Jesus

Sunday of Hope…

hope-coverMy internet is a little wonky this evening and has deleted the first draft of this, the second entry in my Advent Calendar Blog. I am sorely tempted to simply go to bed and try again tomorrow. But I will not give up so early in this project.

So here we go, again. The Scripture for this evening comes from my favorite prophet, Isaiah (we preachers are prone to choosing favorite prophets, gospels, stories, verses, etc. in the Bible).

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
for the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
and to proclaim that captives will be released
and prisoners will be freed.
He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the Lord’s favor has come,
and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.

Isaiah 61:1-2 NLT

This is the part of the scroll that Jesus turned to in the temple as he declared the beginning of his ministry. In essence, this is the mission statement for Jesus’ ministry. It was written down long centuries before Jesus ever walked in this world.

Because God has always been about freedom, compassion, comfort, forgiveness. These have always been the things that God was up to in our world. These are the things that you and I are meant to be about every day as we serve God, as we live as God’s children in this world.

So on this Advent Sunday of Hope, may your hope be continually restored by the Source of all hope. May you be filled with the hope of Jesus. May it spill out of you and touch all who surround you.

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.

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

Laughter….

One of the things Catalyst does well, is engage its attendees on many levels. There are highly intellectual speakers who deliver a tonne of information in a short talk. There are highly charismatic leaders, who bring emotions bubbling to the surface through the power of their words. There is good (LOUD!) music, and art and and amazing things to experience (this year, there was literally a beat-boxing cellist. SERIOUSLY!).

And emceeing through all of the inspirational, exciting, eye-opening presentations, are Tripp and Tyler. They’re a sketch comedy duo, and their job is to make the conference fun. They mock some of the speakers (this year, there was a segment where they had an Andy Stanley doll, a Craig Groeschel doll, a Francis Chan doll and a Rob Bell doll…I was just about in tears, I was laughing so hard!), they do give-aways and they make announcements to keep us informed of all that is happening at the conference.

But what they are really there to do, is to make the attendees laugh. Because there is joy in following Jesus. When you live life knowing that you are deeply and profoundly loved, it is easy to laugh. We should be able to laugh at ourselves (there are a lot of denominational jokes!) and experience joy together.

So to make you laugh, here is Tripp and Tyler’s wrap-up video:

 

Identity…

One of my favorite things about going to a conference is discovering new things. Whether it’s a new band, or a new speaker or a new author or a new perspective on an old story that Jesus told. Doesn’t matter, I just love discovering that I don’t know everything there is to know in my faith.

This year I discovered Jon Acuff.  He’s a blogger, so I had to like him, right? He was also a great speaker. He didn’t speak for long (maybe 15min, while the big guns got 45min), but his talk stands out to me as one of the most influential things I heard at Catalyst. I’m sure I’ll blog about him more than once.

But what is on my mind tonite is something Acuff said about the Prodigal Son. I loved that he used THAT story as his teaching Scripture, as it is one God has used to shape my life in powerful ways. Acuff zeroed in at one point on that moment when the prodigal returns home, and he has this whole speech prepared to say to his father. He’s going to admit what he did wrong, and then he’s going to ask his Dad to make him like one of the hired men. Only, he never gets to give the whole speech. He admits that he was wrong, and then he is cut off by his loving Father who just wants to throw a party because his Son is home.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Acuff said that the reason the son never got to give the “make me like one of the hired men” part of his speech, is that none of his experiences during his ‘wild living’ days could change his identity.  His identity was already set. No amount of squandering could change the fact that he was a son.

And it is the same for us. We are children of the King, sons and daughters of the Living God. And God will not ever, cannot ever, make us like one of the hired men. That is not who we are.

No matter how bad we screw up, no matter how broken we become, no matter how many failures we wrack up. We are still children of the King.

I need to know that. I need to hear it over and over again, because there is a very human part of me that wonders – always and eternally – if I am enough. I have to tell you, it is hard for me to admit that. I am struggling right this second to NOT delete that sentence. I kind of want to.

But the thing is…it’s the truth. And it is the reason I found Acuff’s teaching on this old, beloved parable so life-giving. Seriously. That is the story I want to shout from the rooftops. That is the truth I want to give my life to. That is the one thing I want to tell everyone: you are a child of the King, and all your squandering will NEVER change that. Your identity is set. You are enough.

