December Doldrums

Most people do not look forward to December 26.

It often comes too fast, carrying with it a feeling of post-holiday blues.

The presents are unwrapped.  The cranberry pie digested, and the remains of the Christmas feast sit in little Tupperware containers in the refrigerator.

The Christmas tree begins to fade and drop its leaves, and the task of taking down all the glorious lights and decorations lies ahead.

But yet, there is still time to linger in the Christmas light, and gather strength and hope for days ahead in its glow.

The end of 2014 looms, and the unknown of 2015 draws near.

In the twinkling lights all feels calm and bright.  But in the approaching year of decisions and alarm clocks, and searching for purpose, the world feels anxious and shadowed.

Ebenezer Scrooge famously says in Charles Dickens' play, The Christmas Carol, "I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year."

I wonder what he meant by this and if he ever struggled to keep hope burning bright as days passed.

When the last of the Christmas decorations is put away, gift of Christmas still continues.  The Christ child born all those years ago grew to be a man.  The bright star that led the wise men to Bethlehem pales in comparison with the Morning Star that now shines.

So even if the lights dim in our yards, may the light of our hearts never grow dim, but may it grow ever brighter as we live in the promise of Christmas and share that hope with others.

Let the Stable still Astonish

I often think of this poem at Christmas time.  Enjoy the reflections of Let the Stable still Astonish by Leslie Leyland Fields. 

Let the stable still astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,

And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said: “Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place”?

Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
of our hearts and says, “Yes,
let the God of Heaven and Earth
be born here–
in this place.”

-Leslie Leyland Fields

A Deeper Experience

Imagine with me this scenario for a moment:

**
You are alone in the car driving to work.   Your phone is taking a nap; peacefully silent in the seat beside you.

A new song comes on the radio.  The intro catches your attention and you turn it up.

The words speak to you.  The story flows slowly but meaningfully until the last chorus leaves you in tears.

The song is beautiful.  And you have experienced it.

You purchase the song that night and play it for your friend the next day as you are headed to lunch.  But another friend you are meeting at the restaurant is running late and she calls mid-verse to tell you this.  With all the distractions that ensue, your friend in the car does not feel the same way about the song as you did upon first hearing it.

**

There is a difference between experiencing a song and listening to a song.

Which makes me wonder, does this apply to life as well?

If I'm constantly multi-tasking, am I missing a chance to experience meaningful parts of life?

How many conversations do I have while doing something else, or maybe multiple things?

I know there are times when we need to be efficient, to accomplish, to multi-task.

But I believe there are also times when we need to focus.  To put down the iPhone, close Facebook, stop making lists in our mind, and truly experience the present.

If we don't, we run the risk of missing the heart of our daily interactions and the ability to experience life at a deeper level.

To Fear or Not to Fear

Ever since the second nurse was diagnosed with Ebola my concern over this issue has grown significantly.  At first I bought into the general consensus that this disease could be contained, and the US was equipped to handle patients in a safe manner.

But now I'm not so sure.

My 'could the world end soon?' antenna is a little higher and I'm bordering on actual concern for a mass outbreak followed by days of being quarantined at home.

At this point, its hard to know what to think really or what to expect.

It seems to me that our current generation is programmed to listen with great interest to news about potentially life altering events, but not to really expect those events to actually affect life as we know it.

While we may fear an Ebola outbreak, how many of us truly think this will happen in America?  What would that do to our national confidence if it did?

If our hospitals are unable to protect healthcare workers from contracting contagious diseases, how many healthcare workers will choose to continue to care for patients?  Could you blame them if they didn't?

I'm troubled by the potential for disaster in my country.  And perhaps equally troubled by how hard it is to believe that disaster could ever impact America.     I'm grateful to live in such a wonderful country, but the reality remains that we live in a fallen world.  And we know the end is coming.

I don't want to be caught off guard like the metaphor of a thief in the night.

I also don't want to live life in a state of fear.  

The same Jesus who promised that the end would come also declared that he came that we might have abundant life.   (Matthew 24:14, John 10:10)

Perhaps one response is to fear ebola and other potential security threats in our country in the sense of being aware of the danger and not ignoring warning signs around us, but also not to fear these things by definition of being afraid of them.

