End of year musings
It has become a yearly ritual for me. I spend the week between Christmas and New Years looking back over the past year reviewing what I've learned, how I've changed, and how God has moved in my life. I try to use this review to set goals, albeit rather loose goals, for the new year. I also use this time as a time of praise to God for the good days and the bad days and those days I just survived. I express my deep felt gratitude to him for the changes he has made in my heart and mind and ask him for wisdom in how to apply those changes next year. This ritual has changed a lot over the years. For many years of my life, I ended the year depressed and clueless about the next year. Somewhere along the line, probably one of those wonderful heart and mind changes God made, I decided to start looking for the good things in the year first and then remember the hard times. It makes the process more worthwhile. Keeping a journal has helped me to remember the blessings of the year and make it more likely that I will remember what good came from the difficult times. The Israelites were told on several occasions to place large stones at places where God wanted them to remember what happened and how he worked in their lives. For me, this end of year ritual has become the large stone I carefully place to remember what God has done in my life. I am amazed to discover that as the years go by, the older stones are becoming gold nuggets! How wonderful that God would bless my older years with gold from my past even as he is still working on my present and future! Glory be to God!
An interesting take on Jonah
I read this today and am including it here in hopes that it will generate discussion. I receive the Experience Worship Weekly Newsletter which includes several different articles covering areas like sound, drama and worship articles. This is one of the worship articles and was written by John A. White. I like his take on Jonah and how Jonah displays characteristics we might have expected from the Ninevites and the sailors on whose ship he traveled while those people acted in the way we would have expected from Jonah. He ties this in with how well we as Christians are making the message of Christ heard during this Christmas season and whether our society is doing a better job of singing the praises of Santa Claus than we are of Jesus. Let me know what you think. It is a bit lengthy but a decent read.
Jonah’s Christmas - John A. White
Jonah is not about a prophet running from God, a city with 120,000 people or a big fish with acid reflux syndrome. This small book is a juxtaposition of behaviors with an ironic twist, of the behavior of God’s people against the behavior of those who don’t know God. Jonah is a condemnation of the ungodliness of God’s people.
We all know the story well enough but lets ask “Why?” For example:
• Why does Jonah run away from Nineveh? Because his heart was hardened and corrupted by a misunderstanding of what it meant to be “God’s people.” While God loved the world, Jonah didn’t; he was hardened to both the lost and to God’s sovereignty.
• Why do the sailors do everything they can to spare human life? Because unlike Jonah, who was more than willing to let the people of Nineveh perish in their ignorance, the sailors valued life and people; they despaired when they realize they would have to through Jonah into the sea carrying out God’s judgment on Jonah.
• Why was Jonah reluctant? Jonah didn’t consider the Ninevites worthy of his time even though God considered them. The sailors on the other hand, regard all humanity. Jonah’s religious pride blinded him to humanity.
• Why is Jonah angry that Nineveh repents and is saved from judgment? On that day heaven must have been having a huge party! No so with Jonah, he was “angry enough to die” because he thought that he had to share the eternal blessings of God with other people diluting the blessing for him and his people. Jonah had no concept of the abundance of heaven neither God’s love for all people.
In Jonah we see the ungodly (the sailors and Ninevites) behaving the way we would expect Jonah and Israel to behave; responding to God’s will. Counterpunctually, we see the Godly (Jonah) behaving the way we would expect the ungodly to; rejecting God’s will. How can this happen? I believe that Jonah unconsciously deified programs, statement’s of faith, personal creeds and other important points of his Godly identity and justify their shortfalls with a misunderstanding of God’s grace and love. In the same sense, we do the same as Jonah.
A wealthy church considered feeding the homeless and poor. After a lot of discussion, the ministry was abandon because it was said the church could not afford the insurance for the every day use of the kitchen. What is hidden in this story is the fact the Church had a secret sacred cow; no one said it but it was understood that financial responsibility was more important than the poor that Jesus’ command the church to care for. Shortly after, the couple that initiated the discussion left the church, went down the street and started the same ministry through another church; a church considered to be less spiritual. So how do you think our “spiritual” brothers and sisters responded? They criticized the success of the ministry and the growth of the church. In so doing, they proclaimed that Jonah lives.
So what does this have to do with Christmas and worship? First I believe that a Christians’ worship after-burners should be fired up during Christmas. To do this, we must things that douse the raging fire of worship… to strengthen the weak knees and make our worship lead straight to God. We should be asking some tough questions: Are we allowing, like Jonah did, my ritual and religion to protect me from sacrificial service (Rom 12:1-2)? Are the Christmas Carols we hear worshipping more then what we say to family, friends, and work and shopping mates (2 Cor 2:3)? Does the world proclaim the joy of Santa Clause more than we’ve proclaiming the joy of Christ’s birth (Luke 19:40)? Did we spend more money on Christmas presents than the yearly sum of joyful giving to our churches (Matt. 6:21)? Are people, who don’t know God, doing things that put our Christianity to shame (Matt 5:20)? If so, then our consciences, like Jonah’s, have been seared by misunderstanding God’s grace.
