Coming Off The Christmas High

Christmas has quickly fallen into the past. All the cooking, cleaning, wrapping, hosting and more cleaning is behind us. When the last guest leaves, it sometimes feels anticlimactic, doesn’t it? I wonder if it felt that way to the shepherds after they’d climbed back up the hill to their sheep. I wonder if anything would feel that wonderful and amazing again.

People talk about peak experiences. Those amazing, hill top moments when the rest of the world stands still. We can begin to believe life will never be the same again. Then we return to life, and discover how quickly the peak disappears from sight. It can be a tremendous let down.

How do we live in that space? It isn’t the highs and lows that can get to us, it’s the highs and middles, the norms. We’ve just experienced a powerful moment and then we have to go back to “real” life. Christmas can be like that, if we’ve had a good, less family dysfunctional one. We have this great day, meeting the expectation of all the preparation, and then we wake up the next day with just the leftovers and a bag of shredded paper. No wonder some of us keep our decorations up through January (you don’t?)

As a Christian I have had moments where it felt like touching the face of God. Camp experiences can bring some of that. And watching others experience such a high can also bring it on vicariously. We leave the experience believing we will never feel distant from God again, and then we do. Highs are pretty much unsustainable.

Don’t get me wrong, we need these highs. We need these moments of inexpressible joy and contentment if for no other reason than to know such moments are possible. But the laundry still needs doing, job responsibilities still need filling and life goes on down at the bottom of the hill. All those things would be neglected if we stayed on top.

Jesus took Peter, James and John up a mountain where they had such an experience. (Matthew 17) While standing there they saw Jesus in all his Deity, being embraced by Elijah and Moses. Both those men had long been dead to this world, but not in Heaven, and here they stood in their own glorified bodies to minister to Jesus. I always think of how the three disciples felt in the aftermath, but what of the very human Jesus? For just a moment He was in all His glory, and then the moment ended and He was back confined in his human body. Peter suggested they build shelters – whether for the guests or for themselves, we don’t know. But it hints at a desire to stay there on that mountain witnessing such an amazing greatness. But they had to come off the mountain. Jesus had to come down to face death on the cross. That makes my return to “normal life” pale in comparison.

We are told that Moses, after meeting with God “face to face” on Mt. Sinai was left with a face that shone. Everyone could see the result of being physically that close to the Creator of the Universe. And the story goes on to say that the “glory faded” eventually, and Moses covered his face so people couldn’t immediately see he’d gone back to normal. Poor Moses, he’d gone from a mountain top experience to beat them all, and had to return to his unruly and ungrateful Israeli family. (Exodus 34:29-35)

It’s fitting that what follows Christmas is the beginning of a New Year. I’m not one for resolutions: I’m not much better at keeping them than anyone else. But I do like the idea of turning a new leaf, starting out with a fresh slate of days. Part of coming down off the high is learning to live our best lives here in the middle of reality. Whether stepping from a spiritual high, or from some wonderful celebration like Christmas (which can also be a spiritual high), seeking to keep God’s light alive and shining is a great goal. Spending time with God each day can keep that light glowing and carry us through the lows as well as the highs of a new year. As much as we’d like to live in a state of perpetual high, this world just doesn’t afford it. Paul, speaking of Moses’ fading glory, says ours needn’t fade. “We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away…Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:13-18)

Paul goes on to say that this transformation occurs in the real world, where we “hold this treasure in jars of clay” (II Corinthians 4:7). Our weakness is to remind us that the power comes from God, not us. “Therefore, do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all, So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:16-18)

Let’s walk into the New Year open to the Spirit’s leading, so we can continue in our spiritual growth and transformation. Let the joy and beauty of our spiritual highs be a taste of more to come, and fix our eyes on Jesus rather than on the things that would bring us down. Life is lived in breakable, clay jars. Crummy stuff happens in the real world, and we long for a mountain top high. Notice Paul talked about outward and inward. Outwardly life can be unkind. But, with the right focus we can live a mountain top life without the climb. We can experience the transforming life promised. And those internal changes will impact our world. In this New Year, seek to have God fill you with His light and transformation.

Happy New Year.

Fourth Week of Advent 2025

As I waited in line at the post office this week I began talking with the guy in front of me. I learned he was in his 70’s, working at a nearby hospital. He’d left his home in Georgia to fulfill a three year contract, filling a need of the hospital. He had probably 8 large boxes he was mailing. He shared that he has a lot of siblings, and they live all over the country. They get together to celebrate milestone birthdays around different themes that speak to the birthday person. He had pictures from each of their events and he’d made 500 piece crossword puzzles for each sibling’s Christmas present, using a picture from their special 40th birthday party.

However, this was an above and beyond gift. He’d already shipped off a snow globe to each of them, and he was delighted to predict how surprised they’d be to get another gift.  When he finished telling me his story, I said, “you really love giving gifts, don’t you?”  He broke into this huge smile and said, “I love it!” This was why he was still working, to afford to continue bestowing gifts on his family and friends.

I can relate. Gift giving is my love language, or one of them. I love the hunt, looking for things that mean something to each person (or somethings – I often can’t just settle on one gift). This year I had fun with a thematic gift comprised of a lot of smaller gifts. I love giving. I love packaging my giving in beautiful ways. I have a friend who is the master of gift packaging, and I’ve copied a lot of her ideas through the years. I’ve learned that part of the gift is the packaging. And It isn’t all about money spent either. I have enjoyed making gifts over the years, especially when money was tight. This year I made candles.

Not everyone is comfortable receiving gifts. There have been times when my family has suggested we set a one gift limit, or literally one gift by drawing a name. I have a friend whose family does this. But she always gets gifts for everyone, not just her chosen person, and I’d be the same. But that can make some people uncomfortable. As a giver I have to be sensitive to my receivers. It’s lovely to surprise someone with the “perfect” gift (and there really is no such thing as “perfect” anything), but if the giving overwhelms, embarrasses or troubles them, then it isn’t fun. My family knows I just go a little crazy in my giving. They know I am not expecting anything in return. Don’t get me wrong, I love receiving gifts too, but I can be content in just watching others accept my gifts to them.

In this season of giving and receiving we can forget the Greatest Gift – Jesus. If giving isn’t your love language, then buying gifts can be very stressful and one additional chore in an already stressful time. We can get so caught up in the busyness that we lose sight of why we are doing this at all. I love lavishing gifts of all types of things, not all fit in a box. I love cooking and serving and entertaining my loved ones. But it’s all that preparation that can drain us. And then Christmas is just an anxiety filled blur.

I realize the most important gift I can give people is myself. I pray all the time that my family, friends, strangers can see Jesus in me. As I offer love and kindness, consideration and friendship, they can see something in me that might draw them to God. Because that is the most important gift. “We love because He first loved us.”

