Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas

Veiled in flesh the God-head see
Hail the incarnate deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus our Emmanuel
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the new born King!

I pray you all enjoy celebrating the day with family and friends.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

a new lesson

The school year is not quite halfway through, but the Christmas break provides an excellent time for reflection. It has been a trying first year with numerous ups and downs within the same week. I have been brought a long way since school started on August 31, and I know there is still a long way to go. I am excited to see God's hand of grace continue to work in the lives of my students and me. The glimpses I have seen leave me with nothing but awe and gratefulness for God's faithfulness. My biggest lessons thus far have definitely been patience and love. They typically go hand-in-hand which has been a tough thing for me to grapple with. I either feel as though I am loving my students but lacking in patience or being patient with them but lacking genuine love. As we reach this point in the school year, the Spirit has done a marvelous work in my life, but the work is nowhere near complete. There is ample room for growth in making my love mimic the radical love that joyfully drove Christ to the cross.

Just this week, however, I received a glimpse of the next lesson God has in store for me, more specifically my love. It stems from Romans 12:9 where Paul says, "hate what is evil, cling to what is good." Hating what is evil brought to mind "Hosanna" by Hillsong where the refrain reads, "...show me how to love like you have loved me. Break my heart for what breaks yours..." To be honest, I can hate evil as well as the next guy. I'm not saying I am perfect, but that I have learned to hate the sin still prevalent in my life. I also do a good job of hating the sin in the lives of others (sometimes too good of a job). This is where I need to allow my heart to start breaking.

Sin breaks the heart of God as much as it invokes His righteous anger. As a Father, He daily watches His children leave what is good and true for things that can never satisfy. I am not a father, but, knowing my own, I can imagine the devastation this attitude can bring. God wants the best for His children, and His heart breaks as they decline His offer. This is the attitude I need to put on display for my students. Yes, they are not my children, and I don't want them to be. However, my initial reaction to their mistakes should not be anger and frustration, but a broken heart. My desire should be to see them live as God originally intended them to and grieve when they fail. This will not only keep a proper perspective on God, but also keep me much more patient and compassionate. And these two qualities are what most of my students long for because they have never tasted it; the salt of Christ.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Is it really better to give than to receive?

That saying gets thrown around a lot this time of year. Parents quote it to their children, pastors to their flocks, and everyone else to anybody they come in contact with. I was indoctrinated into it at an early age, but never really believed it. This week changed all that.

On Sunday, our youth group had the privilege of taking gifts and other necessities to local families in need. The senior class raised the money, and then designated how they were going to spend it. A friend and I took a group of excited high schoolers to two locations. The first was a sister of the youth worker in the church who we were told, "could care less about anything having to do with God." We disclosed our purpose for being at her doorstep, and she gracefully took our gift. She then asked if we were also caroling, to which I said "absolutely!" We asked for a request from her because we wanted it to bless her more than it would us. Surprisingly chose O Holy Night, which happens to be one of my favorites. The range gets a little heavy, but my years of choir came flooding back. We sang the best I have ever heard a group of high schoolers plus two leaders sing. Her face beamed with joy as we moved on to our next location. Unfortunately, this particularly family wasn't home at the time so we did not get to experience their jubilation. However, having been warned of their situation it brought joy to know that it would be there waiting for them when they returned home.

Last night, my band of brothers (our fancy name for our Bible Study) and I helped out underprivileged families in my school district. Earlier in the fall, we were looking for ways to reach out a helping hand as an act of service and demonstration of our love for Christ. I checked out a program in my school where food and other necessities are donated to poorer families. We offered a donation as well as our time when the boxes needed to be delivered. At the end of the school day, the woman runner the program asked if I could get my buddies to deliver that night. I squirmed, but told her I would make a few phone calls. When all was said and done, five of us loaded three cars with fifteen or so boxes of food. With only a limited knowledge of the area (me), a TomTom (Danny and Chad), and intuition (Jordan and Ryan) we took off. While the locations were vastly different, our experiences were the same. Families were bringing out every member to greet us. With smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes, they expressed heartfelt gratitude. God was gracious enough to allow me to visit three of my students, which was more of a blessing to me than it was to them. It gave me a deeper understanding of what circumstances my students are dealing with as well as a more genuine love for them. It was at those houses where I left with tears in my eyes. To top it all off, one of the students ran up to me at school today saying, "thanks for bringing us the food last night."