And Jesus died so that your identity would never ever change. You are a child of the King.

 

 

MAKE

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At Catalyst, Atlanta, this year’s theme was: MAKE. I have to admit, when I first heard that the theme was “make”, I had no idea where the conference would go with it. Of course, now it all seems so obvious.

We are made to be makers. We are made in the image of the Great Maker. Anything we do that makes instead of destroys, reflects God and leads us closer to the people we were made to be.

The word make showed up in so many different aspects of the conference – there was the Maker’s Market, where attendees could buy fair trade goods to help make a living for those in need; there were the talks, all of which were about making something (making culture, making peace, making history); and there was the idea that drove Catalyst this year: that God is making us into the leaders He wants us to be.

I love the idea that we were made to be makers. We are made to be makers of peace, makers of disciples, makers of relationship, makers of beauty, makers of hope. We are made to be those who build up instead of tear down. We are made to make someone else’s day, to make their lives better, to make their joy complete. Because that is what Jesus has done for us.

And because when we make, we reflect the image of God.

And I loved the idea that God is still making me. That God is still making you. From the moment we are born until the moment we die, God is never finished with us. He is always shaping us, forming and reforming us, making us.

There is a song by the Christian band Gungor (it’s the lead singer’s last name, in case you were wondering), who happened to lead a fair amount of the worship at Catalyst this year, called “Beautiful Things.”

The chorus goes:

You make beautiful things,
You make beautiful things out of the dust,
You make beautiful things,
You make beautiful things out of us.

I think it has to be the most encouraging thoughts I have come across in a long time…that as messy and confusing and broken as my life sometimes feels, God is making a beautiful thing out of it. Every once in a while I get a glimpse of the beautiful things God is making out of my life – and when that happens I am amazed at what the Great Maker is capable of doing with my efforts.

And you know what? It’s not just my life, that God is making beautiful things out of…but the life of anyone who chooses to live in relationship with God, anyone who chooses to be a maker. God is making beautiful things out of your life. Even if you cannot see it right now.

Because God is the Great Maker and He never leaves us and never forsakes us. He will always be making us new.

I like this. A lot!

So if you have been a Christian for more than about 5 minutes, you have probably heard the saying “love the sinner, hate the sin.” my friend Nancy posted this AWESOME take on that saying on FB the other day. Ever since seeing it, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

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Mark Lowry likes to play the lovable idiot. But dude is SMART. This reminded me of Teddy Roosevelt’s saying: comparison is the thief of joy. I think the world would be a much better place if we could all learn to take care of our own mess, instead of worrying about the messes of others.

Jesus had something to say on that matter, too. He said, worry about the plank (read: big honkin’ piece of wood) in your own eye before you point out the speck (read: tiny, barely noticeable flake of wood) in your brother’s (read: fellow human being) eye.

It isn’t an easy command to follow, and Jesus knows I fail at it regularly, but it certainly is something I continue to work on. And I am convinced it is one of the secrets to world peace.

Back to it. Like, for reals..

So many of you know that I hurt my foot last week. (You know this because I am an Olympic-gold-medal complainer when I am sick or injured. This is probably something I should work on, but there are so many other things on that list, and only so many hours in a day.) The really frustrating thing about the injury was that it happened when I was doing something so mundane and average that I didn’t even remember doing it afterward. I am of the belief that if one hurts oneself it should be because of an event that was momentous enough to be remembered. Yeesh.

Anyway, because of the foot injury I was not able to get back to the gym like I had hoped last week. In fact, I wasn’t even able to go for a decent walk for a number of days. Now, at another time of the year, I might have just grinned and thought: oh well, I am going to have to take it easy for a few days…that’s not so bad. But at this particular juncture I was more than a little frustrated. You see, I chose to be fairly (read: incredibly) lazy during my summer holiday. I decided this vacation would be a true break from all of the things I have been disciplined about in the last year. I didn’t track my Weight Watchers points, I didn’t exercise with anything resembling regularity, I just took it easy. And that was a good thing on the one hand: I had been severely struggling to stick to my WW points in the weeks leading up to holidays. Having the break was apparently just what I needed to get back on track: in the past week I haven’t had any issue sticking to my points. Sometimes, you just need a rest.

