Sounds of Christmas: Quiet

Its quiet in my house tonight. For the past four days the house has been full of people--sounds of talking, laughter, eating and drinking. Sounds of life. Sounds of joy. But now its quiet, very quiet because I am the only one home except the dog and he's asleep. I should be sad, but I'm doing ok because I know that in 2 weeks my daughters will be back at our house, filling it with noisy life.
So one of the sounds of the season for me is people sounds... familiar voices and noises: like the way I always clear my throat, or my Mom would blow her nose or the sound of my father-in-law chewing or the way one of my daughter's sneezes and sound like Cindy Lou Who. I think that everybody has a noise that is unique to them but you have to know a person well to grasp what it is that is their unique sound.
So then, what are the unique sounds of the Lord? Sometimes during Advent I hear the Lord in the stillness right before the break of dawn..
"Be still and know that I am God" psalm 46:10

Advent preface

For several years I have thought about writing an Advent devotional. I have had a hard time in recent years finding something that moved me as well as enhanced my Christmas thinking. Big goals, but I'm going to give it a shot. For the advent season I will attempt to post everyday upon a Christmas theme and we will see what happens. So here goes....

Generosity

Can one be too generous? No seriously. I would define being generous as freely giving, no strings attached. Webster's says, "liberality in spirit or act; especially liberality in giving." Can you over do that? I am learning to choose to be generous not adequate, but abundant. And I think that perhaps when we are generous we are most closely walking in our Father's footsteps.Think about how good it feels to give. Research has even proven that there are measurable benefits to our quality of life when we give. The Bible describes God as a generous giver and says(paraphrasing one of my favorite verses James 1:17) that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above.

I have two types of people that I can easily give generously to. It's easy to give to complete strangers. I don't know them, they don't know me. No expectations, no strings, and no disappointments. Just the joy of giving and knowing that I planted an unexpected blessing in someone's life. Here I can feel a little bit like one of God's secret agents...dropping undeserved, unmerited favor into an unknown person's life. Never knowing the rest of the story but not needing to, because the very act was fulfilling in and of itself.

I can also give generously to the ones I know the best and love the most. It's easy to give here, and usually I want to give much more than I can give. Time,distance, money, these things can constrain me. But the giving--that's easy. It pours out of me, like a spring bubbling up out of the ground.

Christmas brings an interesting twist to this idea. Being generous at Christmas is not the same as giving an abundance of things. Nor is it tied to the dollar amount of things. Generosity is linked to the spirit I think. Being generous and being joyfulful go hand in hand to me. The angels sang "Joy to the World" when the Father and the Spirit gave the Son to the world..the most generous act mankind has ever known.

The world knows that generosity and joy go hand in hand. Look at Santa, a generous gift giver who goes around saying, "Ho, ho ho." Sometimes we Christians miss the mark. We get so caught up in trying to make sure that everyone knows that"Jesus is the reason for the season" that we quench the Spirit. I want to give lavishly and joyfully. I want to demonstrate to the world the vast goodness of our generous God.

Balance # 2

I continue to think about balance and I see that its not all bad. I have definitely found one place where I want to have balance. I want to be firmly rooted and grounded in Jesus. To be planted on the rock, to being building on the true cornerstone. To be out of balance here would have dire results because then what I am building would not stand. A shaky foundation can't weather many storms and life is stormy.( Matthew 7: 25-27)

So maybe I need to be balanced on Jesus ,but unbalanced in a passionate pursuit of Him. How like the Lord to show me once again that His thoughts are not my thoughts, for He also tells me to be in the world, but not of the world. I am sure that there are other directions like this that I can't recall at the moment.(John 17)

Balance

I read a meditation the other day about balancing my life and it set off some alarms in me. So I have been thinking about it. Does God really want me to balance my life? And what is balance? What does it mean to be balanced?Is life a balancing act?

I think we often feel like we need to balance things in our lives. But why? If I am balancing something I want it steady. This means that being balanced is static, unmoving and unchanging. I hope and believe that God is at work in me, conforming me more and more to the image of Jesus. I don't want to be balanced in this. I want to end up with Jesus fully formed in me and my flesh, my rebellion fully crucified with Him. I don't think God wants me to be balanced if it means doing things half His way and half my way. Does it mean standing for the truth only half of the time? When I think of it like this I don't see balance as a very biblical idea. In fact in Revelations the scripture says,"Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I will vomit you out of My Mouth."(Revelations 3:16)

I think that the world( not the Lord) wants us to be balanced so we don't rock their boats.

Proverbs 16:18

Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.( or stumbling)

Pride makes you who you never wanted to be...and keeps you from things that you really want. Augustine wrote, "It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels." I know that first part pretty well, but not so much of the second, though there are times that I think I want to be humble.. not humbled so much as choosing to be humble over and against being full of pride.Its a pretty fierce battle for me. Pride strongarms its way into my behavior almost before I know it and destroys things I have worked hard at building. But a few minute victories over it, here and there, remind me that I really do have the ability to choose my behavior and my actions or responses. I just wish that I could defeat my pride to the extent that I wouldn't have to worry about it! But I don't think that's going to happen this side of eternity.I think that this is a battle that God gives me to fight, by the strength of the indwelling Holy Spirit , but its a daily, hourly, minutely, fight until His Kingdom comes on earth. But He came, as a baby, as a human, to show me that it can be done.

In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

Foggy Days

In my part of Oregon, fall and winter bring alot of fog. Fog does cool things to lights, to the daylight as it creeps over the horizon. It minimizes shadows and it encircles electric lights, concentrates them. It adds a shimmer to things. It's foggy here this morning and while the trees are mostly bare of leaves, a few yellow leaves linger. They vividly stand out against the white gray of the coming day. A bright splash of color that catches my eye. God never leaves me without color in my world, one of His fingerprints or clues of His exsitence in creation is color.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts.
Eccl. 3 : 11

Advent is coming

Two weeks to go and the Christmas season officially begins in the seasons of church litergy. For me, it starts much sooner. There is so much do, and I don't just mean physical activities to accomplish. Advent is a time to savor.. to savour the savior, his coming, his birth. Time to sit in the darkness and feel that its all about to change, to feel anticipation in the air..
In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it..
John 1:1-5