the susie solution

Last January, I had two painful conversations, one with each of two of my grown-up daughters (with my third daughter present in sentiment.)  Both conversations were on the same subject, and basically came down to this, “Mom, the way you handle X is not good; it stresses you out, it stresses us out, and we think it would be better for everyone if things changed.” 

Figuring out how to bring up what might be touchy subjects with our parents is something most of my friends and I still struggle with, even though we are in our 50s and 60s, and even if we enjoy a close relationship with those parents.  How much more so with kids who are just in the early stages of adulthood!  Add to that in this case that although, like most of us, I like to think of myself as reasonable, and certainly as “approachable”, the inescapable fact is that I was an untreated bipolar until 2-1/2 years ago.  This meant that for all of my daughters’ growing up years, my moods were mercurial.  I’m much better now than I was, but meds aren’t an instant solution that means now I’m all sweetness and light all the time!  Much as I try to keep a more even keel, I still have more changeable moods than most.  Quite apart from the dynamics of parent/child, and apart from the bipolar, the issue my daughters addressed was no minor one, but one that has been a very important facet of our life for over 25 years.  Any way they approached it, my daughters faced a very high likelihood of hurting my feelings. 

Any one of these factors would be intimidating, so considering all three, speaking up as my girls did took a lot of courage.  More importantly, it was not only a courageous thing to do, it was a loving thing to do.  Sometimes, loving people means being willing to risk hurting them. 

I needed to hear what my girls had to say.  Much as it is true that I have loved doing the particular activity of which my girls spoke, it is equally true that I have grown to feel it an increasing burden over the years.  Rather than talking with my family about what THEY would like to do or seeking suggestions on how I might do what I do differently, however, I had instead simply played the martyr and complained about how put-upon I was.  (I am, alas, a champion whiner.)  It hurt me to have to confront my selfishness, but had my girls not “screwed their courage to the sticking place” and broached the subject, I’d still be stuck in my pity-party of frustration.  They didn’t speak up just to make their own situation better.  They loved me enough to want something better for me as well.    

Solomon had wisdom about this area.  “The kisses of an enemy may be profuse, but faithful are the wounds of a friend.”  Any definition of real friendship would have to include something like, “A real friend will tell me when I’m headed in the wrong direction.”  I am so very thankful to know that my daughters are not only my daughters, but also my friends!  To speak up to a friend is to affirm, “I believe you care about wanting to be better.  I believe you CAN be better.  I want to HELP YOU to be better.  I would rather risk hurting you by speaking up, than suffer the certainty of watching you continue on a wrong path.”  If we are more afraid of how a loved one might react than we are that the loved one will continue in error, who are we really thinking of – the loved one, or ourselves?   

Solomon also said “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”  Sharpening a knife requires that minute particles off the edge must be ground off, a process which sometimes produces sparks.  Yet if those extraneous parts aren’t removed, the tool will never be as useful as it was designed to be.  If we love someone, our ultimate desire has to be to see them become all God created them to be, even if it means that we have to be the one He uses to help take off the bits that are holding them back.  If we let our fear that sparks may fly prevent us from speaking up, we abet that which dulls the effectiveness of our loved one.

Now obviously, we aren’t to go around blithely wounding our friends as if their feelings didn’t matter, nor recklessly causing sparks to fly by justifying it as “sharpening” another. That’s not love, either!   We look to the example our Father sets.  God will not needlessly cause us pain, but neither will He hesitate to point out where we are in error so as to avoid hurting our feelings, or out of fear that we may get angry at Him because of it.  As the saying goes, “God loves us just as we are, but He loves us too much to let us stay there.”  God’s desire is to see us become all that we can be.  If that takes hurting our feelings by honestly confronting us with our sin, then He’ll do it.  If we truly love someone, then the most important consideration in deciding whether or not we should speak up about something is not whether speaking up might hurt the other’s feelings or whether the person might reject us, it is whether we believe strongly enough that their good is greater than our risk.  

Love that is willing to risk hurting this way is ultimately the love that will prove the surest healer, the safest haven, and the truest friendship. 

When I write a grocery list, it reads something like, “milk, eggs, ibuprof, peppers, apples, air freshener, spaghetti”.  Even if we were looking for the exact same items, my cousin’s list would read (and I’m not exaggerating!) “1 one half-gallon Hoody Carb-Smart 2% milk, one box one dozen Fred Meyer size AA large eggs, 1 bottle 100 count Kroger ibuprofen 200 milligram tablets, 1 medium green bell pepper, 1 medium orange bell pepper, 1 medium red bell pepper, 6 small red delicious apples, 1 spray can Febreze air freshener spring lavender scent purple and pink can, 1 one pound (16 ounce) bag American Beauty angel hair spaghetti.”  If I were doing her shopping for her, that kind of detail would make sense, but since I’m just the driver and she’s doing her own shopping and knows just what she’s looking for anyway, that kind of written detail seems unnecessary to me – especially since she insists on reading it word for word as soon as we get in the car and again once we reach the store.

Some people can’t seem to relate an anecdote without including every detail they can think of.  Even when you know none of the people involved in the story, the teller insists on stopping the story to recall whether it was Uncle Joe or Cousin Billy who said the cow got into the garden, or maybe it was the horse, and whether that was before or after Grandma (the one who lives in Hicktown, not the one in Boonysville) served the lemonade.  Or was it iced tea?  The storyteller may feel compelled to tell you if the subject of the story was tall, short, thin, fat, pretty, or whatever, what s/he did for a living, or where s/he came from – regardless of whether ANY of those characteristics have the slightest bearing on the story.  Sometimes by the time the storyteller has gotten through with all those irrelevant details, they’ve lost track of where they were going with the story in the first place.  Or you’ve ceased to care about it!

Sometimes worrying about too many details just gums up the gears.  Sometimes, though, it’s important to pay attention to them.

