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If you know me at all, you know I love Christmas.  I listen to Christmas music during jogs along the beach in July.  I’ve received a citation from the village I live in for keeping my Christmas lights up too long.  The Christmas version of Big Mouth Billy Bass hangs on the back of my door at all times. I’m a fan.  I have no trouble embracing (and separating) both the silly (Santa, Rudolph, etc.) and the sacred aspects of the holiday.

That said, there is no escaping the fact that there is a rising concern amongst many of those in my social network over the early onset of Christmas – particularly in the retail world.  I have many a friend that is clearly annoyed at this trend, which I certainly understand.  I sense a growing tension; a budding disdain even for the Christmas holiday.  My friends, this cannot be!  Therefore, I give you today 4 tips for not hating Christmas.  They appear in semi-chronological order.

1. Don’t skip Thanksgiving – Many people mistakenly believe that my love for Christmas implies a disregard for Thanksgiving.  Not so!  I love thanksgiving.  For me, the two holidays go hand-in-hand.  What better way to enter into the season of celebration of Christ’s incarnation than with a day dedicated to being thankful?  Thanksgiving (the practice more than the holiday, but let’s not split hairs) is at the heart of the Christian identity.  It is who we are.   Do NOT skip it, downplay it, or think of it as insignificant in any way.  Also, don’t eat so much – you’ll feel better in general.

2. Don’t go shopping. I know it’s probably a little ambitious to presume that shopping can be avoided, but most of what is wrong with Christmas in America is driven by the world of retail.  While you probably still need to purchase some sort of presents for various people in your life, consider online shopping or gift cards.  Better yet, shop at World Vision or similar organizations where your money will make a real difference in the world.  This will save you the stress of being swept up in the ridiculousness of the retail world.  It will also save you having to see the multitude of really bad Santas with really grumpy children waiting to see them.

3. Don’t Buy Junk, Buy Memories.  When it is time to buy gifts, consider purchasing experiences instead of stuff.  Buy your kids a gift card to a bowling alley and promise an epic family fun night instead of another video game that they’ll play for a week.  Take your spouse out for an extra-fancy night on the town instead of choosing between new slippers or that sock-monkey ear-muff/scarf combo. Buy tickets to a sporting event or theater production.  Write a heartfelt letter to a loved one instead of sending a boxed card.

4. Don’t skip the story - If Christmas is about decorations and candy and shopping and Santa, it gets annoying fast.  A week or two is fun – six weeks makes you want to scream.  Get caught up in the beauty of Immanuel – God with us – before you get caught up in Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.  Fall in love again with the proclamation of the coming Messiah before watching 15 explanations of how Santa gets toys to every kid in the world on one night. Read it.  Meditate on it.  Talk about it with people around you.  Consider the implications of the birth of God in the flesh.  Start early so you don’t get disenchanted by stories of toys, food, parties, and junk you need to buy.

That’s it.  That’s what I have for you.  I’m sure this doesn’t solve everyone’s problems, but maybe it’ll help a little.  If you have other ideas, please share them.  May the grace, peace, and presence of God overflow in your heart for the next couple months – and beyond.

This is my bulletin article for this week at NCOC.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

To me, one of the most amazing teachings that Jesus offers comes when he’s teaching about prayer. In Matthew’s gospel it comes as part of the Sermon on the Mount (ch. 6). In Luke, it is in response to the disciples’ coming and specifically asking for instruction in praying to God (ch. 11). One striking thing about Luke’s account is that when Jesus’ followers ask him how they should pray, he does not say, “Just talk to God like you talk to your best friend,” or, “Say whatever is on your heart.” Jesus is very specific about the form of prayer – specific enough to include it in multiple conversations.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not to be seen as the only way to pray. We have numerous prayers recorded in Scripture from Jesus and others that do not follow this pattern. Nor am I saying that there is no place for praying in very informal, friendship-type prayers to God. It has to mean something, though, that Jesus answers his followers’ question so specifically.

There is a pattern to be seen and followed in The Lord’s Prayer. We center ourselves on God’s sovereignty, submitting to his will above our own and to our place in bringing the Kingdom to earth. We acknowledge our dependence on him for all we have. We confess that we’re sinners in need of forgiveness and we commit to extending that grace with those who violate us. We ask for guidance and strength to walk in God’s path going forward.

The simple truth about prayer is that it isn’t for God – it’s for us. It is God’s gift to us. It grounds us. It keeps the world in the right perspective. It draws ever deeper into the reality and blessing of being part of the Kingdom.

