Antidote to the Christmas Treadmill #4

Here are some thoughts from John Fischer in response to repeated cries all around us to put Christ back into Christmas:

Here's how you put Christ back into Christmas: you celebrate Him as Lord of your life and ruler of your heart, and you love even those who want to take Christmas out of the Holiday equation. Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:17).... It's never been us against them; it's us for them. We mustn't forget that Jesus came to die for the very people who are trying to secularize our country....

People are more likely to be set on the road to salvation by loving, caring believers who are secure in the hope of the real Christ living in their lives, and whose faith is brighter than any Christmas tree....

Let's not get so taken up with fighting to save a name that we forget to live out the reality of the hope of Christ to the world. If people end up encountering the real Christ of Christmas, it will matter little what we end up calling the holiday itself.

You can read John's full devotional at PurposeDrivenLife.com.

Antidote to the Christmas Treadmill #3

Here are some words from Dr. Charles Stanley's In Touch devotional that brought my treadmill to a screeching stop for a few minutes today:

"We cannot allow ourselves to drift into a materialistic view of Christmas along with the rest of the world. In a month of colored lights and glowing candles, we should be burning brighter than ever as His lights to the world."

Hmmm...What can I do to shine as His light during this season already overcrowded with distracting, blinking little lights? There are a couple verses in Philippians that come immediately to mind--verses that show us how to shine like stars this Christmas. They're not what you would expect; they're not specifically about turkey drives, shoeboxes, caroling at nursing homes or sending out Christmas cards with manger scenes. They're not about shopping, cooking a feast or running to the post office for the 15th time in two weeks. Instead these verses tell us how we should go about doing all those Christmas things we need to do. I suspect, if we did as these verses suggest, our lights would shine very bright, dimming all the other lights of the season by comparison. Actually, all these verses tell us to do this Christmas is to do everything without complaining and arguing.

Did you ever notice that Christmas is a season of complaining and arguing? It is--perhaps more than any other time of the year. We complain that lines are too long, parking lots are too full, prices too high and we have too many obligations. We may argue with our spouses about spending and with extended family members about who is visiting whom and when they will be arriving. What if we made a decision not to complain this Christmas and not to argue about anything it became our responsibility to do? I have a feeling that the Christmas treadmill would become a lot more fun. It might disappear altogether. And we would certainly shine like stars among our fellow shoppers at the mall. As you feel the treadmill ramp up over the next few days, think about these verses:

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life." Philippians 2:14-16.

Antidote to the Christmas Treadmill #2

I’ve been mulling over Rick Warren’s words about all of us wanting to get off the Christmas treadmill but not quite knowing how. Here’s one thing to try during the coming week: listen to the Christmas story being told all around you. “What?” you say. “This is 2005. We’re not even allowed to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in public. The Christmas story has been buried this year.”

I don’t think so. I think God is speaking in the still, small voice same as He ever was. For example, this season millions of Americans will see a story of freedom from bondage accomplished through sacrifice (in fact the good news of Christmas) when they rush to catch “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”—and they will happily pay to do it, thinking it is great holiday outing for the family! Another striking example: my daughter’s “Winter Concert” last night. In the public school’s effort at political correctness, the kids sang songs from around the globe. Thus, my daughter sung Alleluia to the birth of Christ in the language of Ghana, but praise is praise and God is apparently still using the mouths of babes where adults won’t speak about Him. My daughter’s group then sang “Hatikva” in Hebrew which a student translated for us, telling us that we will find our ultimate home and comfort in Zion. Amen. Best of all, another choir sang a “traditional Israeli text” in Hebrew which the conductor read in English for us before the song began: “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of them that bring good news—the news of salvation.” What could be more appropriate for Christmas? And who would have suspected that a public school teacher would read to us about the real meaning of Christmas—the good news of a Savior?

It strikes me that this quiet telling of the story is not really all that different from the way the news was broken on the first Christmas. The original message was not a government-sanctioned announcement. In fact, the government, in the form of King Herod, did would it could to silence the news. Luke 2 had not yet been written and no one erected manger scenes in the public square. (Well, acually, they probably did but only for animals to eat out of.) Yet the news was there for seekers—-in the miraculous star for the intellectuals of the day and in the words of the angels to a small group of working class people.

Listening to that “Winter Concert” got me off the holiday treadmill as I reflected on the way God gets His message out and His obvious presence despite the public school’s efforts not to acknowledge it. I did not know whether to laugh or to shed tears of thankfulness. So try to listen for the still, small voice steadily making the real Christmas message available to anyone who wants to listen this week. It’s sure to get you off the treadmill for a few minutes at least.

Antidote to the Christmas Treadmill #1

Words to think about this Christmas from Rick Warren:

Most of us know that the key to the "best Christmas ever" is not buying more or doing more, the problem is--we just don't know how to get off the treadmill. How do you stay focused on the things that are important and get un-focused from the things of little significance?

I believe you answer that question by applying a purpose-driven approach to Christmas - balancing your holiday around the five biblical purposes of fellowship, character growth, service, missions and worship. God created you to live with this balance and that's why, when you're out of balance, you begin to feel stress.

