December 14, 2013

The Mystery of Christmas

I don’t want to miss the mystery of Christmas. Amidst the Christmas lights, the smell of fresh cut trees, the warmth of fireplaces lined with stockings, and the wrapping of presents…not just trying to find Christ in the middle of all of this, but really trying to relish in God’s mystery.

Mysteries like…

Joseph and Mary being visited by angels before the birth.

The King of Kings being born in a manger.

The Son of God raised as a carpenter, building with his hands.

The Prince of Peace being betrayed by His own people.

And although He is the Giver of Life, ultimately being executed among thieves.

Max Lucado, in God Came Near, alludes to the mystery, “The omnipotent made himself breakable. He who had been spirit became pierceable. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo. And he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl…The creator of life being created…Angels would watch as Mary would change the diaper, The universe watched with wonder as the Almighty learned to walk…The Word had become flesh.”

Wow. What a mystery. God becoming flesh.

We say it, we sing it, but do we think upon the mystery of His name Emmanuel, God with us?

Joseph and Mary alone on that night of census, gazing at each other across the bed of straw, God is now among us.

The teachers at Jerusalem temple, twelve years later, handing the child back to His worried parents, then realizing God Himself was here teaching among us.

The disciples, walking together down the dusty road with their master, thinking with amazement, God is walking here alongside us.

The woman at the well, the one with the past she’d rather keep to herself, telling others that,
“God was right here, telling me my own history.”

And a Roman centurion, standing in the shadow of that awful cross and the dead Jesus thinking, God was here with us.

My challenge today is not to seek an answer, but to embrace the mystery.

God loved me enough to come shrouded in the mystery of a babe, born to a young girl, ultimately crucified on a cross and resurrected to bring eternal life.

Thank you God for mystery.

May 27, 2013

Closing one chapter and opening another...

It takes an amazing God to tenderly close a beloved chapter of life while simultaneously beginning an exciting new adventure. After ten fun-filled, stretching, challenging, and overwhelmingly rewarding years in education, I've got just three more days in the classroom.

I have been blessed beyond belief with inquisitive students, supportive families, and unbelievably wonderful coworkers. Not something you just leave easily. It's just that God has a new chapter in my life to write and so I'm following.

In just a few weeks I get the incredible opportunity to begin to serve in my church full time. If I could sum up the road to this next adventure, I think I'd borrow words from Mark Batterson in Wild Goose Chase, "God will take you places you never could have imagined going by paths you never knew existed."

Here's to adventure!!

January 20, 2013

Thankful for the investment…

How thankful I am that in my life, there have been some incredible women who invested in me. The wife, mother, and youth ministry leader who shared her daily life with me as she raised her children and ministered alongside her husband.  The woman who took me under her wing as I stepped onto a college campus and into a sorority, ambitious to start a bible study, with no idea where to begin. The women at the camp I worked at for many summers who let me make mistakes, learn from experience, and guided me as I learned what servant leadership was all about.  The incredible wisdom that was shared with me from a woman who poured in weekly to me as I set out in full-time youth ministry after college, helping to shape my prayer life and my daily surrender to the Lord.

All of them could have said…."I don’t know how, or I don’t have time, or I’m not the right person, I’m just not gifted that way."

But they didn’t. 

They offered to let me be a part of their story. The one that the Lord was writing in their lives. Just by sharing their lives with me.

A couple weeks ago I received a message from a girl who was a student in the youth ministry I worked for after college, the same youth ministry that was monumental in my own life when I was in high school.  I think what struck me most about her words were that she was not thanking me for doing a certain thing, being a certain type of person, spending an exorbitant amount of time…she literally said “thanks for just being consistent and present.”

Just being consistent and present. It’s so much more about the willingness than anything else.

My favorite part is that nothing I did in being present or consistent for her was anything of my own. It had been modeled for me by the women who had invested in me.  And now…well she is now on staff with the ministry I worked for when she was a student. Being “consistent and present” for a group of girls she is building relationships with…

Jesus said the words to the disciples, "Go and make disciples."

When I don’t know how to set about making disciples or I think I don’t have anything to offer…I’ve got Him.  That’s all I need.

All of us can do this.  Just be consistent and present.  Share our lives with others. And allow the Lord to do the rest.

January 5, 2013

A White Christmas…

A White Christmas…or not.

Days before I left for Oklahoma for Christmas, the weather forecast bragged of 50 degree weather in northeast Oklahoma.  Definitely uncommon this time of year. But as the days drew closer to heading up north, the forecast changed dramatically.  Cold and snowy.

Now, I’m a warm weather person.  I NEED to live in Texas. I LOVE the beach. I’d rather be hot than cold.

But for Christmas…snow is perfect. So I packed accordingly. Headed north.

Just a couple days before Christmas, the forecast started claiming inches of snow likely on Christmas day. Even better. 

Christmas day came…and went. Without one drop of snow. Not even a drop of rain actually.

A forecast of 50 degrees, then inches of snow = Nothing.

The best predictions are no guarantees.

I love this reminder as I think on the words of Proverbs 19:21

 “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Cheers to New Year’s resolutions and setting goals for 2013…but most comforting of all…

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

           neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

  For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

            so are my ways higher than your ways

            and my thoughts than your thoughts.

  For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

            and do not return there but water the earth,

  making it bring forth and sprout,

  giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

  So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

            it shall not return empty

            but it shall accomplish that which I purpose.

          and shall succeed in the things for which I sent it.”

                                                                   Isaiah 55:8-11

December 10, 2012

Thank you, Herdmans.

One of the many great things about teaching third grade is the opportunity to reread long ago favorites. Last week I finished reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to the students.

SPOILER ALERT:  If you have never read the book or it’s been too many years and you’ve forgotten….beware. I’m referencing the end of the story. So read with caution.

The third graders are hooked on the story by the first paragraph…the one that reveals to the reader that some of the characters, the Herdmans, are considered “the worst kids in the world.”  Elementary school aged, the Herdmans are feared by all their peers.  Known for lying, stealing, and occasionally blackmailing their classmates, the Herdmans land the lead roles in the Christmas pageant one year, coercing the usual stars to stay out of their way.

What’s expected to be the worst Christmas pageant ever turns into the best.

All because the Herdmans had never heard the Christmas story before.

During rehearsals, as they encounter the story of the Messiah’s birth, the Herdmans have no hesitation in sharing their bewilderment at what they hear.

They ask questions such as:

·      Who were the shepherds? And where did they come from?

·      No room in the inn…”not even for Jesus?”

·      If Mary knew she was carrying God’s child, why didn’t she just tell   

           everyone?

·      Why would Herod, a king, want to kill a baby?

The Herdmans were quite riled up at the injustice they heard in the nativity story. They simply could not understand a pregnant woman being turned away to a stable.  That chapter ends with the line, “And they (Herdmans) left the first rehearsal arguing about whether Joseph should have set fire to the inn, or just chased the innkeeper into the next county.”

When was the last time I paused and really thought about the Christmas story? Asked my own questions. Wondered in my heart about God’s son being swaddled and tucked away in a feeding trough.

Perhaps one of my favorite lines is how the narrator of the story captures this very essence near the end of the story…

“For years, I’d thought about the wonder of Christmas, and the mystery of Jesus’ birth, and never really understood it.”

Thanks to the Herdman ears that heard the story for the first time, the mystery and wonder and awe of Christmas was made real once more when they began to ask questions.

Hearing the story year after year, the cast of the three wise men, shepherds, Mary & Joseph and baby Jesus can become all too familiar.  But if I would just stop and listen to the story through the Herdmans’ ears.

With wonder and amazement.

Thank you, Herdmans.