Tidings Of Great Joy For ALL People--Even The Bad Ones

I was sitting in a church service today as the pastor was talking about the freshness and life his father would try to bring to Christmas every year. Suddenly I started thinking about my future family (Lord willing) and how I would instill in my children an earnest understanding and appreciation for Christmas. What is it I want them to learn? What is important, and how do the various elements of Christmas relate? What do the trappings have to do with Christ, and how will I relate those values to my kids?
My first thought was classic: we give gifts to others as a way of remembering God's gift to us--eternal life through Jesus Christ. We give gifts to show people that we love them. My beef with such occasions has always been a developed misunderstanding that such gifts are earned or inherently deserved. Is that the kind of gift we are commemorating at Christmas?
That's when it hit me. Kid's are not just allowed to believe that they deserve gifts, they are taught to believe they deserve gifts. When we talk about Santa Clause, what do we say he puts in the stockings of "naughty" children? Coal! Bad kids are not deserving of toys and candy and such. And how many of you parents have threatened your children with "no presents for Christmas if you don't behave"? Gifts are earned, not given out of an unquenchable love.
Is that the kind of gift God gave us?
The answer is emphatically "NO!" Do you know what we were like when Jesus came? Do you know how we behaved, or more accurately, misbehaved?
We were despicable in our arrogance and our pride. We were filthy in our lies, lusts and licentious acts. We not only lived for ourselves, we lived in complete rebellion and hatred toward God.
Would you give that child a present on Christmas morning? Would you give him the greatest and most precious thing in your possession?
God did.
Don't get me wrong. Love also disciplines when it is needed. If it did not, it would not be very loving. God's gift to us was the best thing for us even and especially in our rebellious state. I don't know that many of us could say the same thing of those colorfully wrapped presents under the tree. There is a difference between God's gift and our's.
But before you start throwing around those often empty Christmas threats, let's think about what we are trying to do. If in our gift giving we are trying to demonstrate God's complete, perfect and unchanging love for us--in spite of ourselves, and our similarly unconditional love for our children, family and friends, then how do we demonstrate that through our actions and our words? I'm not saying this is always the answer, but perhaps sometimes it means giving the most rotten and rude person the greatest gift they have ever received.
Think about it.
And ask yourself: What do you think you really deserve?

The Blinding Darkness

The days do wane like the shaving of the moon.
That luminary which holds its glow full bright
Does so shortly surrender to the darkness of night.
While voices in obscurity do cry "So soon?"

Hmm...I don't know what I think of the meter.

I am most-ways ashamed that I did not make a single post in the month of October. But that is as is and as cannot be undone.
There is a light on the horizon. There is a dark and frightening shadow between here and there, but I do see a light. In truth there has always been a light. That light, however, stood seemingly far off--though no one knows how near it may be. Now, lest that farther light prove to come before, I at least have a closer light to look forward to.
One must be cautious in what dim auroras one places his hopes. It is in many ways better to consider such dull sparkles to be lighter darknessess than to seek them in place of the eternal brilliance--where in we find true hope.
At the same time no where are we told that we should not enjoy the good and simple pleasures which we are given. We know these good and perfect gifts do come because we are told that they come and from whom them come. For that reason I will look forward to and enjoy those little gifts while keeping my bright, shining and future home full in mind.

Giant OR Windmill?

The first weekend after classes have begun is always weird. I feel as though I am in a state of limbo with all my experiences of school in the past, but no real concept of what this year of school will be like. Will it be easier, or harder? Is the week that just passed any indication of what the rest of the year will hold? Will I encounter the same frustrations as last year, or will they mostly be new issues?
It's hard to tell anything at this point. People ask how I'm doing. I think I'm doing fine, but that is because I am in a state of ignorance which can only be remedied by the experiences I am about to face. They say "ignorance is bliss", but they also have a saying that has to do with a brown substance coming in contact with an air-flow generator.

