A New Year (Yes, please!)

So I can have a brand new year?  Don’t mind if I do!

The last one didn’t suit me like I wanted it to

I thought it’d make me happy and lay blessings at my door

But it required a lot of work and turned into a chore

So I gave up on last year, (it’s an annual tradition)

And accepted my position were with pragmatic pessimism

 

I’ll gladly take a new year. The last one didn’t work.

It promised joy and pleasures but started soon to hurt

The ones I love just disappointed time and time again

Till I felt I had nothing left that I could give to them

My heart grew tired of putting up with other people’s sins

Perhaps the turning of the page will bring me better friends

 

I’d love to have a new year! I wore the last one out

I cluttered it with trivia and weighed it down with doubt

I took its hours for granted and slept through several dawns

Till I looked up ashamed and saw the year was nearly gone

I didn’t really use it, I abused it, you might say

Till sadly now You find me in the shape I am today

 

I wished upon the wrong things till hope was worn too thin

Slammed the door on Providence and would not let Help in

I clung to independence till I choked the life from me

Insisting I was strong I killed my own identity

Tastelessly ungrateful I whined on trying days

I grumbled past the challenges that could have paved my way

 

It’s clear I need a new year, is one all I’m allowed?

It seems I’ve lost the one I had – I sure could use it now

Maybe I’ve misplaced it –  and it perished from neglect

While I complained about it hanging like a weight around my neck

It dared me be responsible! Demanded I respond!

It was such a nuisance I decided to move on

 

I think I’d like a fresh one; unstained with my mistakes.

Full of opportunities – just there for me to take

With ideal situations without those pesky risks

No difficult decisions to put me in a fit

A year I cannot ruin — one that’s trouble free

Is there really such a future available for me?

 

Reluctantly I’ll take this year. I have no choice, I think.

The Present stares me down, coolly daring me to blink

Tomorrow beckons freshly the way she’s always done

And makes me hope that any road will beat the way I’ve come

There is no ‘take or leave it’  — I must take it — look ahead

With a mustard seed of hope and a just a twinge of dread

 

If I accept this new year, what will it cost me now?

You say I’ll only prosper if my hand is on the plow

Bear my brother’s burden, cherish each day as a gift

But is there any man alive who can really live like this?

Ah! There’s the catch!  I’ve heard you say that there’s a price involved

That I must die to my desires and truly give You all

 

You really ask a lot, You know? But You are more than fair.

You offer me a Kingdom and you’ll even take me there

My crimes have dearly cost us both, but You do not complain

To pay my bill for wasted time and let me wear your Name

So I step into Your future, sails filled with  Second Chapter Wind

But only if You’ll guide, Lord, can I bear to start again

Disappointed with Christmas

Wow.

The bewildering aftertaste of eggnog, excess, and magical expectations.

Why do so many experience such a let-down after the holidays?

The toys break before lunch.

The batteries were not included.

It’s the wrong one.

I already have two.

The parts got thrown out with the wrapping paper.

It won’t run on a Mac.

Service not available in our area.

There was a fight with the relatives.

Worst of all, there was no magic. No warm fuzzies, no goodwill, no special feeling like all those made-for-tv movies I saw as a kid.

It came and went like other calendar pages.

We shared the gifts, ate the meal (did we ever!), even went to church and lit candles — but the ache of loneliness remains.

We try to keep Christmas alive by leaving the decorations up till New Year’s Day and re-warming those leftovers as long as they are edible, but holiday hope flickers like the fireplace log that has nothing more to give.

Even the sustained excitement of burning up those gift cards and making the shrewd after-Christmas exchanges leave us tired and well…, tired.

Is this all?

Shop till your expectations drop and fear that it really is as Lucy confessed to Charlie Brown – a big commercial racket run by a Big Syndicate back east.

Christmas itself cannot deliver anything.

It has no power to grant wishes, bring good will or even peace on earth.

