Black Friday is not the beginning of Advent

 Contrary to public opinion, online sales, and the multi-billion dollar retail industry, advent is not a countdown to the best present ever.  The hype cannot possibly deliver what is promised or hoped for or bought on credit.  The season is marked by giant inflatable gnomes, snowmen, and glitter.  I noted the large selection of advent calendars this year, from beer to My Little Pony.

Hope is not wishful thinking, looking for Santa or the perfectly wrapped present.  Hope is not "maybe this will make me happy." And realizing that is not it.

Advent is a looking toward something very different, both a preparation not of presents but of a celebration of the gift that already has been delivered -- and not from Amazon, but announced in a barren field to shepherds.  Not with glitter but with the biggest light show ever in the skies.

Jesus has come.

And hope in Jesus -- and why He came -- is that on which we can stake our lives.  His light does not blink on and off, or stored in the attic for yet another year.  "I am the light of the world."  (John 8.12)

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1. 5)

At the end of the day, at the end of the season, we are not left with empty boxes and restless hearts.  But ultimately, an empty tomb.  That kind of hope.  He has come not to give presents we will outgrow or will become obsolete, but He has come for us.

The message of Christmas is not just love in a warm and fuzzy non-returnable sense.  But knowing God loves us so much that He sent His Son.  

Each day comes with that reality.  Not a wishfulness or fading promise.  But Himself.  "I am with you."

Far beyond December.

God knows exactly what we desperately need deep inside.  He does not need a list.  He knows we need Jesus. That is the gospel.

And so, how do we approach this advent season differently to live out this incredible truth, to give out grace, even how we decorate our homes, what we do, what we don't do, navigating Christmas with His steadfast love that endures forever?  

Guide our thoughts, O Lord,

Order our hearts.

Learning the refrain of the song that never ends

The other day, I was feeding breakfast to four of our grandchildren. As they started plowing into their toast and oatmeal, I stopped and asked for one of them say the blessing.  Instead of the typical condensed version so that they could eat, one of them prayed, not just thanking God for the food, but asking His blessing on our day, that they would have fun and that He would be with us in whatever we did.

It was a beautiful way, not just to start a meal, but to start the day.

And by asking for God’s blessing, how did it change how we approached the day and how we saw Him?  The act of asking God for His blessing doesn’t bring on His blessing, but empowers us to actually see His blessing in it.  Are we even aware of what God brings into our day, His hand upon us, and His Presence with us?

O give thanks to the LORD,

for His steadfast love endures forever.

                              Psalm 118. 29

May these words be embodied as our refrain and our response, no matter what we experience in this life. These words are inscribed throughout the Old Testament.  May they become seamlessly woven into our vocabulary and into our prayers. 

Is thankfulness part of how we pray?

The first half of this verse is easy.  We know to give thanks for what we see as good – even though we are often amiss in verbalizing it.

But we can wrap up the mysteries, the hard stuff, the wounds, the overwhelming with the second half:  His steadfast love endures forever.

We can stake our lives on that promise.  It may be difficult to thank God for our really tough situations.  But we can have a thankful heart even in them. A grateful heart sees differently.  A grateful heart prays differently.  A grateful heart looks really distinctive in this broken world.  Not because those who are thankful are perfect, and life is easy for them, but because God is real.

As with forgiveness, as Tim Keller says in his new book Forgive, for the believer, gratefulness is “…not optional, it is an act of the will, and it requires divine help.” Gratefulness is not an emotion, nor having a good attitude.  It is how we choose to respond.  In the hard stuff, thankfulness is not a natural reaction, but a supernatural one.  And it takes God’s indwelling for us to live that way and pray that way.

As we move past this Thanksgiving Day and into our ordinary days (which are never so ordinary), may we not just be thankful for _____(fill in the blank), but grateful to God.  Not just to have a warm and fuzzy feeling, or give God a thumbs up emoji, but respond with words:

O give thanks to the LORD,

for His steadfast love endures forever.

