I'm a sucker for camp fires, waves and Christmas lights, I could watch them forever. It's that time again...lights on, blanket over the knees, coffee in hand...it's Christmas time.
A friend of mine recently passed away from cancer. He was a normal sort of a guy...kind, friendly, interesting and outgoing. He was a computer person and a fine coach of wrestling. At his funeral, I sat and listened to people talk about him. I didn't really catch much about his main focus in life...his teaching career and coaching prowess. What I heard about most was his love of a certain breed of cow. From what I could understand, he had become the chief guy in charge of maintaining and promoting this unique strain of cattle. People from all over the Midwest were there remembering this man, not because of his cancer or his lively hood but because of his hobby.
Jesus was born of a virgin. Why would God do that? Why cause such speculation? Why put Mary and Joseph in such an awkward situation? Why not do the "norm" and have Jesus be born royalty, be nice to everybody, take over the world and have everyone live happily ever after?
God took a couple of nice poor folk, created a miracle, developed a pregnancy and made the impossible...a Savior. This whole Savior thing, it happened not by Jesus learning Joseph's trade and building a kingdom, or by Mary teaching Jesus how to cook fabulous meals and than Jesus feeding the world. This happened through Mary and Joseph because they followed the unimaginable path set before them by the creator of the world.
What's on your horizon? Do you think that special love, maybe your winsome character or your perplexing invention is of no consequence? Who knows, God may be preparing your quirksome interest to lead lost hearts to a lowly manger cradling eternal life.
My friend loved cows...big deal. God used that passion to change peoples lives all over the Midwest...incredible!
Joseph and Mary...they were poor and now outcasts because of a pregnancy scandal...so what! Bingo, a Savior was born!
Have you crossed out your Xmas? Maybe theoretically the X doesn't matter but for some reason it makes me nervous. I'm going to put in the extra effort, nix the X, keep Christ in Christmas and watch for the unimaginable.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Prudent Selection
There seems to be many apprehensions in life. Doing things differently and staying the same both have ways of creating second thoughts and building tension. All sorts of things bring on these apprehensive feelings like replacing Christ in Christmas with an X, or replacing seven verses and seven choruses with seven repeats of the same line in a song. What about replacing weather faded hymn books with huge TV (oh my) screens. My worst fear was replacing the good ol' diaper pail with that new electronic diaper disposal system. My younger years found me impatient because I thought unchangeable was stagnation. Now that I'm older I have a hard time comprehending new things and think change is unnecessary.
When I was a youngster in college moseying my way through the mountains of Colorado, I came upon an interesting tree root. I'm not really sure if my musings of the day created the inclination or if the root actually looked like the compilation of a young and an old man. The bottom of the root looked like a muscular young man in a running pose as if hurrying somewhere, the top was a burl formed into the head of an old man, wrinkled, blemished, gnarled and bearded. This all found me in a struggling part of life; of being young and wanting to change and getting rid of old ways. But I was scared to grab life's new ideas and move into an uncomfortable world.
Times had become different. There were new ideas...many I wasn't sure were good. And many ideas seemed profound and I wished had been part of my life much earlier. As I looked at the root of man I wrote a poem that shaped me somewhat about my thoughts of young and old.
Prudent Selection
Light then breaks through tattered rinds
while rain, it flows in gutters,
lapped by tasteless tongues of time.
The mind is all that mutters....
Glistening rays bounce off the mass
when grip it seems to tighten.
Too soon to undergo the pain except for fickle lass,
is cause to never frighten.
Is it might or clever mind
that is a desperate need?
Side by side they'll surely find
some troubled lives to lead!
Strength or wisdom look to see,
both can rate as charity.
As the rain came down and glistened off that muscular body, I realized that change is inevitable and I must press on toward this perfection I follow in Christ. But the rain cascading down the wrinkles of the old man....what of him? I believe those tears have eroded many gutters of experience that can save much wasted time in this journey with my Lord. I must hold them dear as well.
It matters not what side of the fence I graze on. I have my likes, dislikes, and concerns...kinds of music, styles of clothes, methods of finance, techniques of worship. Unfortunately my humanness takes over in many of my decisions. I'm willing to throw out the old ideas and bring in something fresh. But what about others? My fresh may seem putrid to them. Why did I think older people (who were younger than I am now) were closed and set in their ways? The reality, I think, was because I wanted them to like this "new" as much as I did. What I found was that older people, by walking the path I was now walking, had created a clear motif, much better than my haphazard motives. This motif must always be consistent...Christ. We must base our life on Christ's desires not on our clever motives and ingenuity.