Ruth Chou Simons, in her book Emmanuel, says, “Don’t we sometimes expect God to be like Santa Claus, delivering all the good to the deserving and somehow ‘getting the memo’ on all our wishes and longings? But our Messiah is no Santa Claus. He doesn’t simply promise to deliver gifts; He promises to be the gift we truly need. How has He provided for you this season? How has the good news of Jesus been the gift your soul needs?” (Italics mine)

Since Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, God coming to us as a baby in a manger, the greatest gift we could ever receive, our Christmas should reflect that. For some, receiving God’s gift is extremely hard. They don’t want to open the gift because they aren’t sure how it will impact them – will they never get to have fun again? Will they lose friends because they’ve become “religious”? Will they open the package and find it isn’t what the giver promised? Will they be disappointed? Will it require something from them?  Do they even deserve this gift? Maybe a mistake has been made and this gift isn’t for them.

God’s gift lies unopened by a lot of people. God’s love language is gift giving too. Everything we have came from God, whether we see it or not. But the greatest gift is Jesus, and not just the Person, but what that babe in a manger went on to do for us, so we could be in relationship with God. God doesn’t force His gift onto us. We have to accept the gift and open it. Leaving it under the tree, or packing it away somewhere, like that Chia Pet you never wanted, won’t bring God into your life.  You have to accept and open His gift.

As you finish wrapping those presents and putting them under your tree, remember the true reason we even have this celebration. Pray over the receivers of your gifts, that they will come to receive and open the most important gift of all, Jesus.

Blessings on your week. Merry Christmas!

Emmanuel: an Invitation to Prepare Him Room at Christmas and Always, by Ruth Chou Simons. (Harvest House Publishers, 2022) 

The Third Week of Advent - 2025

 One of the things I love most about Christmas is the music. I could listen to Christmas music all year round. The secular songs are fun, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, “The Christmas Song”, “The Christmas Waltz”. But the sacred music, that is a whole other level. Have you ever wondered at the marvel of hearing “Silent Night” following “Let it Snow” or “Jingle Bells” in store music or on the radio? In a world where we see less and less of the sacred, during Christmas the sacred is all around us.

And what amazing music to be playing out and around us. Sacred Christmas music presents some of the most straight forward lyrics teaching theology. I wonder if people realize what they are hearing? It’s total bombardment of the heart of Christianity. And it’s playing all around us. People complain about Christmas trees in airports and red cups at Starbucks being too biased toward Christian Christmas, needing more balanced focus, including Kwanza and Hanukah. But somehow the music continues on. Once a year God’s message of our need and His solution, blare out for all to hear. Let’s look at some phrases.

From “O Little Town Of Bethlehem

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight…for Christ is born of Mary…How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in…O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.”

From “Joy to the World

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

From “Silent Night”

Silent night, Holy night!
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord at thy birth;
Jesus Lord at thy birth.

From “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”

“Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the new born King,
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”

Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
late in time behold him come,
offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th’ incarnate Deity,
pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace. 

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give us second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”

These lyrics resound with the true message of Christmas. God came to live with us, born of a young woman in a Bethlehem stable, as per an ancient prophecy. But, though miraculous, the birth wasn’t an end in itself. He came to take our place. God has demanded justice for sin – our brokenness. We are impotent in addressing that justice. We have tried to be better people, but “better” isn’t good enough, can never restore our relationship with God.  The Jewish tradition of animal sacrifice symbolized death as a requirement for that justice. But an animal sacrifice wasn’t sufficient either. The death required is our own. So God came Himself. 

The virgin birth was necessary since the passing of our sin nature from generation to generation comes from the male (Adam).  Conception without the sperm was necessary to have a human with no inherited sin nature, and with God, the Creator, that was no problem. Now we have God in flesh, Jesus the Christ, the long promised Messiah and Savior to the Jewish people. But they were expecting a King, not a baby, especially one born of such humble means. God never does what we expect. We are too limited in our imaginations. Jesus grew into manhood with one central purpose, to take on Himself the sins of the world. He would become the perfect Lamb of God. He came to die on that cross, then rise again, having scored the victory over sin and death.

What a staggering contrast from the beauty of Christmas – death on a cross. What an overshadowing event, the resurrection. Jesus came to die in our place. The acceptance of His sacrifice for us is seen in the resurrection. The work was finished; we have been redeemed! We celebrate Jesus’ birth because it ushers in, through that baby’s eventual death and resurrection, the gift of freedom from sin and its consequences.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “Welcome to our World”, by Chris Rice. After hearing this song, I can’t separate Christmas from Easter. Rice begins with the manger, but goes quickly to the central message. Look at the baby in the manger and hear Rice’s words. “Fragile fingers sent to heal us, tender brow prepared for thorn. Tiny heart whose blood would save us. Unto us is born.”

May we keep the full picture of the coming of Christ in mind throughout these crazy Christmas days. May our hearts find peace and hope, love and joy because we truly know the babe in the manger, God with us; God who came to die in our place that we could have restored relationship with Him. He “wrapped our injured flesh around Him” to “rob our sin and make us holy.” There is no better response than “Come into my heart Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for You.”

 

“Welcome to Our World”

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile fingers sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world

Chris Rice from album “Deep Enough To Dream” Copyright: 1995 Clumsy Fly Music

 

 

The Second Week of Advent 2025

 

The Christmas message brings with it love, joy, peace and hope. The coming of Jesus as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem promises all this. Who doesn’t want some of each? With the ongoing war in Ukraine and Sudan, with unrest everywhere, including our homes – peace is in huge demand. We read that loneliness looms in too many lives, people looking for and desiring to love and be loved. Economic struggles, serious illness, job insecurity have all of us longing for hope. And wouldn’t a taste of joy make a huge difference to the grieving, depressed world around us?

The Christmas season always comes with the promise of good things. We fill our homes and outdoor spaces with light. We race around preparing food and buying gifts to put smiles on the faces of our loved ones. We find ourselves at concerts, markets, movies looking to fill our hearts with that Christmas spirit. If anything could bring love, joy, peace and hope it should be the result of all this effort during this season of promise.

What usually happens is anything but that. We become grumpy, stressed out, frustrated consumers of an empty promise. The experience of love, joy, peace and hope are fleeting, if we experience them at all. All the effort we put into making Christmas magical can often fall far short of our expectations, and we are just left with tiredness. Anyone who has sat in an empty house after the celebration can speak to the emptiness and disillusionment of the season.

But we’ve also all tasted joy, peace, love and hope. That taste has left us longing for so much more than the momentary fulfillment. We exert all this effort during Christmas hoping this year it’ll last beyond the dirty dishes, crumpled paper and discarded toys.  But how?

I’ve been my family matriarch for 30 years, hosting Christmas. I inherited the role after my mother died. I had no idea what I was getting into. I knew my mother had made Christmas magical, and I knew I wanted to continue that tradition for my family. My nephew was born the following year, and a child put even more stress on making things wonderful. I have sat in my empty house after everyone went home, my husband upstairs usually finishing the dishes and me looking at the enormous stack of empty boxes and huge bag of wrapping paper and wondering, exhausted after weeks of work, if it was worth it for a fast over and out.  Often I lacked the peace, hope, love and joy.

But through the years I have learned that if I change my focus a bit, I can experience all of those promised gifts. Certainly decorations and food preparation, shopping and activities have a part, but not the central point. First of all, it begins with refocusing on Jesus Christ.

