We want to provide you some guidance during this trial, a few details about Matt and a timeline in which all of us can actively participate over the next few days as we wait anxiously on the Lord regarding Matt’s health.

We rest in the knowledge that Matt is in the sovereign hand of our heavenly Father who loves him immensely more than we can comprehend. First Peter 1:3-7 says that times like this are given to us and are useful for our testing and refining. Take time to read those verses today.

Be encouraged that Matt is responding as you would hope and expect. His spirit is steadfast and secure, and his words reflect faith, love, joy and contentment even in a state of uncertainty.

Many of you are eager to help and ensure that he and his family are loved and cared for well. Right now the doctor’s order is for him to rest. Additional tests and doctor visits are to come, and we will provide regular updates as they are appropriate. Matt and Lauren know you are ready and willing to meet any practical needs, and their love for you will make it extremely difficult for them not to embrace those who knock on the door or call. Right now, though, the best gift is the physical space to afford them time to rest.

On Monday afternoon, Matt is meeting and praying with the church staff. Monday night, the elders are meeting with Matt and Lauren to pray with them. Matt’s appointment with the neurosurgeon is on Tuesday. During all of these times, join us in prayer wherever you might be. Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Highland Village, Denton and Dallas worship centers, we will gather as a church body to pray. We encourage you to fast throughout that day and join us to pray that evening.

Certainly pray for Matt’s healing, and pray that he and his family would experience great peace during this time. But don’t stop there. Ask God to reveal what work he plans to do in you, in Matt and in our church through this trial. Although it may be easy to see the hand of the enemy in a situation like this, remember that God is sovereign that he may ordain trials to deepen our faith, draw us closer to him or to accomplish some other purpose. Therefore do not fear.

One thing to consider would be to send Matt a written note. His words and actions faithfully point to how lives are changed through the gospel of Christ so it always encourages him to hear what God is doing in you. The time and effort to reflect and write out your thoughts on God’s goodness in your life could warm your soul and allow Matt to hear, see and celebrate the work and blessings of Jesus. Bring your notes with you on Wednesday night. If you cannot be there, mail them to 2101 FM 407, Flower Mound, TX 75028.

Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

We love you and are praying that during this unsettling time your steadfast trust in the Lord will reflect an uncommon peace and be a light among those whom the Lord puts in your path.

Prayer for Matt today: The Village Church (HV) parking lot. 12 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. Come out and pray if you can.

Matt spoke with a neurosurgeon this afternoon & will meet w/him on Tuesday. He and Lauren are in good spirits.

Matt Chandler suffered a seizure Thursday morning while at home, was taken to a nearby hospital and is now at home resting with his family.

Matt hit his head when he suffered the seizure and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Doctors ran several tests on Matt and will continue to run tests in the coming days. We will keep you posted.

Please pray for Matt, Lauren and the kids. The best we can do as a church body right now is to give him space and our prayers. He is surrounded by family members, the elders and friends.

My daughter loves to compete. As I type this, she is playing duck-duck-goose in the backyard with a friend and Natalie. Lily is at the stage of her life when she hasn’t learned the social graces of tact regarding her competition. She will publicly say things like, “I am taller than him; I am older; I am bigger; I can run faster.” Or, she will make the other person the subject: “He is not as fast; she is not as funny,” etc. No matter the vantage point, she loves superlatives and somehow she figures to be the best. If you know our little family you might say this is a generational sin passed on her from her mother, but I digress (wink-wink).

What is interesting is that as we grow up our hearts don’t simply mature away from depravity, they simply become more clever at masking and disguising it. Our hearts are filled with envy, comparison, competition about anything and everything. For instance, I had a tearful conversation with a church member today about how their house is not like that house, their marriage was not as easy as this marriage, his talents are more evident than my talents, etc. You can literally pick any circumstance and fill in the blank with how it doesn’t match up with that one over there.

Your heart is not neutral and has a natural proclivity toward evil. We are helpless to this reality and circumstances will rule our hearts. You will either slide in the direction of “the grass is greener; I am not worthy; poor me” or in the direction of “I deserve and am entitled to this good fortune; people are a means to my pleasure.” Either way you are a slave to your circumstances and people are a threat.

The challenge with circumstantial comparison is two-fold:

1. Your heart goes with you into any circumstance
2. Comparison kills joy, suffocates freedom and constricts gratitude

Lily is going to grow up and learn how to “pretend” like the rest of us. My hope for her is the same hope for myself. It is the only hope available to any of us — the gospel. One of the more famous, and often misquoted, passages in scripture is Philippians 4:10-13:

“10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

I would encourage you to take an honest inventory of your heart and see if Christ or circumstance rules.

I just started reading a book by Jim Collins (author of “Good to Great”) titled, “How the Mighty Fall.” Collins unveils several years’ worth of research on why great companies collapse. These are companies like Zenith, Circuit City, Bank of America, Merck, IBM, etc. They were at some point leaders in the industry and seemingly invincible, but they have all suffered horrendous falls. Collins says there are five stages of decline. Here is an interesting quote:

“I’ve come to see institutional decline like a staged disease: harder to detect but easier to cure in the earlier stages, easier to detect but harder to cure in the later stages. An institution can look strong on the outside but already be sick on the inside, dangerously on the cusp of a precipitous fall.”

Here is what struck me in the first few chapters: stage 1 of decline is “”Hubris Born of Success”, i.e. pride. Collins is not writing from a Christian perspective, but his research states that great companies begin a skid to irrelevancy and death by pride. The insidious cocktail of entitlement and arrogance begins to course through the company’s veins and eventually seduces it into stage 2, and thus, the decline is well under way.

What is true for the organizations we work for and serve is also true about our own lives. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Or perhaps Proverbs 11:2, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” Lastly, Mark 7:20-22 says, “And he said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come…pride.”

Dictionary.com defines “pride” as, “a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.” The antidote for pride is humility. Humility is the root of any virtue and all graces flow from it. The purest form of humility was displayed in the life and death of Jesus Christ. The One who deserves all accolades and praise came to serve. The One who is esteemed above all else emptied himself and died on a cross (Phil. 2:1-11). He laid down his life for the proud, but then, our pride is what keeps us from seeing and savoring this.