Second, we need to be responsive to God and strip away any part of Jonah that lives inside. Allow me to share with you my worship commitment to God during Christmas and I bet that you have some to share as well:
1. I will “greatly rejoice” (worship) in the costly gift of grace found in Jesus’ birth as the shepherds and wise men did upon their discovery, especially where it is demonstrated, even in the smallest ways, wherever I see it.
2. I will proclaim and testify of Christ’s birth louder than the world proclaims the good fortune of Santa Clause.
3. I will allow others to witness God’s love and grace through the time and attention I give them more than the presents I give. I will not expect an inanimate object to say what I need to say… “I love you.”
4. I will be courteous in the parking lot, streets and highways knowing that my destiny is greater than being two steps away from the mall or two seconds earlier to my destination
5. I will look for divine appointments where I can testify of divine love.
6. I will look for opportunities were I can carry on Jesus’ ministry of easing pain, comforting the afflicted, feeding and clothing the needy and so on with the hope that I might be acting Christ-like and give people the opportunity to witness authentic Christianity.
7. I will make love-giving to my family and friends unrestricted even at personal sacrifice with the hope that they will taste a bit of heaven on earth in the love that I freely and openly give.
In the end of Jonah, God says “shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh.” I’m glad God had pity on Nineveh because that is where I used to live, at least until the day I accepted Christ. In fact, we all lived in Nineveh, a place where people could not tell their left hand from their right. Yet God revealed and gave Himself to us beginning with a promised child in a manger whom the angles proclaimed as “Christ the Lord.” I hear God still calling His people to Nineveh to proclaim God’s message of salvation. During Christmas, we have the opportunity to worship God in a way that speaks louder then grievous Christmas commercialism: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be on upon His shoulders. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (NKJ, Is 9:6).
Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas to the saints and all humankind.
Ho Ho Ho Bah Humbug
I find it very interesting to watch human behavior during the Christmas holiday period. This period now runs from the first of November until New Years Day. For two solid months people are bombarded with commercials, music, guilt and greed all in the name of capitalism. Unfortunately, the intense emotions that accompany all of this are not limited to the malls or the parking lots. Even in the workplace people become shorter tempered, more suspiscious and, less likely to let things slide than any other time of year. For some reason today I am thinking and wondering about why this is.
What is it about Christmas that creates such anger and often leads to violence or self destruction during a time when we are looking forward to a celebration? The first thought I have is that it is due to the extreme expectations that people have about Christmas and I'm not just talking about children and Santa Claus. Isn't there that special Christmas in your memory that smells, tastes and looks like the ideal Christmas? It doesn't matter that memory distorts or inflates over time. We still work ourselves into the dirt to recreate that perfect Christmas from 19** and then suffer from disallusionment and depression because we can't get it back. Makes me wonder which family Christmas will be the one to haunt my children in the years to come.
The story of a very depressed Elijah the prophet comes to mind. In this part of the story, Elijah is depressed and afraid and wanting to die. He has run from victory and celebration on one mountain to depressed,afraid and wanting to die on another mountain. He ends up in a cave where God tells him to go stand in the entance to the cave and wait for him. There in the entrance Elijah hears a fierce wind and loud thunder but God is not in the noise. Finally he hears the voice of God in a gentle whisper telling him to go back to work, giving him an assistant to help him in his work and sending him on his way.
In the noise, rushing and busyness of the next few weeks, I will be much more purposeful and peaceful as long as I step out of my busyness into the quiet and listen to the gentle whisper of God reminding me of who he is, of who I am and what I am here for. Then I will be ready to step back into the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations with a renewed spirit and the desire to center our celebration on what Jesus has done for us and glorifying him rather than how much we can buy, bake or decorate. Isn't that really what Christmas is about.
Monday musings
It's snowing today. For the first time I finally feel like it is almost Christmas. Even after putting up the tree and decorating the house it still takes some snow for me to feel it's coming. We've begun the holiday parties and the gift wrapping and I am already feeling the tension that comes with all the rushing around of this particular holiday. If you think about it, Christmas seems to be the only holiday that does this to us. We rush and run and hurry about until it's finally Christmas day and we're so exhausted we spend the day complaining, depressed and crying or sacked out on the couch. Somehow I just don't think this is what it was meant to be. What if for one season I don't make all the cookies and special breads? What if I do all my shopping on line and never once fight the crowds at the mall? What if I am more selective in the parties I attend? What if, instead, I actually sit down once a day and actually read the Christmas story? Will it make a difference in my Christmas season? I do believe it will. I trust that if I will take time out to be quiet during these beautiful snowy days to read about Jesus and to really listen and hear the beautiful story in the lyrics to the wonderful music about him, God will bless me with more peace, more joy and more love for those who will be at my house on Christmas. And really...isn't that what it's all about?