 “How can we know that the Christmas story matters at all if we don’t fully grasp our great need for a Savior? So many of us scurry about at Christmastime hoping to find meaning in this season, when the true gift of the birth of Christ is found in unfathomable love in the heart of God. Try as we might, we can’t muster up the feelings we want to feel at Christmas; we will experience the magnitude of Christmas only to the extent that we understand the grace and mercy of God’s plan of redemption.” (Ruth Chou Simons)

Jesus entered the world in a stable, and there are very few magical elements in a barn, except maybe baby animals. A place where animals stay is not a place to give birth, even in a more primitive time. But that was the point. God came to live among all of us, and He chose to come in the most humble of situations. His first guests were shepherds. (The wise men came a bit later.) The shepherds had the light of the angels, but the stable was probably pretty dark. Yet there in those humble beginnings lay the Light of the World, the Gift of hope, love, peace and joy. God chose to enter our space, become fully human with the goal of dying in our place so we can have relationship with Him.

If I put my focus on Jesus, on my gratitude for the grace of having God with me, it helps shift my experience. I try to start my day with devotional reading. This year I am going through a list of advent readings that trace from prophecies in the Old Testament to New Testament readings about the promised Christ. (theadventusproject.worldpress.com) Then I found this wonderful book of readings for the Advent Season, Emmanuel: an Invitation to Prepare Him Room at Christmas and Always, by Ruth Chou Simons. (Harvest House Publishers, 2022) And finally, I’m reading a couple of Psalms each day. Starting my days with these readings and prayer sets my focus. I also, throughout the day, as I start to feel anxious or stressed, ask “what can I do about it?” I can give it to God for His peace. This is really the only response for so many things. For the things I can change I can ask, do I really need to do all this? What can I pare away to give myself more space? Part of this, for me, is taking time to smell the roses (or the pine tree). Sometimes we just need to sit down and breathe.

Along with focusing on Christ, I have also have learned to focus on people. Too much time is spent on worrying over whether what I’ve made or decorated or wrapped will reflect well on me, whether they will like the thing. But if my focus is really on them, then as I bake or decorate I do so praying for and thinking about the people whom I am doing this for (and accepting that way too much of the time is really spent doing it for me). I pray that those with whom I spend time will feel the presence of Jesus, His love, joy, peace and hope. And I try to make sure that the activities I choose to do throughout the season involve spending time with friends and family with little or no agenda, just time given. This has enabled me to say “no, I don’t need to do that”, whatever extra “that” is.

We host a party every year. I’ve learned that guests come for the people, not the peripherals. Certainly decorations and food set the stage, but the feedback is always about the interactions. And God has so honored my prayer that everyone feel His love and presence. Last year a small group of us just sat around talking late into the night.

Last Christmas, difficult because we’d just lost my sister, really ended up being such a sweet day. I poured a lot of prayer into handling our loss. At the end of the day my brother set up a slide show of our growing up, pictures my brother-in-law had never seen of my sister. It was such a lovely, healing time. And then we rather spontaneously had a sleep over, since the slide show finished late. We woke up and shared breakfast together. It made the leaving easier, beyond dirty dishes and empty boxes.

In switching up the focus (and believe me, this is never 100%, perfectly accomplished by any means) I have found joy, peace, love and hope in the season. Because, let’s be honest, except for focusing on the Source of true love, joy, peace and hope, they are really just fleeting pipe dreams.  But in Christ I can have it all, if I just turn my focus to Him and what He would have me doing to celebrate His birth

For God so loved the World that He gave His only Son – John 3:16

God is Love I John 3:8

I (Jesus) came that you might have joy full and complete John 15:11;  16:23

My peace I give you John 14:27; 16:33

He is our peace  Ephesians 2:14

 The peace that transcends understanding  Philippians 4:6-7

Christ in you, the hope of glory Colossians 1:27

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God…And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control” Galatians 5:22

“May the God of hope fill you with all peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

 Have a wonderful week.

First Week of Advent 2025

 Though this sounds very cliché, I feel like Christmas was just yesterday, or at least the clean-up. As a child it seemed like Christmas took forever to arrive. As an adult the year passes way too quickly. But, it’s here. I’ve written before about how much I love this season of the year, but it is a bittersweet type of love. A lot of work goes in to the magic.

Yesterday I put on Christmas music and began to unpack decorations. I have way too many, but it allows for choices. I enjoy doing some things differently each year, but many things remain the same. One of the same traditions are my Santas. I have a few. Most of my Santas were gifts, so as I unpack I remember the giver. I probably should say “indulger”, because I do have quite a few Santas. I had to finally say “no more”, but that doesn’t always work. A big contributor to the collection was my brother. He, along with my husband, have curated quite a group of handsome Santa Clauses.

Santa has figured strong in my Christmas, long before I had visual reminders. Both my parents brought that magic into our lives. My dad, reportedly a late comer to the whole Santa thing, would sign little gifts “Love Santa” that he’d found for us and put in our stockings. I still have a couple of those gift tags, loving how he continued to do this up to his death.  My mom was the biggest Santa lover. We never had a fireplace or a chimney (unless you count the far from realistic cardboard one she found and used for many years), but she still convinced us Santa would find a way in. Long after we knew our parents were Santa, we still loved helping to weave that bit of magic into each Christmas.

Strange for a strong, Christian home to carry on such a tradition. One might think this would conflict with the true meaning of Christmas. That conflicted my dad in the early years of their marriage. How can you promote Santa and not diminish the Christ child in the manger? I am living proof you can.  Santa was a huge part of our Christmas season, but he never took prime place. The birth of Jesus always had center stage. No one tried to intertwine the stories (“Santa knows that we’re all God’s children, and that makes everything right”, or pictures of Santa kneeling at the crèche were not part of our traditions). We grew up knowing that Jesus was a real as we were. His was not a fantasy story. Though as children we believed there was a Santa, Santa never stepped into Jesus’ place in our Christmas. He just added a bit more magic to the season.

My parents did a great job of balancing all of this. And therein lies the bittersweet. My Dad’s been gone 20 years, my mom 30, as well as my husband’s parents. Most of my traditions tie into them, so every step I take during the season reminds me that they are no longer with us. We are also missing my two sisters. We, like a lot of families, find the season sometimes difficult to manage because we miss those who are gone. Grandparents, Step-Parents, Siblings, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Friends, Spouse, these losses leave huge holes that are especially difficult to fill over holidays.  For me the bittersweet comes knowing so much of Christmas is tied to those who have gone. Every ornament, food choice, piece of music holds a reminder of Christmases past.  Sweet, sweet memories that infuse everything I do during the season, and a little sour because we no longer have them here to share.

An important part of my tradition is setting up my manger scene. For many years my nephew set up the scene for me, and we would talk through the birth of Jesus. My manger scene is from Bethlehem, which makes it quite special, coming all that distance to me by way of my husband’s parents. And the characters continued to “travel” as my nephew “rode” the camels throughout our house to find a place for the wise men. They weren't at the manger, so we had to "ride" them around to find their place where they would wait to arrive on the scene. And somehow they have survived.