May we be wise in our understanding, childlike in our faith, and unwavering in our trust in God.

Mountain Peaks

It's hard to come down from the mountains.

My husband and I just finished an amazing vacation in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and now that we are home, I'm feeling a little sad.

I love our home, our friends, our church.  But there is something special about being on top of the world amid beauty so wild and breathtaking that it scarcely seems real.

It's hard not to miss the crispness of the air.  The snowcapped peaks.  The golden aspens. And trails and trails of forest to explore: open grassy meadows, rocky rivers, and winding inclines with spectacular vistas.

How do you come down from the mountains?

At times life offers amazing moments, incredible experiences, full of promise.
It can be hard to come down from these times as well.   How do we go about living the day to day, once we have learned about the mountain tops and long to return?

I'm sure there are many wonderful answers to this question.   But for now the promise playing in my mind is from Matthew, when a small band of Christians gathered together as they were about to watch their mountain top experience ascend into the sky.  

"Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Beyond the Miasma

There are days when life makes sense.  Things fall into place, routine finds its groove.  During this time we don't often question life and may easily find answers when we do.

But there are other days when something pulls us from the routine and for a moment we catch a glimpse of a bigger picture.

Often these reflections are inspiring.  But sometimes the corresponding thoughts are confusing or even worse cause life to feel meaningless in that moment.

For example: Why go to college, get married, and buy a house on the lake so your kids can spend happy summer days by the shore, if later in life you will retire and your children will move on to their own homes?

What is the point of life, specifically as time slips by and generations change?

The stories of the Bible offers hope and the promise of something bigger and greater in the universe but that something can still be hard to understand.

Perhaps it is because we still live in the fog.  We don't see clearly yet.

Paul says it this way, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am fully known."  1 Cor 13:12

Perhaps it's like a young boy growing up in a tiny town deep in the marshlands and full of miasma.  He has never left home, but on the clearest of days he can catch sight of an incredible mansion perfectly situated on the green hillside outside the village.

Somehow he knows that the mansion and surrounding lands are good and beautiful; perfect beyond his  imagination, but because he can't yet cross the wide swamp between his home and the hills beyond it, he doesn't know what the great hallways look like or how the green pastures feel beneath his feet.  He can't explore the grand rooms or run through the grounds in search of fireflies.

The boy longs to escape the poisonous air of his homeland for instinctively he knows that his very survival depends on it.  But he doesn't know exactly what to expect once he does leave.

Like the boy, we long for as many glimpses of that mansion as we can handle, but there may be things about it that we will not understand until we get there.  Things that in our mortal state, we can not understand.

So for now, may we know Way home,  trust the Truth of how to get there, and find deep hope and purpose in Life eternal.

The mansion waits.  The fireflies glow.  One day the fog will lift.

Let us hold fast to our hope.

The Quilter

Our Grandma’s life

Was like a quilt

That time and love

And family built.

Squares added in her years

Growing up in the South

Hours spent shelling peas

On the porch of the old house

Tales of her home

Cotton picking with her brothers

There was always a memory to hear

At the feet of our grandmother

As years and seasons changed

The quilt grew with time

As babies and grandkids

Each added their lines.

Memories woven in

Of summers on the lake

Homemade berry cobbler

And casseroles baked

This quilt is now finished

The work is complete

The seamstress awaiting

The Call from her sleep.

By Kristen Harmon and Jennifer Twomley

Book Review: Forever with You

Yesterday I finished reading the latest book in the Christy Miller Series, "Forever with You" by Robin Jones Gunn.

Robin is one of my favorite authors in Christian fiction.  I love her stories, and I love her pictures of God.

If you have not read the Christy Miller series, I highly recommend it.  It starts with Christy's first true encounter with God on the beach in Newport Beach and follows her journey through high school and college, and finally into married life.

Robin has a way of making her characters come to life and also weaving goodness and grace and friendship into her tales.

This is one of my favorite books in the series.  

