"Tis the season to be jolly......"
You would think so. Everything around us tells us that this is the time to be jolly and merry. Clerks in department stores wish us the generic "happy holidays" with each purchase, displaying a fake smile underneath their tired eyes from long hours, frustrated customers and hours of listening to Jingle Bell Rock played over the loudspeaker of the store. While touted as the"time of giving", more and more places try to offer bribes for your business with deals like "Buy a $30 gift card for them and get a $5 gift card for you!". Yes, playing to our selfish nature in the materialistic world we live in is a great method for drumming up more sales.
Besides the great buying frenzy, many find the holidays exhausting physically and emotionally. For the single, the emptiness of relationships seems ever more real as they travel from activity to activity, alone. For the widowed or grieving or empty nester, the holidays can open old wounds and highlight how this year is different, because not everyone who made the holiday season so special is there anymore. For the unemployed and underemployed, the season can remind you of everything you don't have and can't get for your loved ones. For the very wealthy, the holidays are especially anticlimactic, because all the money in the world can't fill that whole that nags at your heart. Or maybe you're the child learning Santa isn't true. Or you are some other religion, feeling assaulted by holiday greetings everywhere you go, for holidays you don't celebrate. Yes, "happy holidays" can be a major letdown for young and old.
And yet, Christmas is the most joyful time of all. Not the materialistic, secular, generality of "holiday wishes", Christmas is the true heralding of comfort and joy. For believers, it is a reminder of God's great love for us and our identity in Him. We are His people, saved through His Son, to be reunited in His glorious kingdom. The examples above are just a small sample of people trying to establish identity in worldly, temporary things like our beauty, riches, family or lovers. Every one of those things leaves a whole inside that no gift card or fancy bow can fill. The hole we have inside is exactly Jesus sized and nothing else will do. Psalm 48 paints a beautiful picture of worshiping God, Lord of all. But not only because He is our Creator and all-powerful and worthy of praise. The psalmist ends with the reason for joyful worship - because He is our God (vs14). And we are His people.
For believers, we are urged in 1 Peter to not conform to our former lusts which were ours in ignorance, but rather to live like the Holy One who called us. (1 Peter 1:14) We don't have to live like everyone else, hurried, exhausted and yet somehow disappointed by it all. Christmas is joyful because we were called out of darkness into light (Isaiah 9:2) and given good news of great joy (Luke 2:10). We are a blessed people because no longer do we have to be enslaved to our former passions and identities that left us broken and empty - we are not controlled by money, sex, power, family, materialism, or any other false sense of security celebrated by "happy holidays". No, we were called to have a "Merry Christmas", rooted in our identity in Him who loves us and called us to make use His own. John's gospel says "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor by the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)
Have you lost someone recently or is your house a little less full this Christmas - take heart, you are part of the body of Christ. You are in His family and you are loved.
Are you alone this Christmas or lonely, even when others are around - be of good cheer, because the Holy Spirit dwells within you and you are never alone.
Is your bank account not looking up to the task of meeting expectations for this season of giving - rejoice, because you have the greatest gift of all and you can share Him with everyone you meet.
It's not that God isn't sympathetic to our sense loss, grief, loneliness or even frustration over material things. He was born in a stable, raised in poverty and died alone on a cross. He knows every frustration this world can bring because He experienced them all. And yet, He does ask us to hold those emotions up to the light of His love. These times are temporary, but we have been loved with and everlasting love and will live with Him eternally in a kingdom paved with gold. No new sweater or even I-phone can compare with that.
Trying to have a happy holiday will only leave you empty. But having a Merry Christmas will give you great cause to rejoice!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity!
Eminem, who is a secular rapper that I do not recommend, came out with a song in the early 2000's called "Loose Yourself". While vulgar, there is a clean section of the song that says, "So here I go, it's my shot. Feet fail me not, this may be the only opportunity I got. You gotta loose yourself in the moment, you own it, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance, because opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo."
This idea that we only have one chance for opportunity in life is embraced from the earliest of history. Horace, sometime around 40 BC coined the phrase "Carpe Diem" or "seize the day". This was actually embraced by the early rabbi's as well in the "Pirkei Avot", written by priests for the "oral torah" or the recording of the traditions of the rabbinical teachings from as early as 630 BC. They had a saying "if not now, then when".
In Genesis 16, we see Abram loose himself when he listens to Sarai and takes Hagar as a second wife and a way to have the heir promised by God, 10 years earlier. This act of disobedience to God shows not only a lack of patience but also a strong willed heart, wanting the promise of God without having to wait for His timing. Sarai herself comes up with the idea and scripture says that Abram "listened to the voice of Sarai". The Hebrew translation would more appropriately read "Abram obeyed the voice of Sarai". Interestingly enough, Sarai's name actually translates to "dominant" or "head". In this passage, Abram obeys Sarai's will instead of God's, leading to every key relationship being strained. Sarai becomes angry at both Hagar and Abram after Hagar conceives and we have the sense that Sarai is angry at God, as she accounts her barrenness to His will. And she is right. It was God's will that Sarai be barren until late in life to show His miraculous intervention. No one would ever attribute Isaac to the natural power of Abram and Sarai, but rather God's will and faithfulness to His covenant to make Abram into a great nation.
