Comfort for the Anxious

I was standing in line recently at Panera Bread during lunch time.  It was crowded, noisy, the lines were long, and people were bumping into each other.  It was a little microcosm of our world.  As I stood there fretting about how long things were taking, I happened to look over to see a mom and her infant child standing just behind me.  There in the midst of the crowds, noise and chaos was this picture of something almost unimaginable - a sleeping, quiet, content little baby, unfazed by the velocity of life and the anxieties that accompany it.  

What a picture of Christmas for all of us who feel the weight of anxiety, frustration, and even depression.  Christ came into this anxious world to bring calm and comfort to a sin-laden people preoccupied with everything but God.  Joy to the world!

The Grand (True) Epic

As we enter this Christmas season, I hope that the church puts this story into its larger context: the story of redemption.  Christmas is the celebration of God bringing His story to a climax by entering the story Himself to reverse the curse.  Too often, we break all the images and pieces of the story into their individual components and miss the true joy, the true comfort that this event offers us.  Henri Nouwen says it better than I can when he writes:

“Christmas is saying ‘yes’ to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel.  Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work, not mine.  Things will never look just right or feel just right.  If they did, someone would be lying…But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior.”

Let us start the Advent season here - in a story in which God sends His Son to mend the brokenness.  Let us put all the pieces back into place and see the story for the grand (true) epic that it is!

Don't Look Back!

One of the more interesting transgressions laid out for us in the Bible is the sin of “looking back”!  Lot’s wife looked back longingly at Sodom and was turned into a life-size salt shaker.  The Israelites were constantly looking back to Egypt (a land of oppression and slavery, no less!) on their way to the promised land.  Jesus tells us that once we put our proverbial hand to the plow (following Him), whatever we do, “Don’t look back!”  

The celebration of baptism is the celebration of lives who have drawn a line in the sand and said, “I am at the point of no return.  I am headed towards living for Christ.  I am not turning or looking back!!”  But, whether it is yearning for the past or harboring guilt that has been erased by the cross; whether it is nursing wounds that we will not let heal or regretting how things could have been, we are called to a life that stops looking back, draws that line in the sand and presses on towards a life more and more dedicated to Jesus Christ.

Being A Part Of The Body

Mark Dever writes that all of the statistics point to an age of “commitment-phobia” - a fear that in promising to do something good we will miss something even better.  I know that there has been a lot of rejection of belonging to a church family.  I have heard people say, “I love God, but I hate organized religion.”  Of course, the opposite of organized religion is what?  Disorganized religion?  Chaotic religion?  Or maybe we just recoil from the idea that we would be asked to make a commitment to Christ through Christ’s new creation - His church.  What if the greatest thing you could do is dive into the ministry and community of a church set on reaching out to the world with the transforming message of Christ?  There are a lot of good things out there, but I don’t think we have to be afraid that something better than being an active participant in the Kingdom of God is going to be coming along.

Milestone #1 - In Memoriam

It would be easy to see a service dedicated to the memory of those loved ones that have passed away as a mournful service.  I disagree to some extent.  There is a very real resurrection that cuts off the despair from running wild in our hearts.  But, there is also the way in which God redeems even death for those who remain and struggle through grief.  Thomas a Kempis, writing in the 15th century, advised…

“Happy is he that always has the hour of his death before his eyes, and daily prepares himself to die…When it is morning, think that you may die before night; and when evening comes, dare not to promise yourself the next morning.  Be therefore always in readiness and so lead your life that death never takes you unprepared.”

There is a reason God calls us to “number our days” so that we may live wisely and obediently to Christ.  Death is sorrowful only if we have no hope beyond it.  But, in view of the hope of the resurrection of all those in Christ, it now becomes a tool to help us focus on the Kingdom of God.  So instead of leaving such a service with sorrow and gloom, I say, “Praise God!”

Worship and Resources

Tim Keller once did a men’s study on the seven deadly sins.  His wife Kathy told him, “I bet the day you deal with greed you will have your lowest attendance.”  And she was right.  People packed it out for “lust”, “wrath”, even “pride”.  But, as Keller writes, “nobody thinks they are greedy…I cannot recall anyone ever coming to me and saying, ‘I spend too much money on myself…the money god’s modus operandi includes blindness to your own heart’.” 

As we finish our focus on worship and resources, it has become painfully apparent that we in America have a real “stuff” issue that needs to be surrendered to God.  I am confident that if we make the commitment to let go, what we will next experience is incredible freedom.  And that is a topic worthy of packing out the room.

Money and Happiness

It is a curious thing - according to one study, we have spent more money as Americans than any generation prior to us and yet, that same study declares that we are also the most unhappy generation of Americans thus far.  

When the Bible speaks of serving God or money, it seems to me that it is more than simply a call to devotion.  It is a call to happiness.  Or, as one pastor puts it, “Whenever God says ‘don’t’, He means, ‘don’t hurt yourself’.”  

Could it be that God drives His followers away from a preoccupation of “stuff” not simply to purify their worship, but to free them to live lives of joy?