Now I would love to say I will be content from this point forward, but I am not that naive. Instead, I will simply say it truly is better to give than to receive. For even when we give, God graciously allows us to receive blessings from Him.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Sounds of the season

I am fairly open about my love of music. Silence is not typically a friend I want to spend a significant amount of time with. Whenever I know an extended period of "quiet" time is drawing near I find music to fill the void. In college I avoided the library for that very reason. Why would I search out a place where the very purpose of it is to drown out all surrounding noises? That is just sheer torture! My rambling tangent aside, the Christmas season only intensifies my infatuation. I can listen to nearly any genre of music during Christmas, even country (if done well). Christmas is the only valid excuse I have to listen to music nearly 24/7. It's awesome!

My elder sister graciously shared a few seasonal selections with me over Thanksgiving, which I quickly gobbled up. I have been joyously listening to them for the past two weeks. However, three albums can only go so far. Plus, my collection has been exhausted to the point where I can only use it as a change of pace. I needed something more to satisfy the hunger in my ears for more Christmas music.

Once again my sister came to my rescue, only she doesn't know it yet. I was "stalking" (You can try to use any other adjective to tone down the true purpose of Facebook, but I am humble enough to admit the truth.) her on the aforementioned social networking system when I saw her friend mention Pandora for Christmas music. To be honest, I always held out against Pandora because I was afraid I might find new artists I couldn't say no to when it comes to purchasing their music. It's not that I don't want to make the purchase as much as it is I really should put the money elsewhere at this point.

Too make a long story short, I experimented with Pandora...and got hooked! The Christmas possibilities are endless! I have listened all this week, and have yet to skim the surface of all the Christmas tunes there are to hear. I am either singing my heart out along with the classics or listening with a smile on my face to new friends. I don't know what I am going to do when Christmas passes, but for now I couldn't care less.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

God with us

Given the glorious season that is upon us, you will hear the name Emmanuel significantly more than usual. It was the name given to Christ in Isaiah and fulfilled when He "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). As a kid, I remember singing a lot of songs mentioning Christ as Emmanuel. These were both songs of the Christmas and traditional/weekly worship varieties. I never really gave any thought to the name besides Christ entering into our world as a man. (And I don't mean to diminish the miracle of the incarnation by any stretch of the imagination. Redemption doesn't happen without it!) The name seemed only to bring meaning around Christmas when we focused on the incarnation in the nativity scene. At that point in time, God entered the realm of the finite to make His dwelling amongst His creation. Emmanuel was now a reality.

What I always failed to comprehend about Jesus as Emmanuel was the lasting effect of "God with us." Yes, two thousand years ago God was with us in the flesh. (How awesome/scary/humbling must that have been for His family, disciples, and anyone else who saw Him?) Today that is not the case. I am not typing this with a physical Jesus sitting next to me. However, the implication of Emmanuel goes much deeper than the physical presence of God. Through Christ, God could now reside inside the hearts of all who called upon His name.

At first glance, that seems less flashy than God actually being physically present with us. I mean look at all the things Christ did while He was on the earth! However, His presence on the earth was not enough to fix the epidemic of sin. The real problem was that God, because of His holy and righteous nature, could not be with us. (Read Romans to get the fuller picture and explanation.) Sure, in Christ, He could be in our physical presence, but we still had no part with Him. Christ, Emmanuel, made it possible for us to be with God. He bridged the immeasurable and uncrossable gap sin had placed between Creator and His creation. He fashioned our hearts into living temples of the Most High God. Christ was/is the means by which "Emmanuel" can be accomplished.

I love the nativity scenes commemorating when Emmanuel was in our midst. They are even better when I remember how and why Emmanuel left our midst, but remains Emmanuel today.