I’ve been thinking about details since a discussion in my Tuesday morning ladies’ Bible study.  Someone brought up the new series running on the History Channel.  Titled simply “The Bible”, it is but the latest attempt by Hollywood to dramatize Scripture.  Those who have seen the most episodes of the show maintain that the screenwriters have remained faithful to the “main message” of the story, and even to some Scriptural details, but all of us who have watched any of it can see that there are plenty of Scriptural details that have been ignored in the name of dramatic license.  For example, for the sacrifice of his son, Genesis states that Abraham took two young men and a donkey along with Isaac and journeyed until the third day.  In “The Bible”, one morning he just takes Isaac for a short climb up the mountain right outside where they happen to be camping – close enough that it shows Sarah climbing after them in a panic, having just discovered that no one had seen them that afternoon.   

Hollywood is not the only source of re-imagined Scripture, either.  Our church is currently going through a 32 week program using The Story, a chronologically arranged version of snippets of the NIV that covers the whole of the Bible.  The point of it is to better acquaint people with the sweep of God’s working in the history of His people as shown in Scripture, and to recognize His working in their own history.  Considering the deplorable lack of Biblical literacy today, especially as it relates to Biblical history, I think it a good – if not very in-depth – thing to do.  There is a series of short video clips intended for teens that is being shown to introduce each week’s lesson.   The artistry itself is fascinating, but the stories are often told in a way that plays fast and loose with the details of the Biblical narrative.  For example, Naomi tells Ruth to go sneak into Boaz’ bedroom, not onto his threshing floor. 

What makes me most uneasy is not just the changing of these details, though the doing so by a Christian company creating videos to be shown in churches is highly disturbing.  What is most disquieting to me is the attitude of most of the Christians with whom I have discussed the issue.  Their take?    As long as the TV show/movie/video/book gets “the main message” right, who cares if they change things to “dramatize” it?  Details don’t really matter.

I wonder if Moses consulted a screenwriter before that famous scene at the rock?  “Speak to the rock, strike the rock, what does it matter?  That’s just a detail.  Striking the rock will be SO much more dramatic!  What matters is that the people will get water out of the rock, right?”  That’s certainly the attitude of those who believe details of Scripture are unimportant.  Yet it was that seemingly unimportant little detail that kept Moses from entering the Promised Land.  Apparently, God DOES care about details.

2 Tim. 3:16 tells us that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness… “.  Catch that word?  ALL.  Not “all but the details.”  Not just “the gist of it”.  He breathed ALL of Scripture; He wasn’t holding His breath on the details.  Details matter.  That difference in the detail between the Biblical narrative and the “The Bible” portrayal of the Abraham story?  If we cross reference Gen. 22:14 with 2 Chron. 3:1, we find that the mountain where Abraham offered his sacrifice, the mountain where we have the first account of a substitutionary sacrifice, was the mountain where Solomon centuries later would build his temple, where thousands upon thousands of substitutionary sacrifices would be offered until the final offering of the One Perfect Sacrifice, Christ Jesus.  You couldn’t get that from “The Bible” show.  Do we always understand why a particular detail is given?  No, but even if we don’t understand the significance of a detail, if God cared enough to put it in His Word, shouldn’t it matter? 

Where Scripture is silent, there is room for dramatic interpretation, so long as it is consistent with the rest of the Scriptural witness, and so long as one keeps very, very clear on what is actual Scripture versus what is simply extrapolation and imagination.  When it comes to what Scripture DOES tell, however, how can there be “wiggle room”?  What Scripture says, it says.  My concern is that the more we Christians let Scriptural details cease to matter, the easier it becomes to classify more of Scripture as mere “detail”.  If we let the principle be established that “only the main gist matters”, then what are we to stand on when someone else’s idea of a “detail” is, to us, of central importance?  Are we not eventually likely to end up faced with the relevancy and accuracy of Scripture itself called into question? 

If we take out details God cared enough to put IN, the Devil just might be in the ones we use to replace them.

My church has been engaged since last fall in going through The Story,  a chronologically arranged abridged version of the Bible, whose point is to give the reader familiarity with the grand sweep of God’s story in the history of the Old and New Testaments.   Just before the break for the Advent season, we hit the long didn’t-they-ever-learn, here-we-go-again, hundred-and-second-verse-same-as-the-first section:  Israel follows God.  Israel follows idols.  Israel follows God.  Israel follows idols.  Idols, bad.  Idols, good.  Idols, bad.  Idols, good.  Oy, ve!

So, I’ve been thinking a lot about idols – false gods – in the Christian context.  There are two aspects of idols I have been mulling over the most.  The first aspect is that of Identity.  The peoples of the ancient world identified themselves not only by who they were descended from, or by the king that ruled over them, but by which god they worshiped.  Hence, Israelites were not just “the descendants of the man Israel”, but were to be “the people of Yawheh”.  All that they did, said, and thought was to flow from that Identity.  When they followed after idols, they replaced their God-given Identity with a shallow substitute.  As Christians, our Identity is only to be found in our being “in Christ”.  When we take our identity from any other source, we allow an idol into the inner sanctuary of our soul. 

The second aspect of why idols have such a hold on people – on us – is that people believe their idols have the power to grant desires or the power to bring disaster.  Although we tend to think of worship as an act of love, as is our worship of God, when it comes to idols, this may not be the case.  Some people worship false gods merely as a “quid pro quo” in exchange for services to be rendered.  Many false gods are worshiped because people are afraid that if they DON’T appease the idol, terrible calamity will befall them.   Christians fall into this trap when they unconsciously credit anything in their life as having a greater power over the outcome of their life than God has.

