love

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

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What’s really worse? Someone saying “Happy holidays” or someone who doesn’t follow Jesus saying “Merry Christmas” out of obligation and not really because they mean it or understand it? Maybe worst of all is those who claim Jesus as Lord speaking “Merry Christmas” but denying the spirit of it with lives that reflect greed, rudeness, impatience, consumerism, and anger. The best witness for Christ isn’t spoken; it’s lived out as Christ becomes incarnate in our hearts and lives.

That’s something I wrote a long time ago, but it seems to still fit. People still get bent out of shape when retail employees don’t say Merry Christmas. I think at one point I was one of those, but time has a way of softening those rough edges and growing older has given me a different perspective.

Most likely, those retail workers are exhausted. They’re usually overworked and underpaid. They’re wondering about how they’re going to pay all the bills and still provide a Christmas for their kids. The whole “Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays” debate is probably the last thing on their minds.

So what is the most Christlike thing to do? Yell at them when they don’t use the correct terminology? Or maybe be kind to them? Maybe be a little more patient with them when they’re struggling because the place they’re working is understaffed?

If Jesus offered people a light burden and an easy yoke, maybe we would do better to not lay Pharisaical burdens on people. If Jesus said come to me all who are weary, who are we to drive people off because they don’t speak the magic words of Merry Christmas?

Dwight Moody (I think) once said that Christians are the only Bible most people will ever read. If that’s so, let’s make sure the message we’re sending is the message not of God far off and unattainable but God coming near to the lowly and crushed in spirit in the form of a baby in a manger who was born for all people.

Gratitude on Thanksgiving Eve

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I know it’s not officially a thing, but Happy Thanksgiving Eve, everyone! I figure if Christmas can have a Christmas Eve, then Thanksgiving should as well. It’s time Turkey Day got some love after years of being overshadowed by all the glitz and glamor of Christmas.

But on this particular Thanksgiving, I want to take time to focus on gratitude. Even as my temp job came to an end yesterday, I am still thankful. I know that people out there around the world would love to have one of my bad days where I still slept in a warm bed with a roof over my head and a full stomach. They’d love to have access to clean drinkable water while I can’t decide between brands of sparking water.

It’s impossible to give thanks and be envious or entitled in the same breath. You can’t actually do both. You will either live in a world of resentment and bitterness over what you don’t have that you think you deserve, or you will live in a world where anything good is a gift from God not to be taken for granted.

If I’m honest, I know what I am apart from the grace of God. I know I deserve nothing good from the hand of God. I also know I have been the recipient of grace upon grace. Even the next breath is a gift that I don’t deserve but that I will receive gladly. That is not me beating myself up. It’s me admitting that I am a member of the human race that is fallen and is unable to save itself and needs Jesus.

If I took the time to list out all the gifts I’m grateful for from the biggest to the smallest, I imagine I could spend the rest of my life writing it all down. I could even take the rest of eternity coming up with more reasons for gratitude. I think that even forever in heaven all our thanks will fall short of naming all the goodness of God to us or uncovering all that He truly is.

But I can say thank you. I can live in gratitude. I can remember that people all over the world would love to have my bad days that would be better than their best days. I can pray for them and pray that God can use me and my little gifts possibly to make an impact in their world as I continue to pour out thanksgiving.

Pure in Heart

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“Who is pure in heart? Only those who have completely given their hearts to Jesus, so that he alone rules in them. Only those who do not stain their hearts with their own evil, but also not with their own good. A pure heart is the simple heart of a child, who does not know about good and evil, the heart of Adam before the fall, the heart in which the will of Jesus rules instead of one’s own conscience.… A pure heart is pure of good and evil; it belongs entirely and undivided to Christ; it looks only to him, who goes on ahead. Those alone will see God who in this life have looked only to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Their hearts are free of defiling images; they are not pulled back and forth by the various wishes and intentions of their own. Their hearts are fully absorbed in seeing God. They will see God whose hearts mirror the image of Jesus Christ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

I read one time that purity of heart is to will one thing. There is no divide between my will and God’s will or what I want versus what God wants for me. True purity of heart means living surrendered to the point where God’s will is my will and God’s desire for me is my desire.

That’s not something I think we completely achieve in this life, but as we have this Christ life continually formed inside of us, we get closer to being pure in heart. Also, maybe being pure in heart is to grow so transparent that people who look at us see less and less of us and eventually only Christ in us.

“God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
    for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8, NLT).

A Love that Conquers the World

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“The love for equals is a human thing–of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.

The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing–the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.

The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing–to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.

And then there is the love for the enemy–love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world” (Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat).

I think I know what kind of love I want. It’s the same kind of love that I need every single day. It’s the kind of love that infuriates the world, but also the kind of love that can save the world. Give me that kind of love.

