We had an interesting Christmas that year. It was one of those years when Christmas was a Sunday morning. It involved a late night gathering of our children on Christmas Eve and an early morning gift opening, followed by morning worship at our church. The afternoon would be spent traveling across the state to visit with grandparents, aunts and uncles. We were the last to leave the church that Christmas Sunday, just past noon. And suddenly in the midst of all that we had planned for that weekend, we realized we had made no real preparation for Christmas lunch. The restaurants we normally might have considered were closed. The kitchen at home was empty and the pantry bare. The car was packed and we needed food for the long day’s journey ahead. And even the normal chicken fingers and fries that might have been found at the corner gas station were not to be had. I looked at my hungry brood and said to them all…well…we need to eat something. This is the only establishment in town still open. Go into the gas station and see what you can find and that will be our Christmas lunch. Get whatever you would like that you can find. What had seemed like a minor disaster in food planning was now transformed into a great adventure. Our long highway journey was an exciting time. Each of us had opportunity to try variations and combinations of foods we had never had. Beef jerky and Vienna sausage were main courses, laffy taffy and gummy worms were the closest we got to vegetables. Between the chips and peanut butter crackers and the cheezits, we all survived and yes delightfully thrived and in truth, we felt more like Joseph and Mary on their journey to Bethlehem than perhaps we ever had on a Christmas Day.
As you share with loved ones, friends and neighbors this Christmas, remember to share the wonderful story of the birth of a child in Bethlehem. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given….the Prince of Peace.”
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Thoughts and Actions
Sometimes I wish I could get into some people’s heads to try and get a handle on just how they do see the world they live in. Probably someone would wish to do the same for me on occasion. What I wonder about may have nothing to do with what you wonder about. Maybe it would be helpful if we talked about those things from time to time.
As a child I once asked if everything was “real.” My mother answered matter-of- factly, “yes, of course it is.” And everything included the things I imagined and dreamed. They were real dreams…real workings of my imagination. What I was stuck on was some of the dreams… this giant image of “the mask that depicts drama as a symbol often associated with the theatre” and a match to one of my father’s cufflinks that depicted comedy and tragedy in the faces. I saw those masks in my dreams…daydreams and night dreams. For a long time I had a recurring dream of walking up the steps of our house to bed and lying down. That was all… Just going to bed. Then there followed a long period of dreaming about falling down the basement steps…those open wooden kind that went to a tract house basement with a tiny excuse of a rail that I dreamed I was too small to reach. I always saw myself tumbling down that staircase and I always woke up in a flash just before I hit the bottom…until one day I decided that if I ever had that dream again, I would relax and just hit the concrete floor. I did…the next time I had the dream…and I have never dreamed that dream again. Dreams are real experiences.
What about our thoughts about so many other things? Do our thoughts do more to determine what we will do, or do the things around us motivate us more to respond or to act upon them? I think there are times when we have so much going on around us that we forget what is or has been going on in our heads and we defer to the moment…using little or no forethought and just do stuff. At other times, we finally settle into a moment or season when we can focus long enough on our thinking to think things through to a decision…one that we indeed act upon. For some folks, it seems that they find it very difficult to get to that point about a lot of things in their lives.
What is our motivation for the things we do? I’ve read that many people are constantly motivated by the desire to please others. I guess that comes early in our pattern of learning that when we please others they affirm us or reward us or say nice things about us. But what if what you do is not so welcomed by those around you? And what if you are finding your “take on a matter” contrary to the opinion of the majority, or the powerful minority for that matter? Upset the wrong parties and the break in relationship could spell trouble in countless ways. Upset the one whose personal “say” matters to them over anyone else’s perspective and you may have crossed the “bridge too far…”-- if you can remember that old war movie. Consequences abound in the context of bucking trends, upsetting the status quo, or marching to the beat of a different drummer. We applaud such individuals when they succeed against all odds and at the close of the day win us over, but we create multitudes of obstacles for them socially when we choose to oppose their actions before “coming around.”
Back to motivation…what if pleasing others is understood as secondary to pleasing God? Consider Peter, going against the orders of the high priest and Sadducees, being threatened, and imprisoned, for obeying God over men. Consider Saul, confronted on the Road to Damascus with his own persecution of Christians, understanding the necessity of a new direction in obeying Christ, the risen Savior. From that day forward he faced opposition on every hand from those he had allied with previously. To obey God would cost him in many ways…all of which he saw as worthless now in comparison to following Christ and sharing His gospel.