On the other hand, I lost ground over my vacation. I gained weight and I lost muscle. While being laid up with the foot injury I began to gain some ground on the weight (down 3.5lbs when I weighed in on Sunday thankyouverymuch), but I couldn’t do much about the muscle. Today, I am very pleased to say, I was able to return to the gym. I did a 60min BodyPump class. It was tough. I couldn’t believe how tough it was! But it was also good. My muscles (such as they are), are pleasantly fatigued. I am sure they will be telling me off tomorrow. But I know that today I took another step towards improving my health. Another step towards getting back on track. Another step away from just talking (read: whining) about the ground I have lost in the past few months, and towards actually regaining that ground. I feel strong and I feel accomplished.

I write this down now, because I know in another few months/weeks/whatever something will happen andI will need to be reminded of what this feels like. And I hope some of my friends may point me back to these words.

Any journey has its ups and downs. The ups are usually pretty easy to deal with. The downs are when we need friends to surround us and to speak the truth we cannot utter ourselves. I believe that is why Jesus gave us the church. Because He knew there would be times when we needed each other. When we just couldn’t do it on our own. When the strength of another would be the thing that gave us the ability to keep going.

Dark Knight of the soul…

Like so many movie fans, I have been waiting for The Dark Knight Rises for months and months. And like so many of us, I was shocked and horrified by the shootings at the midnight screening in Aurora, Colorado. I first caught wind of the incident from the posting of friends on Facebook, and then read of it on the Toronto Star App on my phone.

Suddenly a movie that had caused excitement and anticipation was now tinged with much darker emotions. My stomach clenched as I read details of what happened in that movie theatre. I wondered if I should go see the movie at all.

But then I thought about how many terrible things happen all the time in this world, and I realized that one of the worst things any of us can do in the face of tragedy is allow it to keep us from living. So today I went to the theatre alone (my Dad not being a fan of Nolan’s interpretation of Batman and my Mom being ambivalent towards action movies in general) to watch as the dark knight rose.

The movie isn’t perfect – criticisms are that it is too long, a little clunky in the telling of this final chapter of Nolan’s trilogy – but it was good. Good enough that I expect I will see it again. The theme of wearing a mask throbs at the centre of this film…every character wears a mask here, whether literal or emotional. The theme of fear – how we experience it and how we allow it to drive us – is also central.

The sad coincidence of how well these ideas fit into discussions of the Aurora, CO shootings was not lost on me as I watched the movie. The shootings were never far from my mind even as the movie drew me in. And I will readily admit that I was nervously aware of every single person who reentered the theatre after a bathroom break (at a running time of 2hrs40min, you can bet there were quite a few who took time for a bathroom break).

In the second installment of Nolan’s trilogy, Alfred explain’s the Joker’s unquenchable thirst for violence with these words “some men just want to watch the world burn.” I do not claim to understand such men – in fact, I hope to stand for all that is opposite to their worldview – but I do believe they exist. I do believe that the perpetrator of these shootings is such a one.

And my heart breaks for all who have lost a loved one, been injured, been terrified or been displaced by this tragedy. My heart breaks.

But despite all this, I stand on hope. I hope for a world that gets better, not worse. I hope for future generations to find a peace we have not yet achieved. I hope for a day when a night at the movies may just be a night at the movies. I hope for a world redeemed.

Jesus said, “Behold! I am making all things new!” and it is to this promise that my hope clings.

Home…

Yesterday I drove out to what is affectionately known in our family as “the farmhouse,” to spend the majority of my vacation there. The Farmhouse is my parents’ summer place, and a place where our family gathers to spend time together for holidays.

As my brother and I drove out there, I was thinking about the idea of ‘home.’ I was thinking how I was leaving my home in Brampton to drive to a place that I consider home in Madoc. Then I thought of my parents’ house in Belleville and how that is also home. Maybe home is where ever I am surrounded by people that I love, by family. Maybe home isn’t so much a physical place or a certain address. Maybe home is more a state of being. I like that idea.

There is a lyric in a Larry Norman song that goes “this world is not my home, I’m just passin’ through…” The point Norman is making is that we were made for eternity, not for this finite world. His home, then, is Heaven – a place of eternal relationship with a loving God. I believe that Heaven is our real home. Our ultimate home.

But I also believe that Heaven is as much a state of being as any other home, rather than a destination or a specific address. Heaven begins here and now, as we seek to live in relationship with the Living God through Jesus.

Still, I am glad to be blessed with more than one home in this world, while I am passing through.