No ordinary night at work

And quite suddenly
God changes everything
                      forever.

And in that region
there were shepherds
         out in the field,
keeping watch over their flock
                       by night.
And an angel of the LORD
      appeared to them,
and the glory of the LORD
             shone around them,
and they were filled with fear.
And the angel said to them,
"Be not afraid,
for behold I bring you
       good news of great joy
which will come
             to all the people.
For unto you
is born this day
in the city of David a Savior
     who is Christ the Lord.

                    Luke 2. 8-11

It was the night before Christmas.
The world says,
Merry Christmas
     and to all a good night.
But the angel had another song in mind:

And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth
               peace,
                   good will among men."

                          Luke 2. 13-14

God's Christmas greeting
    is not wishing a good night,
but the giving of new life
and peace with Him.

Glory to God in the Highest.

Merry Christmas, my friend.



 
         

Be that voice

A single voice started it all on a cold dark night in the midst of a battle.  It was a melody of hope and love sung in a foreign land.  It was quite literally the night before Christmas in a very dark volatile situation.

A German soldier began singing a Christmas carol.  And it triggered an impossible truce among those who were deemed enemies.  It comes close to my heart as my grandfather was one of those young men in those trenches, far from home, a century ago.

That historic day one hundred years ago on Christmas Day 1914 became known as the Christmas Truce of 1914.  One voice started it all.  It impacted everyone who heard him.  And the other soldiers in turn joined in singing.  A chorus of soldiers sang across the battlelines.  They eventually emerged from the trenches, exchanging gifts and conversation, and even playing soccer.  History shows that it impacted 100,000 soldiers from both sides of the war that day.  A deadly confrontation was transformed into a personal conversation.

This historic incident was the focus of Sainsbury's commercial for Christmas 2014.  Click here to watch a re-enactment of that day as portrayed in Sainsbury's commercial, a powerful statement of peace, as taken from the 2005 movie Joyeux Noel.

What are YOU singing?  

Bring His peace to your situation this Christmas.  See your time with friends and family-- and even those you don't particularly like -- as a conversation, not a confrontation.  See these precious moments as a rare opportunity to practice grace and bring the peace of Christ to an impossible place.  His peace is like no other.

Peace I leave with you;
My peace I give to you,
    not as the world gives
            do I give to you.
Let not your hearts be troubled,
   neither let them be afraid.

            John 14.27

Be that voice of peace.

And what you do lasts even longer

Two evenings ago, my husband and I attended a performance of Handel's Messiah.  For two and a half hours, members of the audience sat on the edge of their seats, speechless and amazed by the Word of God sung with great power.  The text of the oratorio was printed in the program, the scriptural references sadly excluded, but one could not deny that something different was going on here.

...and laid on Him
       the iniquity of us all.

These words were not the composed poetry of man, but Isaiah 53.6, written down more than 800 years before Christ.  One hundred and sixty voices blended into a profound whisper.  The music tapered into the silence of heaven, as His truth covered the concert hall. 

And then, when the first notes of the Hallelujah chorus drifted through the air, tradition bid the audience to stand.  But these spectators -- no matter their worldview -- could not help but literally jump to their feet in awe and reverent attention.

The efforts of vocalists and musicians transcended from a performance into worship.

On an ordinary day in 1741, Handel sat down to compose, and in twenty-four short days, he produced the masterpiece called the Messiah.  Little did he realize that two hundred and seventy three years afterward, God would still be using his work, touching and transforming a people yet unborn.  He had no idea.

Neither do we.

If there is no God, ... then everything you do at work will be forgotten, and nothing you can do in your career will earn lasting significance.  But if Christianity is true, then "every good endeavor,"... no matter how small, "can matter forever."   Those are the words of Timothy Keller in an interview in the Wall Street Journal (12/20-21/2014, page A13).

What you do impacts all eternity.  It profoundly changes you, everyone around you, and leaves a legacy for generations to come.  We have no idea what that may be -- an encouraging word that helps redirect a life, your own rendition of the "Messiah," or as in the case of Brother Lawrence three decades as a lowly dishwasher, a long abiding faithfulness in what God placed before him.  You are precious in His sight.

Take courage,
all you people of the land,
         says the LORD,
work,
        for I am with you,
        says the LORD of hosts,
...My Spirit abides among you,
                         fear not.

                       Haggai 2. 4-5

And God will redeem the rest.

"Something Big is Waiting for You"

I was greeted this morning by those same words of "advent" hacked  into twenty-five varying translations, occupying my email inbox like a besieging army.  Delete, delete, delete.  And before the day is over, they will be back again in force to remind me of impending delivery deadlines and missing out on deals of a lifetime, all for $50 or less, free shipping included.  Macy's believes in Christmas.  So does every retailer in this country, both big and small.

And yet, it is not that the commercial scrooges have taken Christmas hostage.  We have given it to them, wrapped and tied with a bow.

Christmas changes our economy.  Jesus changes life itself.

What makes Advent look visibly different in us?

Christmas trees -- great.  Christmas lights -- beautiful.  Christmas wreaths -- decorative.  All are socially acceptable, including incredibly awkward inflatable Santa's and snowmen in occasional front yards.   But when our daughter's neighbor saw our not-quite-two-year-old grandson playing with his little Fisher Price nativity set, she remarked, "Oh, how...," she hesitated, "quaint."