There is great comfort and blessing in setting up that scene. God came and met us here in our space through Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. That first Christmas was anything but glitter, and yet there were angels and shepherds, music and rejoicing. “Unto you is born this day a Savior Who is Christ the Lord.”  What happened that night so long ago, bringing God into our existence as a man (fully human and yet still fully God) is nothing short of magical. Not magic, like Santa, but magical, mysterious, amazing, beyond comprehension. And He came for me and my family. He came for you. He’s here walking through our grief and our joys. God is with us! 

He is with us as we prepare for Christmas 2025. Sure, we can push Him into a corner and focus only on the secular glitz of Christmas. I have a lot of that glitz around my home.  But we can also purposely focus on the source of all this celebration, Jesus the Christ, the originator of Christ-mass. In Latin the word translated “mass” means “sent”. We worship and then are sent out to share our faith. Christmas then is sending out the message of Christ. Our job as Christians is to keep Christ in Christmas, and I believe we do this by sharing our lives with others, being the flesh and blood arms and voices that bring the Good News to those who do not know. God is with us, and we are His ambassadors, the ones sent out.

That doesn’t mean we have to dump Santa. It just means that, like my parents, we put Christ at the center and celebrate His birth on this special day.

So here we are; it’s December again. As we celebrate this first week of Advent, let’s remember what we are really celebrating, making sure Christ is front and center of all we do and share. If nothing else, when we sense the bittersweet of the holidays, remembering that God is with us, right here in the midst of our grief and challenges. That is amazing! This is Christmas.

Thanks for Goodness

 

We just finished watching the final chapter of the movie Wicked. I first became entranced by this story reading the book by Gregory Maguire, and then totally captivated by the play, having the privilege of seeing it on stage in London’s West End, and now the movies. I enjoy stories that give us the “other side”, and this makes us look at Baum’s Wicked Witch of the West’s story through different eyes. Maybe she’s not so wicked.

We see people like that too. They may present themselves one way and then we get the opportunity to see them through a different lens and suddenly everything changes. Too many times we view people through the lens of labels – good, bad, tall, short, fat, thin, Republican, Democrat, straight, gay, Christian. Whatever those labels have come to mean, that’s how we see the people who wear the label. But sometimes we are allowed to see behind the curtain, to meet the actual person and they often defy their label. “She’s nothing like I thought she would be.”

What a blessing to have been a teacher. I met students with lots of labels. I had the opportunity to see them as the people, beyond the labels. As a result, when I hear a label, I see a student. Their names and faces stand out from words like trans, gay, autistic. My students taught me to drop the labels and just seek to see the person. I am forever grateful for that lesson.

Once a fellow teacher asked me how I, as a Christian, could stand being around all these “unbelievers” everyday?  Wow, the question left me stunned. I’d, thankfully, never thought of my fellow teachers or students in that way. And that’s what I told the questioner, as well as asking what type of witness for Jesus would I be if I saw “us” versus “them” or “them” as the enemy, someone hard to “stand”. Too often we allow the labels (or presumed labels, because in this case there were a lot of believers teaching alongside us) get in the way of really seeing the people and all they have to offer us.

The final film features my favorite song from Wicked, “For Good”. The song reminds me of all the people who have changed me, because I knew them. The list of my students could go on forever, so many touched and changed my life for good. And friends who continue to make me a better person by being in my life.

The words “for good” can take on several meanings.  I can be permanently changed, “changed for good”, and I can be changed for the positive, “for good”.  Good people are kind and encouraging. They love unconditionally, seeking the best in the other. How lovely to be told you’ve impacted another’s life “for good”.  Even better to imagine you’ve made a permanent impact – for good. Goodness is most importantly part of the Fruit of the Spirit. All of us professing Christians should be and give good.

So we come to Thanksgiving this week. We have this special day to give thanks for the good that has occurred in our lives, and for the people who have changed us “for good”. Whenever the song “For Good” sets on repeat in my head, I think of my sister, Leah. “Because I knew her, I’ve been changed for good.” I think of how blessed I’ve been with family (both from birth and my chosen family) who have played such crucial roles in making me a better human. I can only hope I’ve done a little of the same for them. Then there are my friends who hold me up and daily seek and encourage the best in me. I’ve been richly blessed for good and with good.

During this season of giving thanks, let’s make sure we let people know how grateful we are for their presence in our lives. Let’s make sure they know that because we’ve known them, we’ve been changed “for good”.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

“For Good” from the musical Wicked, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Forgiveness

 

Many years ago (and forgive me if I’ve told this story before, it’s a favorite) my young nephew taught me a beautiful lesson about forgiveness.  My nephew and our chosen son (whom my nephew refers to as “uncle”) were wrestling downstairs. After realizing he wasn’t going to win this battle, my nephew resorted to name calling. I don’t remember what the actual words were, but they were silly and meaningless, hurtful only in my nephew’s eyes. The rest of us laughed.

My nephew ran out of the room and up the stairs. After waiting a while for him to return, and certainly after life had moved on downstairs, I found him sitting on the stairs, in tears. When asked what was the matter, he replied, “I called Uncle by a bad name.”  I said it really wasn’t a bad name, just a name you meant to be mean. I suggested he go down and let his Uncle know he was sorry.  “I can’t”, my nephew replied. Why not? “It’s too hard.”  We sat a while longer and then, after reminding him all he needed to do was return to the room, I left him alone.  A while later my nephew rejoined us. He took the long way around the room towards his uncle. We watched his slow progress. It was almost painful to watch. Finally, he reached his uncle. He came around behind him and leaned in to whisper, “I’m sorry I called you a bad name.”  Our son reached around and engulfed him in a hug, telling him everything was ok. He was forgiven.

It is so hard to say “I’m sorry.”  It is particularly hard to ask for forgiveness.  What if our pride holds us back? What if they don’t want to forgive us? What if they don’t even like us anymore? The longer we wait, the harder it is to approach the person. All manner of worst case scenarios go through our heads. But if we push ourselves to go and make amends, and the person forgives us, there is no greater feeling.

As it is with people, so it is with God. He waits patiently for us to come and confess while we drag our feet and beat ourselves up. I realize many times we are not even remorseful, but most times if we are aware of what we’ve done, we do wish to make amends. But it is hard to admit we were in the wrong, and it’s hard to actually say the words “I’m sorry.”

To take this a step farther, I have a friend who wrote a book on forgiveness. He pointed out that it costs to forgive. The bigger the offense, the more difficult it is to forgive. Many times we feel like we wouldn’t accept their confession and forgive, we are just too hurt. Knowing how complicated and difficult it is to forgive, perhaps we’d be more careful with just throwing out “sorry”. It’s almost flip. If we instead of “sorry” were to ask for forgiveness, we’d sound more sincere, and we’d give the person we offended the opportunity to not forgive.  “Sorry” doesn’t allow for that.

