instead to discover who we are in God and to embrace the purpose He sets before them, an identity we believe is enduring, grounding, and unshakable.

A Fair Counter-Reading

Some interpreters argue that Paul’s tone in these verses is largely strategic or even ironic, an intentional setup for the stern rebukes to follow. There’s a measure of literary truth in that: Paul often uses contrast.

But the weight of the text suggests sincerity, not sarcasm. His thanksgiving is not manipulative; it is missional. Paul knows that correction without identity crushes. Identity without correction deceives.

By placing grace first, he ensures that the Corinthians understand the heart of God before hearing the discipline of God.

The Turn

Jonathan framed the theme memorably: “Tender hearts and titanium spines.”

Tender hearts, because Christian identity frees us to repent, to grow, and to receive grace without defensiveness.

Titanium spines, because Christian identity equips us to endure misunderstanding, hostility, and cultural pressure. In Faith in Focus #2, we were reminded that Christian truth “tends to offend before it transforms.”

This is not a call to be abrasive; it’s a call to be anchored. When your identity is in Christ, not in the approval of crowds or the curation of a personal brand, you can stand firm without becoming hard.

And this is precisely why identity-in-Christ is unshakable: Everything the world says about you is temporary. Everything God says about you is eternal.

Carry It Into the Week

Our culture’s refrain, “find yourself,” “live your truth,” “create your identity”, promises freedom but delivers exhaustion. If identity is self-made, it is also self-maintained.

Paul gives us something sturdier:

• You are called by God.

• You are kept by Christ.

• You are sustained by the Spirit.

Your gifts are not proof of your greatness but of God’s grace. You don’t earn His approval. You don’t craft your calling. You don’t achieve your belonging. So don’t strive to reinvent yourself to appease culture. Don’t build an identity on wounds or wins. Let the One who calls you to also define you. And when you open Scripture this week, trust that it will open you, with tenderness, truth, and the sustaining grace that carries you to the end.

Week in Reflection:

This week, God put Psalm 118:24 in front of me, which declares, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” The verse, often quoted in moments of encouragement, echoes the assurance found in Lamentations 3:22-23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Together, the passages frame each day as a fresh invitation to rejoice! For those carrying the weight of a difficult yesterday, the message is straightforward: God’s mercies reset with each sunrise, offering a renewed chance to meet the day with praise rather than discouragement.

So my prayer for us all this week is that we would start the day by waking up, and immediately thanking God for His new mercies and to rejoice in the day He has made for us!

And remember that God loves you, and so do I.