Remembering Christmas

     Have you ever had a bad Christmas? I have. Well, maybe it wasn't Christmas day itself, but the days before.

     School had dismissed for the holidays. My sister and I, both teaching at the time, were home alone. Our parents planned to return from their current job late Christmas Eve. 

     I don't remember exactly which tragedy struck first. One of them, however, was the lack of firewood. It was cold, at least to a southerner, and there was no way to heat the house except for a feeble space heater or two. 

     Things soon went from bad to worse. The lights started flickering and dimming randomly. When we tried to run the microwave it refused to operate properly. We checked the breaker box. Nothing wrong there, but something was clearly amiss. Because it was late, we turned off all the electrical items we could and sat huddled in jackets and blankets under the dim glow of a single lamp.

     That was the same Christmas there was a water leak Christmas morning that caused the entire community to have the water shut off until an hour or two before lunch. 

     It was Christmas, but I for one did not feel joyful. Instead I suffered from an acute bout of self pity.

     There is another Christmas that stands out in my memory. I was no older than eleven. My parents had warned us children that there would be no Christmas trip to visit far-away relatives. There would be no gifts either. There simply wasn't money. 

     But I remember that Christmas because it was one of my favorite celebrations ever. Our family spent the day in our tiny house. Mom turned down the lights and lit candles. We sat on the floor and played games. We laughed and sang and read the story of the first Christmas night. It's possible Dad made some of his famous caramel popcorn, but I don't remember the details. They weren't important. The thing that mattered the most was the true Spirit of Christmas, the Love we shared.

     Neither of these memories depicts a perfect Christmas, but the first Christmas wasn't perfect either. There was an inconvenient tax, a weary, travel-worn couple, and a dank and dusty stable. The characters in the story had every right to feel miserable. The shepherds were desolate on the hill, perhaps lonely and forlorn. The world lay in silence, hope nearly forgotten. Many believed the promised Messiah of the ancient writings was surely a myth rather than a Man. The darkness resting on the souls of mankind was heavy, suffocating, crushing.

     But then there was Love. Love, born into darkness. Love, lighting up the night. Love, taking away the loneliness, the fears, the desolation. Love, prompting shepherds to leave their sheep, moving Wiseman to embark on a journey of hundreds of miles. Love, moving the very angels of Heaven to break the subdued silence on earth with joyful songs and the proclamation that a Savior, the very definition of Love had arrived.

     Where do you find yourself this Christmas season? Have you found yourself cold and miserable, pitying yourself amongst the bleakness of the world around you? There are plenty of things gone wrong. You needn't even look for them. It may not be a lack of firewood or faulty electricity, but it could be a canceled trip. It could be bills overdue, a loved one astray, a mental struggle you are fighting, a hopelessness and disappointment in how life has turned out, a little voice that whispers it doesn't pay to try. Perhaps the world is big and black and ugly, and you feel cynical and afraid.

     But there is an answer for whatever situation you are facing.

     Christmas morning doesn't need to dawn a perfect day to contain the true Spirit of Christmas.  Love can saturate the most humble of celebrations.  Love can be felt when you forgive and welcome home the family member with whom you have shared differences. Love is there to warm hearts when someone tries to politicize the conversation over the Christmas ham. Love is there to light the way when it is the first lonely Christmas after you've lost someone you loved. Maybe it won't be perfect. Maybe there will be painful moments and even tears, but Love thrives in any situation when you let Him in. It doesn't matter if you are rich in earthly wealth. You can still be rich in Love from the Lover of All.

     Merry Christmas to each one!

Giving is a Heart-Set

     Thanksgiving. We tend to go heavy on the thanks part. We list our thankfuls, post statuses, and buy signs to prop on the front porch that proclaim our gratefulness. But the word thanksgiving does not stop at thanks. It continues with giving. 

