God

Shalom…

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Today is the Advent Sunday of Peace. I often wish we had a word like Shalom in the English language. Shalom means peace, but it also means wholeness, completeness, prosperity, restoration, wellfare. It means peace, but it also means “how things are meant to be.”

Zechariah said this about his son John:

And you, my little son,
will be called the prophet of the Most High,
because you will prepare the way for the Lord.
You will tell his people how to find salvation
through forgiveness of their sins.
Because of God’s tender mercy,
the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace.

Luke 1:76-79 NLT

Zechariah is describing the role his son John will play – telling the world about Jesus and preparing the way for the ministry of Jesus.

But he is also describing God’s plan for Shalom. Through Jesus, Shalom was to enter the world. The light would shine on those sitting in the shadow of death, the light would guide them to the pathway of peace – of shalom.

Jesus is meant to guide us to the way things are meant to be. To the restoration of what it means for each of us to be human. The restoration of our relationships with each other and the restoration of our relationship with God.

I think this is a very rich definition of peace…one that reaches far beyond the idea of peace as simply the “absence of conflict.” I pray Shalom for each of you as you read this blog, and as  you go about your daily lives.

There is a way to Shalom, and that way’s name is Jesus.

Light in the darkness..

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Like most towns and cities, Brampton has an annual tree lighting ceremony to kick off the Christmas season. The tree is housed in the courtyard at The Rose – a local live theatre.

This year, the tree looks an awful lot (to this geeky soul) like the White Tree of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings movies. One of my favorite moments in the third film is that moment when all seems dark and horrible, but then the camera pans onto the (supposedly dead) tree of Gondor and you see one white blossom…and you know it is all gong to be ok in the end – the good guys are gonna win!

It’s such a powerful little detail.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light.
For those who live
in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine.

Isaiah 9:2 NLT

This verse is like that lone white blossom on an otherwise dead tree. It is part of a passage of hope in the midst of dark days in the history of God’s people.

Jesus is that light. He is our hope. He is our peace.

And like that one line blossom, he is the detail that tells us it will all be ok in the end. God’s gonna win!

Amen.

Plans…

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For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

I have blogged about this passage before. But never in the context of Christmas. This is not one of the classic Christmas prophecies. But it could be. After all, what is Jesus if not God’s plan to give us a hope and a future?

Today I am thinking about this text because of a conversation I had this morning. It was one of those moments when God lets you see all the ways he has been working his plans for you and for the people in the community where you serve – plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future. That doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it is beautiful to a shocking degree. I have been grinning all day, each time I thought of it.

I have known and loved this verse for years, but today it has taken on a deeper meaning for me. It has become the living word of God, instead of ‘just’ a good reminder. On the one hand, I know to put my trust in God. Of course I know that. I know that God has plans for me. I know that God has good plans for my future. But it is one thing to know it intellectually, and quite another to experience it full-force.

It must have been a little bit like that for Mary that first Christmas. When she finally held her baby in her arms and just KNEW that everything she had been through – the raised eyebrows at her pregnancy, the moment when Joseph told her he’d thought of calling off their engagement, the long, difficult journey to Bethlehem – had been part of God’s plan to change the world forever. I wonder if she remembered this bit from the scroll of Jeremiah as she held her little boy.

My prayer for us all, this Christmas, is that God would reveal His plan and how he’s been working it in each of our lives. My prayer is that we might be touched not by the intellectual notion of hope, but by the living truth of our hope in Jesus Christ. My prayer is that God’s plans would continue to take on flesh and dwell among us.

Fear vs. Faith

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I am pretty tired right now and more than a little thick-headed. It seems I’ve managed to pick up my first cold of the season. I am hopeful that with enough rest (and perhaps a few prayers from those who read my blogs), I will be in the mend by the end of the week.

In the meantime, I have been thinking a lot about fear vs. faith. I love the above saying, because I believe it to be true. Personally, I find it easier to be fearful than bold or full of faith. I know this about myself, and so I am constantly battling my tendency towards fear. I battle it by reminding myself of what the Bible says and what I have experienced of God’s power in my life. I battle it by singing songs of praise and being in community with others who share my faith. I battle of by feeding my faith rather than my fear.