What things besides being in Christ do we allow to define us?  For some, it’s the country named on our passport, or an ethnic heritage passed down through generations.  The moment we equate our denominational affiliation with our being in Christ, we’ve elevated it to an idol; Jesus doesn’t share His throne with anything, even if it wears ecclesiastical garb.  Sometimes it is a role in life that subtly warps our perspective.  Being a mother is an important role, but being a mother should never constitute a woman’s whole identity.  A man should take pride in his work, but he should not be so defined by his job that he wouldn’t even recognize himself without it.  Any of these things may provide legitimate secondary identities that enrich who we are, but none should ever supersede our identity in Christ.

How many of us tend to define ourselves by a single personal characteristic -most often, of course, what we see as a negative trait.  How many women see themselves only as a number on the scale?  How many teens believe they consist of nothing but their acne?  How many guys see nothing in the mirror but their expanding scalp?  Nothing in our physical appearance has the slightest thing to do with our Identity in Christ.  If we have a physical handicap, it is easy to see ourselves only through the lens of that disability, and if we have a chronic health condition or disease, it is all too easy to let that become who we are.  Those things will necessarily affect what we can do, and may dominate how we can live our life, but they are not who we are in Christ.  If, when we look at ourselves, we see first and foremost anything other than simply that “I am in Christ”, then what we see is an idol.

We may allow trauma in our past to become an idol, both by allowing it to define us and by ascribing to it a power greater than God’s.  For example, if we’ve been the victim of sexual abuse, we may try to hide it under a cloak of denial.  We may allow the abuse to define us in our own mind as “I’m dirty” or “I’m worthless”.  From there, we may decide that, being worthless, we may as well act that way, or we may try to be as ‘good’ as possible to “make up” for it.  All these courses of action stem from ascribing to those events the power to control our life.  If we’re honest, our fear is that if we open up and seek healing, those bad things from the past are going to destroy us and God won’t be able to fix us.  The truth is that the Truth sets us free.  The Truth is that there is no hurt – NO hurt – greater than God can heal, no past that He cannot redeem.  Only by seeing  ourselves in Christ as HE says we are, will we be able to strip that idol of its power over us.

Maybe we endlessly rehearse wrongs done against us, constantly polishing our “I’m a victim” badge.  (True confession time:  This is one of my personal weaknesses.)   This one doesn’t take big traumatic offences; we can use just about anything, real or perceived.  We focus on the sins done agin us, ignoring or diminishing the sins we done did, and deny the possibility of change.  “I was raised like this, so this is just the way I am (and will always be).” “I experienced XYZ pattern growing up, so this is just the way I look at things (and you can’t expect me to see things differently).”  “This happened to me, so I can’t [fill in the blank] – trust people, trust God, make friends (and I’ll never be able to).”   We allow the wrongs done against us to define us.  We give those wrongs the power to chain us in unforgiveness and bitterness , denying God’s power to make us new, to break patterns, to transform us.  We add another idol to the shrine.

Perhaps it is what WE have done that colors our perception of who we are.  I once read an evangelist who stated that a man with a sexually blemished past might be forgiven by God, and even used by God as a missionary, but such a man would never be good enough to marry into the evangelist’s family.  To the evangelist, the man would forever be identified as nothing more than his past sin.  Sadly, that evangelist is not alone in his thinking.  Too many of us Christians have this same distorted view of our past.  “My sins are just too big to be forgiven.”  “I have to ‘pay’ for my sin the rest of my life.”  “I’ll never be anything but a (crack-head, adulterer, abuser, liar, thief, whatever).”  We give shame the power to decide what God can or can’t do, making God into a liar.  Shame becomes so much our identity that we worry we wouldn’t even recognize ourselves without it.   

God gave us some great examples in Scripture of those who refused to give wrongs in their past that kind of power.   Joseph had plenty of wrongs done to him.  For the first part of his story, it seems like he “can’t win for losing”, as my dad would say.  Yet Joe did not allow the evils that befell him to define him, or to cause him to give up faith in God’s ability to work things out.  Had Joseph done so, he wouldn’t have been ready for the role God planned for him.  When his brothers came under his power, an “I’m the victim” Joseph would not have been ready to show them the kindness and mercy that the real Joseph did.  By not letting himself be chained to wrongs of the past, Joseph was free, though a slave, while his brothers, because of their unconfessed and unrepented-of sin, were slaves, though free.

Paul stood by at Stephen’s stoning and continued his career aspirations by persecuting the Church, men, women and children alike, before being confronted by the risen Lord.  If Paul had spent the rest of his life wallowing in guilt over the things he had done before becoming a believer, the New Testament would be a whole lot thinner!   Instead, Paul said “This thing I do:  forgetting what is behind, I press on toward the goal…”  Now obviously, Paul didn’t get some kind of amnesia so that those years just disappeared from his memory banks.  He just didn’t let those years define him.  When God told him that he was a new creation, he believed Him, and acted accordingly. 

Although every experience in our life will necessarily AFFECT us, it does not have to define us.  There is nothing – NOTHING – that God cannot forgive His children for doing or enable them to forgive others for doing, nothing He cannot cause to “work for the good of those that love Him.”  There is nothing in our lives that God cannot redeem.  God’s intent is to use EVERY experience in our life to conform us to the image of His Son.

Our Identity is in Christ.  Accept no substitutes!

So, Rob, this is our 31st Valentines’ Day together. I don’t remember where we went for our first one, though I think it was the Red Robin down by the Mountlake Bridge. You know, the one, where, when you park in the parking lot, it feels like your car is going to roll right down into the canal. (Banzai!) I DO know it was our first official “date” date, 10 days after our very first date, lunch at the Wendy’s in downtown Seattle. You brought me a single red rose, held by that little white fuzzy unicorn. Bet you didn’t remember that’s when you gave it to me.

