A Not So Merry Holiday

I have heard in the past few years that many businesses tell employees not to wish the patrons a “Merry Christmas”, but rather to say, “Happy Holidays.” Before I go any further, no, this will not be your normal run of the mill spouting off about how Christ should be in Christmas; I have heard happy holidays quite often throughout the past few years because of this. Today I even heard from a friend that they had gone into a store and there was a rustic looking pine tree that looked kind of like a Christmas tree, it was bare, but it still seemed to go along with the Christmas…or holiday theme. While ringing out, my friend commented on the tree, the employee then mentioned that they were unable to add lights or ornaments because that would turn this ordinary pine tree into a Christmas tree and that wouldn’t be acceptable.

What are you feeling right now?

Outrage?

Why?

I hear this from so many believers and while some seem to have a founded argument, others just seem to feel that they should be outraged and yet, have no reason or understanding. I am not even saying you should be outraged. For all that Christmas has become in the past few decades, including how some people even celebrate, why do we feel that since this holiday is so Christian? Sure it began as a holiday celebrating Christ’s birthday, but does it still? Really? We have slapped the Christian label on it, but does the way we (as believers) celebrate this holiday look anything like Christ?

I am not against Christmas, I love the family traditions that can come with Christmas, I love the concept of the whole thing. I don’t quite understand, however, why so many people are so up in a tizzy about something and fight for it under the “Christian” banner, when how we celebrate it doesn’t look very Christ-like at all. I won’t enter into the discussion of materialism, gluttony, and a whole host of other modern Christmas traditions.

Here is what I think, because I know the world is just aching to hear what I have to say, I say we (who are believers) continue to celebrate Christmas in a truly Christ-like way. That doesn’t mean a snotty “Merry Christmas” retort to a poor employee who is forced to say, “Happy Holidays.” I mean, do what you can to make an impact on your family, community, and the world this year. Make sure you spend Christmas day doing what we are hopefully doing every day, but maybe in a different way, by making Christ the center of it. Sure, some of us are going to be hanging out with family, what a great time to be an example. What a great way to teach your children to be counter cultural. What a great way to find a creative way to help others.

Opportunities abound…opportunities to be Christ to others…and not be what society says we should be.

The point is… why do we get so outraged about our culture not being Christian with a “Christian” holiday? We are mad at them for not understanding Him, and that is our job (to help with understanding), but I wonder, how well do WE understand Him? This Christmas season I pray we all search for a deeper and healthier way to shine the light of Christ to others. That we would have true Christmas in our heart, and it would overflow from our hearts to be a joy and encouragement to others.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Runaway

When I was younger I thought a couple of times of running away, in fact, even though I never officially ran away but I have run and a lot in my life. While I do actually, literally run, that isn’t what I mean. There have been times of pain, times of rebellion, times of anger, times of…just being stubborn that have led me to run from numerous thing. Some of those matters are serious, some…not so much. They may be as simple as a phone call, other times, something that has haunted me.

The funny thing about running away is, often nothing gets resolved. Sometimes, there is no resolution no matter how hard you try. Sometimes there is resolution no matter how much you don’t want it. Sometimes, because you run, there is resolution because you run but is it the best resolution?

I have known a few people in my life who were runaway’s. Some were the traditional runaway’s, others, more of the figurative runaway. People run away from everything from parents, to school, to work, to God, to phone calls, and even from the doctor. If you run from a doctor, usually it ends up killing you…or doing more harm than necessary. If you run from a phone call, the matter is usually never resolved. If you run from God, there are a whole host of ways that could end up. You may end up like Jonah, and really who wants that?

I say all of this because; as I stated, I have found that I run a lot. I have found that I am so afraid of failing, that I often talk myself out of even trying. Yet, I feel as though God has some big things for me to accomplish.

Quite a predicament…

I still judge success by the world’s standard and not by a spiritual standard. I still have to talk myself down if I feel like I didn’t deliver, I still have to ask myself, “It may not seem like a success, but is it what God wanted?” Can I live my life in a way that doesn’t care if man thinks I succeed but I do well by God’s standards? I certainly hope so.

Ancient Hebrew scripture speaks of several runaway’s. Jacob was one, he became blessed beyond belief and yet he was scared to death of going back to what he ran away from. Jonah ran away, but God reeled him back in, and reeled him back in hard. Moses ran away, and yet God sent him right back to where he came from to free His people. Joseph was a kind of forced runaway, and yet he ended up facing those who forced him out. David had to runaway for a time, but came back and took the throne at the right time. There are numerous others, but the point is…whatever you are running from, are you willing to face it if God calls you to?

It isn’t about your fear; it is about your willingness to face your fear if that is what God calls you to.