Christmas is not an entity with will or purpose. It is a man-made construct and only grows bigger as we embellish the stories, add new myths, and allow it be an unstoppable cultural force.

In fact, Christmas can even become an idol when we expect it to do what only God can do. God brings peace through forgiveness of sin. God gives hope through the promises of eternal life. And liek evey idol it will only fail to deliver on promises ‘just too good to be true’.

Listen to what Oswald Chambers says about disillusionment being a tremendous liberator:

“Disillusionment means that there are no more false judgments in life. To be undeceived by disillusionment may leave us cynical and unkindly severe in our judgment of others, but the disillusionment which comes from God brings us to the place where we see men and women as they really are, and yet there is no cynicism, we have no stinging, bitter things to say. Many of the cruel things in life spring from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts; we are true only to our ideas of one another. Everything is either delightful and fine, or mean and dastardly, according to our idea.”

Christmas can be a damnable diversion when multitudes celebrate Christmas itself  but despise and dishonor Jesus Christ in revelry, greed, and self-deceived ‘feel-good-isms’ as they drop a few coins into the Salvation Army kettle or get misty-eyed thinking of Grandma’s dinner table.

Let Christmas have its rightful place.

But never let Christmas overshadow Christ.

Let us celebrate with abandon, consider the poor, and rejoice in the Saviour who has come to dwell among us.

Just as the star in Bethlehem let seekers long ago, let Christmas bring our thoughts, lives and actions to the person of Jesus Christ that we might worship Him.

Long after the last cheeseball has done its damage, Jesus will still be working, promising hope, giving me the power to love and serve my neighbour.

Objections to Christmas Part 3

Well, it’s a pagan holiday anyway! Everyone knows it was just an adapted version of the old winter solstice celebration! And all the mistletoe, decorated trees, yule logs, etc are not even in the Bible! It’s nothing but a compromise! So there!

Okay, a couple of sharp readers were ahead of me on this one, but I still wanted to address it from my perspective — this is an old gripe and I cannot deny that many of our beloved non-biblical customs (Christmas trees, etc) are merely carry-overs from various cultures. At best they have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ, and at worst they indeed have pagan origins.

Let’s admit it, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we have only added icons to the merry mix; Charles Dickens, Nat King Cole, Snowmen, and even the Grinch have all been assimilated into that great cheeseball we call “The Most Wonderful Time of The Year”.

What  metaphor better represents westernized Christmas than the Perennial Fruitcake  — a mysterious mixture of unknown and possibly inedible elements. It mysteriously defies time and is just as fresh (or not) as it was last year!

Even so, in the midst of the nonsense,  Jesus is still proclaimed, worshiped, celebrated, and advocated during this season of Sinatra, Santa and and hanging greens. I dare say He even sits in the crooked tax collector’s house telling stories of Heaven.

Psalm 139:12 has always been an interesting verse that helps me understand how He could wade into our muck:

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

In other words, God works both sides of the street! He is not intimidated by the pagan powers of darkness the same way that they fear Him. He is Sovereign, Superior, and unflustered as He pursues His ends.

Once, at a very unholy place near the headwaters of the Jordan River, at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus threw a loaded question to His disciples: “Who do men say that I am?” and then, “But who do you say that I am?”

When Peter confessed “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, Jesus blessed Peter and reminded the twelve that the gates of Hell would not withstand the Church Jesus was building.

He not only cornered His men with this  conversation, but by making this claim at this particular spot, He made an affront to all the powers of spiritual darkness.

You see, there exists at this very same locale the ruined Grotto of Pan — a pre-Christian Pagan temple that ancients believed to be the very gates of Hell. It was as if Jesus was standing in the devil’s yard and taunting him!

Think about it. Christ’s message came into a wild world of extreme idolatry, mysticism and Emperor worship. Sorcerers, demoniacs, and soothsayers peppered the New Testament story. The Apostles’ missionary journeys led to cities dedicated to sexual immorality and pantheistic (many gods) worship. The crazy outcome was that thriving churches developed in some of these very cities like Corinth and Ephesus.