Fortunately for my nephew, our son loves him very much, and was more than willing to forgive. All my nephew needed to do was re-approach his uncle and express his sorrow by nothing more than wanting to be in his presence again.  Amazingly, that is God’s response to us, but His open forgiveness cost a lot. Jesus Christ died in our place so we could be in a right relationship with God. Our forgiveness, our wonderful relationship with God as Father, came at a huge cost.

What if my nephew had never apologized?  His uncle would have still forgiven him and their relationship continued, but chances are it would be stilted for a while. Sometimes our pride and fear keeps us from seeking forgiveness. The other person may be graceful and keep our relationship anyway, but until we actually deal with the offense, the relationship can never be complete.

What if my son hadn’t accepted the apology? That’s our worst fear, isn’t it? We’ve done something so awful they will never love us again. But if we truly love someone, we can’t help but forgive, even at the cost of the pain caused by the offender.  Forgiveness doesn’t remove the pain from the one forgiving. That comes, hopefully, with time. But forgiveness does reopen the relationship.

God’s forgiveness is ever waiting for us. He’s always ready to open His arms and accept us in. Our salvation is secure in Christ’s sacrifice, so we don’t need to fear we’ve done something too awful for God to forgive. He forgave all our sins on the cross long before we committed them.  But when we sin, the relationship has a wedge in it, like my nephew and his uncle. There is a block in communication. It was never on our son’s part, but our nephew didn’t know that, until he re-approached his uncle. When we sin, our sin breaks our communication with God, and we can’t restore that without confession of what we’ve done. God is always waiting to reopen the lines.

When I was a youth pastor, there was an occasion when I inadvertently hurt a student. It wasn’t malicious on my part, but the student felt I had mistreated them. I asked for forgiveness, but none was given. The student finished high school and went on to college without our brokenness being healed. While still in college, the student volunteered to be part of our summer mission project. We always took a group of college and high school kids to a less advantaged area in our state. They would conduct worship services and lead a vacation Bible school week.  We lived very closely together in a church basement for that week. I was puzzled by this student’s desire to join the team.

During our preparations prior to the trip, we studied the work of the Holy Spirit in us. We talked about how the Holy Spirit can help us do anything. This student raised her hand and asked, looking me straight in the eye, “even forgive?” Yes, especially forgive. And in that moment she forgave me. What an incredible experience for us both. It took a long time, years, but through the power of the Holy Spirit in her, she was able to accept my apology from years back and to forgive me. We had a great week on that trip, something I never believed would happen.

Is there someone we need to forgive, whether they’ve even asked for it or not? God forgave us long before we came and asked. Is there someone we need to go to and seek forgiveness? God will give us the strength to do that, just as He helps us open up our lives to Him and seek His forgiveness. The joy when both the asking and the forgiveness come together is one of the most amazing things in this life.

Extraordinary Creatures

 

Another election passed, another week of government shutdown, another year of progress clogging polarity. I get so tired of all of this infighting and nothing being accomplished. Oh, we hear about great, big wonderful things happening, but that doesn’t help the person putting back groceries at the store when they don’t have enough money to buy it. It doesn’t help the homeless people find homes (and the ones who don’t find the mental health they need to once again want a home). In the church the polarity has also found roots that seem to strangle out God’s message of oneness.

C. S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory, wrote that there are no ordinary people. We are all eternal beings. It’s just our destinies that differ, “one to become glorious beings and the other our worst nightmare.” Here on earth we walk together and we have an impact. Much of what we see is the impact on the negative side – wars, infighting, genocide, as well as government shutdowns and leaders who seem more focused on what they want than on what the people they represent need or desire.

In Nigeria for example, one group of people is focused on killing off everyone who doesn’t agree with them, that includes Christians and Muslims from different sects. I believe the only thing stopping that kind of all out slaughter in our country is our law bound civility that grew our of Judeo-Christian values. Most of us don’t see killing those we disagree with as an answer. However, we can understand wanting our country to be filled with people we can agree with.

Is that even possible? Can any country reach total agreement on the issues affecting us? Part of what makes the western world tick is the plurality of the people living there. For the most part we’ve learned to find compromise and ways to live together. In the countries that can’t, well, they are seeking a state with only Christians, or only Muslims, or only Buddhists, or only whites; everyone else must leave or die.  In that light, American isn’t so bad.

But those extreme feelings are present here. Talk today is about making American white (or whiter) again (which it never was, unless you dismiss our First People, which too many do). In order to do that we are shipping out thousands of people who came here to find a better life. Were some of them dangerous criminals? Of course, since all of us are sinners and prone to follow our sinful desires. But most of these immigrants were here working hard, raising their families here and protecting their families back in their country of origin. Their only “crime” was being here illegally.  They were doing us all a service, working in jobs most of us would prefer not to do.  Why can’t we talk more about ways to find them temporary work status on their way to citizenship rather than gathering them up and deporting them?

There is a lot of talk about how white people are being discriminated against by laws meant to even the playing field between whites and people of color. So we are cutting off aid to programs that helped encourage the disadvantaged (whether by color or gender). But yet, if offered, who wouldn’t take an advantage to help them get farther in life? Most whites in America have had exactly that for their entire life.

Another example comes when we hear comments from our leaders about South African blacks being “racist” against whites. You think? After all the years of apartheid with minority whites pushing the black majority under their feet you can only imagine there would be some racists feelings and actions coming from the other direction. And it would be a lot worse had not Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu been in leadership when the tables turned.  In our country Dr. Martin Luther King helped keep the revenge violence to a minimum with his example of peaceful resistance, which ultimately brought about a beginning of civil rights and true equality.

Mandela, Tutu and King were all Christians, trying to live out their faith during the most difficult of circumstances. All three resisted their human drive towards vengeance and called for calmer action. All three are shining examples of Lewis’ extraordinary people (if there are “no ordinary” people, are we not left with “extraordinary”?)  All three are now “glorious beings”, enjoying the only place God promises to have total equality and freedom – home with Him. What do our extremist, right wing Christians here in America think Heaven is going to look like – white?  Aren’t they going to be surprised. The very Bible they refer to was written by people of color.

Lewis said we all walk this earth together, making an impact. I’m afraid the negative quotient is winning.  Even the impact the Christian church is having in our country is negative, with certain groups of people being deemed unfit for God’s Kingdom. But I have yet to find where in the Bible it says true followers of God are white, straight, and cis gendered. The Bible simply calls us to believe – believe we are all sinners, unworthy of God’s love; believe God wanted to have a relationship with us, regardless of our sin nature; believe that God gave Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin, in our place, so we could have that relationship, not as something we earn, but as something we accept as a gift.

God created humans in His image. All of us, as Lewis said, are eternal beings, capable of amazing things. We see that every day, even if the negatives clog our vision at times.  We are all extraordinary creatures. God desires all of us to be in relationship with Him. That should be the Christian Church’s singular message. God never called Christians to fix the world, because we couldn’t even if we wanted to. We are a broken mess.  Only God can “fix” the world. But we can become His people. We can let Him work in our lives to be our best selves. Through God we can produce in our life Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness and Self-Control. Think what the world could be like if Christians focused on letting God bear His Fruit through us, rather than trying to fix things via the political spectrum.