We all have fear, I can guarantee that, the hope is that we don’t always runaway. There is a time to run; there is also a time to face our fears. I don’t want to come across as arrogant, because I know some of our fears are harder to face than others. I don’t want to minimalize that, but I also don’t want some of us to keep running, when maybe…just maybe, God is telling us, “it is time.”

Something to ponder…God bless.

Conjured Capacities (CIC5)

**This will be my final installment of this short blogging series, just to sum it all up, back to normal randomness.**

Yesterday I was at the gym and while on the treadmill, which I love oh so much, the show “Man vs. Food” came on. The whole concept of the show is that the host finds these eating challenges around the country and tries to beat the record or the challenge. Yesterday, the challenge was to eat seventeen hot dogs at a place in North Carolina. He did it, he had a tough time with the buns because they were filling him up, but he did it.

I have witnessed a time or two that he just couldn’t pull it off, the capacity to hole the amount or mass of food was not enough and he had to leave food on the table and take a walk…or waddle…of shame. I know this is going in a weird direction. Hang with me.

We often rely on our human abilities to be able to contain all that God has for us, all that He wants to reveal, all that God is. By our human capacities, we limit, narrow, and thus come up with a faulty concept of God because we cap Him off at what we can “get” and the rest we somehow justify as being ok to go without.

We must be careful that we don’t try to cap off God according to our capacity. We can say we won’t ever understand Him, but do we try with tenacity to connect with Him? Do we seek Him with a hunger and brokenness? Do we long for Him? Or…do we try to understand Him according to what we have always known about Him and/or jam Him into our pre-conceived notions of Him? Do we day God would You reveal Yourself to me? Would You do that work? Is our attitude such that we say we can’t live our life You want for me so I lay it all down because I want You to reveal Yourself, to reveal the life You want from me and then live that life through me.

“God is not custom built for us, we are custom built for Him, He is the Potter and we are the clay. He does not change, nor is He able to be manufactured in any way to be exactly who we think He should be. He is who He is, the great “I Am.” It is our job to get to know all of who He is, and let Him transform us and use us to bring Him glory. It is a foolish task for the creation try to conform Creator into something that fits our fantasy, for our meager fantasies could not hold the splendor of all that He is.”

When He has our lives… that is when we really see a life that matters most come to a reality. God bless you all…never rely on the capacity that you can conjure up to understand the fullness of God. Let Him do that work to reveal to you more than you can handle so that he may broaden your horizons and stretch You into the person He wants you to be.

The Tsunami & the Sponge (CIC4)

We are continuing on with taking a deeper look at what I shared on Sunday, and we are currently looking at some of the barriers we often face when trying to live this life that God has for us, a life that really matter. I mentioned yesterday that our thinking can be faulty when we rely solely on other people’s revelation to fuel our faith. Today, I want to look at how we often narrow God down from His true majesty to something that makes more sense and is more comfortable for us.

I liken it to seeing a picture of the ocean. Imagining the vastness of the ocean and all its beauty, wanting so badly to experience the glory and the splendor of all that is the ocean in all of its fullness, the life that is in it, the power that it generates everything. You lay awake at night thinking of what it must be like to experience getting your feet wet in the ocean, feeling the mist of it as it crashes over and over against the rocks, seeing the dolphins jumping out, all of the things and wonderment you have heard about this wonderful ocean.

Finally you get the opportunity, someone tells you that they are going to the ocean; they ask you if you would like to join them. You have complete freedom to join them, it is a free trip, and you realize you won’t experience everything in the short trip, but you will finally get to experience the ocean.

You respond, “Yes, I want to experience the ocean! Hold on, I will be right back.” And you rush off into the kitchen, reach under the sink, and pull something out; you rush back into the room to the person going to the ocean who is planning on jumping in the car and going. They ask you with a puzzled look on their face, “What did you get? That certainly is a weird place to put your bathing suit.” “O no, I want to experience the ocean, here.” You hand them a small square object, they look up with their brow furrowed in confusion. You say, “Thank you.” And turn around and walk away.

You have given them a common dish sponge.

How often do we try to cram all that God is into something so small and paltry? How often do we rely on others to bring it to us? How often do we love to hear about, sing about, and read about God but we never really search to experience Him. Why? Maybe because it is something that is not easy for me to understand, so we stay “in the house” afraid to experience the “ocean” of all that He is.

We often rely on our rationale to understand God, when we do this we have narrowed Him down to a human revelation.