THIS is how we should pray!

I just ran across a really inspiring blog dedicated to sharing stories of those who live lives of affluence, but are identifying with the 99% of the world that does not. It’s titled “We are the 1 percent…we stand with the 99%“.  Take a minute to click on the title to go visit it.

I love this concept.  I work every day to help teens see their privilege and to build within them a sense of justice and responsibility that will drive them to create change.  Here’s the thing we have to remember about issues such as poverty, justice, equality, etc. – power is everything.  ”Standing with” those in poverty doesn’t change poverty.  People affluence sharing with people who do not have what they need changes poverty.  Creating a new economic system changes poverty (this doesn’t have to be global economics…the “economic system” could be your inviting a struggling family to  live in your home).

It is an inescapable truth of all political and social structures that power exists, and those in power are generally the only ones that can change things.  The unpopular kids can’t build bridges into the “in” crowd, someone from the “in” crowd has to do that.  The people on the low end of the totem pole in your workplace can’t demand respect and better treatment from those on the top of the totem pole, it has to be freely and honestly offered by those above.

Please, please stand with those that are less fortunate, less free, less cared for.  Wear a ribbon, start a blog, buy a bumper sticker, get a tattoo – do it all.  More importantly, though, think about how you can lay aside your position of power and somehow level the playing field with those who are “below” you.  Remember, it’s not that they feel below you – they are below you.  It may seem artificial from where you are, but on their side of the fence, it’s very real and entirely insurmountable unless you and I stand for them, then walk to them.

And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

In a recent discussion one of my students mentioned a conversation in which a friend made a statement that went something like this, “I don’t really read the Bible, but I love God and Jesus, don’t you think that’s enough to get me into heaven?”  My student didn’t really know how to respond.  In some ways, I don’t either.  This question, while very common, so terribly misses the point of the Bible that it’s almost like asking, “What does the color purple smell like?”

The fact that so many people ask this kind of question about the Bible is really sad to me.  It’s sad because of the implications for what commentary it makes on the church as a whole.  What is truly sad though is the enormous, hurtful misunderstanding of what God’s Word is really about that spawns this kind of question to begin with.

Pause: I must acknowledge that a full discussion of what Scripture is or is not would turn into a multi-volume set of large, leather-bound books – so we’ll just go with what immediately comes to my mind for now.

Frist, what the Bible is NOT.

The Bible is not some kind of entrance requirement for getting into heaven.  It’s not God’s equivalent of a minimal SAT score needed for your application to heaven to be reviewed (the logical next step being the tallying of “good” things you did vs. “bad”).

The Bible is also definitively not a rule book that God  has tossed down to earth, from which we are supposed to mine the most important do’s and don’t's for a cosmic quiz on Judgement Day.

The Bible is also not simply a collection of intriguing, beautiful, or inspiring writings.  It is not an ancient repository for slogans, sayings, memory verses, tattoo ideas, and bumper-sticker quips.

What the Bible IS (at least, part of the tip of the iceberg):

The Bible is, to me, the grace of God in written form.  The Bible is not for God, it is for us.  The Bible is God’s gift to humankind.  Out of his pure love for us, he decided he wanted to help us find true meaning and joy in this life.  Knowing that the only hope for the salvation of his beloved creation is Christ, he decided to help us see how all of history points to Jesus.  He desired to bless us by ushering the Kingdom of Heaven into our world, to be fully realized with Christ’s return, but very much present already, so he gave us written evidence of what that means and what it looks like.

God also knows that there is an Enemy – very real and very active.  The Bible is our source for wisdom in defending ourselves against The Enemy’s schemes – finding victory over the one who seeks to devour us as a lion in the wild tears apart her prey.

Out of his overwhelming desire to bless us with the ability to connect to his Spirit and to a life embodying all the characteristics of the Spirit (see Galatians 5), God commissioned the Spirit to capture in words what we would need to guide us in making that connection.

I could go on with a list of all the ways God has blessed us with the Bible, but the key issue here is our core understanding of what Scripture is.  Scripture is grace on a page.  Scripture is God’s gift to us because he loves us and wants us to live beautifully triumphant and joyful lives in the Spirit, but He knew we would need a compass to keep us moving in that direction – The Bible is that compass.

It pains me (really and truly) to see people think of the Bible as a chore that Christians are supposed to guilt each other into attending to.  It is brutal to see believers whose lives are torn apart by guilt, shame, anger, sin, etc. – never realizing that The Bible holds truth that will set them free from so much of that because they’ve never thought of it as more than a hoop to jump through.