In the very next chapter Abram's name is changed to Abraham ("father of a multitude") and Sarai is changed to Sarah ("princess") and God reaffirms His will to make an everlasting covenant between Abraham's descendants. This is the start of the nation of Israel and the line of Christ, the Messiah. God had His plan and would bring it to fruition in His time.
Psalm 42:5 says "Why are you in despair , O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, for the help of His presence." When we are impatient, we let our emotions dictate our decision making. Our despair and frustration is often simply a lack of patience. But it can lead to sin. Often times, the penalty for our sin is living with it's consequence. Abraham and Sarah would forever have his relationship with Hagar between them. Ishmael was born into a house of anger and disagreements, knowing that he was an illegitimate child, without rights as an heir (although God promises blessings for Ishmael) and his mother lives the life of a servant, rather than a devoted wife.
James 5 tells us to be patient for the Lord's timing and to strengthen our hearts. The Lord knows we are tempted to rush His plan. He knows that we have a difficult time waiting, especially when our view of reality is so limited compared to God's. Sarai saw the reality of her barrenness and gave Hagar to Abram. But when Hagar conceived, a new reality of pain, anger, resentment, bitterness and frustration set in. God still kept His covenant to be faithful to Abraham, but the conception of Ishmael forever changed their household and their lives. That is why patience is a fruit of God's Spirit in us, and not something we can come up with on our own. Sarai was snapped back to God's reality and saw the gravity of her poor decision, compared to the joy of the birth of Isaac.
But God is so faithful and gracious. He changes Sarai's name from "dominant" to "princess". And that is where all our hearts need to move. We need to move from being dependent on our own selves and trying to handle our lives on our own, to being a princess of God, His daughter, under His care. He has great blessing and joy for us, if we can be patient to receive it. His is the ultimate reality and He has His best already planned for our lives. Hope in God and praise Him again!
This idea that we only have one chance for opportunity in life is embraced from the earliest of history. Horace, sometime around 40 BC coined the phrase "Carpe Diem" or "seize the day". This was actually embraced by the early rabbi's as well in the "Pirkei Avot", written by priests for the "oral torah" or the recording of the traditions of the rabbinical teachings from as early as 630 BC. They had a saying "if not now, then when".
In Genesis 16, we see Abram loose himself when he listens to Sarai and takes Hagar as a second wife and a way to have the heir promised by God, 10 years earlier. This act of disobedience to God shows not only a lack of patience but also a strong willed heart, wanting the promise of God without having to wait for His timing. Sarai herself comes up with the idea and scripture says that Abram "listened to the voice of Sarai". The Hebrew translation would more appropriately read "Abram obeyed the voice of Sarai". Interestingly enough, Sarai's name actually translates to "dominant" or "head". In this passage, Abram obeys Sarai's will instead of God's, leading to every key relationship being strained. Sarai becomes angry at both Hagar and Abram after Hagar conceives and we have the sense that Sarai is angry at God, as she accounts her barrenness to His will. And she is right. It was God's will that Sarai be barren until late in life to show His miraculous intervention. No one would ever attribute Isaac to the natural power of Abram and Sarai, but rather God's will and faithfulness to His covenant to make Abram into a great nation.
In the very next chapter Abram's name is changed to Abraham ("father of a multitude") and Sarai is changed to Sarah ("princess") and God reaffirms His will to make an everlasting covenant between Abraham's descendants. This is the start of the nation of Israel and the line of Christ, the Messiah. God had His plan and would bring it to fruition in His time.
Psalm 42:5 says "Why are you in despair , O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, for the help of His presence." When we are impatient, we let our emotions dictate our decision making. Our despair and frustration is often simply a lack of patience. But it can lead to sin. Often times, the penalty for our sin is living with it's consequence. Abraham and Sarah would forever have his relationship with Hagar between them. Ishmael was born into a house of anger and disagreements, knowing that he was an illegitimate child, without rights as an heir (although God promises blessings for Ishmael) and his mother lives the life of a servant, rather than a devoted wife.
James 5 tells us to be patient for the Lord's timing and to strengthen our hearts. The Lord knows we are tempted to rush His plan. He knows that we have a difficult time waiting, especially when our view of reality is so limited compared to God's. Sarai saw the reality of her barrenness and gave Hagar to Abram. But when Hagar conceived, a new reality of pain, anger, resentment, bitterness and frustration set in. God still kept His covenant to be faithful to Abraham, but the conception of Ishmael forever changed their household and their lives. That is why patience is a fruit of God's Spirit in us, and not something we can come up with on our own. Sarai was snapped back to God's reality and saw the gravity of her poor decision, compared to the joy of the birth of Isaac.
But God is so faithful and gracious. He changes Sarai's name from "dominant" to "princess". And that is where all our hearts need to move. We need to move from being dependent on our own selves and trying to handle our lives on our own, to being a princess of God, His daughter, under His care. He has great blessing and joy for us, if we can be patient to receive it. His is the ultimate reality and He has His best already planned for our lives. Hope in God and praise Him again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)