Jesus joyfully dances into our bleak midwinter and offers not just a new solar year, but a new beginning where men can be born again as new creatures.

Pagan traditions do not hinder Him.

Our foolish distractions do not deter Him.

He will bring a song, a light, and bring many sons to glory.

Merry Christmas!

Remains of the Grotto of Pan taken by CV in Israel December 2010

Objections to Christmas Part 2

No one knows when Jesus’ birthday is, anyway! How do we know it’s December 25?

Good point.

Truth is, we don’t know — in fact, chances are three hundred and sixty four to one that He was NOT born  on December 25th. According to some scholars, Jesus was probably born in the spring of the year, since that’s when shepherds would have been watching flocks by night.

I guess it really could have been almost any day, but that randomness seems to drive His agenda home.

Why doesn’t Scripture say specifically?  Other Old Testament feast were to be kept on designated dates of the year.

This apparent mystery seems to be part of the point — that the Son of God (Who had always been) came into the world (which He had made) and no one is sure when exactly it happened.

When we take a good look at the Bible, Jesus’ first appearance went by without much notice at all.

Only a few shepherds were informed of the event that night — and shepherds were not exactly regarded as trustworthy. But nevertheless they followed the angels’ instruction and found the humble scene of the new Baby that would change everything.

The esteemed religious scholars missed His arrival without even knowing it had happened.  They were so unprepared that foreign visitors embarrassed them by asking to see the New King that they knew nothing about. Seemed they were too busy focusing on rules to notice their Messiah was in town.

The astute and aggressive Herod the Great was oblivious to this pivotal point in world history, but showed keen interest in a New King in town that might threaten him.

We really shouldn’t be surprised by any of this — it seems to be a dense part of human nature  to miss the obvious — especially where it involves the Almighty.

Genesis 28 tells the story of Jacob and the dream of a ladder reaching to Heaven with angels traveling back and forth between the two — He awoke with that awestruck confession we love to sing “Surely the Lord is in this place” — but we never sing the rest of what he said: “and I knew it not”.

Samson was a confused playboy uniquely gifted and called to defend God’s people. Like many gifted servants, he took his gifts for granted and selfishly abused his abilities until he was driven to compromise with his manipulative girlfriend Delilah.  He became desensitized to God’s presence and was unaware when God had left him

Judges 16:20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.

Finally we see the painful picture of Jesus mourning over Jerusalem as he entered in to die for the sins of Mankind.

Luke 19:41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

How sad — this city still tormented today by greed, politics, oppression, and religious wars. Messiah came openly and healed in their streets — brought comfort and inclusion to widows and lepers, straightened out honest religious seekers while warning the self-righteous phonies of the fires of Hell. He instilled hope of a better kingdom in the hearts of men — and was killed for it — tortured to death and rejected as a religious heretic, a madman, a dangerous terrorist.

Meanwhile, the Jews still wait for a messiah — one who will more conveniently fit what they’re looking for.

So regardless of what day it fell upon, point is, He has come and left His mark.

Many missed His appearing then and many are oblivious to Him this moment. He has been working all along and is working now.

He reveals Himself in conversation, through the love of His friends, thorough the most unlikely vehicles — teenage mothers, talking farm animals, burning shrubs, your pesky co-worker or that weird cousin.

Arguing over His birthday is missing the point.

2 Corinthians 6:2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.

He could show up any time.  Just prepare yourself to respond appropriately when He does.

Objections to Christmas Part 1

It’s just too commercialized! Materialism is taking away the true meaning of Christmas!

This reasonable rant seems to have become a traditional seasonal phrase, just like “Happy Holidays”, “Bah! Humbug!”, or “Would you like to join our rewards program?”

Even Charlie Brown’s dog is in on the rat race trying to win MONEY MONEY MONEY with his enthusiastic light display.