Sometimes the battle against fear goes well and I find myself amazed at the strength God gives me. Other times I find myself feeding my fear, and I need the reminder that there isn’t room for both fear and faith in my mind/heart/spirit.

Church can be tough. I love my church, but we are far from perfect. We make mistakes and we face difficult circumstances.

But we are called to be people of faith not people of fear.

So may you find new ways each day to feed your faith. May you know that there is not room for both to reside in you. May you tap into the Source of all hope and find that through Him your faith is growing and your fear is failing.

Plans…

Some people are good at living life in the moment. They don’t feel a need to plan the details and they love to do things in the spur of the moment.

I am not one of those people. I like to plan all the details. I like to have thought through the possible outcomes. I like to have back ups to my back ups.

But one thing that life has taught me is that though I may plan diligently, some things will not go according to plan. That’s the way it was in a meeting I had this evening. It did not go according to the plan I had made.

But you know what? I believe that it was one of the most significant and powerful meetings I’ve had with this group since we started meeting together. It may have not been my plan, but I have no doubt at all that it was God’s plan. He knew the conversation we would have tonight, and He knows what fruit it will bear.

And I am grateful for the reminder of this verse:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future…

Jeremiah 29:11

God is so good.

So it begins…

The weekend got away from me. There was so much to do and so little time, it seemed. And in the midst of it all, I never did find a quiet moment during which I could put out my nativity set. That quiet moment finally arrived tonite.

After all the hustle and bustle of the day was over, after I’d had my nightly phone call with my Mom, after the puppy had finally been fed, there was time. No plans, no emails that had to be sent, no chores that had to be done. Just time.

So I loaded my “Everything Christmas” playlist onto my iPhone and set it into its speakers. And as some of my favorite Christmas music began to play, began to unpack my set from its boxes. This is a favorite ritual of mine.

I first saw my nativity set in a store window in the Pickering Town Centre mall, when my parents and I lived in that city. It stopped me dead in my tracks and my Father (with whom I was running errands) had to come back to get me. And we spent a few minutes together, still in the midst of the bustling mall, marveling at how these figures told the story with beauty and simplicity. And how we could still be struck silent by the story these figures told.

A few Christmases later, my Mom and Dad bought me the first pieces in my set. For a couple of Christmases they added to it, until the whole set was mine. Every time I take it out of its boxes I am reminded of the reason for this season. And I am reminded of the faithfulness of my parents, who taught me the story of God’s saving love coming to earth in the form of a helpless baby.

This is the beginning of my Advent season. This is the beginning of all the preparations, all the decorating, all the little steps that will lead to the celebration of Christmas 2012. For me, in this quiet, worship-ful moment, it has begun very well.

The whole set (and stockings for me, Koski and Spot).
The centre piece.
The Wise Men.
A shepherd and some animals.

Anticipation…

I’ve alluded to the fact that Advent is almost here. Where I live, signs of Christmas are beginning to pop up all over the place. I came out of my house for choir practice this evening and noticed that some of my neighbors have put up their Christmas lights. We have begun practicing Advent anthems at choir. And there are signs on all of the streets surrounding my house warning that the streets will be closed this Saturday for the Santa Claus parade.

I always have a struggle at this time of year. Truth be told, I am sorely tempted this weekend to put up both of my Christmas trees, my nativity set and my lights and decorations on the front porch. I want to rush into it.

I have a problem with wanting to rush things before their time. I have a problem with, a lack of, patience.

But I am trying to take my time this year. I WILL put up my nativity set this weekend, but I will hold off on the trees and lights until the end of the month. Because it isn’t time yet. Advent is a season of anticipation. To anticipate you have to hold off a bit. You have to have patience. You can’t just rush to the good stuff, you’ll miss the anticipation entirely.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT) says:

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

I am trying to let things be beautiful in their own time. Instead of rushing them along. I love the thought that there is eternity in our hearts, but we still can’t see all of what God is doing. Is t that the truth about humanity? We have some sense of longing for – and even some understanding of – the things of God. But we can never fully understand them.

