Mary-Grace, cutest baby ever

Advent Reflections - Part 3

Each week of the Advent season a different aspect of our anticipation of the coming Lord is emphasized. This week's focus is upon Joy. While many of us would be quick to list joy as a major Christian attribute, less of us understand it or even worse have ever truly experienced it. For some of us, we even wonder if there is anything to be joyous about at all. So what is this whole joy thing about anyway?

When I think of how joy and waiting mingle, especially during this season, I think of Christmas Eve when I was a little kid. I could NEVER go to sleep. As hard as I tried, sleep seemed to always allude me those nights, but it really didn't matter; I was just so anxious about what the dawn (and Santa) would bring. While presents were high on my list, the whole experience excited me. The glow of the tree in the low light of early morning, everyone in their underwear and jammies, hair all a mess, a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy made by my favorite chef (mom!), the huge pile of waste accumulated by the end of the unwrapping session, rummaging through what seemed like a bottomless stocking, seeing the rest of my family open the gifts I had picked out, and the afternoon trip to Grandma's for even more fun. It was the highlight of my year and sleep simply could not compare. I knew that just around the corner was a day unlike any other, a day of peace, excitement, and joy.

Yet, I grew up. I have lost much of that sense of wonder from my youth. I now know better about jolly old Saint Nick and mom is a thousand miles away. I will probably sleep quite soundly on December 24th. Often my only real hope for the holiday season is that I might actually enjoy it. Is this what we call maturity? Dear Lord, I hope not. I believe we could all learn quite a bit from our younger selves. They would tell us to play some more, to imagine, and to laugh. They would tell us to let go of our pride and shame and run into our daddy's arms when things hurt. Oh to have the faith of a child, Lord have mercy on me.

We need these lessons from of former selves because our present selves have incurred the burden of what we call "the real world." There are bills to pay, things to clean, papers to be written, calls to make, and we alone are responsible. We have awoken to the reality that life is hard. And in this midst of what used to a joyous season, we've heaped more burdens upon our shoulders: debt, stress, plans, worries, and strife. We fill the mall parking lots hoping to fill our hearts, only to find we've been lied to. We strive and strive looking for "something," waiting for "someday" that will set us free, that will awaken that sleepless child from Christmas eve. Yet the more stuff we amass and the more things we do, we still can not find it. A wise man once said "I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun."

Where are the glad tidings of joy? What will set us free from this body of decay? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

A new favorite song of mine is called "Embracing Accusations" by Shane and Shane (take a few minutes to listen to it then come back; just click the play button at the top of the right column). In this song, the singer is being attacked by the accusations of the devil : that we are cursed and that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. The singer then realizes that "the father of lies is telling the truth, that he is singing the song of the redeemed" We are indeed cursed and nothing can save us form this body of death. Yet the singer reminds us that the devil is so eloquent at singing the first verse of the song, but he has forgotten the refrain: Jesus Saves!

I, like my younger self am often in sleepless state but for altogether different reasons. I find rest hard to come by in a world like the one I know. So I wait. Not idly, but actively. I hope, not fleetingly but confidently. Just as Jesus came at just the right time, He shall come again. Lord knows that there is a day, right around the corner, that will change everything, a day of peace, a day of excitement, a day of Joy indeed! The following Scripture from Romans 8 fully embodies this Advent idea of joy in waiting.

"This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him.

That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens." (Romans 8:15-21 MSG)

The Apostle Paul knew what was right around the corner and he knew that in the waiting was joy. That deep down inside each of us (and even all of creation) there is an intense longing for "someday." In Christ, we can know that that "someday" is coming, that He is coming. And we can join all creation in singing the joyous victory song, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last!"

