The world where we live is a hard place. Mistakes aren’t tolerated. Issuing forgiveness is a luxury for many of us, a gift we reluctantly seem willing to share. A person need look no further than the ride home from work to see how little we seem to value those around us as we mutter insults under our breath at the driver behaving irresponsibly. That person, no matter how infuriating, is just as much God’s child as I am. And that person is just as forgiven, when he asks for forgiveness, as I am when I ask, when I implore, when I beg, when I cry, for the same favor when I have failed, when I have hurt others, when I have tried and failed again and when I can’t entangle myself from my own foolishness. But I am who I am and the fact that I too often am the center of my own universe blinds me to the fact that God loves me as much as He loves everyone else, and He expects me to learn to love that way, too.
When will I learn to love the way I should?
"I then shall live as one who’s been forgiven
I’ll walk with joy to know my debts are paid
I know my name is clear before my Father
I am His child, and I am not afraid
So greatly pardoned, I’ll forgive my brother
The law of love I gladly will obey."
The world where we live is a harsh place. Caring is considered soft. Softness equates to weakness, and the world tells us, only the strong survive. A body needs look no further than his own neighborhood to see how short our arms become when caring comes to mind. We lament how we don’t even know the names of our neighbors, so how can we begin to know how and why they hurt when they hurt. Still, these people hurt just as I do and God knows the pain of these people just as sure as He knows the pain I feel even down to the marrow of my bones. These people need the same concern I want, I desire, I crave, I demand, when my pride, my ego, my heart, my life, breaks. But I am who I am and reaching out to others might mean I might have to reach away from myself but since that might somehow show some weakness on my part that allows me to ignore the knowledge that God’s care extends beyond my needs, and that He expects me to appreciate true compassion only after I provide it to others.
When will I learn to care the way I should?
"I then shall live as one who’s learned compassion
I’ve been so loved that I’ll risk loving too
I know how fear builds walls instead of bridges
I dare to see another’s point of view
And when relationships demand commitment
Then I’ll be there to care and follow through."
The world where we live is a hopeless place. People don’t care, they don’t forgive. It’s easy to say, ‘leave them to their own devices, let them wallow in the misery they embrace’. A soul need look no further than his own family and friends to realize the depths of despair some revel in, a cavity that quickly swallows people whole. Yet, God has extended the same hope to these family and friends as He extended to me. He is there in that black-as-coal pit with them just as He is there when I crawl to that place when I am damaged, pitiful and shaken. These family and friends need hope just as much as I do, the same hope I expect, I need, I anticipate, I count on, when my attitude, my path, my purpose, my world seems without hope. But I am who I am and noticing people without hope is a hard thing to do when I am so wrapped up in my own useless plans and not concerned with His plans for me, plans He expects me to understand begin and end with my very own life.
When will I learn to live the way I should?
"Your kingdom come around and through and in me
Your pow’r and glory, let them shine through me
Your Hallowed Name, O may I bear with honor
And may Your living Kingdom come in me
The Bread of Life, O may I share with honor
And may You feed a hungry world through me.
Amen."
May we all have a safe and enjoyable Christmas time. May the New Year be injected with the things we need to survive a hard, harsh, hopeless world…forgiveness, compassion, optimism. May God bless us with these gifts, and the desire, the courage, the willingness, to share these gifts with those who need them more than us and the understanding, the strength, the commitment to share these gifts with each other when we need to do so.
Matthew 1, Matthew 27 & 28
(I Then Shall Live was written by Bill and Gloria Gaither, 1980)
12.16.2008
12.11.2008
I'll Have Another Brownie Please
You know when you’re a kid and you eat a piece of candy and it’s so good, you go back and eat another piece of candy and then you eat another piece and then another piece and then you end up sick from all the candy? Well, that’s about where I am right now with all the holiday events. They’re good but sometimes there’s just so many of them that enjoying them becomes hard to do after awhile.
In a seven weekend span beginning in mid-November, Jennifer and I will have had five weekends with some kind of family or holiday event. One of those “free” weekends has yet to come around so we may end up booking it with something before it arrives. Some of these weekends have involved travel away from home. Some of them involve people coming to our house. This doesn’t even include other events through the week for church, the neighborhood and work, so for this time frame there is absolutely no escape from it. And, any way you look at it, it takes time and effort to do the holiday thing.
Don’t misunderstand me; I enjoy seeing family and friends during this time. I enjoy the food and the fellowship. I even enjoy the lights and the decorations and even, begrudgingly, some of the music. I like the whole concept of gift giving (and it really is more fun to give than to get). Also, I don’t know the exact date Jesus Christ was born, so I’m not too sure about the December 25 thing as it relates to Him. I do though think it’s important to understand He was born, how He was born and why He was born, so thinking of those things related to Him around this time of year is something I will do and is something I will tell myself I need to do more often during the rest of the year. So, it’s all a bit more involved than sausage balls and cherry muffins and sparkling cider and peppermint candy canes and pine-scented candles and frilly ribbons and gift bags and all the other things that seem to dominate the season.