We’ve exchanged a lot of Valentine cards over the years. For the last 10 or 12 years, though, I’ve had problems finding ones I could give you other than funny ones. Not that I object to funny ones per se, but it’s been frustrating not being able to find any serious cards. The problem is that card writers don’t write for real life as it sometimes is. No, for them, the object of affection is always a paragon of virtue, always “there”, always listening and caring, always has the perfect thing to say. The cards gush about how perfect we are for one another, how exactly we match each other, how alike we are, how, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. The lover getting the card never makes me feel anything but loved, safe, secure, beautiful, sexy, etc. The future is always and forever, rosy-posy, sugar and cream, every day in every way getting better and better. In the Valentine world, love is always warm and fuzzy and life is always smooth and fun, and if the sun isn’t shining brightly it’s only because there’s a romantic full moon out, tra-la! Bring on the chocolates and roses!

When we married those 4 months after that first Valentine’s Day together, that’s certainly what I had in mind for our future. Oh, we acknowledged the likelihood of some minor difficulties, at least theoretically. But we had no idea, did we? We had no idea the “tunnel of love” was sometimes more like high-speed “bumper cars.” Our road of life has ended up with gaping wash-outs, massive landslides, and our GPS is still recalculating the detour.

They don’t make cards for those kinds of situations. Or maybe most people living through those rough times like to go along and pretend for a day that they live in a Valentine world. Nice fairy tale, anyway. But I just can’t bring myself to do that. So, here is my Valentine’s Day card for our very real, not-so-perfect life:

My dear husband,
When we married almost 31 years ago, we really had no clue how badly broken we both were. In some ways, we’re well-suited for each other in the romantic “made for each other” sense; in other ways, our areas of weakness perfectly exacerbate, rather than offset, that of the other. We’ve had plenty of “Kodak moments” together, but there are also plenty of pictures we wish we could delete from the mental family album. Sometimes our relationship has been rock solid; sometimes we’ve just been holding on “by the skin of our teeth”.

I have no idea what I’d do if I had it to do all over again. I certainly can’t say that “I wouldn’t change a thing”, but I also know this: Unless I were a whole different me, no matter what new things we did, I’d screw up just as much as I have this go ‘round. That’s what makes this whole thing so amazing though: somehow, God has taken two broken, wounded people, and made a marriage that has lasted through almost 31 years despite differences in our perspectives, hurt feelings and misunderstandings, my mercurial moods, my myriad health problems, the years of hell with child-who-shall-remain-anonymous, financial issues, soul-wrenching church struggles, your constant stress from a toxic workplace (and a few other issues not for public discussion.) Many marriages have ended over less. Marriages of people who made just the same vows we did. We’ve seen them. That ours is still going is a resounding testimony to His grace, mercy, and faithfulness – and I do believe He has better days to come.

On that Valentine’s Day 31 years ago, I was already pretty sure I was going to love you for the rest of my life. I’ve been wrong about a lot of other things, but at least this one I got right! Happy Valentine’s Day!
your Susie

This time last year, we were in the middle of Snowmaggedon here– a several day storm that dropped 14” of snow, followed by nearly an inch of ice, a “once in a hundred years” storm, which hopefully will not be repeated any time soon. We’ll just have to make do with our usual storms, whose inches and inches of pounding rain result in river flooding every year, and whose high winds litter the ground with downed branches and trees.

Most places have their particular most-likely natural disaster. Children in the South and Midwest do tornado drills as frequently as fire drills at school. Residents of the Gulf coast and Eastern seaboard can cite the names of all the worst hurricanes of the last 50 years. Those living anywhere in the West can tell you that this last year has been one of the worst ever for wildfires. California has its many faults… um… earthquakes. To live along the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers is to be familiar with flood clean-up. The Texas economy has been devastated by drought for several years running now.

Did you ever notice how often people speak of these as something like “Mother Nature’s fury”? A malevolent intentionality is assigned. Although the specific victims are chosen at random, the general death and destruction are ascribed to being somehow deliberate. Speaking strictly scientifically, of course, such anthropomorphism is baseless; these events are simply the product of entirely impersonal and emotionally neutral physical forces at work. Going through them, though, it feels like there’s more behind it. There is – but not what the world thinks.

I recently finished memorizing the fourth paragraph in Romans 8, and I’ve been pondering on how it relates to this issue. Paul would neither agree with the scientists nor buy into the school of thought that “Mother Nature is out to get us”. In verses 19-22, Paul says “For Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the Creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him Who subjected it, in hopes that Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth until now.”

Paul, then, does not speak of the created world as a scientist would, an impersonal collection of physical forces, but, indeed, as an entity to itself. Yet he does not refer to a name such as “Mother Nature”, either, since that name implies that IT is responsible for bringing to life the rest of the world. Rather, he rightly names the entity “Creation”, a name that clearly acknowledges that rather than being the source of life, it is itself the product of a Creator.

And why did God make the Creation? All of the first six days of creation were building up to the introduction of God’s highest creation – Adam and Eve, uniquely created in the image and likeness of God and designed for fellowship with Him. Creation was brought into being for the purpose of sheltering, nurturing, feeding, caring for and being cared for by the children of God, to rejoice in its productivity, to be ever bountiful, to be ever perfectly suited to man’s needs.

Then came the Fall – and man was not the only one to suffer the consequences of it. Creation became “subjected to futility”. Rather than everything working like it should, everything became pointless because Creation is in “bondage to corruption” or “decay” or “failure” depending on the translation. No matter which word is used, the sense is that Creation was forced into a condition where it is spiraling downward to chaos. It’s coming apart at the seams. Rather than nurturing and providing for us, Creation often disables and destroys us. Storm and tempest, earthquake and fire, all manner of natural disaster – Creation is as unhappy to be perpetrating them on us as we are to experience them. Although all of these things are still in God’s sovereign hand, and He still works in them for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, Creation mourns its role in the destruction of itself and of those it was created for.

