Kept and Keeping

February 14, 2025

Dear City Church,

I wrote my first monthly letter to you, City Church, in the aftermath of a winter storm that led to school closures and a water crisis. I’m writing February’s letter as the first flakes of another storm dance through the air. I’m also writing in the week following my annual State of City Church sermon, which means its ideas are still in the forefront of my mind. As part of the sermon’s application, I said I want everyone at City Church—young and old—to do two things as a way of living out the twin realities that we are a kept and keeping people.

First, I want everyone to pick a Bible verse to memorize that reminds us that we are kept by God. We need to remember the truth of God’s constant care for us. These memory verses will become memorials—little altars pointing to God’s protection and affection. You can choose a verse on your own or along with some friends. You could memorize a verse together as a family. You can choose a verse that stands out to you from your own Bible reading or you can choose one of the passages that Harrison and I use regularly as benedictions:

Numbers 6:24-26—“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

Joshua 1:9—“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

1 Peter 5:10-11—“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Zephaniah 3:17—“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

In choosing a verse I encourage you to challenge yourself. Don’t take the easy way out and select a verse you’ve memorized already. Find a new one. Fill your mind with another reminder of God’s love for you. We need many ways to remember we are kept by God’s grace.

Here’s my verse: Psalm 121:7-8—“The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”

Second, I want everyone to start doing one thing regularly as an expression of keeping others. Again, the idea here is to begin something new. I’m sure your life is already filled with examples of keeping others, but I want us all to add something new, to find some new way to sacrifice a little bit of time, a little bit of money, a little bit of ourselves for someone else.

Keeping each other isn’t a uniquely Christian activity. It’s hard-wired into us as humans. It shows up even in secular publications like The New York Times which recently featured an article that concluded: “Being able to have a human attend to your needs has become a luxury good.” That shouldn’t be the case. Although our high-speed, dehumanizing society threatens to make attention a luxury good, within the Christian ethic, attending to humans isn’t a luxury. It’s a given. It’s simply what we ought to do.

We can be people who push back against these trends and begin attending to other image bearers eagerly and freely. Such attention manifests in our listening, in our curiosity, in our willingness to remove ourselves from the center of the universe and see another. Keeping each other is a summary of the frequent calls in the New Testament to “one another each other.” Again and again the apostles admonish: Pray for one another. Love one another. Forgive one another. Bear one another’s burdens. This work takes all of us. You’re needed within the church—not for your butt in a pew or your dollar in the offering basket. You’re needed for your service, your wisdom, your presence, your keeping.

Here’s how I’m going to start regularly keeping others: at least once a week I’m going to set an alarm in my phone and text some people I know (both inside of and outside of City Church) words of encouragement. I’m stealing this idea from a writer named Gavin Ortlund, who mentions it in an article I read recently. He writes, “People around us need encouragement all the time. We need to be intentional about practicing it more often.” In extending encouragement to my family, to my friends, and to you, I’ll set the habit of keeping others as I’m kept by God.

I invite you—in fact, I expect you—to ask me about my verse of being kept and my act of keeping. I promise that I will do the same for you.

Stay well and do good.

Erik