Still, I’m struggling right now to finish the season off. It’s not because I’m depressed. I’m not being Ebenezer Scrooge. I’m just part of the way though this year’s holiday tour and I am tired, just physically tired. I want so bad to take a long nap, one so long and with sleep so deep, I might wake myself up snoring or slobbering or both. I’d like just a bit of freedom from the hustle and bustle to veg out for a few hours and not have to worry about getting ready to go somewhere in a festive, seasonal sweater. It doesn’t help that work bears down pretty hard this month and January either. So, I must go forward, no matter how good sleep sounds.
Right now, I feel like I have eaten a big ol’ brownie topped with chocolate icing and mixed with pecans and chocolate chips. It was the kind of brownie that was so good you can gain weight just from smelling it. It was so sweet, so delicious, I ate another one that was just as big. I waited a few minutes and then ate another brownie and then another brownie and then a bit later, I ate yet another brownie. So, at this very moment, I feel if you offered me a big, ol’ brownie I might just scream uncontrollably and run off down the street never to be seen again.
Never to be seen again…until I wanted another brownie.
See you over the holidays!
In a seven weekend span beginning in mid-November, Jennifer and I will have had five weekends with some kind of family or holiday event. One of those “free” weekends has yet to come around so we may end up booking it with something before it arrives. Some of these weekends have involved travel away from home. Some of them involve people coming to our house. This doesn’t even include other events through the week for church, the neighborhood and work, so for this time frame there is absolutely no escape from it. And, any way you look at it, it takes time and effort to do the holiday thing.
Don’t misunderstand me; I enjoy seeing family and friends during this time. I enjoy the food and the fellowship. I even enjoy the lights and the decorations and even, begrudgingly, some of the music. I like the whole concept of gift giving (and it really is more fun to give than to get). Also, I don’t know the exact date Jesus Christ was born, so I’m not too sure about the December 25 thing as it relates to Him. I do though think it’s important to understand He was born, how He was born and why He was born, so thinking of those things related to Him around this time of year is something I will do and is something I will tell myself I need to do more often during the rest of the year. So, it’s all a bit more involved than sausage balls and cherry muffins and sparkling cider and peppermint candy canes and pine-scented candles and frilly ribbons and gift bags and all the other things that seem to dominate the season.
Still, I’m struggling right now to finish the season off. It’s not because I’m depressed. I’m not being Ebenezer Scrooge. I’m just part of the way though this year’s holiday tour and I am tired, just physically tired. I want so bad to take a long nap, one so long and with sleep so deep, I might wake myself up snoring or slobbering or both. I’d like just a bit of freedom from the hustle and bustle to veg out for a few hours and not have to worry about getting ready to go somewhere in a festive, seasonal sweater. It doesn’t help that work bears down pretty hard this month and January either. So, I must go forward, no matter how good sleep sounds.
Right now, I feel like I have eaten a big ol’ brownie topped with chocolate icing and mixed with pecans and chocolate chips. It was the kind of brownie that was so good you can gain weight just from smelling it. It was so sweet, so delicious, I ate another one that was just as big. I waited a few minutes and then ate another brownie and then another brownie and then a bit later, I ate yet another brownie. So, at this very moment, I feel if you offered me a big, ol’ brownie I might just scream uncontrollably and run off down the street never to be seen again.
Never to be seen again…until I wanted another brownie.
See you over the holidays!
12.04.2008
Yesterdays Ago
Some yesterdays ago, I was a little boy growing up in a small Georgia town with my parents and an older brother and sister. The memories from then are mostly good ones. I was very fortunate to have had a lot of extended family as well. When I count them up I had 28 aunts and uncles and almost 40 cousins. Most of these folks lived within ten or twenty miles from us. I came to know most of them real well. So much of how I view things today were shaped by that time, that place, those people.
Earlier this week, one of those uncles passed away. He isn’t the first aunt, uncle or cousin to pass away, just the latest. Sad to say, I didn’t really know him as well I should have. I was though able to make the 70+ mile drive there for the funeral. There, I saw family and friends I hadn’t seen since the last family funeral.
I left there with a lot on my mind, a lot about family and the things that tie us together, a lot about why and how things turn out the way they do in life. For right now, it’s all just too overwhelming to try to put into words. Maybe with some time to sort through it all, I can write a bit more about the funeral, my family and these feelings that come out from my mind’s shadows when one of us dies. For now I know I feel very sad because one more of the people from all my yesterdays ago when I began to grasp what family was and how it all fit together has died.
Earlier this week, one of those uncles passed away. He isn’t the first aunt, uncle or cousin to pass away, just the latest. Sad to say, I didn’t really know him as well I should have. I was though able to make the 70+ mile drive there for the funeral. There, I saw family and friends I hadn’t seen since the last family funeral.
I left there with a lot on my mind, a lot about family and the things that tie us together, a lot about why and how things turn out the way they do in life. For right now, it’s all just too overwhelming to try to put into words. Maybe with some time to sort through it all, I can write a bit more about the funeral, my family and these feelings that come out from my mind’s shadows when one of us dies. For now I know I feel very sad because one more of the people from all my yesterdays ago when I began to grasp what family was and how it all fit together has died.
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