But one day…. One glorious, wonderful day, Creation itself is going to be set free from its bondage. Just as in Adam and Eve’s fall Creation, too, was enslaved, so, too, in the redemption of the children of God will Creation be freed. We will not live redeemed in some ethereal heaven, disembodied and floating on clouds. We will have new bodies – changed, transfigured, like His glorious body – real bodies, and we will live on a new earth – a real place, changed, transformed and at last freed from the power of sin. Our liberation day will likewise mark the liberation of Creation!

When the wind howls and branches creak, when the earth heaves and volcanoes spew ash, when drought parches or flood drowns, that isn’t “Mother Nature” venting her wrath. It is Creation groaning “as in the pains of childbirth” while it waits with us for the day when futility, decay, corruption, and death will be behind us, the day of the revealing of the glory of the children of God.

Ps. 44: 3, 5  “…You with Your own hand drove out the nations, but them You planted; You afflicted the peoples, but them You set free;…  Through You we push down our foes; through Your Name we tread down those who rise up against us.”

Since it’s now into January of 2013, it’s obvious that the Mayan who predicted the end of the world on 12/21/12 had as much insight as the stone into which he carved his calendar.  There are those who attempting to salvage the apparent failure by saying that the calendar wasn’t intended to predict the end of the world, just the end of an age, and that December 22^nd simply marked the beginning of a new era of love, peace and cooperation among nations.  (Wasn’t that what the Age of Aquarius was supposed to be?)    

This was only the latest in numerous attempts to foretell the end of the world.  All have proven just as accurate.  No matter how many times these predictions fail, there will be at least some who will believe the next one.   You see the same thing with the “Predictions for the coming year” tabloids.  Look at the previous year’s predictions at the end of the year.  Good grief!  Although there are bound to be a few that pan out (which sheer statistical likelihood would predict), the vast majority fizzle.  Yet people buy into it. There is something in the human race that desperately longs to have “inside knowledge” about the how and when of things to come.

In the time of the Old Testament, the people were used to God acting through military, or military-type, means.  His rescue of them from slavery involved heavy tactics of increasingly horrific plagues culminating with the death of thousands of the Egyptians’ first born – not just of sons, but of their cattle, too.  As the people fled, God drowned much of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea.  The Israelite’s entry into the Promised Land had been accomplished through His empowerment of their military conquest of the peoples who were living in the land at the time.  Once established in their new home, when God’s people strayed into idol worship, God abandoned them to their enemies; when they cried out to Him, He raised up a rescuer who fought for and led a military campaign to defeat the foe.  Through the first kingship, to David, to the splitting of the kingdom under his sons, to the Diaspora of the Kingdom of Israel, to the Babylonian captivity and then the return of the people of the Kingdom of Judah, God’s saving power was most often shown in military and political might and methods, as frequently described in Psalms such as the one for today.

It should be no surprise, then, that in the time of Jesus’ coming, most of the Jews were looking for a Messiah who would be the ultimate military rescuer to lead a revolution to conquer their foes and return them to a position of political independence and power – forever.   The LORD had been silent (as far as recorded prophetic voice goes) for some 400+ years, it’s true.  During this time arose the Pharisees, who believed that if they could just follow the Law closely enough, they could please God enough to convince Him to act.  They missed the whole point about the heart, of course, and had turned following God into a mere religion of tradition, proscription, and ritual, but they were convinced that they were putting the right coin into the slot to get the gumball of God’s cooperation in restoring the nation to its Davidic splendor.  They considered the past as predictive of the future; what God had done before was surely what He would do again.

Contrast that with Simeon and Anna.  We are told that Simeon was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.”  After Anna had seen the Child, she gave thanks to God and spoke of Him to “all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”  Consolation.  Redemption.  Radically different concepts than conquest and revolution.  Simeon had been told that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  We don’t know at what point it was revealed to him that he would see that Christ as a mere infant, but from what little we’re told of Simeon, I doubt that he pestered God with questions about the manner of the encounter.  It was enough for him that he was told.  Though Simeon saw the Child, there is no indication that he witnessed that the ultimate fulfillment of that Child’s life – yet it was enough for him.  We’re not told that Anna was given any specific prophecy or foreknowledge of the Child’s coming, though she certainly recognized Him when she saw Him.  For her as for Simeon,  seeing just a small part of God’s promise of the coming Messiah was as good as seeing the whole thing accomplished.

Simeon and Anna were looking to see what God would do, so they were ready to see it when He acted.  The Pharisees were looking to see God do what they expected, so they were blind and couldn’t see what was right in front of them.  We have the same choice.  The more intent we are on predicting God’s future plans, determining when, where, and how He will accomplish His mission for us, the more we cloud our vision from being able to see what He is doing.  The more we simply wait for His consolation and redemption, the more we will see.

As we end this Christmas season and go on into the new year, let’s keep our eyes peeled!

Ps. 36:9  “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.”

A blessed second day of Christmas to you! 

Many people don’t realize that that the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song refers to the liturgical church calendar, on which Christmas is a season, not just one day.  The modern practice of a single day of celebration is, to us, a sad change.  Our family started celebrating the full twelve days of Christmas when our first children were very young.  Not everyone would have a gift every day; some days there were no gifts, and some days it was just one family gift.  Stretching it out like that had multiple advantages.  It kept Christmas Day from just being Get Presents Day.  Since we open gifts one at a time, so everyone gets to watch and appreciate the gifts given, with five kids and two adults exchanging gifts, plus gifts from grandparents and others, stretching out the gift opening meant that instead of one over-whelmingly long day, in which the kids got wired, tired and cranky – joined by the adults for the tired and cranky part- we could enjoy the gift opening at a leisurely pace.  For the kids, instead of the whole thing turning into an open-one-present-grab-another frenzy , they got to actually enjoy and play with each of their gifts before getting another.  We could take advantage of after-Christmas sales, which was sometimes a real financial plus, and there was no pressure for every mail order to arrive “on time”.  When the oldest kids started forming families of their own, another benefit showed itself:  there’s no pressure about which in-laws to spend “the” holiday with.  Our kids can be with their in-laws for Christmas, and come here for New Years–but-still-Christmas with us!