The Bible is life.  It is true, free, abundant, grace-filled life.

I’m sure you have your own ideas about what the Bible is or is not.  Feel free to share them if you’d like.  May prayer, though, is that we can all embrace the Bible as a gift of God to us, offered out of his unfathomable desire to give us the best in this life and in eternity.

Grace and peace to you.

 This is my article for this week’s bulletin at NCOC.  It leads into the sermon I’ll preach this Sunday, which is why it may seem to stop a bit abruptly and be lacking some context.  I post it here in celebration of the fact that as of this weekend, God has graced me to be in love with my wife for more than 50% of my life. 

This weekend marks a big milestone in my life.  On September 18^th, 1993 I was a freshman in college at Oklahoma Christian University.  I was two days into my eighteenth year of life.  And, I was in falling love.  I had gone on a float trip with the social service club (Christian college version of a fraternity) I would later join.  Also on that trip was a striking young woman from Oregon named Christina Sublett.  We’d met a couple weeks before at a back-to-school party hosted by one of her friends and in the days since we’d met, I’d come to like this girl a good bit.

That Friday night (9/17/93) night after the planned festivities for the float trip wrapped up, Christina and I started talking.  And talking.  And talking.  In fact, we kept on talking until the sun was starting to rise on Saturday morning.  That was the longest single conversation I’ve ever had.  It was also the conversation in which I came to love Christina.  Thus, this weekend marks the point at which I have been in love with my wife for more than half of my lifetime.  Kind of a big deal.

If you’ve ever truly loved someone (whether romantic or familial), you know that there’s something inexplicably powerful about love.  So powerful, in fact, that when you love someone there’s the sense that you’re no longer in control of yourself.  From that moment by the river in Oklahoma, I was committed to pursuing Christina, but even more powerfully, I felt as though love had somehow taken hold of me and was drawing me along.  I feel the same way about my children – the love I have for them consumes me and in some ways transcends me.  This is not romance or infatuation, this is genuine love.  We can probably all attest on some level to the incredible, magnetic power of love.  It draws us.  It takes hold of us.  It becomes a fire within us that cannot easily be put out.

I recently had a conversation with a teen in which they expressed that an interaction with a classmate really had them feeling stumped.  The topic of their discussion is inconsequential – I’ve heard similar stories ending in the same confusion over a range of topics.  The argument that stymied my student went like this, “If God is love, then doesn’t it make sense that he wants…”

As is commonly quoted among Christians and non-Christians alike, the apostle John makes the claim that “God is love”.  The issue that’s causing so many problems for our young people is that they don’t have any better handle on this statement than their non-Christian friends do.  Both sides are tossing it out as a rationale for any behavior they’d like to justify or as an argument against any part of orthodox Christian faith they find objectionable (Incidentally, I’m sure it’s a problem for older people as well, but I tend to talk about such things with the younger ones).

“If God is love, then why do bad things happen to good people?”

“If God is love, then why wouldn’t he think two people of the same sex being in love is OK?”

“If God is love, then wouldn’t he want me to be happy?”

If God is love and I love my boyfriend, then why would it be wrong to sleep with him?”

Like I said, finish the “If God is love…” sentence anyway you want, it all comes back to the same fundamental gap in understanding and it’s not one that you need a theology degree to grasp – you just need to take a second look at what is being claimed.

God is love.  This is true.

Love is God.  This is NOT true.  In fact, it’s really dangerous.

God is not defined by love, love is defined by God.  In saying that God is love, John is not somehow boxing God in by whatever our understanding of the word love is.  Instead, he is pointing us to the fact that God is love in its purest form and by extension, love itself is defined by God.  Simply put (too simply, really), love is whatever is best for humankind – as God defines “best”.

When I see people getting tripped up on this statement, it’s generally because they’re approaching it as though John is saying, “love is God.”  When we make this mistake, we get lost in a logical mishmash of trying to align our own (always inadequate) definition of love with what we think God should do, be, or agree to.  If love is God, then every person that can articulate, or even sense, a definition for the word love gets to shape God into whatever form best suits them.