Does it matter young or old, hip or hop, classical or rap, fast paced or slow? I can like rap or rock or gospel and it will get me to the right destination as long as I'm going in the right direction. God may even tap His toe a time or two to both rock or hymns...I think He has no battle here.
Do I feel that the only people needing to find a Savior are those who like "change"? Maybe some who need this Savior like "same". The old may have to depend on strength to lead them because they are no longer able. Or maybe the strong need the wise to lead them forward. Leading, however, doesn't automatically change likes and dislikes. Wisdom and stability are intrinsically important as is strength and new ideas. If we all have an interest in this challenge called Christ-likeness we must look out for the interests of others. I can be as happy or even more-so to see my friends smile to their style of music rather than having to chase my toe tapping all over the stage. Or to see my kids and their friends, kick up their heels in worship to God as I sit stoically exhausted twelve rows back on the left side of the sanctuary.
I think God has a use for stable and changeable, and young and old alike. The prudent selection here is neither one or the other but both.
When I was a youngster in college moseying my way through the mountains of Colorado, I came upon an interesting tree root. I'm not really sure if my musings of the day created the inclination or if the root actually looked like the compilation of a young and an old man. The bottom of the root looked like a muscular young man in a running pose as if hurrying somewhere, the top was a burl formed into the head of an old man, wrinkled, blemished, gnarled and bearded. This all found me in a struggling part of life; of being young and wanting to change and getting rid of old ways. But I was scared to grab life's new ideas and move into an uncomfortable world.
Times had become different. There were new ideas...many I wasn't sure were good. And many ideas seemed profound and I wished had been part of my life much earlier. As I looked at the root of man I wrote a poem that shaped me somewhat about my thoughts of young and old.
Prudent Selection
Light then breaks through tattered rinds
while rain, it flows in gutters,
lapped by tasteless tongues of time.
The mind is all that mutters....
Glistening rays bounce off the mass
when grip it seems to tighten.
Too soon to undergo the pain except for fickle lass,
is cause to never frighten.
Is it might or clever mind
that is a desperate need?
Side by side they'll surely find
some troubled lives to lead!
Strength or wisdom look to see,
both can rate as charity.
As the rain came down and glistened off that muscular body, I realized that change is inevitable and I must press on toward this perfection I follow in Christ. But the rain cascading down the wrinkles of the old man....what of him? I believe those tears have eroded many gutters of experience that can save much wasted time in this journey with my Lord. I must hold them dear as well.
It matters not what side of the fence I graze on. I have my likes, dislikes, and concerns...kinds of music, styles of clothes, methods of finance, techniques of worship. Unfortunately my humanness takes over in many of my decisions. I'm willing to throw out the old ideas and bring in something fresh. But what about others? My fresh may seem putrid to them. Why did I think older people (who were younger than I am now) were closed and set in their ways? The reality, I think, was because I wanted them to like this "new" as much as I did. What I found was that older people, by walking the path I was now walking, had created a clear motif, much better than my haphazard motives. This motif must always be consistent...Christ. We must base our life on Christ's desires not on our clever motives and ingenuity.
Does it matter young or old, hip or hop, classical or rap, fast paced or slow? I can like rap or rock or gospel and it will get me to the right destination as long as I'm going in the right direction. God may even tap His toe a time or two to both rock or hymns...I think He has no battle here.
Do I feel that the only people needing to find a Savior are those who like "change"? Maybe some who need this Savior like "same". The old may have to depend on strength to lead them because they are no longer able. Or maybe the strong need the wise to lead them forward. Leading, however, doesn't automatically change likes and dislikes. Wisdom and stability are intrinsically important as is strength and new ideas. If we all have an interest in this challenge called Christ-likeness we must look out for the interests of others. I can be as happy or even more-so to see my friends smile to their style of music rather than having to chase my toe tapping all over the stage. Or to see my kids and their friends, kick up their heels in worship to God as I sit stoically exhausted twelve rows back on the left side of the sanctuary.
I think God has a use for stable and changeable, and young and old alike. The prudent selection here is neither one or the other but both.
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