Living on this Side of the Election

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  • “It’s not about how the worship music makes us feel on Sunday morning, but how we live poured-out lives of worship from Monday to Saturday.
  • It’s not about how many verses we can quote to defend our political viewpoints, but how well we embody the Word made flesh to our politically opposite next-door neighbors.
  • It’s not about how pious our prayers sound during Sunday School, but how our hearts hear the whisper of God both in our hidden rooms and in our lived-out interactions with others” (Asheritah Ciuciu).

Now that we’re past the dreaded elections (or at least they were for me), we can hopefully return to normal. We can hopefully reach out across party lines to embrace and love those who voted differently than we did. We can understand that there is room in the Kingdom of God for blue and red (as well as many other colors).

The point is that we’re called to love our enemies, period. It doesn’t say to love them if they show remorse for their bad behavior. It doesn’t say to love them if they promise to reform. It says to love them the way Jesus loved those who crucified Him. And how did He do that? He forgave them. He died for them.

We’re also called to honor our leaders, according to Romans 13. That doesn’t mean only those who share my political ideology. It doesn’t mean those we like and admire and can respect. Remember when Paul wrote those words, the ruler was Nero, who was just about as bad and corrupt as they come. Nero was responsible for the martyring of many followers of Jesus. But Paul said to honor him because God in His infinite purposes sets up rulers, good and bad, to accomplish His will.

Ultimately, it helps to remember that we’re all broken. The problem isn’t just out there. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and can share the blame for the problems of this country. We would be wise to drop those stones we want to throw at the Trumps and Harrises of the world and their followers unless we can prove that we’re sinless.

If we live out of love as citizens of a Kingdom more than of a country, we do well. Our ultimate allegiance isn’t to any president or to any flag or any political party or ideology. It’s to a King and a Kingdom. It’s to Jesus who will still be on His throne long after all the presidents and kings and emperors are long gone.

Am I Unoffendable?

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““Choosing to be unoffendable, or relinquishing my right to anger, does not mean accepting injustice. It means actively seeking justice, and loving mercy, while walking humbly with God. And that means remembering I’m not Him. What a relief” (Brant Hansen, Unoffendable).

This book is one of those that comes along and does a seismic shift on your thinking. I’ve always grown up believing that we’re supposed to be righteously angry about injustice and wrongs and sin, but this book is showing me that you can be actively against all those things without giving in to anger.

Based on what I understand, the Bible never calls for us to be angry. It does say that in your anger not to sin. It also says that anger does not produce the righteousness of God. I think when it says to be angry but don’t sin, it’s making allowances for the natural human tendency to anger. It also says not to stay there.

The only one allowed to be truly angry is God — and of course, Jesus — because God can have pure anger rooted in a holiness and righteousness that we don’t have. We can choose not to give in to anger without also giving in to all the wrongs and oppression in the world. We can fight those things out of love rather than anger.

I don’t want to give too much of the book away. It’s worth reading and says all the things I just said but way better than I just said them. Plus, if you get the audio version you get the book read by the author, which is almost always a bonus (and it is in this case).

A lot of our anger comes from the misguided view of calling out the sin in others while ignoring our own sin. We can easily become Pharisee-ical in seeing evil and wrong as being “out there” and “in them” rather than acknowledging my own sinful depravity and capacity for evil apart from the grace of God.

I’m a little over halfway there, so those are my takeaways thus far. My assignment for you is to find the actual book or the audio book and to devour it in short order. It’s an easy read (or an easy listen if you prefer). I’m even going through all the trouble of providing a link to the book on amazon.com. You’re welcome.

https://www.amazon.com/Unoffendable-Change-Better-updated-chapters/dp/1400333598/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CCApAzLdwJEJ_bILerbPnP92PX4ePbEFxUdfzlwKQuQp8W7M9XUk146MAeiZVMFn_gCWS1YcpqnZy9olfkdcAfSWcn5iw6qDCNSMfQHhWM4EdxijLEVgmtywazlTVSyAjhJq8cHtUVNdhY2iyqRj5RPo8i-hjYAd2LH_aHTRyJG9DkQ7VkckmFOCsXjPi3Xs1hSaBdb8kGdBR9qVSFqkSUFMAdfYgPn_TY8uuyNJF1s.loHWjW318gTjgxlSS8Hem4fAJ5QuDVig1J42IDbTcCk&dib_tag=se&keywords=unoffendable&qid=1730083531&sr=8-1

Got to Have Faith, Faith, Faith

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I think I read that faith means trusting an unknown future to a known God, although sometimes, God seems as unknowable as the future. I understand God as much as He has revealed Himself to me, but there’s so much more to know and even some that will never be known on this side of heaven.

I think faith means trusting what I know of me to what I know about God, giving what I know about my circumstances and my future into His Hands. I almost said understand instead of know, but faith goes beyond understanding. I trust when I do not understand because what I know of God proves His trustworthiness.