If we let God define love as what is truly best for humankind, we not only avoid some of the pitfalls of that kind of argument, but our hearts and minds are opened up to more fully understanding love itself – and by extension, God himself.  We are set free to start swimming in the unending depths of God’s gift of love for us and for the world.  The absolutely crucial task is to let God do the defining through his Word and through Christ.  Be warned though, God is love – but love includes things like boundaries, discipline, even punishment.  In fact, true love is so audacious as to desire the  best for the other – regardless of whether the other agrees to it or even wants it (picture a parent telling a child that they need to eat veggies instead of candy).  God seeks the absolute best for you and for the people you know, but we must learn to give God honor of defining what is best…defining love itself.

May we constantly seek to understand, experience, and share a God-ordained love.

This week has been unexpectedly emotional for me in preparing for our service this Sunday, September 11th.  To give you a little bit of the backstory, I’m preparing to co-teach during the sermon with my friend Trevor Cox (an exciting moment for me in itself).  In our context at NCOC, we are not having a full-fledged 9/11 memorial service.  Instead, we are thinking about the interplay between 9/11 and Paul’s directive to the church Philippi to “rejoice in the Lord” even in the midst of suffering for their faith, facing crises of citizenship, and dealing with in-fighting over which faction of the church people belonged to.

In preparing of this, I’ve been reminded of both the horrible evil and the inexpressible beauty (maybe even joy) seen in people’s response to the events of that day.  The phrase that keeps coming to mind as I work through these things is “holy ground” – ala Moses’ encounter with God on Sinai.  The place where Moses met God was not special.  It was just one portion of wilderness in a vast ocean of similar landscape.  the bush was just a bush.  Moses was just a shepherd.  What made it holy was the fact that God made his presence known.  He spoke with Abraham.  He interacted in the life of this man in a special way.

I am increasingly feeling this way about remembering 9/11 this week.  It’s holy ground.  It’s holy because God makes himself known in special ways in the midst of tragedy and pain.  He shows himself to be evermore present in moments when we figure out that the power and strength we rely on in our government, our economy, our physical structures, our affluence – simply are not enough to shield us from evil.

God meets us in those places.  In those places we find unexpected joy in knowing that our citizenship is in heaven.  We find joy in knowing that what defines our worth is not our retirement fund, our job security, or others’ opinion but it is a God who knows us intimately and loves us relentlessly.  When pain and brokenness and fear cause us to grasp on to the one true God who heals, mends, and comforts…that is holy ground.

Yesterday morning one of the great men of our church, David Pierce, preached a very insightful sermon as part of our ongoing series over the book of Philippians.  David preached out of Philippians 2 (the Kenosis passage).  In the midst of his sermon, he made the statement that for too many of us, the gospel is really nothing more than the story of how to get ME to heaven.  This statement has been running relentlessly through my mind since then.  It bugs me.  It bugs me because I fundamentally disagree with it.  I believe the gospel is the good news of redemption for all creation through the saving work of Jesus Christ.  It also bugs me because I see it as a practical reality – one that has pervasive implications in the way we live as Christian people.

Here are some of the questions running through my mind.  Perhaps they’ll spark something in yours as well.  Perhaps you have others.  Perhaps you have answers.  Perhaps it’s time to stop thinking about them and start changing things one act of good news at a time.

Feel free to share.

“If we believe the gospel is truly good news for all of creation, then why…

- do so many Christians go their entire lives without really ever telling anyone about their faith in a substantial way? What does that say about what we really think the gospel is?”

- do so many of us create a transactional kind of faith existence in which [we convince ourselves that] we trade God 2.5 hours of my week and a list of things we won’t do or will do less than other people, in exchange for a ticket out of hell when we die? This is is not really good news, it’s just a good deal.”

- do we work so hard to define who is in (always me) and who is out (the people who disagree with me most) of the Kingdom, without ever taking action to actually expand the Kingdom?”

- do we act so embarrassed by our faith? We talk constantly about not wanting to offend, not wanting to come across certain ways, etc. If the gospel is a real thing, a thing that offers peace and healing to all the world, why is it that we feel we have to apologize for sharing it?”

- do so many Christians live in fear? Fear of failure. Fear of not having enough. Fear that their salvation is not real (hoping they go to heaven when they die).”

- do Christians look just like everyone else? There’s not really any denying the proposal that we live in a post-Christian era, so shouldn’t we look more different than ever before? Shouldn’t a global shift away from Christianity actually make our lives shine even more brightly (i.e. more darkness brings greater contrast to light)?”