     Thankfulness and giving are intricately intertwined, but many people find that neither one comes naturally. Usually, Thanksgiving is focused on giving thanks. This is as it should be, but just for a moment let's turn our minds to thanks and giving.

     Christ-inspired giving always finds itself rooted in a spirit of gratitude. In such an atmosphere love permeates everything. True giving is not an obligation or a self-worth booster or a tax break. True giving is not a mindset, but a heart set.

     Have you ever wondered why, out of all the months of the year, we have two major holidays so close together? It seems like all the traveling and big meal planning and business all runs together into a giant blur of frantically trying to fulfill our responsibilities.  But maybe having Thanksgiving so near to Christmas is not an accident. Maybe it's part of a perfect plan. 

     As we spend November evaluating our blessings and looking at the vast array of gifts we have recieved from the storehouses of Heaven, we automatically become prepared for the true spirit of giving in the month of December. Giving will come more naturally if we have spent time sincerely looking at ways we've been cared for. 

     Our acceptance and amazement at God's love for us will lend itself to every gift we buy, every window we clean, every dish we bake.

     Paul wrote an encouragement to the Colossians: "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father by him." (Colossians 3:17) The foundation of any offering, word or deed, should be thankfulness. It doesn't matter what our gift is. It can be as small as a smile, as large as contributing a substantial sum to a stranger's hospital bill, or as sacrificial as our time. Whatever gift has been made ours to give becomes more beautiful by passing through a thankful heart.

     Thanksgiving is important. Thankfulness incites all believers to live in a giving heart-set. Not only for November and December, but for the whole year.

     Happy Thanksgiving!

    

The Gorilla and the Lion

I first heard this story in a sermon and loved it.

Now I've shared it with you.

I do not know who the original creative mind behind it was.

    

    Once there was a man in tattered clothes who wandered the streets of a great city. It had been three days since his last meal. He was weary and cold. As he trudged forlornly through the unfriendly streets, he happened to pass by the zoo. “Maybe there is work at the zoo!” he thought, “I could feed animals at least!” And so, since there was nothing to lose, he stepped inside to inquire.
    The zoo manager listened to the homeless man’s query. At last he shook his head. “No,” he said slowly, “we don’t need any more keepers here. But I have a proposition for you. How would you like to be a gorilla?”
    “A gorilla!” exclaimed the man.
    “Yes,” the manager replied. “Our gorilla died recently, and he was a big attraction here. If you would be willing to dress up in a gorilla costume, I’ll pay you well. All you have to do is hang out in the gorilla cage and not let on that you’re really a human.”
    The man thought it over. What did he have to lose? Sure, he’d never been a gorilla before, but being a gorilla was bound to be better than being homeless. So he agreed to give it a try.
Being a gorilla wasn’t as hard as he feared it might be. In fact, the man rather enjoyed it. He lay on the sunny slope of his enclosure and soaked in the sun. He made fierce faces at the visitors to the zoo. He walked on all fours and sometimes grabbed the bars of his enclosure and shook them as if he wished to escape.
    “Look at that gorilla!” zoo goers would say. “Isn’t he strong and handsome? Isn’t he fierce? He looks so intelligent!"
    The compliments were nice. It became comfortable being a gorilla. Oh, there were days he wished to be a regular human again, when the gorilla suit felt itchy or when he wished to do normal human things. Yet he was comfortable here with a costume and a cage between him and everyone else. It felt safe.
    One day the man-gorilla was feeling adventurous. He walked to the far side of his enclosure where he rarely explored. Tired of the same scenery day in and day out, he climbed a small tree near the wall separating the gorilla enclosure from the enclosure next door. He clambered out onto a limb that hung over the wall and sat there.
    The crowd was delighted.
    And because a happy crowd meant job security, the man-gorilla decided to put on a show. He bounced up and down on the limb, then moved even further toward the end of the branch.
    Suddenly there was a sharp crack and the man found himself plummeting to the ground. He landed with a thud. He shook his head, which was a bit confused after the fall, and picked himself up off the ground. It was then he realized to his horror that he had landed, not in his enclosure, but on the other side of the wall.
    He was in the lion’s pen.
The watching crowd was screaming in excitement. What would happen when these two great beasts met? Would there be a fight?
    The man had never wished harder to be a real gorilla. But he knew he wasn’t. He knew the best costume in the world couldn’t hide the fact from the lion that he was not really a gorilla.
He looked around for a way out, but there was none. Should he call to the crowd and ask for help? If he did, he would certainly lose his job. Maybe he could bluff his way out of this. He turned and looked up the little hill in front of him. His heart nearly failed within. Just at the top of the rise, coming toward him at a frightening pace, was the lion.
    He took a step back toward the wall. The lion kept coming.
    He took another step. The lion kept coming.
    He took a third step back and felt the rough concrete wall behind him. The lion slowed and stopped about ten feet away. Then it took another step forward.
    The man was sweating inside his gorilla suit. Surely his life was worth more than his job! But even if he cried for help, would anyone hear him? Would anyone be able to come to his rescue?
    The tawny-coated lion took another step forward.
    The man threw caution to the wind. At least, he tried to. He wanted to yell for help, but all that came out was a whispery voice. “Help!” he said.
    The lion paused. It lowered it’s head. Then it spoke. “Be quiet!” it hissed. “Do you want to get us both fired?”