In the end, God remains a mystery. And for once, that is not causing me concern or anxiety. Instead it seems inordinately beautiful.

In December, in its time, I will begin my second annual Advent Blog. Until then, may we all find rest in the One who is the most beautiful mystery.

Seasons…

I should know this by now, but I seem to have to learn it over and over and over again: to everything in life, there is a season (my own paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 3:1). For the past couple of weeks, I have been going througha silent season, in which I haven’t felt much like blogging. My energy has been lower than normal, the days have gotten darker and colder, and generally I have just felt too tired to write.

So, not the greatest season. But. BUT, the thing about seasons is that they change. From one to the next, they transform. And today, I truly feel like I have turned a corner. I am entering a new season. I feel words pressing against my brain, waiting to be written down and shared. I feel hope, like a warm glow in my chest, beginning to grow. I feel close to God in a way that I haven’t for a little while.

No one knows what tomorrow will bring, but for the first time in a while, I find myself anticipating tomorrow with a smile instead of a grinding of teeth. I am entering – I hope, and I pray, and I worry about even writing it out because, O God, what if I jinx it?! – a good season.

Advent is not far away (two more Sundays! YAY!) and I am anticipating this season of anticipation.

You know what? I am just happy and blessed and thankful and aware of all the things for which I ought to be thankful. It’s a good place to be, and I wish all seasons could be like this. Still, I know the tough seasons have so much to teach me, and they make the good seasons shine all the brighter.

My friends, whatever season you are in, may you know that God is with you there. May you feel His peace surrounding you in times of trial and may you sense His delight in times of rejoicing.

On suffering…

Probably one of the biggest struggles In a life of faith has to do with why God allows suffering. Some ask the question this way: why do bad things happen to good people?

This year at Catalyst, Matt Chandler took this subject on. It is a powerful thing to hear a man who has battled brain cancer speak on suffering. He knows of what he speaks.

One of the theories – that doesn’t solve the problem of suffering, but at least gives an understanding of the role of suffering in the life of faith – is that God uses our suffering to teach us what we could not otherwise learn. It is through that lens that Matt Chandler spoke.

He said, “It is not unloving of God to wound you now so that you might have eternity with him. It IS unloving of God to save you from pain now and allow you to spend eternity apart from him.”

If what is at stake is eternity spent with God, then suffering becomes less of a horror. I would rather walk through the valley now and know that I am a citizen of Heaven, and when I die eternity in the presence of a loving God awaits me, than avoid suffering now and lose out on eternity with God.

Matt Chandler also said this: “God is going to do surgery to cut out some of what is killing us that we don’t even know is killing us…Jesus does not drive an ambulance, he is not going to show up when it is already too late.”

I found this profoundly comforting.

So let me leave you with this quote from the Apostle Paul, who knew a little bit about suffering:

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Romans 8:18

A little phrase…

Catalyst is a big conference. Thirteen thousand attendees. Twenty countries represented. I lost count of the number of laptops in the sound pit.

In just two days a massive amount of information is thrown at those of us who have gathered to take it in. One of my friends calls it “drinking from the fire hose” and he’s not wrong. There is so much to take in, that it is impossible to catch it all.

But even in the midst of all of that, each time I am there, I find I am struck by one little phrase that one of the speakers throws out. Often it’s not the main point of their talk. It’s just something that, for one reason or another rings in my ears and rolls around in my brain.

This year that little phrase comes from Matt Chandler. He said, “God works in the mess.”

And I thought – Thank God! Because life IS messy. It is unpredictable. None of us know what tomorrow will bring.

And that might be overwhelming.

Except that God works in the mess. And that means, no matter how messy the day, or the conversation or the meeting or the issue, God is at work in it.

David wrote these words in the midst of being hunted and living in caves to keep his enemies from finding him:

But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands
Psalm 31:14-15a

He wrote this, I believe, because he understood this little phrase: God works in the mess.