There are no ordinary people. All of us are creatures made in the image of our Creator. Let’s seek to look at the people around us as God’s creations, made in God’s image. It might make us look at others a little differently.

Sharing the Warmth

 

Fall is upon us! I absolutely love fall. On our way to the beach we pass a U-pick pumpkin patch. The orange against the green is one of my favorite color combinations. And don’t get me started on sun flowers, they always make me smile. We’ve already had a couple of storms, which around here bring wind and rain. I’m not a big fan of wind. I don’t mind that they bring down the leaves, although a friend pointed out this week that the wind always seems to come “just when the colors are coming out”. I do mind when the wind knocks down branches (and sometimes trees) and the power going out. I’ve talked about my dislike of that before.

We spent today pruning branches, raking leaves and cleaning up debris from our recent storm. It felt good to be outdoors on a crisp, sunny fall day. I wore myself out, but the sense of accomplishment is great.

I like the nesting feel of fall. Everyone sort of cuddles into the warmth of their home – fires in the fireplace, scented candles, a good book, left over Halloween candy.  The sense of security can come with having a place to tuck into. I, like many of us, take all of this for granted.

This week driving to the grocery store there was a family sitting on a street corner. The mother had a young child on her lap, two other children were beside her. The father had a sign asking for help – any help.  Obviously they don’t have a place to nest that is warm and safe. I can’t imagine. To make it worse, I didn't do anything but drive by.

There are a lot of people fearful of how they will make it through today, let alone tomorrow. The economy is scary. Thousands are without work. With our current government shutdown, even people with jobs are not getting paid and don’t know what they are going to do about rent and food and other bills. The shutdown also affects people like the family on the street corner, cutting off SNAP aide to the many who depend upon it for food.

When we were first married, my husband was laid off. He was without work for many months before finding a job, followed finally, a few months later, by being rehired by his original company. My job at the church didn’t pay a lot, and after we’d paid the rent, not a lot was left. Unemployment helps, but not a lot.  A friend found my husband a seasonal job working for Nordstrom in the fragrance section. Did that make you smile? It did me, but the women behind the counters were so happy to have my husband to refill their products and carry the heavy loads from the stockroom to their counters. The job ended just before Christmas. Those women packed Steve up with a couple huge Nordstrom shopping bags. There were all sorts of sample items, promotional gifts and the like. What a gift! We wrapped up most of the items and gave them as Christmas presents to our family. Their kindness has never been forgotten.

Random acts of kindness are a great gift to give, especially during this time of year. Whether it’s giving the family on the street corner money or food or an old coat, or letting the person behind you in line at the store step in front of you or paying for their coffee, or raking a neighbor’s leaves – looking for ways to ease someone’s burden is a terrific gift. Any time we can find a way to give back is special. Giving our time, sharing a meal, there are just so many ways we can make a difference in an otherwise dark world.

And kindness doesn’t have to cost anything. We can just be kind to everyone we encounter. Sometimes that is a rarity in our stressful world. It doesn’t cost much to say hello, ask how the cashier is doing, write a text of encouragement, send an email to someone you haven’t spoken with in a while. Sometimes even just smiling is an act of kindness. I smiled at someone in the grocery store, and she stopped, commented on my smile and thanked me for sharing it! We just never know.

I’ve obviously been thinking a lot about what I should be doing. I wish I'd known what was best to have done for that family. Probably it’s time to stop thinking and just get doing. Happy Fall!

What Makes Us Right With God?

 

I’ve written before about how Christianity can be confusing. The confusion comes primarily from those of us who profess to be Christians, not really from the Bible itself. The Bible is pretty clear. But sometimes it does sound like Christianity is a list of behaviors, which if we follow we are in the “club”.

One such confusion can come from what it means to be “righteous”. The Bible speaks a lot about God loving, saving, helping the righteous. And there are Scripture passages that might lead someone to believe you can attain righteousness by doing something – behaving in a certain way, avoiding certain behaviors, whatever. And once you've achieved "righteousness" God will love, help and save you.

The Oxford Dictionary offers this definition of righteousness: the quality of being morally right or justifiable. This would include right conduct and sometimes is taken to mean moral excellence.

The Bible seems to define righteousness as living according to God’s character: holiness, purity, uprightness. The Ten Commandments would be another reference to what behaviors God expects in a righteous person. Proverbs presents righteousness as something to pursue (see Proverbs 15:9, 21:3, 21:21). In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

 “Happy people are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They want to be right with God. They want to walk with God. They long for these things. That is where happiness will come from—not from the things of this world.” (Philip Wijaya, Ph.D. https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-righteousness.html)  So, can we somehow do some specific things to find this happiness, and achieve righteousness?  Can we just be good people, morally living our lives best we can and consider ourselves righteous?

Unfortunately, the Bible also teaches that there are none who are righteous, at least not righteous in the way God demands. We are pretty good at being right in our own eyes. But the Bible is very clear, in both Old and New Testaments) that we are incapable of being totally righteous. (see Psalms 14:1-3; Romans 3:10-18). We can try as hard as we want, but we always fall short. We may wish to live lives that reflect God’s character, but always end up failing. We can also be satisfied that we are ‘good enough’, and fool ourselves into thinking we are righteous.

Abraham was a man called by God, and he followed (story begins in Genesis 12). Abraham left all he knew and followed God’s lead. Abraham is referred to as a righteous man. But Abraham was far from perfect. The Bible teaches that Abraham had righteousness credited to him. How? Why? Because he believed God and followed Him. Romans 4:3 says “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  It wasn’t a perfect, sinless life, but a gift, given because Abraham believed, even if his belief was shaky and imperfect.

All of this centers around Jesus, God’s grace gift to sinners. There are none, on their own accord, who are righteous. All have sinned and fall short of God’s standard. All are helpless to do any kind of good works to make up for the deficit. Maybe by human standards we appear to be very righteous, but God’s standard is a bit higher. The good news is God, in His love for His creation, made a way possible to do the impossible. He paid the penalty for our sin, dying in our place, so if we place our faith in Him, we too are credited with righteousness. Righteousness, being right with God, is a gift given to all who believe. We can show God’s character in our lives. It’s like a bank account that is empty, in deficit even, and someone comes along and puts undeserved, unearned money into our account. God’s grace declares us in the black, righteous!

In Psalms 36:5-10 it says How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.

This could be a passage where it seems like God gives his righteousness to those who are upright, already righteous. But note that it says “upright in heart”. I may be unable to live a sinless, perfect life, but I can desire so in my heart. My heart can be righteous with the righteousness given to me in my belief. Sometimes my actions will reflect that righteousness. Sometimes they do not. But it’s there, because I believed God, and He put righteousness in my heart. 

Instead of relying on my imperfect character to do right in the world, I need to learn to rely on God to live his righteousness out through me.  Romans 8:1-4 speaks of the “righteous requirements of the law” (think Ten Commandments) being live out, not by us, but through us. That is a huge burden lifted from our shoulders. Yes, Christians are to behave in a way that reflects God’s character, but we are not ask to create that character ourselves. We can’t and only get frustrated trying (so we try to cover up our inadequacies by becoming even more legalistic and confusing non-believers regarding what Christianity really is). If we let God bear His fruit through us, then people see God in us.