NOTE: It is of absolutely no good for us to look at this kind of list, feel bad, shake our heads, and then go back to browsing Facebook, crunching numbers, or studying history. The gospel changes how live every breath of our lives.  If it doesn’t, then whatever philosophy you’re looking at is not truly the gospel of Jesus Christ. May we all be challenged to constantly re-discover the beauty and urgency of the gospel.

It’s been a long, rewarding, exhausting summer of camps, mission trips, preaching, etc.  As things begin to wind down, I am trying to take a few minutes to process what God has been teaching me over the past couple months.  Here are just a few of the lessons that come immediately to mind.  After you peruse them, please take a minute to share what God has been teaching you recently.  Grace and peace to you in Jesus.

- I am not a workaholic. I get that this is not the culturally desired norm.  I understand that in America we value the person that wants to work 80 hours/week and never take a day.  We all know that’s not healthy, but we reward, honor, and validate it nonetheless.  I am not this person.  I love my work.  I believe in it.  I work hard at it.  That said, I am wired to need time away from it.  This has been particularly difficult over the past year with our church’s staffing shortage, and nearly impossible this summer.   I am really feeling this right now.  I am mentally and emotionally drained.  I don’t say this to gain sympathy, just to make the point that God is reminding that I need sabbath in order to be recharged and have something to pour out into other people.

- I can do all things…OK, so maybe not all things (I’ll table the discussion on the misappropriations of Philippians 4:13 for another time).  However, I have been struck by how many different roles God has put me in this summer as I’ve filled my various posts around the country.  From comic relief at camp, to coordinator of mission trip, teacher, worship leader, book club host, VBS song-leader, preacher and many things in between.  It felt at times as though I was filling a completely different role every week, sometimes every day.  God has been teaching me that all he really needs from me is to be open to what he puts in front of me and to trust that he knows what I’m doing.

- I need to write more.  I have spent quite a bit of time unplugged this summer either by necessity or by desire to be away from the demands of email for a bit.  Within that stretch though, I have neglected writing.  If you follow my blog, you may have heard me say before that I write largely out of therapeutic need.  It gives me space to think and to process things that I otherwise do not make time for.  As an added incentive, I have had several people within the past few months approach me for help and ministry purely from my “internet presence” (which I have no illusions about being particularly large).

So, now you tell me…what has God been teaching you?  Seriously, I’d really love to share in what God is doing in you.

A couple weeks ago I went for an early-morning prayer run in Oklahoma City.  In the process of getting out the door to go downtown, I left my running glasses in my hotel room (my normal glasses are plastic-framed and will not stay on when I run).  Thus, when it came to running time, I opted to run “blind”.  This decision resulted in my stepping very awkwardly off of a curb and pulling a muscle in my calf.  Tonight I decided to try to run a bit for the first time since then.  I wrapped my calf up and took off for a two-mile run.  I felt pretty good and ended up stretching it to five.

I am a slow runner.  I run primarily as an act of personal therapy.  I value the time on the road for reflection and meditation.  As I’ve recently been pretty immersed in the book of James, I continually come back to this passage:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 

In general, this passage bugs me – it always has. I don’t like trials.  I don’t like pain.  I like it when things are smooth and easy.  I don’t like the idea that I’m supposed to be excited about bad things happening in my life.

Now, I don’t want to be one of those amateur running guys that starts making spiritual application out of every little jaunt around the block, but I couldn’t help but tie these things together tonight as I plodded along.  With my calf hurting, I was forced to run very slowly and very deliberately.  I paid very careful attention to exactly how I was feeling and placed each step with intention.  Doing that, I was able to run quite a bit further than I expected.  It wasn’t fast (not that it ever really is).  It wasn’t flashy.  But, it worked.

As I consider James’ words, I see this being true in the larger frame of our life’s experience as well.  We’ve experienced our share of trials the past few years.  In the best times (when I was able to step back and recognize what was happening), those difficult times have been like running with an injury.  They forced me to be more deliberate.  They forced me to pay careful attention to each step because I just didn’t have the energy to waste on any extra ones.  Doing this, I was able to get to places I otherwise wouldn’t have.  I learned things have deeply shaped me.  I am, I believe, a better person for those times.

The stark and difficult reality is that we can’t live without pain.  It is in and through pain that we become the best versions of ourselves.  Without it, we easily drift along – unfocused and undisciplined.

I don’t like it, but it works.  I hate to see pain coming, but have come to know that the journey through it is transformative and necessary.

May God bless you with enough pain to keep you focused and mold you into the strongest version of yourself and may we all somehow start to figure out how to consider our trials “pure joy”.