                              Psalm 118. 29

Lord Willing and the Creek Don't Rise

I love to run in a feast of trees.  As many times as I have scurried along those trails, I don't just see something new but I think anew.  Sometimes things I have been mulling over, sometimes new ideas breaking through my stupor, and most often a renewed strength for my day.  

But on days like today, well, the creek has risen and overflowed its banks, and if I am going to get a run, it is going to have to be on a treadmill.  

I am very aware that the treadmill was invented two hundred years ago in 1817 in England as a prison rehabilitation device.  It was designed so that as prisoners suffered, they would atone through their sweat. And not until the 1940s, a cardiologist saw it differently to both diagnose and treat heart patients.

And even though it may feel like I am not getting anywhere, it is not torture, but provides me a different kind of workout.

Sometimes God's training plan is not what we expect...or prefer.  But it is working toward something we may not even see.  It may not seem to matter.  It may feel like we are running around in circles or nowhere at all.  But faithfulness, even when it does not appear to make sense or doing anything at all, is reflected in how we respond in the crisis and how we trust Him when everything is at stake.

There are no mundane tasks.  There are no small obediences.  Even when we can't grasp the outcome, or what we are training for, or for whom, even in what we've not done before, God fulfills His profound purposes when we follow Him.

God is building His strength in us.  God is building His Kingdom through us.  Even when all we can see is a treadmill and a 45 minute workout.

Even when this task appears not to make sense, trust the slow work of God.  "Now watch what I do with this:" which is God's fundamental law of the ridiculous.  Never so ridiculous at all, but some day incredible.

You shall march around the city,

all the men of war

going around the city once.

Thus you shall do for six days...

On the seventh day

you shall march around the city

                    seven times,

and the priests shall

             blow their trumpets...

then all the people shall shout

                  with a great shout,

and the wall of the city

      will fall down.

                 Joshua 6. 3-5

What am I training for?

What is God doing in me?

Grace Notes

In music composition, grace notes are a small addition or embellishment that is added before the playing of a note, harmonically a nonessential.  But these tiny notes add to the beauty of the melody.  Biblically, grace notes are not an embellishment but grace is the substance, an absolutely essential element of the majesty of God.

Grace will almost always appear as the stupidest, not obvious, most unnatural, unnecessary, foolish thing to do, and the costliest.  But grace will always emerge out of the bleakest barren ground to completely change the landscape.

Even in what we may never see.  Even in what comes after our lifetimes.  Even in those who are yet unborn, those we do not know or who do not realize the life-changing marks woven in their lives.  Even among the rebellious.  Even among us. 

Grace is not ignoring the transgressions against us, or pretending there was never anything awry, but making the relationship the most important thing.  It is not a matter of being proven right or winning a fight, but making things right, in order to keep, restore, and reconcile our relationships.

Kindness comes out of our small change.  Grace is the most expensive watch in the case.  God says, “Love others, be gracious, full of grace, forgiving, taking the coat off our backs, walking that second or third or hundredth extra mile, forgiving even after we have lost count.”

Just as we have been loved by God.  Just as God has covered us by His grace.  And now we are free to extend to others.  God says, “I love you no matter what.” 

          Repeat after Me.

Grace is never earned nor deserved.  That is what makes it grace.  These hard situations we are in, these difficult people we work with, live beside, or encounter along the way, these ENORMOUS (all capital letters) wrongs against us are not roadblocks or irritations or ammunition, but just opportunities to train in grace. 

Practice grace in this.

          Repeat after Me.

 

O LORD,

Please change not just our thoughts and attitudes, but our affections. 

                         What we love.

Change our minds.  Change our hearts.

And show us Your way of grace in place of no way. 

Help us to be not just mindful of keeping a relationship,

but intentional in nurturing relationship. 

You love.  You forgive. 

You show us the grace we never even imagined.

                   Even in what appears impossible.

Help us to do the same.

 

And God is able to make

            all grace abound to you,

so that having all sufficiency

in all things,

at all times,

you may abound in every good work.

 

                        2 Corinthians 9. 8