Without giving a way too much of the plot I will say that much of this book finds Christy and Todd going through a rough patch in their marriage.  Their faith is tested and God's plan remains clouded from their sight for longer than they would have thought.

This theme of the book is highlighted in the following quote from Todd,  "He squinted his tear-filled eyes, looking like a miner who had been doing the best work he could in a dark place and was now coming out into the full sunlight."

This is a beautiful picture of faithfulness.  And a reminder that God will never let us down.  It reminds me of the verse in 1 Peter 2:9.

"But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light."

Happy reading!

Success

What is success?

In order to answer this question, we should first consider the goal.   For it is against a goal that we can measure success.

For example, if your goal is to finish college, you will know you succeeded once you obtain your degree.  Or if your goal is to get married, you will know you succeeded when you stand before an officiant exchanging vows of matrimony.  If your goal is to make $1 million dollars, you will know you have succeeded when your assets total $1 million.

But if your goal is to succeed at life in general, this is much more complex and hard to measure.

Life is full of goals and milestones.

Of emotions.

Of people.

And to 'succeed' at life you first need to know how to live life.  And to live it well.

For what appears to be success in one area may bring disappointment to the overall picture.
And what may appear to be a step back in another area may bring great joy to your life in general.

I read the quote below many years ago and its words have stuck with me as a beautiful description of success in life and a response to the question:  What is success?

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Comments Section

Thanks to social media, sharing blogs and articles from writers around the world has never been easier.
Which means commenting on blogs and articles written by authors from around the world has never been easier.

And goodness, the things people say.

Sometimes the comments section provides more entertainment then the actual article.
It can also be a jarring display of how easy it is to disagree with and to criticize the thoughts of another.
Especially when the commenters take an openly rude tune and are seeking to discount the article all together.

Now depending on if you agree with the author or the critic, you may view the availability of such a comments section differently but in many cases, it exists, a simple scroll away.

There is an old saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

On its own, this expression is lacking balance; sometimes the things that need saying are not nice.  But consider the above saying combined with the additional words of wisdom below.

"To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable."

"Choose your battles"

Together these proverbs become a strong trio of council when it comes to reacting to opinions whether online or in person.

Walking by Faith

For we live by faith, not by sight.  
2 Corinthians 5:7

It's a beautiful sunny weekend morning.

Nothing that must be done.  Nothing pressing for which I need to prepare.  Just quiet calm time.  

I love mornings like this.

It's also a great time to let thoughts mull around.  To ponder.  To wonder.

Hence the question.  What does it mean to walk by faith?

Second Corinthians tells us that we live by faith and not by sight.   This makes sense from a spiritual perspective and even from a practical perspective sometimes.  But other times, its hard to understand how to live by faith when we open our eyes in the morning and see reality.

How do you gain this spiritual eyesight? Or if you have it, how do you sharpen it?  How do you get better at understanding the true path before you, the larger impact of decision you make, the deepest needs of the people you interact with?

It is natural to see the surface.  How do we learn to look deeper?

I ask the questions, not because I know the answers, but because I want to know them and think they are worth sharing, and worth pondering.

I will close with this verse from the Message translation of Hebrews 11:1-2.

"The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd."  

Lessons from a seed

What is it about life that makes it yearn to live?  To grow?  Even in surprising and unexpected places.

For example. This little seed found a small spot of dirt amidst the concrete and chose to grow.

The seed could have said, "This spot is not ideal."   "I don't have any neighbors."   "How will I meet any butterflies much less start a family?"

But instead the little seed found a safe home in the soil, energy from the sun, joy in the spring breeze, and it grew.   

Kingdoms Crumble

A couple years ago I attended an inspiring concert featuring many Christian artists and offering  a unique perspective through song and video into the lives of some of the characters in the Bible.

The story of Daniel is described in this song "No Compromise" by Peter Furler from the Newsboys.   You can see the music video here

The below lyrics are found toward the end of the song:

"Kingdoms crumble.

Rulers fall.

My God you will

Out rule them all."

These lyrics have come to mind for me in recent days.

My generation hasn't seen a lot of wars.  We weren't around for World War I or II.  We were still young when the Cold War took place.  Aside from what we have read in history books or seen in movies, most of us in the West probably have not spent a lot of time considering what it would mean for one country to conquer another country.