The legalistic, hypocritical striving to seem perfect, sinless by Christians has turned away many seeking God. If being a Christian means behaving in certain ways – then the failure to do so makes Christianity seem impossible if not unbelievable. God has never asked us to be righteous of our own accord. He asks us to open our lives up to Him, receive His free gift of forgiveness and righteousness, and live out His character by His strength, not our own.

Christianity is not a good works, rigid, behavior based religion. That is a total misconception. Christianity is a fluid and growing relationship with our Creator, Who loved us enough to pay the penalty for our brokenness and make us whole. The burden isn’t on us because He took it on Himself. Our job, like Abraham, is to step out in faith, believe God’s promise, and receive His gift of righteousness.

Grace in the Contrasts

 

I love fall days. The changes are beautiful and often dramatic. Today we are at the coast and the rain came down in torrents last night. This morning all the vegetation looks bejeweled as the sun hits on the droplets. We drove up to Lake Cushman a few days ago, and the color in the leaves really stood out. There has been a horrific fire burning on the north end of the lake for much of the summer. The remains were hidden from us by low hanging clouds and smoke that still clings in the air. Fall is full of those contrasts, light and dark, clear and cloudy, warm and cold. It’s a season of change.

It’s also the season leading us into the holidays. We are now past mid-October, and as the days grow darker, they also seem to move by at a quicker pace. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas are all just around the corner. Fall ushers in the holidays which are, often times emotionally, also a time of contrasts, happy and sad, highs and lows, anticipation and disappointment.

We arrived here at the coast to find our heat pump not working. The house was so cold. The repairs can’t start until next week, but meantime we learned about “emergency heat” and have that going, plus a fire in the fireplace. We are cozy and warm, and I love that feeling. The world can be going crazy outside our walls, storms pounding, and we are dry and safe inside.

Several years ago we had a new furnace put in, and for some reason they were unable to finish the job in one day. It was also in late October and growing colder outside with frost in the mornings. We were fine inside with a few extra layers, but I was grumpy that the workers hadn’t finished the job. Then, on my way work I passed a church hosting a homeless camp. Those people had spent the night in tents. Suddenly, my lack of a furnace for one night seemed so much less important, embarrassingly so. I had a bathroom, warm shower, hot coffee. What on earth did I have to grumble about?

Life is like that. We have lots of contrasting emotions and experiences. Sometimes we think we are the only one to experience these ups and downs, and it’s good to be reminded that this is the human condition, not ours alone. When we think we are the only one suffering, we need to drive past the homeless encampment (literally or metaphorically) and be reminded of the blessings we have. Life may not be perfect, but my guess is most of us are doing ok, even when things break down. It could be a lot worse.

Even when we feel there are no other humans around who would understand our plight, we need to remember God is always there. We are never alone. There is so much grace in that truth. But, unfortunately, when clouds come in or furnaces break, we often forget He’s there. And He’s there for the people in the homeless encampment and the ICE detainment centers here in our country, and He’s there for the poorest of the poor living around the world. His presence has nothing to do with wealth or fame or living in the first world. His presence is a grace gift He’s given to all of us, undeserving as we are.

Better to not only accept His presence, but to also accept His love and forgiveness. When all is said and done, having accepted God’s gift of relationship, which is so much better than just His presence, is the key to finding peace and contentment in our lives. If we know we are in God’s hands, it doesn’t matter what life throws at us. We are ultimately safe and secure, like a home in the Fall when the wind and rain hits the house we are blessed to own, and we have a warm fire or a working furnace.

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me, he delivered me from all my fears…This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles…Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing….those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”  Psalms 34:4,6,8,9

DEI, Politics and Super Bowl Half-time

 

Why does everything need to be political today, vaccines, library books, Super Bowl half-time? I’ve been fascinated by all the controversy over choosing Bad Bunny to perform at the Super Bowl. We have people calling again for making English the national (read “only”) language. We have ICE planning to raid the stands looking for illegals. We have others freaked out that another culture is taking over our Super Bowl and from there end our world as we know it. What ever happened to just watching the game, enjoying the commercials and preparing food during halftime?

Unfortunately, a lot has to do with the current focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI.  There is this strong outcry against supporting anything that isn’t a win for white people. In the push to make America great, we seem to have forgotten America is made up with more than just white people. I heard the Hispanic population makes up around 20% of our country’s demographics. So a Hispanic performer at the Super Bowl seems more than fitting – not to mention Bad Bunny is popular with a lot more than his own ethnic group; he’s an international phenomena.

But it isn’t just the Super Bowl. Universities have had their funding cut or threatened, because of their DEI policies and curriculum that supports DEI. Public Schools are being told to stop teaching about slavery, the pushing of Native Americans on to reservations, and the quest for civil rights, even women’s rights. We are told all of that is racist??? Racist against whom? White people? Of course, those of us living today didn’t make the decisions that led to slavery or reservations. However, we could still be perpetuating the stereotypes that came out of those awful scenarios, especially if we are holding people back. Another part of DEI focused on education, with the intent to stop hampering, bullying, harming our minority populations. How is that racist?

Our country began as a haven for immigrants, yes, but predominantly white, Anglo Saxon, Protestant men. Those were the people in leadership, those were the people who set the agenda for this new country, which wasn’t so new. There had been people living here for centuries before these white men arrived. But our founders saw fit to erase the existing cultures upon arrival. So white people, especially affluent white men, have had it pretty good through the past 250 years of our country.

Why the push back? There is talk of these non-white immigrant cultures coming in and usurping “our” culture. That fear has been here from the beginning. They may have been male and white, but Irish and Italian immigrants were feared and dissed because they were Catholic. We hear people talking about “preserving” our culture – but our culture is totally a mix of everyone who has ever lived here.

Since white people have controlled everything in America for our entire history, I guess it’s not surprising the ebbing of that power might cause them some fear. But having Bad Bunny present an entirely Spanish half-time show isn’t going to have us wake up the next morning speaking Spanish any more than having a woman as a boss is going to make someone less of a man. There is really nothing to be afraid of, except maybe these minority groups banding together to form a voting block that would bring DEI back into play.

DEI programs were designed to even the playing field. All the players had originally been white. But people of all ethnicities were living here, contributing to our country. They deserved a shot at college and jobs, home ownership and a place in the community. But the odds were stacked against them by the dominant culture that created the job requirements, admittance tests and loan requirements.  Once someone could get into a school or take on a job or be given a loan, they did as good as or better than their white counterparts. For example, women have made terrific fire personnel and soldiers. Women and people of color have made terrific doctors, lawyers, teachers, and politicians. Their qualifications have nothing to do with their gender, their skin color or their country of origin. If they can do the job, they can do the job.