The inspiration and motivation that we discover in God’s giving is known in the presence of the Holy Spirit…leading, guiding, teaching us and breathing into us the very life we are called to live. The word for Spirit was the same as the word for wind…but the reminder was to recognize the power of the Spirit to blow wherever the Spirit would blow…not in accordance with our determined agendas or preoccupations, but rather as it would be the Father’s will to inspire us…engage us…remind us…reveal to us.
The Psalmist often speaks of waiting upon the Lord…and along with his waiting the Psalmist spent much of the time complaining, crying, suggesting God wasn’t always giving him enough attention…waiting upon the Lord requires more than patience, but also expectation…attentiveness…looking for…seeking…active listening….active readiness to obey.…
If we prepare our minds in that manner…we won’t soon be left idle. Prayer and praise and ministry and service and loving action will proceed from the heart we have found to do those things joyfully in obedience to God. It is His way in us. It is His love for us that inspires and moves us to understand that we are not alone with our thoughts, but He is with us, to show us the way. He is with us, to teach us the truth. He is with us, to give us the life.
As a child I once asked if everything was “real.” My mother answered matter-of- factly, “yes, of course it is.” And everything included the things I imagined and dreamed. They were real dreams…real workings of my imagination. What I was stuck on was some of the dreams… this giant image of “the mask that depicts drama as a symbol often associated with the theatre” and a match to one of my father’s cufflinks that depicted comedy and tragedy in the faces. I saw those masks in my dreams…daydreams and night dreams. For a long time I had a recurring dream of walking up the steps of our house to bed and lying down. That was all… Just going to bed. Then there followed a long period of dreaming about falling down the basement steps…those open wooden kind that went to a tract house basement with a tiny excuse of a rail that I dreamed I was too small to reach. I always saw myself tumbling down that staircase and I always woke up in a flash just before I hit the bottom…until one day I decided that if I ever had that dream again, I would relax and just hit the concrete floor. I did…the next time I had the dream…and I have never dreamed that dream again. Dreams are real experiences.
What about our thoughts about so many other things? Do our thoughts do more to determine what we will do, or do the things around us motivate us more to respond or to act upon them? I think there are times when we have so much going on around us that we forget what is or has been going on in our heads and we defer to the moment…using little or no forethought and just do stuff. At other times, we finally settle into a moment or season when we can focus long enough on our thinking to think things through to a decision…one that we indeed act upon. For some folks, it seems that they find it very difficult to get to that point about a lot of things in their lives.
What is our motivation for the things we do? I’ve read that many people are constantly motivated by the desire to please others. I guess that comes early in our pattern of learning that when we please others they affirm us or reward us or say nice things about us. But what if what you do is not so welcomed by those around you? And what if you are finding your “take on a matter” contrary to the opinion of the majority, or the powerful minority for that matter? Upset the wrong parties and the break in relationship could spell trouble in countless ways. Upset the one whose personal “say” matters to them over anyone else’s perspective and you may have crossed the “bridge too far…”-- if you can remember that old war movie. Consequences abound in the context of bucking trends, upsetting the status quo, or marching to the beat of a different drummer. We applaud such individuals when they succeed against all odds and at the close of the day win us over, but we create multitudes of obstacles for them socially when we choose to oppose their actions before “coming around.”
Back to motivation…what if pleasing others is understood as secondary to pleasing God? Consider Peter, going against the orders of the high priest and Sadducees, being threatened, and imprisoned, for obeying God over men. Consider Saul, confronted on the Road to Damascus with his own persecution of Christians, understanding the necessity of a new direction in obeying Christ, the risen Savior. From that day forward he faced opposition on every hand from those he had allied with previously. To obey God would cost him in many ways…all of which he saw as worthless now in comparison to following Christ and sharing His gospel.
The inspiration and motivation that we discover in God’s giving is known in the presence of the Holy Spirit…leading, guiding, teaching us and breathing into us the very life we are called to live. The word for Spirit was the same as the word for wind…but the reminder was to recognize the power of the Spirit to blow wherever the Spirit would blow…not in accordance with our determined agendas or preoccupations, but rather as it would be the Father’s will to inspire us…engage us…remind us…reveal to us.
The Psalmist often speaks of waiting upon the Lord…and along with his waiting the Psalmist spent much of the time complaining, crying, suggesting God wasn’t always giving him enough attention…waiting upon the Lord requires more than patience, but also expectation…attentiveness…looking for…seeking…active listening….active readiness to obey.…
If we prepare our minds in that manner…we won’t soon be left idle. Prayer and praise and ministry and service and loving action will proceed from the heart we have found to do those things joyfully in obedience to God. It is His way in us. It is His love for us that inspires and moves us to understand that we are not alone with our thoughts, but He is with us, to show us the way. He is with us, to teach us the truth. He is with us, to give us the life.
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