Let me put it this way: To maintain your physical health, you need regular check-ups with a doctor who can assess your vital signs - blood pressure, temperature, weight, and so on. For your spiritual health, particularly during the hectic holiday season, you need to check the five vital signs of fellowship, character, service, missions and worship. The ancient writer, Jeremiah, once advised, "Let's take a good look at the way we're living and reorder our lives under God." (Lamentations 3:40, The Message)

You can read Rick's full article, which tells us how to check each of the vital signs, at PurposeDrivenLife.com

More God Reminders

John Fischer, songwriter and author, writes a daily devotional for the Purpose Driven Life ministries. He recently recalled being inspired during his senior year at Wheaton by the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer to "keep on" with the faith. His roommate and he were so moved by Dr. Schaeffer's words that they stenciled "KEEP ON" repeatedly all over their room. I'm not sure how Wheaton College felt about this act of creativity and faith on the dorm room walls but years later John Fischer still writes about the importance of reminding ourselves to keep God first. He writes:

These visual reminders are important. The children of Israel were admonished to surround themselves with the word of God, not just figuratively, but by actually writing it on their doorposts and on their gates. God knows how easy it is for us to forget.

Whatever it takes to keep your mind focused on God's purposes -- whether it's a certain CD playing, a tape of scripture reading in your car for your daily commute, or a laminated sign over your computer -- we are forgetful people and we need to constantly see and hear reminders of what we have committed to doing and being.

What has God been saying to you lately? What does He want you to remember? Put it on your computer screen. Laminate it to your wall. Write it on your “doorposts and on your gates.” Whatever it takes. We aren't expected to follow without a struggle. We need reminders.

You can sign up for John Fischer's daily devotional and read his archives at the Purpose Driven Life site.

Our Spiritual Ideals vs. Our Reality

Here are some encouraging thoughts from Elisabeth Elliot's Keep a Quiet Heart about the often ridiculously huge difference between the spiritual life we long for and the life we actually find ourselves living as we try to get through each day:

Sunday mornings can be a real test of a mother's sanctification, especially if her husband happens to be a pastor who leaves the house much earlier than the rest of the family. Here's how it went recently in one house....

"The fifteen-year-old couldn't tuck his shirt in because of `something to do with the pockets,' and his belt was too small.

"The thirteen-year-old was having trouble curling her hair.

"The ten-year-old couldn't find her Sunday School lesson.

"The eight-year-old hadn't done his Bible readings because he didn't know which they were.

"The six-year-old's room and closet were unacceptably messy, and the socks she had on were muddy.

"The three-year-old couldn't find her Bible. Although not yet a reader, she couldn't think of going to church without the Bible.

"The baby's carrying blanket had disappeared."

Somehow the mother was to be nicely groomed, calm, and able to get this whole package into a van, seated and belted as law requires, and drive them to church on time.

But everything in this scene is the King's Business, which He looks on in loving sympathy and understanding, for, as Baron Von Hugel said, "The chain of cause and effect which makes up human life, is bisected at every point by a vertical line relating us and all we do to God." This is what He has given us to do, this task here on this earth, not the task we aspired to do, but this one. The absurdities involved cut us down to size. The great discrepancy between what we envisioned and what we've got force us to be real. And God is our great Reality, more real than the realest of earthly conditions, an unchanging Reality. It is His providence that has put us where we are. It's where we belong. It is for us to receive it--all of it--humbly, quietly, thankfully.

Sunday morning, the Lord's Day, can be the very time when everything seems so utterly unrelated to the world of the spirit that it is simply ridiculous. Yet to the Lord's lovers it is only a seeming. Everything is an affair of the spirit. Everything, to one who loves God and longs with a sometimes desperate longing for a draught of Living Water, a single touch of His hand, a quiet word--everything, I say, can be seen in His perspective.

Does He watch? Yes, "Thou God seest me" (Genesis 16:3, KJV). Is His love surrounding us? "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3, KJV). "I will never leave thee or forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5, KJV). May I offer to Him my feeling of the dislocation between reality and my ideals, that great chasm which separates the person I long to be, the work I long to do for Him, the family I struggle to perfect for His glory--from the actuality? I may indeed, for it is God Himself who stirs my heart to desire, and He can easily see across the chasm. He enfolds all of it, He is at work in me and in those I pray for, "to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13, KJV). I may take heart, send up an instant look of gratitude, and--well, get that beloved flock into the van and head down the freeway singing!

What Are You Praying About?

This morning I read the following in Skip Hertzig's book, When God Prays: "Our true priorities--the things that are really important to us--will show themselves in our prayer life."

This gets me thinking that if we want to do a self-diagnostic about what's at the top of our personal "to do" lists we might ask the following:

--First, do I actually even have a prayer life? Do I make prayer a priority? Do I think I spend adequate time praying? How can I carve out a larger space for prayer in my busy day? Could I ever get to the point where I pray without stopping like God, through Paul, urges us to do?

--Second, how do I feel about my prayer life? Am I comfortable praying? Do I look forward to it? Do I dread it? (Last night I suggested to my 13-year-old that she pray about something that worries her. I said that praying about things helped me feel calmer about them. She replied, "That's because you are a good pray-er." I think that response says less about the way I pray than it says about the way she feels when she prays--awkward, ineffective, less good at it than others--in fact, the way we all feel sometimes.)

--Third, when I pray, what do I pray about? Do my prayers reflect an appropriate mix of the issues and concerns as we see, for example, reflected in the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray? My daily physical needs, my need to be forgiven by God, my need to forgive others, my need for His constant protection from temptation and evil, my desire to see His will accomplished on earth, and my recognition of His holiness, authority, power and glory?

"Ask and it will be given to you: seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7