The one thing that is hard about stretching it out for me is leaving up the decorations.  You see, my mom always had the decorations down and house all thoroughly cleaned by New Years, and there is a great drive in me to do the same.  There’s a great symbolism to starting the new year fresh and clean and tidy.  BUT, if you’re going to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas, you have to leave decorations up.  I do start taking some of them down gradually over the time, but enough of them must remain to be clear that we’re still in the Christmas season.  The last to go are the Advent wreath on the table, where we  light all 5 candles each night with dinner, and the Christmas tree. 

I love our Christmas tree.  (It’s hard to wait till mid-December to put it up, but to have it last well until January 6^th, we can’t put it up too early.)  No two of our ornaments are alike; some are handmade from craft fairs, some commercially bought, a few homemade, like the brown yarn “chocolate fairy” Bethy made for Dad years and years ago, or the cross-stitched ones I gave to beloved relatives that now spend Christmas in heaven.  Each of the kids has their own collection, and we put out a few from each.  (My mom gave each of her grandkids an ornament each year for their first 20 Christmases, which I think is a lovely tradition.)  Each family member also has a plain colored glass ball with their name written on it in glitter.  We usually put rather a lot of tinsel on the tree as well, but this year, for the first time ever, we didn’t.  We now have a kitty, and Kiva looooooves to play with – and eat – such lovely, twirly, dancing temptations.  She has also been batting at some of the lower-hanging ornaments (they’re the kid-friendly, unbreakable ones, so it doesn’t much matter), but hasn’t cared to try actually climbing UP the tree, for which I am thankful!

My favorite part of having a Christmas tree, though, is the lights.  I love all the bright, multicolored lights!  Best of the favorites were the little lights where each bulb had its own pattern of blinking on and off.   We now have LED lights, and, alas, you can’t get LEDs that have individual blinking patterns.  So, we have two strings that have different patterns.  Since the strings are set on different patterns, the whole tree isn’t blinking in unison, but the effect still isn’t the same as the old twinklers.  Such is progress, alas. Nevertheless, I STILL love my lights on my tree.   Coming out to the still-somewhat-dark corner of the living room in the morning and putting the plugs into the outlet so the bright light fills the room instantly cheers up the day.  The lights appear to their best advantage, though, in the evening darkness.  Sometimes I like to turn all the other lights off then and just sit enjoying those lights.  

That’s how we think of light, isn’t it?  Showing up best in the dark.  Tree lights, candlelight, a flashlight beam – although their light output is the same no matter the time on the clock, all seem much brighter in the night than in the day.  We would never think of turning on a light so we could check how another light was working.  The verse from today’s Psalm, though puts a whole different spin on the subject!  The Psalmist says that it is in God’s light that we see light.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”  THE light.  There IS no other.  Paul tells us in II Corinthians that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, but there is, in fact,no light in him.  Since he is utter darkness, any appearance he gives of light is a mere mirage.  What the world sees as “light” is, in fact, still darkness.   We must be careful that we do not get taken in by what the world counts as “light”.  What does not come from God is not, in fact, light, no matter how it appears, no matter what temporal “good” it may do, no matter what warm, fuzzy feelings it may evoke.  All “light” must be examined in HIS light.

When it comes to seeing spiritual light, be sure The Light is ON!

Ps. 33: 10-12  “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He frustrates the plans of the peoples.  The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.  Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage!”

Remember growing up, back in P.E. class, choosing teams for games?   The teacher would assign two captains, usually the two most athletic of the kids present.  Then, alternating, one by one, the captains got to pick their teams.  The “pool” of pick–ees fell into three categories.  The majority of the kids were in the “middling” category, such that either side could reasonably make use of them.  The rest fell into two categories:  the first picks that the team leaders fought over who got to HAVE them, and the rest of us, the ones the captains fought over who got STUCK with.  Occasionally a captain would make a first pick one of us who wasn’t very good because we were good buddies, but if that leader were competitive at all, friendship came up short when weighed against the ability to help the team win.  

That’s how the world chooses its teams:  being good at the particular factor needed for the task.   Athletes who can run faster, jump higher, shoot straighter, hit harder.  Actors who can turn even so-so scripts into memorable movies.  Musicians who can … well, we’ll skip that one.  Considering many of the music stars today, I have no idea what the world is looking for!  Leaders with good looks, charisma, the ability to pitch a good sound-bite.  Men and women who epitomize the world’s standards of beauty.  The world likes larger-than-life winners.

God, of course, makes his choices the opposite way.  He deliberately chooses the ones the world rejects, overlooks, or disdains.  He chooses the most unlikely, flawed, and “everyman” heroes.  God chose Israel to be HIS people, but it wasn’t because they were a likely candidate for Most Favored Nation.  They were never a terribly numerous people; even at their height, they were a small nation.  They certainly weren’t strong; they were often outgunned and outmanned.  They certainly weren’t more faithful.  Even by the time of the exodus they had nearly forgotten the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  And their behavior on the journey to the Promised Land and then IN the Promised Land?  Not too promising, as “chosen people” go.  God’s reasons for choosing that people had nothing to do with any intrinsic value that lay in the Israelites, and everything to do with demonstrating HIS own power.  There’s no other explanation for the Jews’ survival!

The first two Psalm verses here provide an interesting point-to-point contrast.  “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing” is contrasted to “The counsel of the LORD stands forever”.  “…He frustrates the plans of the peoples” stands beside “…the plans of His heart [stand] to all generations.”  It is THESE verses that are followed by the ringing assertion of the blessing that sits on Israel because it has been chosen by God.  Israel was not blessed because they had prayer in school, taught the Torah as their curriculum, put His name in a national motto on their money, and proclaimed that they had chosen Him as their God.  Israel’s God was the Lord, not because they chose Him, but because GOD chose THEM. Israel was blessed because they, and no other nation, had been chosen as His heritage.  The ultimate blessing for Israel?  They would be the one nation from whom would come the Savior of the nations.

