Breaking Tradition

(Photo: newenglandhistoricalsociety.com, “Home for Christmas,” Norman Rockwell)

“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.”—Benjamin Franklin

Back in the day, coming home to New Hampshire from Thanksgiving dinner on the farm in Massachusetts meant shutting off the crackling AM radio in favor of miles of conversation interspersed with comfortable silence. There were no seatbelts because I remember resting my head on my forearms on the back of the front seat while chatting with mom and dad. The bright lights of traffic on Route 128 went away as we turned up Route 3—hardly the multiple lanes of busyness it is now. Darkness was everywhere. Nobody seemed to live along this stretch of road.

It was always a good feeling to turn off in Tyngsboro (because you had to back then), because it meant we were that much closer to home and because there was light and life going through the village and over the iron bridge into South Nashua where there were neon signs here and there and the spotlight on what was then the Green Ridge Turkey Farm. In their own way, lighted markers of comfort and joy.

As we turned onto Route 101-A, there were lights of a different kind—scattered and warmer, the glow from homes and farms set back from the two-lane highway lined with stonewalls and trees. Getting closer! And I knew “when are we going to be there?” would no longer be coming out of my mouth when we drove through Milford (because you had to back then). A bit more light and life. And something I couldn’t wait to see each year: this one big Victorian that was always and by itself decked out with holiday lights on Thanksgiving night. Except every year, dad would remark something like this to mom:

“Too early! Honeybee, will you look at that?!”

All these years later, I wonder if dad, who loved Christmas, secretly wanted to finish the sentence with “I wish we would do that, too.” But tradition is tradition deeply engrained, and so no lights go up in my house until the first Sunday in Advent.

Until this year...because it is 2020.

The day before Advent, I took out the window candles, set them on each sill, and got them ready for launch in 24 hours. But as afternoon turned to evening and “darkness was everywhere,” I looked at one of the window candles in the kitchen and, for some “”odd” reason, remembered that my theme verse on January 1 for what would turn out to be the craziest year of them all was: “Your Word is a lamp for my steps, it lights the path before me.” (Psalm 119:105, The Voice), which I noticed had a cross-reference to this:

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great Light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a Light has dawned.”

(Isaiah 9:2, NIV)

Which, in turn, pointed to this:

“In the beginning, the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” (John 1:1-5, NLT)

I must have read those familiar verses a gazillion times before, and never did they have more clout, more illumination and Hope, than they did on this night before Advent 2020. Hesitantly at first, because gosh, this was family tradition being challenged, I turned the bulb on the first kitchen window candle. And then with a sense of purpose and almost a defiance coupled with joy, “Your Word is a lamp for my steps, it lights the path before me — and everyone else’s!” ran through my mind while powering up all the rest of the window candles in the house.

And yet again, just as in the disciple John’s ancient days, the darkness could not extinguish Light.

And it never will.

And that will be the Christmas message from my house to those passing by in this crazy year, whether they realize it or not.

And a reminder to self that, wherever I go, I carry that same Light with me. 

I’d like to think if dad was in the kitchen with me on Saturday night, he would have agreed:“Just in time, son! And don’t be in a hurry to take them down when Christmas is over, either.”

My dad always was a very wise man.

“When the dawn appears,

When the light grows,

When the midday burns,

When has ceased the holy light,

When the clear night comes:

I sing Your praises, O Father:

Healer of hearts,

Healer of bodies,

Giver of wisdom...

Remedy of evil.”

—Synesius of Cyrene

Remembering a Timeless Password

(Photo: Steve Buissinne @ pixabay.com

How on earth can a Believer have any impact when you’re living in a culture of so any mixed ideas and backgrounds and religious beliefs so that it’s all like mud?

"There hasn’t been anything like this before."

And how on earth do you best strike up a conversation of Hope with anyone when many seem quick to tell you what they think without hearing (or being willing to hear) what you’re saying?

"There hasn’t been anything like this before."

And how on earth do you speak Life effectively and faithfully to a culture that often has its heels dug in but without digging in your own “I know I’m right” heels? 

"Surely, there has never been anything like this before."

Except it was the very description of the culture of ancient Colossae — a culture of many people groups and traditions that forged a hodgepodge of thinking and living, including religious practices. There is nothing new under the sun. And so the apostle Paul’s encouragement from The Message to those Colossian Believers still rings true down through the ages to 2020:

BE FAITHFUL…”My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.”—Colossians 2:6-7

LOVE CHRIST, LOVE YOUR TOWN…“Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.”—Colossians 4:5-6

"…yes, but If only I had more time..."

"...If only I had more energy.

If only I were smarter.

If only I could read the Word without daydreaming.

If only I had my act together—maybe tomorrow…"

And Jesus says: “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”—Matthew 11:28, NLT

And He also says: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!”—John 7:37, NLT

And Isaiah says: “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy grain and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost—simply accept it as a gift from God.”—Isaiah 55:1, Amplified

And Solomon says:“Whoever is naive or inexperienced, let him turn in here!…Leave behind your foolishness and the foolish and live, and walk in the way of insight and understanding.”—Proverbs 9:4,6 Amplified

“Yes, but there hasn’t ever been anything like this before…”

...One of the most beautiful things about being in the upside-down Kingdom of God is that it always has been and always will be built for those who don’t have their act together at any point in their lives. All we need to remember is the culturally upside-down password:

“Come as you are.” And then, go, be, live.