Life

Small and insignificant
Weak and without purpose
Reaching
Stretching
Hoping
Growing
Moving
Big and substantial
Strong and Driven
Walking
Grasping
Directing
Learning
Full and meaningful
Powerful and purposeful
Leading
Laboring
Laughing
Loving
LIVING

Fear Vs. Faith

My time here is coming to an end. Thursday of this next week I leave for camp. I'll be working as summer staff for the rest of the summer. I'm looking forward to it. It will be a great summer.
So why am I so scared?
This is not the first time I've worked at a camp. This will not be the first time I've been a camp councilor. I have every reason to believe that this summer will be a success.
What am I so worried about?
Maybe I'm giving too much power to my weaknesses. Maybe I need a shift in perspective. I'm so busy looking at how unqualified and unprepared I might be that I'm placing all the focus on me and my abilities. As if any good that comes of my work this summer will be my doing.
If anything I should be embracing my weaknesses. I should be aware of them and praying earnestly that God will work through them. Paul says that it is in his weaknesses that God is proved strong.
Sure, God gets all the credit for the things I excel at. He is the one who made me the way I am. But how much more evident is His work when He does great things through my weaknesses.
That doesn't make it easy to proceede. I know that it will be hard. I know that it will bring new challenges. It's kinda scary because I know that I will be stretched and pushed to grow, and that can hurt or at least be uncomfortable.
But why worry? The Father knows what I need, so let tomorrow worry about itself.
But why fear? Fear has to do with punishment, and I will not be punished as long as I submit myself to the Father and seek Him. There is no reason to fear.
Through the Lord's strength I can face boldly and humbly the work He has before me.
I am praying for three things for myself: wisdom, humility and love. Wisdom to know how to react to situation. Humility to know when it is my place to react. Love for others that causes me to seek and apply the wisdom and humility.

Song Of The Willow

The saddest of giants stands tall and wilted.
Though healthy in body its spirit mourns.
Its green leaves long and slender,
Like the fair fingers of a young widow
Reaching down to the earth for her lost love.

Misunderstood, she is scorned by many;
An omen of darkness, and pain of heart;
A symbol of love lost and unrequited;
A stalker of travelers, and death-bringer, she.
And for all these charges she has kept her silence.

There are few who have seen her in true light;
As a bringer of wisdom, and a strong guardian;
An easer of pains, and promoter of life.
Indeed, life springs forth from every fallen sprig,
Shooting up to the heavens from its burial ground.

A firm tower, she stands along the river banks
Guarding against all raging currents.
Her roots dig deep, holding fast their ground;
Grasping tight to protect her beloved land.
She has lost one love, and will lose no more.

Her slender beauty poised in the meadow,
Though scarred in spirit, she welcomes all.
Gently she whispers the winds glad tidings,
And sings the songs of dancing leaves.
For all she gives, and asking nothing,
She is alone.

Lost In A Sea Of Tumultuous Tranquility

Four dwarf giants set standing around a puddle of fire one wet and sunny night.
They grumbled along silently to each other.
The first complained of the pleasant feeling of slugs between his toes.
The second had lost track of time while staring at his watch.
The last thought only of finding a way to fly through the ocean on horseback--
he wanted to catch a glimpse of an invisible sea cow.

Day 6: We haven't found any food yet. Our water is running low, and we save what we can for the women and small children. One man thought he found a brollium deposit in a near by offshoot to this cavernous prison, but it ended up being fools' ore. If only it had been brollium, that stuff is always found near a source of clean water. No one knows why. That's just how it is.

But seriously, one of the top classic ways to start a fictitious journal entry is to have the writer still looking for food and water. It describes half of the scenarios that a person might actually be interested in reading out of a journal.

My brother continues to give me lesson after lesson in the ways of ludicris. That man has a mind like few I've ever met. He does know how to apply it very well and even according to the "rules" and "standards" of general acceptance. Most of the time, however, he chooses not to. He litterally sets aside time to think about the kinds of things that most people would never even consider. And each point is justifiable in its own right--though many of them do require certain allowances in order to function.
In all honesty I sometimes envy his keen observation of the obvious. He looks at the every-day, the mundane and makes observations that few others would ever come close to noticing. He sees connections that no one should notice until they are pointed out.
I've known for a long time that I'm not as observent as I could be, and some times as I should be. Listening to all the thoughts and ideas rolling out of my brothers head, however, makes me wonder what happened to me. We grew up in the same house, with the same family. What's the difference?
Don't get me wrong. I am proud of my brother, and I am content to be who God has made me to be. There are just times when I wonder if maybe I don't quite live up to all that God has made me to be simply because I don't practice many of these simple skills.
I guess I'll just have to leave the ultimate of absurdities to my brother.