I keep thinking about that character in the Bible who said to Jesus, “I believe. Help my unbelief.”

I get that. I relate to that 1000%.

My faith doesn’t have to be complete or perfect. I don’t have to have faith the size of a mountain to move God. All I need is faith the size of a mustard seed for God to move the mountain. Again, it’s not my big faith in God but my faith in a big God who is bigger than my fears, my doubts, and my circumstances.

I confess that sometimes I wonder IF God will show up, despite having seen Him never fail to show up at the right moment. In my best moments, my faith says, “I can’t wait to see how You pull this one off, because I know You will.”

I can’t wait for the day when my faith will be made sight. Until then, I will echo the words, “I believe, help my unbelief.”

And that will always be enough.

A God We Can’t Exaggerate

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“Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves. His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can’t contain Him. Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?” (Francis Chan)

There’s a beautiful old book by J. B. Phillips called Your God Is Too Small. I think that’s the case for anyone who has ever lived who tried to conceive the idea of God. We always fall short. We always make God way too small.

The problem with a lot of deconstruction is that we make ourselves the standard by which God and truth are measured. We are definitely too finite and small to be any kind of measuring stick to which God must conform (thanks to Frances Chan for that one as well). It’s putting ourselves above God, essentially saying that God would never [fill in the blank] because I would never [fill in the blank].

God not only above us, He is so far beyond us that our minds could never have fathomed God at all apart from God revealing Himself to us. That blows my mind. It also humbles me whenever I get to the place where I think I have God figured out.

We can’t possibly exaggerate God. How cool is that? The biggest, grandest, wildest picture we can dream up or draw or sing about or write about falls short of who God is by far. All we can do is sit at the brink and adore the depth, to borrow from Matthew Henry.

God is never too small. Only our conception of Him is. But God made Himself incarnate and came near and became a tiny infant. That’s my favorite part.

That Love Your Enemy Thing Again

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“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles” (Proverbs 24:17).

I don’t like it when people post about Donald Trump and how they wish the assassination attempt had been successful. I’m equally not a fan of people making fun of Joe Biden for his apparent dementia. Neither one suits a child of God or a disciple of Jesus.

The current political climate has created an us versus them mentality. We can be tolerant toward the views of our people, but not theirs. We will try to be civil and humane with our people, but when it comes to their people, all bets are off and all sorts of name-calling of them and their families are fair game.

We’ve even decided that the whole made in the image of God thing doesn’t apply to them. They’re evil and not human because they are them, not us. Typically, the view we have of them is the most distorted and exaggerated caricature of the person and not the actual person.

When Jesus said to love your enemies, He didn’t stutter. He said to love them whether you like them or not, whether you agree with them or not, whether they deserve love or not. As I’ve said repeatedly, Jesus chose to love and forgive those who were in the very act of murdering Him.

I don’t think it’s good to celebrate when a political opponent suffers. In fact, if your theology allows you to hate “them,” then it’s not of God and not of the Bible. And disagreeing with choices or lifestyle doesn’t equal hate. In fact, the more you love people, the more concerned you will be when they make unwise choices or behaviors and the more you will want the best, i.e. God’s best, for them.

Perhaps the best way to learn to love your enemy is to pray for them. And not in pray for their destruction or comeuppance. But pray for them as you would for yourself or a loved one. Pray that God can change their heart and give them wisdom — not Democratic or Republican wisdom but Godly wisdom. You can pray for their salvation. You can pray that they will find the same joy and peace that you have found.

What God Gives

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I would love clarity, answers, and above all a road map. Although I’m not quite in Job’s shoes in terms of tragic losses, I sometimes can relate to His questions of God’s silence and hiddenness.

But what I often forget (and what Job eventually learned) was that God doesn’t so much give answers as He gives Himself. In the long run, that’s better. After all, I’m not always the best at asking the right questions or focusing on the right things.

Right answers and clear thinking and even a five-year plan without God’s immediate presence do me no good. I’d screw it up or try to subvert the process to get to the end quicker. And as I’ve learned sin is taking my own shortcut to God’s promises and/or trying to get God’s provisions apart from God.

So much of what God wants from me in this season means slowing down and really seeping in each day instead of wanting to rush on to the next big event or the next holiday. Lately, I’ve been actually hungering for the Word of God instead of reading it as part of my rote routine.

I think God gets us all to a point where we have to lean on Him and learn from Him for as long as it takes to get us weaned from ourselves and our own self-help. He puts us in a season where all our theoretical head knowledge about God becomes lived-out experience and love for God. Basically, we find out what “Jesus loves me, this I know” really means.

Take your time, God. As much as I really would love to have clarity and answers and a detailed plan for my life, what I need right now is You. Just You.