Getting it Right or Loving Fully?

And here comes the holidays season again...a fun and meaningful time. Yet it can also be a stressful time for many people. For folks who have trouble making financial ends meet, the constant December advertising demand to "buy, buy, buy," accentuates what they will NOT be able to do on Christmas morning. For people going through life pains, such as loss, death of a loved one, divorce, critical illness, or terminal illness, the constant pressure to "be merry" just adds guilt to already broken hearts.

But what of us who are not facing these things, but still make the month of December the most pressured, stressful month of the year? In part I think it is because we are so driven to get the holidays right - to have the right parties, to put up the right decorations, to send cards or e-greetings to the right people, to make the right meals, to have the right family gatherings, to observe the right traditions, etc. etc.

There's nothing wrong with "getting it right." There's everything right with it. The problem comes when "getting it right" becomes the goal instead of the means. The object of Christmas isn't to "get it right." There's no "getting it right" at Christmas on our part. God already got it right, becoming one of us in a baby born to a poor couple out on the road. "Getting it right" in the last month of the year or at any time of the year is not about our endless Christmas season "to-do" lists. It's in people seeing the Bethlehem baby so alive and at work in us that they also know that this same God loves them to. Everything else either supports this aim or works against it.

Not an easy thing in this busy, pressured time of the year. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Blindingly Simple

Sometimes God reminds me that it is just so blindingly simple.

Acknowledged or not, the goal of all groups of Jesus-followers (churches) is to make disciples for Jesus. (In our Bible this command is found in the 19th verse of Matthew's 28th chapter.) Being a disciple doesn't just mean someone who learns certain things, believes certain things, and practices certain things. A disciple is one who becomes like the teacher. So, as Jesus lived, died, and rose to something new, so we are to become like that.

The vast majority of organized churches in North America are static or declining. Bluntly, they are not making new disciples, and thus not obeying the command of the very one whose name they claim. To the credit of many, they recognize this and attempt a variety of strategies to turn the tide. Outreach programs, worship services more sensitive to newcomers, marketing campaigns, staffing for growth, and other complex efforts have been added to the arsenal of many congregations. All of this is good, as it shows that many church folks recognize the crisis and want to do something about it.

However, we must be careful not to over-complicate the matter. Jesus didn't do so. As recorded in John's account of Jesus, in his 13th chapter (35th verse) Jesus said simply this: The way I have loved you, that's how you should love each other. When you do that, people will know that you are my disciples. Norman Shawchuck put it this way: "O my God, I long to reflect your image throughout the world so that others might observe your doing in me and themselves be convinced that you love them also."

As Jesus loves people as they are, stands with them as they become what God wants them to be, sacrifices even to the point of death that they may have life...that's when people will see and know.

It's not as much a matter of technique as it is a matter of heart. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.