That is sick. We set up unnecessary rules and boundaries through our rationality and through that cut off the vastness of who He is and what He wants to reveal to us. If someone brought us a dripping wet sponge and told us that they brought this to us so we could experience the ocean, I imagine we would have a bit of a sour look on our face and give them a half hearted and sarcastic, “thanks.” Why? Because we haven’t really experienced much of anything. Is the water in the sponge ocean water? Sure, but it speaks so little to the fullness of all that the ocean is, and yet I wonder if this is where we are happy to live our faith.

I will wrap up today with this, imagine that you become willing to go out and see if a conversation about the ocean will pop up with some friends and family. You are walking around with that sponge your friend got you from the ocean. You go and try to tell everyone just how amazing the ocean is and they start asking you questions because they decide they may want to know more about this ocean as well. You go and try to explain to them the things that you do not know, I mean you may have seen pictures, or heard stories, but you yourself have never experienced it.

How many questions can you really answer? You have never experienced it, your understanding is narrow, and you have a salty sponge and answers with no depth. I pray that our faith is more than a dish sponge, I pray that if God wants to rush into our lives like a tsunami the we don’t hold up a dish sponge and say, “Only this much please.”

There is so much more to say, but to sum it up, throw out the sponge and go to the ocean. Let’s not narrow God down into something that is more understandable for us let’s be oceanographer’s.

“I want to dive in, I want to take the plunge I want to swim in the presence of the Son, I want to swim until I am undone.”

Recycled Righteousness (CIC3)

Have you ever had someone tell you a story and it just didn’t seem to be as exciting to you as they seem to be about explaining it? Or a funny situation that happened to them and they are laughing nearly uncontrollably and yet, it isn’t really that funny to you? Why is it so funny to them? “You had to be there!” Still yet there are those lovely souls that give great detail in explaining something that you have no interest in and yet they feel the need to give you every last detail because they experienced it and they want you to experience it the same way they did…but you weren’t there.

To step it up just a notch, have you ever had one of those conversations where there are two people talking about the funny situation. They are cracking up and barely even understandable because they are laughing so hard. Meanwhile, you are standing there with a dumb smile on your face wishing you had some idea as to what actually happened? No, I am not referring to my high school experience with dances. All my friends went, I was far too shy. This seems to happen to everyone sometime.

It isn’t as funny for us…we don’t experience it.

Now suppose I go and try to tell this funny story to someone else who wasn’t at the event. The story seems to lose even more humor and momentum. In fact, you probably wouldn’t share the story because you don’t have the same enjoyment out of the story that they did. So anything emotionally that you could produce with that story would be fake and a shell of the truth.

The information is not first hand.

You could not muster up the charisma to make the story very interesting or believable. A special person with an outrageous personality could somehow make a few people chuckle. However, I doubt they would walk away talking about the event in the way that the people who experienced and enjoyed it firsthand would. My point is this…

…why do believers try to be happy with their spiritual walk by experiencing God in a nearly exclusively second hand manner?

We, as humans, seem to be prone to return to being ruled by the selfish mindset.

We love to experience things. I have experienced some very cool things in my life, and I love it. I have been on the Eiffel tower, the beaches of Biarritz, to numerous places in Spain and France, been to Beijing, the Great Wall, Xiamen, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, the Rockies, Arianna’s birth, and so many other places and experiences. Those are the big things, but I love to experience small things too. I love just about every meal I eat, I love it when Arianna crawls up to me with a big smile when I get home, there are certain people that when I see them walk through the door it makes me so happy, and so many other normal, often enjoyed experiences.

Yet, why am I often satisfied with a second hand relationship with God?

We have relied so often on other people’s rationale of who God is that we start basing everything we know on what other people say. We rarely rely on a personal experience with God and less often seek that experience with Him. We have done this for centuries, this relying on others perceptions and interpretations rather than seeking His guidance.

Mind you, God uses other to guide us, but not to take His place in explaining who He is to us personally.

We are prone to this; it started with Adam and Eve. The enemy made eating the fruit seem like the rationale thing to do…mankind fell. God gave the law, but mankind sought after idols and things more tangible, because they made more sense to him…he could experience that physically. Later mankind found a way to make the law tangible by making it a social status, if you follow the rules you were higher on the ladder. The law became a guilt based system faulty because of what man made it (Romans 8). The attitude was all wrong, and Christ came and pronounced that (Matthew 5) and yet on and on we go, we get shaken up and we revert back to clean, explainable, second hand religion.

This barrier of faulty second handed relationship is disturbing. We cannot rely solely on other people’s experiences to satisfy our need for God. We must rely on His Spirit (2 Corinthians 2). Otherwise we walk away hearing a true story that may have other people all excited but we have missed the experienced and are therefore unfulfilled. We will not feel the excitement to share the story, and we will understand the fullness that comes from the experience. This leads to a faulty understanding of God that trickles down to every aspect of our spiritual life.