I stood in line yesterday at Target, running errands for both my daughter and me.  As the weary clerk handed me my receipt, she repeated her designated mantra, "Have a nice day."

I replied with rare unexpected words, "Merry Christmas."

It was as if my words hung in the air. Everything literally stood still for a moment, an audible pause at check-out lane 17.

The cashier quite suddenly looked up from the white plastic bags containing deodorant, paper clips, and a printer cartridge, surprised by my Advent words, strangely personal and loving.  She was no longer a fatigued overworked sales clerk making minimum wage, dressed like everyone else, invisible and fulfilling her job.  Those two simple words affirmed her as a person, precious in God's eyes, her name monogrammed on His heart, that which God intended when He came to earth.

She smiled and looked right into my eyes.  "Merry Christmas," she said with new energy in her voice.

I have no idea if that young woman even celebrates Christmas, but I have yet to see anyone of any worldview offended by those words.  If anything, that greeting expresses a nightlight in darkness and despair, and a reminder of joy to the world.

How shall we sing the LORD's song
     in a foreign land?

                    Psalm 137.4
 
Every encounter divinely appointed,
every word intentional,
        and engraved by grace,
proclaiming Christmas every opportunity we get,
    every which way we can.

Who will God place on your path today?
Who will God place on your heart?

Joy to the world!
The Lord has come.

Something big is waiting for you!

And He will change your life.

"Where have you been?"

For everything there is a season,

and a time for every matter under heaven.

                         Ecclesiastes 3.1

There is a time and a season for every matter, and sometimes, quite suddenly, what emerges is not what we expect at all.  There is a time and a reason for every matter, and sometimes God's path takes us to an unfamiliar place.  After five years of writing, Nightly Tea came to a screeching halt on a humid day last spring.  I had to let it go.  My world was spinning a little too fast.

On a bitterly cold afternoon last February, I answered a phone call from our oldest daughter, who was then within a month of giving birth to her third child.  It was a “911 Mom” call.  “I need you.”  Within an hour, I was on the interstate, heading to help.  Little did I realize that I was not just on the road to Cleveland, but to radical changes in my life.

Just a month after I returned home, my husband and I left for a week of hiking, to take a break from a long and literally deep Chicago winter. We knew some changes were already ahead in our lives.  We had placed our house on the market, where it had lingered for two months.  We were about to pull up the realtor’s sign and consider what else to do.  Little did we know what God had placed around the next bend.

Instead of returning from our respite in a week’s time, it was more than a month before I came home for even a few days.  Indeed, in the next four months, I would be home for just three scattered weeks.  At the beginning of May, another one of our daughters, then just 24 weeks pregnant, was confined to bed for the duration of her pregnancy. With her very curious and mobile fifteen-month-old son dashing about, well, it was time to switch into gramma mode once again. I moved into their back bedroom and put on my running shoes, not to exercise, but to keep up with a toddler. 

Running and writing faded into a memory.

We inched our daughter day by day through her pregnancy.   And then, quite suddenly, our house sold.  We sorted through our belongings, packed, gave away and lightened our load (“a time to keep and a time to cast away.” Ecclesiastes 3.6)   We learned every day to ask, “What, God?” What to do.  What path to take.  He led us quite literally one day at a time.  And we felt Him asking us daily, “Are you willing to follow Me one more step?”

He made our way evident, just one step at a time, even in what we did not understand or what made sense to us at the time.  His timing was perfect.  His provision was precise, and we found God using our situation to provide for strangers, people not even on our radar, but on His.

Three men arrived one hot August morning, stacked our possessions in a truck and took them away, first to a storage locker, and then to another house in a city new to us.  In the upheaval, evidence emerged not of chaos, but His design, no reason to fear but to trust God a little bit more.  God is here too.

From the get-go, we prayed that God would make our way clear and unambiguous.   His direction did not always arrive spectacularly like a FedEx box delivered to our porch, but we learned – once again – not to seek answers, but to seek Him, not even to see Him in it yet, but to faithfully follow Him through it.

And while His leading was not always clear and unambiguous, God was.

I lost track in how many different beds I slept in the ensuing months, spare rooms, hotel rooms, engaging the kindness of family and friends.  One night I awoke in the murky darkness of 3.20 am.  As I emerged from a deep sleep, I did not know where I was.  By the anemic green light of a clock, I could discern tall posts at the end of the bed, and for a moment, I thought, “Aahhh, I'm home.”   And then I realized that place we called “home” was no longer ours.  We don’t live there anymore.   That house has been relegated to memory and new owners. 

Almost on a daily basis, I felt like I couldn’t touch bottom.  And I realized, fear just blinds me to the reality of God.  "Trust Me," He reminded me over and over.

God’s plans are not subject to my understanding, nor my control.  I may not know fully His purpose, but there are a multitude of divinely appointed reasons.  There always are.  His design transcends our carefully-laid plans and timing.  There is still purpose to it, even if we never find out why.

And God changes each of us a little bit more.  

I do not know what is yet ahead, but God…  Always, that which God appoints, transforms us forever.  And we learn even more to wait, listen and let God reveal Himself in the story He is writing for us.

More later, my friend.

Nightly Tea is back.