The Roman Empire seems an unlikely tool in the hand of God, yet so it was.  Seen from a worldly point of view, the Roman conquest wasn’t a positive experience for those under that conquest, yet, seen from God’ point of view, it set the stage for Christ’s birth and the spread of the Gospel in ways that no other time in history had.  To ensure communication and the rapid deployment of troops wherever needed,  the Romans built an incredible transportation infrastructure across the entire Empire.  The “pax Romana” meant that travel along that infrastructure was generally safe (except for the occasional bandit), unlike trying to travel through warring territories.   Latin became a ‘lingua franca” that was spoken by a good portion of the population throughout the Empire, making communication easier between peoples of different regions.   All these elements were set in play before Christ made His entrance.

 As we near the Christmas story itself, we see even more details of how God used the world’s plans to accomplish his own.  The Roman rulers placed sub-rulers in its various territories of conquest.  They didn’t much care just how those governors managed their internal affairs, as long as they saw to it that the proper taxes were collected and forwarded to the Roman coffers, and that the peace was kept so that minimum military expenditure was necessary.  It was in relation to the first object that Caesar Augustus gave his decree for the census to be taken.  He wanted to be sure he was really getting everything that was due him.  From the point of view of those affected by the decree, this was a hardship and just one more thing to hate about Rome.  Yet it was this decree that sent Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the very place foretold some 400 years earlier for the Saviour’s birth.    

When the wise men showed up seeking the one born to be the “King of the Jews”, once again Satan stepped in to attempt to destroy God’s plan and His people.   Rather than submitting to the new King, Herod ordered what he intended to be His slaughter.   Herod’s plan was to protect his own throne from what he feared was a usurper; Herod was, of course, a patsy because his throne was never in danger from Jesus.  Satan’s plan was to protect HIS kingdom from what he knew would be a fatal blow from the “Seed of the woman.”  Since Herod never knew just which child the wise men found, he would never have been sure that his slaughter had actually removed the feared threat.  Satan, though, knew well that his Foe had survived.

So Satan used yet another Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate, to (as he thought) finish the job.  Pontius Pilate, too, feared for his position as ruler – not from any threat he felt from Jesus, but because Pilate knew that if Jerusalem erupted in riot, necessitating the call-out of troops, there would be repercussions.  If the riot were to be accompanied by accusations that, in letting Jesus live, he was abetting rebellion against Rome?  He would surely not only be removed from office, but likely executed.  Better that an innocent man die than that he, himself, run such a risk!  So, Jesus’ life, begun under threat death from Rome, in the end died by the hand of Rome.  From the world’s point of view, mission accomplished:  threat to Roman peace averted.  From Satan’s point of view, mission accomplished:  Chosen One eliminated, the ultimate blessing of the people of Israel denied.  From God’s point of view?  The REAL mission accomplished: the crèche finding its fulfillment on the cross, the blessing of the people of Israel brought to fruition, death itself slain, sin’s debt wiped out.  God’s purpose set from the foundation of the world could not be overcome.

The people of Israel were blessed, for from them came the Savior, and God still has a purpose for His people, but those of us who have been grafted in to that Root are now also part of that inheritance, the “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the exellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness to His marvelous light.”

As we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, let us take heart anew that no matter what the world may plan, no matter how circumstances may seem from where we stand, no matter what Romes, or Herods, or Pilates may stand against us, God’s plans, and no others, will stand firm forever.

Ps. 29:1, 11  “Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. …  May the LORD give strength to His people!  May the LORD bless His people with peace!”

One of the Christmas movies we watch every year is “Silent Night” starring Linda Hamilton.  Based on an actual event, it tells a story from World War II.  On Christmas Eve, during what would come to be known as the Battle of the Bulge, three American soldiers and three German soldiers all sought refuge in a snow storm at the hunting cabin occupied by a German woman and her young son.  She agrees to shelter them, on one condition:  that they leave their guns – and their war – outside.  The soldiers agree, and what follows as the evening unfolds is a journey from seeing each other only as “Krauts” or “Americans”, only as “the enemy”, to seeing each other as men, with family, history, with dreams and hopes for the future.  As the woman’s son narrates, he realizes that under other circumstances, these men could have been friends, even family.  In the morning, the men part with a new respect for each other, and a changed perspective on the value of the lives lost in the war.

During the Civil War, there were times when the opposing forces were camped on either side of a river so close to each other that when one camp began singing a Christmas carol, the other joined in.  There are stories of similar episodes of peace in other wars, fragments of time when Christmas brought a momentary lull in the brutality of death and destruction.  These are moving stories.  I admit I tear up reading them.  I get misty-eyed at “Silent Night” despite having watched it so many, many times now!  Yet the sad truth is that, once those Christmas moments were over, the fighting resumed just the same as ever.  Those men who sang carols together one night were killing each other with just as much ferocity the next day.  The world’s peace just doesn’t last.

Most of us have never faced that severe of a situation, of course, but the theme of this season, even in the quotidian flow of our lives is “peace”, a laying aside of petty quarrels, of being nice to one another, of being generous and forgiving.   The Christmas movie industry is kept busy churning out new ways to exemplify it.  Our Christmas cards proclaim it.  Even Santa’s “naughty or nice” lists promote it.  Yes, we’re all for peace and goodwill.  That is, until someone says “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” – then ask any store checker who is required to give the generic greeting just how much peace and goodwill they get.  That is, until there’s a sale on the It Toy of the year – then see how much peace and goodwill is exhibited in the frantic rush to empty the shelves.  That is, until Uncle Joe brings up politics at Christmas dinner – then see how much peace and goodwill is shown in the argument that ensues.  Somehow, there are a million things that can blow our “peace” right out of the water.  The world’s peace just doesn’t last.