Certainly there have been powers that have risen and fallen in our lifetimes across the world, but none that have drastically changed the western world map.

The possibility of a conquering King/Rule/Czar is not one that sits well with 21'st century ideals.

And yet we have watched Ukraine struggle with this very issue.

Which brings me back to the song.

I am grateful to be an American.  But I am infinitely more grateful to be a Christian.  

As Christians, the kingdoms and powers of this present life impact us, but they do not define us.   We know from prophecy that all earthly kingdoms will one day fall.

According to Daniel 2:44, "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever."

So as unsettling as it is to listen to the news, we can have confidence that no matter which kingdoms crumble around us, we are members of an everlasting kingdom which will never fall.   

Forever praise be to the only true King, our Redeemer and our Friend.

The Last Tuesday

This week I happened to get in the elevator with someone I didn't really know.  While making small talk I mentioned that it was only Tuesday.  To which he responded that it was his last Tuesday.

Without additional clarification this statement would have been rather disturbing, but he went on to say that he was retiring at the end of the week.

Thus it was his last Tuesday as a full time employee.

I was struck by the importance of the occasion for his life.

What will he do with his time now?  Will he relocate to live near family?  Finally have hours of uninterrupted time for a favorite hobby?  Volunteer more at church?

It's also an interesting perspective for me as I'm still early in my career.  But one day if God does not return before this time in my life arrives, I too will face retirement.

What do I hope to accomplish between now and then?

What kind of a difference do I hope to make in the working world?

And am I using my talents and abilities where they can bring wisdom, joy, and hopefully blessing to others?

These are types of questions that we would all probably do well to ponder from time to time as we ask God to continue to guide and bless and lead.



"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."   Philippines 1:6

Doing what you were meant to do

Last night I was walking to the mailbox when I saw a strange sight.  In my neighbor's driveway was a possum laying down.  And he didn't move as I walked by.  Instead he just watched me with sad eyes.

I was surprised and concerned so I paused and watched him for a bit.  Finally he struggled to his feet and limped across the driveway and into the bushes pulling his injured leg(s) with him.

Now I do not have a fondness for possums.  I generally find them dirty and unappealing.  But I felt sad for this possum.

Why is it that as humans we can have sympathy for creatures that we don't really even like when we see them hurting or unable to function as they normally do in nature?

The movie Hugo explores the idea of people and things having a purpose.  And the sadness that can accompany the sight of something not able or willing to do what it was meant to do.

Which leads me to the question, what am I meant to do?   And am I doing it?

In Acts 1:8 Jesus gives what can be called the Great Commission.  "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

What does it mean to be witnesses for God?  We are not all called to be preachers.  We do not all have extroverted 'evangelistic' personalities.  But yet, every Christian is called to be a witness.

May we each continue to learn what that means in our individual lives.  May we know when to speak and when to be silent.  And how to live in such a way that our lives point to Jesus as our Hope, Redeemer, and Friend.

A Quiet Day

I love the holidays.  I love festive parties, special food, Christmas traditions, and the excitement of a long stretch of time off from work to spend with friends and family.  I enjoy the excitement of New Years Eve for the year a head and the time of reflection it often invokes for the year behind.

But after what can feel like a month long celebration, I find myself drawn to solitude, to quiet, and to time at home.

Today, with it's gray sky and slight but continual rain, provides just such an opportunity.

As Ecclesiastics so famously points out,  "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens."

"A time to keep and a time to throw away....A time to be silent and a time to speak."

I think it's good to have times of energy and laughter and conversation, and also times of quiet, reflection, and recharging.

It's easy to imagine God as having part of the later, but I imagine he also wants to be part of the social gatherings and family traditions as well.

In closing, below are a couple more thoughts from King Solomon that seemed appropriate as we consider the new year ahead.

"Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?"  For it is not wise to ask such questions."  Eccl 7:10

"Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.  Always be clothed in white and always anoint your head with oil."  Eccl 9: 7,8

May God's purpose prevail for each of us this year!