    Where do you find yourself in this story? Are you wearing a gorilla costume, wishing to be human? Does your gorilla suit feel like security? What
would it take for you to be willing to take it off and be yourself again?

    Our Jesus isn't fooled. He knows you are human. After all, He is your Creator. He "looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). He says that His grace is sufficient. Our strength, He says, is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

    If you are afraid, don't let your fear hold you back. Reach for the zipper and the buttons holding your costume on, even if you fumble and make mistakes. Ask for help if you need to. He will be there, as he has promised, to "guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought... you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not." (Isaiah 58:11)

    The world today is full of people wearing costumes. They don't all look the same, but they are there. All the costumes covering up our fears and doubts and disappointments. But underneath the costumes we all are people. 

    So take off your gorilla suit. Lay aside the mask. Share who you are, who you really are, with those around you. Be the person you were created to be, blossom into the beauty of trusting God with your costume and with your fears. He's waiting.

 

Dancing on the Shore

     I watched her dance along the shoreline, reveling in the sand and the gentle breakers. She twirled and pirouetted, a charming picture on a grayish day. I smiled as her pink shirt fluttered  and her hair streamed out behind her. Her mother sat on the rocks nearby, taking an occasional video of her daughter. Once or twice the girl ran to her with a question, but mostly the two did not interact. 

    To the casual beachgoer, it may not have even been evident they had any connection as mother and daughter, but just happened to be occupying the same stretch of sand. I was a little upset. I thought the mother could be taking this chance to connect with her daughter, and here she was, hardly acknowledging her daughter's presence.
    I think I sometimes believe God is like this mother, only there for me to run to once in a while. He isn't an active participant in my life, but a distant being. He cares about hunger and famine, but He doesn't care so much when I forget to keep a promise or cry over a broken heirloom.
    The truth is so much better. The God we serve is active in our daily lives. He runs with us down the sandy beach, He pulls us back when a rogue wave would dash us to the ground. Should a crab latch onto a toe, there is no need to run to Him, for He has been walking with me all along. We need not fear the waves that sometime billow. He knows every hair of my head (Matthew 10:29-31). He is with us (Genesis 28:10) and will not leave us. Our God is not a parent that merely observes His children, but an active participant in every aspect of our daily lives. 

    He is there when you crack open heavy eyelids and stretch in the morning. He is there when you spill your coffee on the way out the door and have to go back and change. He rides with you while you dodge potholes and slam on the brakes when you spot a trooper by the roadside. He is there as you try to come up with the perfect response for a challenging message. He understands your disappointment when you have to give up supper plans because of sickness. He is there when you go to bed at night, and He watches as you sleep.

