Words

Corporate leaders wandered through the store thanking, hand shaking and well wishing employees a happy holidays and a congratulations for a successful year.  Among the chatter an introduction of a new employee was made and with the introduction came an explanation that this employee was in between jobs and was working here until full time employment was to be found.  I cringed.  Never would I begrudge someone from finding full time employment but I knew that soon we would be searching for yet another employee.

Days later I found out that someone else had taken that conversation much differently.  This person had taken the conversation to mean that the new employee was much better than the rest of us and had lowered himself to work here till his feet landed that perfect job.  He chose to believe there was an implication that we had chosen unworthy careers and were stuck here forever. 

Often I have heard it, said it and even written about it, words mean things.  We have to be careful! Tis very true, however, very often words don't mean things.  We often make up meanings to build up something within our souls.  We get upset, mad, bitter or create a cleverness about ourselves dragging  in ideas that were not intended. 

Why choose to read negative thoughts into harmless situations?  Do I enjoy the bitterness, hatred and spite?  Is it all really worth it?  If I become this bitter old man, people will not want to hear my opinion.  They will not want to desire in my desires or suffer in my suffering.  And they surely will not want to know my God. 

Many times I conjure up ideas about what people say and it affects my perspective of others and makes my flavor distasteful and my light go dim.

                                                                     Matthew 5:13

                                                   "You are the salt of the earth; but if
                                                    the salt loses its flavor, how shall it
                                                    be seasoned/?  It is then good for
                                                    nothing but to be thrown out and
                                                    trampled underfoot by men."
                                                                                                 NKJV


                                                                   Matthew 5:16

                                                 "Let your light so shine before men
                                                  that they my see your good works and
                                                  glorify your Father in Heaven."
                                                                                                  NKJV

I pray that in this new year our flavor will be rich and our light will shine bright.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Child

CHRISTMAS CHILD

It has been many years now since my wife and I have taken in foster children.  The kids were great but, at times, the advocacy was difficult.  At one point we had a little boy who stayed with us much longer than anticipated.  Karen worked tirelessly to protect and find a wonderful home for this little boy.  The whole process took a few years enabling me to do something I maybe should have shielded myself from....we developed a special kind of a bond.

The image never goes away.  As I would sit and read in the early morning my eyes would catch bouncing, curly hair traipsing down the stairs.  Rubbing the sleep from his eyes he would plop down next to me, wrap himself up in my arms and keep me company.  Sometimes we didn't talk, but often we chatted about "stuff".  It wasn't long now and he was gone, we had all finally settled on a good home, I didn't realize right away but this little boy had cut out a piece of my heart and taken it with him.

How much more must Christmas have felt to God?  He wrapped up His Son, set Him in a cold manger and left Him in a warped, crazy world.  God knew this baby would be mocked, ridiculed, beaten and killed.  But He also knew there was no other way to defeat man's sinful hearts. 

Oh how glad I am that God was willing to suffer the pain of separation so I could find this babe of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Humility

High school....to some the rush of nostalgia flutters through the veins.  Young crushes, athletic prowess, endless energy and built up stories of wonder.  To others there is thankfulness the nightmare ended many years ago.  To me, remembrances seem somewhat blurred...a true Scandinavian recollection, "ya, I guess it was ok."

I do remember wishing I had possessed a sense of "coolness" like some, popular, handsome, smart, athletic...traits I would have been willing to get used to.  But as I look back there were only a select few of "those" people who had the one trait which made them incredibly appealing....cluelessness.  There was no pulling back the shoulders, shoving out the chest, fluffing up the hair or looking down the nose.  They had the wonderful traits of greatness but they didn't realize it.  They would say hi to us floor watchers, help the teachers straighten up the desks and even pick up a tray someone left in the lunchroom.  They would never point and laugh.  They would smile and wave.  Though I never felt worthy of a crush on a pretty and popular "cool" girl, her smile and hello enabled me to look up once in a while in search of a new friend.  And that "all American boy", he included us minimally coordinated individuals without a second thought that a helping hand may infuse inferior germination. 

Is humility somewhat like this pretty, gifted and kind girl who would dare not place herself on a pedestal higher than anyone else?  Or the ruggedly, smart and handsome athletic boy who would include any and all into his band of friends, maybe he has some aspects of this coveted humility.  It's not what they do that interests me however, it's how it all takes place.  They are not conscience that they do such things, it doesn't cross their minds that they are who they are.

Humility, it seems to hang out on the precipice of life.  If I feel I approach humility it's too easy to tip over and think myself humble thus ridding the trait.  To be humble is all unknowing.  The inkling of such a thought abolishes the presumption. 

Humility is not the thought of putting others first or the action of doing for others, it's more than that.  It's the complete lack of understanding that I may be humble, not caring if I'm humble and not even thinking to put others first. 

Is it possible for me to be such?  I think it's not something I "be"...maybe it's something I am, something I allow.  It's impossible to "be" or create myself as such by want or desire.  If I allow God's holiness to wash over and through me, than I realize this humility is not possible...thus making it more possible.  God seems to have a way of ironing out the irony to keep me from messing up.  If I would ever have the chance to approach humility, I would never know because I would be humble.

Humility also seems to have a set of standards or rightness that is understood.  At times, in the past, I had thought humility was weak and could be pushed around or put aside, but Christ showed me different.  He butted in line and went to the cross for me.  He took the sword...the thorns....the grave.  He despises my sin greatly, punishes me justly and loves me severely all in His humble effort to drag me back to what's good for me.

When I consider myself humble I am teetering on this cliff of disaster.  May God wash me with the unconscious desire to follow Him in the fog of humility and the clarity of certainty that He is worthy and I am not.