Ideals and Idols

I am happy to report that I have recovered from last weeks catastrophe in the kitchen and have experienced no aftershocks since then. However, since stirring up the mess, God has been stirring my heart, convicting with lessons I thought I had already learned.

At church on Sunday, we watched a short video before communion called, “What do you worship”? We all feel feel the call to worship. But which call are we responding to? The call to worship money, success, leisure, style? The call to worship our family or our jobs or even our churches? God is calling us to worship daily, moment by moment even. He calls us in the whispered tones of a beautiful sunset, the random act of kindness from a stranger, the tender smiles from our loved ones. But other voices vie for our attention too, and all to often they win.

These competetors are our idols. What God stirred in my heart was that my ideals are my idols. My perfect patterns for how I want my life to go, what I want my life to look and feel like — those are what I think about at night as I’m trying to drift off to sleep, and in the morning when I am planning my day. They are what I compare my actual life to, and what make me feel either content or discontent. Sure, I have learned a lot about my idealistic ways. I have learned to be more flexible and realistic and to adapt new ideals as needed.

But continuing to adapt my ideals still elevates them to a place above God. Their fulfillment feels empowering to me, or at least feels satisfying in thinking that God has conformed to my plans. Their failure or need for adaptation feels disappointing, and I grasp for new ways to make my plans and my achievement compatible.

I once again wander from a place of steadfast worship of my God. The God who directs my paths, and faithfully takes care of all of my needs. Ironic, isn’t it that the psalmist repented, “Renew a steadfast spirit in me.” A truly steadfast heart needs no renewal. Thank God that His steadfast love endures forever, despite my wandering ways.

Again, I reflect on my favorite hymn “Come Thou Fount”:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Good News

Our families have been asking us, “What do you want for Christmas?” And as I have spent inordinate amounts of time trying to find deals on other people’s gifts, I have gradually come up with a few things to go on my own list. But when I really think about what I really, really want, these two words come to me…

Good News.

I want good news for Christmas. In particular, good news about the house. It doesn’t have to be that we get the house by Christmas, but I would love to get good news. Good news that it is going go happen and the process is moving forward. That’s all I really want.

Think about it… what is the greatest thing you could receive right now? Is it good news about a loved one who has been ill? Good news about a family member trusting Christ as their Savior? Good news about a test result? Good news about a long-distance friend coming to town or another friend’s engagement? Good news about a job opportunity or a financial gain?

Given a choice between a new sweater and good news… the decision is obvious.

We want good news. Like a child - eyes wide, gazing intently upon a beautifully wrapped gift - our hearts eagerly anticipate the revelation of just what “good news” we are about to hear. The very words quicken our hearts and shorten our breath. There’s no easier way to torment a person than to pronounce “good news” and then pause before relaying the contents of your message.

Good News.

Imagine hearing the Gospel for the first time…

The very first time.

The Good News given to Mary and to Joseph. To Elizabeth and Zechariah. To the shepherds, strangers to Mary and Joseph, yet given an exclusive invitation to the birth of their Savior.

All members of a nation, a people waiting…

Waiting for their Messiah. 

And receiving the Good News for which generations upon generations of their people had waited. Good News that changed their world.

Good News that changes our world.

Delivers us…

through despair, emptiness, loneliness, grief, fear, death.

Delivers us from a world of darkness and into God’s marvelous light.

Not just someone else’s good news for which we can be happy. This Good News is for us as much as it was for Mary and Joseph and the shepherds.

It may not seem as staggering to us as it must have been to them. The concept of waiting for a Savior is foreign to us. Christ has come; He has already paid the price for our sin and redeemed us as children of God.

Is it old news? Diluted by generations and translations of copies, of copies of manuscripts pronouncing this Good News?

May it never be. It doesn’t matter how the gift of this Good News is delivered, what matters is the Gift.

And that Gift is Jesus. The Gift of Peace and Hope. The Gift of Life.

What good news are you waiting for right now? I pray that you too would hear good news this Christmas. But most of all, that you would come to a deeper appreciation of the Good News that has already been delivered to you.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I am taking the month of December off from blogging. I love blogging, but I feel I need to take a break from the computer for a bit. And while Christmas is a particularly nostalgic time for me that inspires more than a couple potential posts, I think it is also a perfect time to reprioritize some things in my life.