    There are days we feel sad and lonely, or times when life doesn't go as we want it to, and we try to shove Him away. He stands at a distance, waiting for us to invite Him back, to share our lives with Him. 

    Don't wait to invite Him closer! He delights with you in the things that make you smile, and He is willing to listen when you are facing sorrow.

    He created life. He created you. He doesn't sit, an absent mother on the rocks. He is beside you, waiting. Take His hand and let Him be a participant in your life. With Him, you need not fear the waves. You need not worry about the pain you may face. You need not feel alone. For He is there, laughing with you as you run along the shore. He's always been there. And you can trust Him not only with today, but with your tomorrows and your forevers. He will be there.

Unapologetically Flawed

    It's your nose, isn't it? You've gazed at it sidewise in the mirror and wished it wasn't quite so hawkish. Or maybe it's your personality. You can't count the times you've longed to be more bubbly. Or maybe it's that you feel clumsy? You trip over your own feet and everyone else's, spill your coffee, and drop your keys. The screen of your phone is a perpetual spiderweb of cracks from all the times it's slipped from your grasp. 
    And don't even start on the lack of talents. Your dress patterns are always plain and straightforward, there's not an artistic bone in your body, and your words come out a jumbled mess of bad grammar. You've never been the athletic one. You can sing, but only soprano and only songs you know and only if you have a strong leader to follow. Now that you're thinking about it, you're a real mess, aren't you? Hopeless, pathetic, useless. Why did God create you like this? How can He use you in His Kingdom when you can't even wash the dishes without having to mop the floor?

    Perhaps you long for perfection. Perfect hair, perfect smile, perfect poise in every situation. 

    But perfect people only live in Paradise. 

    And this old world, though a nice enough place to live, is certainly not paradise.

    Oh, it was perfect in the beginning. And perfect people were created for that perfect world. But there was sin. Ugly sin. Sin that destroyed the perfection. Because of that sin, we can never hope to be perfect. We can never expect to reach a point of flawlessness like Adam and Eve the day they were created. But in spite of this knowledge, we still hope. We reach and grasp for the impossible dream of perfection, regardless of the futility of our actions.

    "You can be anyone!" we are told. But it's not so simple. Maybe you've tried it. Maybe you've found, like me, that you always feel you aren't quite good enough. You have to work double time to cover up all the things that don't go along with the persona you've tried to create for yourself. And at the end of the day? You still feel like a failure. The control over your life that you've worked so hard to create is just a slender thread away from spinning into wild disarray. And flaws covered up just aren't the same as no flaws at all.

    Are you ready for the truth? It's so simple you may not like to hear it. It sounds so easy. Like something your mom or your grandma always told you. And it's not perfect.

    The truth is that the only way we will ever attain perfection is to accept our imperfection. The only way we will reach a point of flawlessness is to accept that we are flawed. The only way we will ever quit apologizing for our lack of what we consider ideal characteristics is to live unapologetically as the person each of us was created to be.

    There, among the crumbled dreams of how we've wished to be we will stand in humility and submission before the God who created us. He will mend us, slowly it seems to those of us who are impatient, and make us whole. But even with His great loving hand putting us back together, we will not become the perfection we seem to think we need to be. No, we must accept living with scuffs and cracks and scars.

    And it is in acceptance we will find peace. Acceptance of our imperfections and our flaws. Unapologetically living a joyful life in spite of those things about ourselves we sometimes wish were different. "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6) We are promised He will continue working with us, continue sanding down our jagged edges, reshaping the clay of our vessels, smoothing over the cracked places with gentle hands.