Every opportunist is capitalizing on gold, frankincense, or myrrh. Icons of Wise Men from the East (usually China) and a multitude of Angels fill the shops and websites. If Mary and Jesus were to appear looking for a last-minute room today, there would be no shortage of hosts offering ‘holiday specials’ and free Wi-Fi.

Retailers and other services legitimately rely on this season for a substantial percentage of their income, even though a tremendous amount of sincere generosity and gift-giving are charged beyond affordability.

I really don’t think Jesus is as bothered about all this commerce as we are.

It didn’t seem to stop Him the first time to step into such a money-riven scenario. After all, it was tax season that brought the young couple to Bethlehem — a time when a Pagan government (whose emperor though he was a god) demanded money and a head-count from an oppressed people group in order to continue his ego-driven government projects.

As my friend Gayle Erwin points out, the night Jesus was born was anything but the idyllic ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’ we solemnly sing about (O, it was indeed made holy by the presence of the Holy One) — it was a night when angry people resented paying taxes to a foreign government they hated, the bars were full, travelers were tired, and religious hucksters were preying on the devout. Enterprising merchants took full advantage of  the traffic, too.  The place was so crowded that a teenage girl had no choice but to give birth in a nasty barn with little privacy — today’s equivalent of a motel parking lot.

Yet into this greedy chaos the Son Of God deliberately came — in total control, unflustered, and with a determined purpose to bring Peace  by putting and end to the power of sin over the human race.

Instead of getting frazzled as you fight the crowds for one more gift or a better deal, slow down and listen — He is speaking gently.

The words of the Prophets are straining over the loudspeakers.  The encouraging Hymns speak solace in the Super Store.

Peace on Earth and Mercy Mild

God and sinners reconciled!

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see!

Hail the Incarnate Deity!

Pleased as Man with man to dwell

Jesus our Emmanuel!

The plastic images of the Baby Jesus shoved right alongside the latest toy craze only remind us that  the Son of God has come!

Right into all our mess and foolishness!

He is not intimidated by any trivial trinket, nor too holy to dive into our dirt!

He is fully capable of overshadowing these vanities with His light, disarming our insecure greed with His satisfying love, and clearing away the clutter with His truth.

Off to Jerusalem

Tomorrow we head to Israel.

I really don’t how I feel about it.

We are naturally excited about a break, and travel overseas.

I am trying, however, not to have unrealistic expectations.

Not looking for angels or burning bushes, but I also realise that the Bible is clear that this city is the geographical focal point of human history. Jesus was born there, died there, and will be coming back to that place. I believe this.

I certainly don’t want to have a ‘so what? another foreign country’ attitude and miss what is right before me..

I will guard against cynicism as I navigate the tourist trap of moneychangers in the proverbial temple. I will try not to be overwhelmed by politics, human suffering, and injustice dispensed by expedience and beauracracy.

so I guess what I’m really saying is ‘Lord, let me have a clear, open mind — free from preconceptions so that You might speak whatever You want to speak. Then give me the wisdom and courage to respond appropriately.’

Oh, He’s always speaking, I just get a little hard of hearing. Or distracted.

Where the path leads…

I am still amazed and sobered at the next turn in the path, the sudden view from the crest in the road, as I press toward the prize of following Jesus.

This has been a year of beginnings and closings, of hellos  and farewells.

We have parted from dear friends  as they crossed the ocean to their new home in England.

Made new friends in El Salvador, Nashville, and California.

We weathered the painful pride when sending our baby girl to college on the West Coast,

I felt the stunned bewilderment of “I’m almost jealous so why am I crying” as my little-boy-turned-bearded-young-man eagerly charges off to a year in Spain.

Said respectful goodbyes to a dear old Uncle, while re-connecting with the cherished the cousins  of my far-away childhood

We giddily welcomed the first Granddaughter, or as my wife calls her ‘The Grand Baby’!

The value of  life-long friends and loved ones only gets richer, as the silver streaks crown our heads and for some reason the old guy in my bathroom mirror resembles my Grandfather’s brother a little more each day