And hopefully when January comes, I will be able to greet you, renewed and refreshed. And hopefully bearing good news!

Have a wonderful Christmas as you celebrate our Savior.

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. “

Luke 2:10-11

My Testimony

Like many Sundays at church, this Sunday I found myself sitting in the pew and reflecting on all that God has done for me. The sermon was about how God is still at work today, transforming people’s lives and performing miracles for which science has no explanation.  Throughout ages, there have been people who believe in God, yet do not see that He is still at work today. They believe in heaven, but have no relationship with the One who made a way for them to go to heaven.

The sermon was not to undermine the power of the Bible, but to compel people to share their stories of how God has transformed their lives here and now, in the 21^st century. To be a living testimony that God still cares and is actively transforming lives.

My testimony – my most significant experience with God – all started when my uncle, a bachelor and an alcoholic, visited my family during Christmas over 10 years ago.  At the time I had started reading the Left Behind books and decided to give him the first book for Christmas. I was anxious about the gift, because I knew my uncle was not a Christian. But an avid reader, he finished the book before his trip was through.  I had no idea that God would use my gift to light a spark in Him that would eventually draw my uncle into a relationship with Jesus.

Fast forward several years… my uncle was sober and facing a life threatening diagnosis: lung cancer.  My parents offered for him to move in with us so that he could be with family and receive the support he needed as he underwent treatment.  It was a difficult time for all of us, but he pulled through it and went into remission. During that time, I saw him grow and understand his faith at an exponential rate. My relationship with him became deeper than that of a mere uncle as well. I liketo call him my grand-brother, because he really was more like a much-older brother to me.

My junior year of college – a short 4 years ago – the cancer came back. Our family spent 5-6 days a week going to and from the hospital (a good 40 minute drive) for his twice-a-day treatments. We were exhausted, and I could only imagine how much more exhausted he was. Friends and extended family brought meals or offered to drive. Our whole church family responded with such compassion, and we were all so moved by such self-less love. God truly used those people as His “hands and feet”, helping and providing for us in our deepest need.

 At the beginning of my second semester that year, it was tormentous to leave home. Although I longed for the distraction that friends and classes would bring, I feared what might happen while I was away. His prognosis was bad. He was not going to pull through. Emotionally exhausted, I found strength  and encouragement from my friends and their prayers and reminders that God was in control. Fairly newly formed friendships, I struggled against burdening them with such heavy loads. But God knew I would need them, and they were more than willing to be there for me.

In February of 2007, my uncle passed away. And although he had no offspring, he still left a legacy. A man once hardened by the despair of war and worldliness, he left this world known for his generosity, tender heart, knowledge of the Bible, and good-humor.

This may sound like it is more of my uncle’s testimony than my own. But my testimony is because of his. During the months following his death, I struggled with deeper grief and greater joy than I have ever experienced in my life. Deep grief, because I missed him and found the permanence of his loss to this world so difficult to bear. Deep joy because I began to really understand what it means to “trust Christ as your Savior.” My uncle trusted Christ to redeem him from his sin and to welcome him into His presence when he died. It is one thing to pray “Lord, I trust you as my Savior,” and quite another to depend on your absolute need to trust him as your Savior in the face of death.

I have not faced death the way my uncle has. But I was there holding his hand when he passed away, and I can tell you that my faith was first shaken and then solidified. Every hymn and worship song came to mean so much more to me.

“Great is Thy faithfulness…” even through trials.

“Every blessing You pour out, I turn back to praise; When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say ‘Blessed be Your name’…”

“Mercy there was great and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty – at Calvary!”

“Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; He to rescue me from danger, interposed his prescious blood.”

And the song that to me captures every important point of the gospel and moves me to tears of gratefulness to my God for the hope and life and strength I have in Him:

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt of life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
’til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

From what I can tell, most of the people reading this are probably Christians as well. So what about you? What is God doing in your life or what has He done that has challenged you to trust Him more or caused you to better understand His deep love for you?

Wherever we are in our faith, I pray we will all continually come to a deeper understanding of what it really means to trust in Christ as our Savior.