    And someday, someday on that day of Jesus Christ, we shall walk on golden streets of Paradise with perfect, uncrippled feet. We will sing with voices clear and strong. We will know the right words, have the right smile, be creatures of light and joy. Someday we will gaze in awe at the shining perfect city created just for us by the One who created us, who knows our faults, who is able to save us from them. And we will finally abide in the perfection we have longed for with the Most Perfect One. Forever. Home.    

Run

   As I was driving down the road, a cat crossed in front of me. This was no idle stroll, it was a flat out run, made difficult by the fact that the cat was carrying a prize, a field mouse, in it's mouth. The thing that caught my attention was that the cat did not look at the vehicle bearing down on it. Not once did it glance over its shoulder until it was safely across the road and had slowed its pace.
    We are running a race too. Like the cat carried the mouse in an uncompromising grip, so ought we to carry the prize of salvation. We must run, never looking back at the things we've left behind, never giving in to the fear of the darkness looming around us, but with our eyes set only on the far side of Jordan. We should run, unfalteringly, toward the light of the New Day that will dawn, running always toward the goal with the prize of salvation carried in our thankful hearts.
    Will we weary at times by the way? Certainly. Will there be days we question if the goal is worth it? Possibly. Will we regret the efforts we have expended? Never. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "...run that ye may obtain." (1 Corinthians 9:24b)
    Run without looking back. Run toward the safety of a Heavenly reward. Run, because you have been given a gift, and you must protect it at any cost. 
    The forces of evil cannot overtake you if you run with your eyes on the goal. On the days you tire, you have a Captain that will carry you. You are not alone. There are brothers and sisters in the Church cheering you onward. 
    So run. With courage, with grace, with endurance. Run, that your children may see the smile on your lips as you face into the wind and wish to pursue the same joy you partake of. 

    Run with patience, with steadiness, with peace. Run, that those held captive by the enemy may be inspired to break loose of the chains that bind them. 

    Run every day, over any type of terrain, never looking back. Run, so that someday you shall stand before the Throne of Heaven with a soul immersed in thankfulness that you were given a prize, that you took the choice presented, and that you chose to run.   

Confusing Stories

    Lyssa finished reading and looked up at me. "What can you tell me about the story?" I asked, checking to see how much of what she had read she actually was able to understand.
    Lyssa fumbled for words. Then, giving up, she shrugged. "I don't know," she paused, her big eyes looking into mine. "It was kinda written in a confusing way."
    I wasn't surprised. Lyssa struggled with reading, and had I not been following along I wouldn't have understood the story either. I had to give her credit though. She had read with dogged determination, doing her best  with the letters and sounds she didn't know how to process correctly.
    There are days I am very much like Lyssa. I find myself sitting in a place that doesn't make much sense. It feels at those moments as if God has asked me to read a story that is confusing. Maybe the words seem too big for me to sound out or the subject matter is too broad for my understanding. But, like Lyssa, my job is to do the best I know and trust there is a reason for the story. 
    It is not my place to question God's choice. Neither do I need to complain about the parts I don't understand. My place is to live quietly in the position where He has placed me, trusting every letter, every tiny punctuation mark to His infinite wisdom. 
    David knew about feeling confused. and overwhelmed by circumstances. "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." We hear his heart crying out. He didn't understand all the reasons he must pass through this miserable place. But he doesn't stop there. "I will fear no evil: for thou art with me." 
    The world around us is in confusion. As Christians we may sometimes lack understanding, but we need not wallow in the shadows. We have the knowledge God is with us. We don't need to control every circumstance, understand every phrase, respond with perfect answers to every question, because we know He is the Master of all.
    Trusting is not something that comes easily. It is a decision made deep in the heart of the believer. In spite of the troubled relationships we face and the seemingly disastrous decisions made by world leaders. Regardless of the death of a loved one, an unexpected hospital bill, or the crushing of a cherished dream. Through it all, trust is still a choice.
    No matter the shadows you are walking through, no matter the disappointments you have faced, you need not drown in confused loneliness. Take His hand. Fear no evil. He is with you.