I’ve heard complaints about seeing too many people of color in TV commercials. So what? People of color buy stuff too.  Our sports teams are full of players from a variety of cultures (although that didn’t happen without a fight either). Why wouldn’t we have halftime programs that speak to them? Haven’t we had our share of white focused advertising and programming?  I can’t get the image out of my head of the little girl seeing the live-action Ariel in The Little Mermaid and saying in amazement, “she looks like me.”  It was a magical moment for that child. White people have seen themselves on TV, in movies, on sports teams, in classrooms and in public office for always. We don’t even think about it anymore. Our children probably don’t see a white Disney princess and think “she looks like me”. We don’t really understand what that means anymore, because it’s all around us. We’ve had that privilege forever.

What really hurts me is how callous we are towards people who are not like us. The disposing of DEI simply says to the people who need and benefit from those programs, “we don’t care about you.” That is heart breaking. Our world is richer for all the diversity in it.

Christians especially should be supporters of equality for all. Instead, our history is quite spotty on the issue. We forget Jesus would have been a person of color, not the white man too often pictured in our art. He was Middle Eastern. He wasn’t a Western man. He was poor. I wonder what He would think of all of this? The fact is, we are all made in God’s image, regardless of gender, color, sexual identity, whatever. In God’s sight we are the same. He sent his Son to die for all of us – no exceptions. Jesus evens the playing field by allowing us all into His family. What right do we have to do the opposite? Our constant creation of divisions only keeps people from seeing God. Jesus commanded us to go and bring people to Him, not pick and choose whom we think are welcome.

Acceptance of people who are different from us needn’t be so difficult. People are people. To paraphrase Shakespeare, ‘scratch us and we all bleed’. As a nation we had really made a lot of progress in the areas of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Hiring practices, educational curriculum – including a broader look at history-, creation of new opportunities have assisted a lot of minorities. Those assisted have then become role models for ones coming up. Obviously, we have a long way to go. Under the surface of progress, bigotry still exists. And today’s politicizing of everything doesn’t help.

DEI programs are necessary until the majority can accept and welcome in those who are not like them. DEI should be supported by both sides of the political spectrum.  As long as the majority puts up road blocks, we will need to have programs to tear them down. I’m not sure that will ever be totally possible, being human beings with sin natures that make us fearful of anything we deem different or somehow threatening. So DEI programs will probably always be necessary, and Christians should be the biggest supporters.

 How crazy is it that a Puerto Rican Superstar, performing at the Super Bowl, is made out to be a threat to the universe as we know it? Bottom line: I don’t have to like Bad Bunny, or even listen to him, to support his right to perform on the half-time show and delight those listeners who adore him. Who knows, this might be one of the best ever half-time shows.  That could actually shift the universe bit.

Contentment

 

In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul shares a statement about contentment. He says he’s learned to be content with what he has, and whatever state he is in, because of his relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul says he can be content because he “can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthens me”.  When he wrote this, Paul was in prison, not some place we would think to find much contentment.

Contentment isn’t an easy commodity. I’d say discontent is more likely to be the state in which we find ourselves. Tariffs, recession, high prices, political unrest – all of this and more contribute to the discontent we feel. We probably say “if only” a lot.  If only I had more money. If only I had a better job. If only I could lose weight. If only I had more sun.  If only these conditions were met, then I could be happy, content.

I am very discontented with our federal government. Every day I read in the news something that agitates me, adding up to a long list. We have begun a government shutdown, not much room for contentment in that, especially for the people whose jobs are on hold. I listen to our representatives argue over their side, and struggle to see where they can find middle ground. The decisions being made on our behalf by our government raise my anxiety and certainly my discontent. I’m guessing people on both sides of the political divide don’t feel much differently than me. All of us have our "if onlys" 

I don’t need the government to affect my contentment. I already have bills to pay, doctors to see, people to mollify. Even doing the laundry can mess up any state of contentment. I hate doing the laundry because it is never done. You can wash it all, fold it and put it away and already there are more things in the laundry basket. Silly to have that affect my contentment, but some days it does. And probably for most of us, it’s the little things that get hold of us.

What does it feel like to be contented? Certainly peace of mind, a sense of well-being. At the beach, sitting outside our house on a warm day, listening to the ocean and the birds, there I feel a lot of contentment. It’s when I let in all the other noise that my contentment disappears into agitation and worry. I’ll remember a doctor’s appointment coming up with an unknown procedure. My thoughts will stray to an unresolved issue with a friend or family. Even a memory of some spousal irritation can pop in, and contentment hits the road.

I was just reading about the Apostle Paul facing a shipwreck. (Acts 27) He was on his way to Rome. God had told him he would have a ministry in Rome. God wasn’t finished with Paul’s work here. When it looked like the worst was about to happen, Paul tells the crew that they would all survive; this wasn’t the end. However, the ship would be lost.  Good news, we will live. Bad news we will have to swim for it.  Sounds like a frying pan/fire situation. But they did get to shore and survive. Paul did get to Rome. He went as a prisoner, but was under house arrest for years, allowing him much freedom to minister and share the Christian message. Eventually he was placed in prison awaiting execution. It was there he wrote his words about contentment.

All this tells me that contentment isn’t about the absence of difficult circumstances. We think it is, but since such an absence is rare, Paul probably has it right. Paul’s contentment wasn’t about having a carefree, peaceful life. He said he had learned to be content in whatever circumstances faced him. So contentment is more than being problem free.

So what is contentment? According to Paul it is something we can learn. This would infer a choice (to learn or not). Paul learned contentment through a lot of extremely difficult circumstances. He learned not to say “if only”, but to accept the present and rest in that. Most important, he learned the God was with him through the storm, into the water, and onto the shore. God was with Paul in minimum security and maximum security prison. God was with him as he was led to, and during his execution. Through it all, Paul was content because God was with him. Paul had learned to focus on God, not on his circumstances. 

The Bible reveals that Paul was human and had his moments of angst. But over his lifetime he had learned contentment. He’d learned to trust that God had his life in hand, and would never leave or forsake him, even in the worst of circumstances. He knew God had a plan for his life, and at the end of his life he looked forward to Heaven and eternity with the God he loved and served. He wrote in Romans that even death can’t separate us from the love of God.

In another place I was reading about how gratitude can help with our anxieties and discontent. If I were to focus on the things I do have, it takes my mind from the “if onlys” For this week, the laundry is done. My doctor’s appointment showed everything is ok. My family is healthy. I have terrific friends. My husband is a saint. I have much to be thankful for. But what if I was to lose it all, on what do I then base my gratitude? Ultimately, for me, I am grateful that my Creator God died for what I deserved and now walks with me through whatever life throws at me. Everything else is really only temporary. Only God remains the same “yesterday, today and forever.” And this God chose to make a relationship with Him a daily, living reality. The ship may sink. I might have to swim to shore, but He is with me. I might even drown (a real possibility, my being such a terrible swimmer), but still, He is with me and I will step from the water into Heaven.

Ultimately, then, contentment lies in remembering Whose I am. Every day I learn more about living life with God. And that life includes learning to be content, whatever the circumstances, because He is bigger than the circumstances.  Governments and laundry come and go, but God promises to always be with me, through it all. I can learn this because He promises “I can do all things” through Him “who gives me strength”.