Advent Reflections-part 2

Through this Advent season I have experienced renewed wonder in my Lord, increased anticipation for His Kingdom, and a resolve to be about His mission. While my soul has been nurtured this season, I have also been deeply troubled. As I write this, temperatures in the Denver Metro area are dipping below zero and numerous sons and daughters of God have nowhere to lay there heads, much like their Savior who was regulated to a feeding trough for His 'grand' arrival. These people need desperately to feel the warmth of a bed, the hand of a friend, and the embrace of their Father. As compassion stirs my heart and I am reminded of THE greatest commandment "love your neighbor as yourself," I am convinced that there must be something I can do. But reason rebuts my heart and asks "what can I really do? I hardly make enough to live as it is, my wife and I share a pair of gloves, and Lord knows I'm just one person, in the face of hundreds. The challenge is just so overwhelming. " Aw, but as Pascal said, "the heart has its reasons of which reason knows not."

But there is a problem: I am selfish. I like having a computer, new books, and other luxuries that I've convinced myself are necessities. And I know better, but I keep doing what I hate and not doing what I desire. I feel the depth of Paul's exclamation in Romans 7, "Oh, wretched man that I am!"

I'm haunted by a scene near the end of Schindler's List, the story of Oskar Schindler, a man who saved the lives of over 1,100 Polish Jews by employing them in his factory during the Holocaust. After the war ends, Schindler looks at his lapel pin and realizes that it could have afforded him one more life. He is grief stricken at his selfishness dropping to his knees, weeping, muttering 'one more, one more..." This from the very man who literally risked his life for years in the effort to protect his fellow man. Could I ever be that compassionate, that sacrificial, that humble? Could I look into the least of these my brothers and sisters and see the face of Christ? Lord, I hope so; have mercy on me!

Yet, Paul reminds us that our wretchedness is not the end of the story. We must press on in the grace of our Savior, knowing He is guiding and if that be so we may rejoice indeed! So, with grace in hand and Christ in the lead how do we address the objections of our reason, the questioning of whether or not we can truly make a difference?

Henri Nouwen has said, "Though we want to make all our time, time for God, we will never succeed if we do not reserve a minute, an hour, a morning, a day, a week, a month, or whatever period of time for God and Him alone." I believe this applies to our resources as well. So may we start down the path of truly loving our neighbor one step at a time.

So what is that first step this Advent? For many of us it may be a long-overdue prayer to the lover of our souls. But as we move out from that, there are beautifully tangible ways to manifest the Kingdom; to be about Christ's business of lifting the oppressed, feeding the needy, and freeing the captive. Sites like adventconspiracy have great suggestions. A wonderful ministry helping those here in downtown Denver is the denver rescue mission. But my favorite Advent charitys are ones like worldvision and heifer international where you can buy goats or pigs or chickens helping families in need around the world become self-sustainable. I have been deeply moved by the following testimony of young Beatrice Biira from Uganda

"It was a Sunday when my mother told me we were going to get a goat which
would give us milk. We were already prepared for the goat. We
planted grass and built its house. We stood near the road singing, dancing
and clapping waiting for the goats. We saw a big lorry coming full of fat,
healthy, good looking goats. Then my mother was given one brown goat and we
took it home. We named her 'Mugisa' (means luck). We gave her grass
and clean water and mineral salt."

"About two months later our goat gave birth to two male kids. My
mother milked Mugisa and got four liters of milk a day. Time passed, our
kids grew, and mummy sold them and got a lot of money - $200! We had never
received so much money. We built a very good house roofed with iron
sheets. Before that we used to lie in a grass thatched house. There
was also money to send me to school.'

"I was happy to go to school. Mummy bought for me a new blue pinafore
and a yellow blouse as my uniform. She also bought books and
pencils. I polished my shoes and I cut my fingernails short. I was
so very happy that night. I was in my bed wide awake peeping through the
ventilators, waiting for morning to come. I was first to wake up. I bathed, brushed my teeth, combed my hair and put on my uniform. I took a cup of tea with milk from Mugisa."

"It was the best day in my life!"

"I wish to send a special thanks to you all, the donors who send farm animals
around the world to help needy and hungry ones - especially children like
me. This project has surely helped me and my family. Thank you very
much for this work you are doing. Finally, I wish you all God's blessings
to help more children in need."

Truly it is more blessed to give than to receive. May this Christmas truly embody these words of our Savior.