Even many non-Christians are familiar with the angels’ line of “peace, goodwill to men”.  In and of itself, it sounds warm and fuzzy and innocuous.  However, that’s only the second half of the herald (announcement) the angels sang, and, as in so many things, without the first part of their anthem, the second is meaningless. “There appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men on whom His favor rests.”  Before the peace comes the praise; before the goodwill, comes the giving of glory.  As the Psalm today says, the mighty ones, the heavenly beings, the chorus from the very throne room of God first appeared to praise Him, to ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name.  Without acknowledging God for Who He is, there can be no true peace, for it is only FROM God that true peace comes. 

The peace the world gives from its “spirit of Christmas” is temporary at best because it is based on humanity, and humanity is a frail, unreliable foundation.  The peace Christ gives is as permanent and ever-present as He Himself, but it is only when we join the host that made the very skies ring with their “Glory to God in the highest!” that our hearts will be fully prepared for that peace in its fullness.

Ps. 28:7a  “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped.”

It’s been hard to think about Christmas for the last few days.  We take a daily paper, but I very seldom listen to radio, and stopped watching TV news after 9/11, nor do I keep an eye out on web news sites during the day.  So, as usual, I first heard of the breaking news Friday via a Facebook post, as a young friend who does keep tabs on web news posted her thoughts and prayers “for all the parents of Sandy Hook.”  A quick google and there it was, in all its unfolding horror.

In their usual rush to get “the scoop”, the news media got a lot wrong in that first day or so, but with time, facts have gotten straightened out.  With many shootings, as days pass, and more information comes out, an explanation emerges.  The explanation is often one that outrages us, but either it makes the horror at least somehow semi-comprehensible, or it at least points out weaknesses in the system that need to be fixed, or policies or procedures that need to be changed, giving us a course of action into which we may pour our energies.  This case, so far as we know at this point, though, is different.  This wasn’t yet another case of a dangerously mentally ill patient whose parents had tried and tried to get help for but who had been failed by the system.  There’s no psychiatrist who will be hung out to dry for not being prescient enough to head off the shooter’s actions.  This wasn’t a case of a bullying victim who’d had all he could take and sought revenge on his tormentors and the rest of the world.  There are no anguished friends grieving that, “I should have seen this coming.  I should have said something.”  There’s fodder for the gun control debate, but there’s nothing we can latch onto for an explanation. 

The Christmas narrative contains the story of another mass murder of children.  Although Luke tells us why Herod ordered the execution, and why he chose the age parameter that he did, there’s nothing to indicate that the parents in Bethlehem and the region around were privy to the information.  The visit of the Magi would have been no secret, of course.  In a big place like Jerusalem, center of so much commerce and trade, their presence might not provoke that much notice, but in a small provincial village such as Bethlehem?  Small town life is small town life, no matter where you go.  Joseph and Mary’s visitors would have provided fodder for talk for quite some time.  Then, too, there was the precipitate departure of Joe and Mary right after their visitors said bye-bye.   “They were such a nice young couple, too.  Very odd how they packed up and left like that.  My Moses used to play with their little Jesus, you know.”  And life went on.  Until it didn’t.  Until that one day when the Roman soldiers showed up and inexplicably began going house to house searching for male infants and toddlers, and the screams of the children as they died blended with the screams of their parents as they tried to protect their precious little ones.  Not only Bethlehem, but the whole region, reeled in the blood reek.   

All parents at some time tell their children as they grow up that “life isn’t ‘fair’”, but when we adults face events such as Sandy Hook, when we consider the slaughter at Bethlehem, the words stick in our throat.  The world asks “Why???”, but since it addresses the question into a meaningless void, any answer it gets is equally meaningless.  Christians, too, ask, “Why?”, but since we address our question to the God of the universe, to our heavenly Father, to our loving and gracious Lord, to the One in Whom lies ALL meaning, one would think that the answer we get would be satisfying and complete.  One would think.  Yet in reality, especially for events like this, if we get an answer at all, that answer will be …..  insufficient. 

Oh, you can talk about God’s “permissive” will vs. His “directive” will.  You can talk about the “tapestry” He’s weaving and how He needs the different colors of threads to make the pattern.  You can talk about Joseph and how “you meant it for evil but God meant it for good.”  You can quote “God is too kind to be cruel and too wise to make a mistake.”   But for those in the midst of tragedy, none of these – all of these – are simply not enough. 

It’s not that there isn’t an explanation.  It’s not that there isn’t a “meaning”.  Any answer God can give us is insufficient because He is an infinite God, and we aren’t.  We can never hope to understand His thoughts, even if He were to tell them to us.  If we predicate our faith on understanding the “whys” of this life, we are doomed to disappointment.  The only thing that ultimately matters is “Who”.  When explanations fall short, as they invariably do, when the world makes no sense – and maybe faith and God the least sense of all – it all comes down to trust:  either we trust God or we don’t.  It’s as simple as that.  Simple – but not necessarily easy.

Some of the parents in Bethlehem undoubtedly railed at God, raising their fists against Him, “Why didn’t you protect my little one?”, seeing in the events evidence of His having abandoned His people.  Some probably tried to find some kind of explanation within themselves, “God must be punishing me for something.”  Some may have just decided that there was no God.  But some must have been of the faithful, of the Zechariahs and Elizabeths, the Josephs and Marys, of the Davids, of the Job who said, “The LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away.  Blessed be the Name of the LORD.”  That’s trust.

Trust doesn’t make loss hurt less.  It doesn’t make life be “fair”.  It doesn’t make the world make sense.  Trust looks life’s brutality square in the face, yet strengthens our hearts with the confidence that God’s reality is far greater than what we can see. 

Though we are as “Rachel weeping for her children, because they are not”, trust reminds us that I AM.