“My grace is always more than enough for you, and My power finds its full expression through your weakness.”

—2 Corinthians 12:9, Passion

'I Want to See You'

Photo by Daniel Schaffer on Unsplash

"The renewed mind is the canvas on which the Spirit of God can paint."—Bill Johnson

On top of everything else, Jesus was an artist, too.

He was continually painting pictures with words meant to awaken weary minds. Even if a thesaurus had been around in those days, there was no need for one, because Jesus, the Word made flesh, had all of the right words, at just the right time, and especially for every “I don’t get it" moment experienced by His followers — then and now. To help us see the Big picture through the fog and see life with a heavenly perspective, Jesus didn’t do boring lectures but told engaging stories by painting a bunch of word pictures for real people — farmers, homeowners, shopkeepers and people who liked fishing and being outdoors. People like us, and out-of-this-world words like these:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field…"

“The kingdom of heaven is like like a treasure a man discovered in a field. In his excitement, he sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field—and get the treasure, too!"

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls…"

“The kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind…"

When all we see is what’s right in front of us and fret and wonder, Jesus is always thinking bigger picture. Much bigger. His purpose behind these multi-colored descriptions of getting a heavenly perspective on things is not to mindlessly float away into a la-la land that’s out there somewhere and ignore reality. Instead, it's to bring that right and perfect perspective of “the earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it” into the often unhinged craziness of daily responsibilities and decisions, and especially into headlines that would try to add fuel to fear and throw water on faith. To get us to think, to see in the midst of it all: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

And the longer I go on this journey, the more I desire that Lord's Prayer perspective above most everything else. It's not a one-and-done request, either. Just about every day, I am right there with blind Bartimaeus:

“Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man answered, ‘Teacher, I want to see You.’”

—Mark 10:51, New Century Version

I want to see what matters, because I’m blinded way too often by all the wrong things that relentlessly try to cloud “the Kingdom of God is like” big picture and distort the right perspective.

And so, I like to imagine that in reply to my plea, if He were to meet me and my Bartimaeus desire on that roadside today, and knowing how much I enjoy taking photos, just maybe Jesus would paint a picture that looks something like this:

“The walk of faith is like a man who went for a walk with his camera, looking for something beautiful. But he had no set-it-and-forget-it autofocus feature because it’s a walk that requires continual, hands-on (re)focus to bring clarity to confusing things, wrong perspectives, and loud distractions. It is a lifelong discipline that leans on Trust, and the Truth of who I AM, and My endless love for you, and not on your own understanding. It is like continually adjusting the zoom lens until what is fuzzy becomes clear and the Subject is in focus while the background fades away. Your eye’s attention is drawn to the one thing that matters. Beautiful! So, keep going, live your life well, never give up, and as you go, ’set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above—the heavenly things—not on things that are on the earth which have only temporal value.’”

It's a new day…and it’s really good to know that the Artist is still at work.

“We can, by choice and our actions, invite God to be present in our mind. Or, we can close the door to Him. It all depends on what kind of mind we want to cultivate. The goal is to have a mind in which the glorious Father of Jesus is always present and gradually crowds out every distorted belief, every destructive feeling, every misguided intention … God is never more than a thought away!”

—John Ortberg

What Really Matters

Timely words from more than half-century ago that I’ll stand on as I head to the polls on Tuesday…

“One thing must be kept in mind: We Christians are Christians first and everything else after that. Our first allegiance is to the kingdom of God. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are grateful for political freedom. We thank God for democracy as a way of life. But we never forget that we are sons of God and citizens of another city whose builder and maker is God. For this reason, we must not identify the gospel with any political system or make Christianity to be synonymous with any form of government, however noble. Christ stands alone, above and outside of every ideology devised by man. He does not join any of our parties or take sides with any of our great men except as they may come over on His side and try to follow Him in righteousness and true holiness. Then He is for them but only as individuals, never as leaders of some political faction. The true Christian will be loyal to his country and obedient to those in authority, but he will never fall into the error of confusing his own national culture with Christianity. Christianity is bigger than any country, loftier than any civilization, broader than any human ideology.”—AW Tozer

Yes, but wait. This year is different. “What would Jesus do in such a time as this?”

To which, He might reply, as He has always done down through the ages:

“The real question is, what will you do?”

The answer, of course, is right in front of me. Not easy, but absolutely perfect and right.

It looks a lot like humility and selflessness and seeking first the Kingdom of God.

It looks a lot like that narrow road He talked about.

It brings to life what He meant when He said “take up your cross daily.”

It looks a lot like…Jesus.

The answer is couched in ancient and timeless Words that will be much more important to my Walk and how I live with my neighbors—red, blue or in between—after election day than on it, no matter who wins:

“Pray much for others; plead for God’s mercy upon them; give thanks for all He is going to do for them. Pray in this way for kings and all others who are in authority over us, or are in places of high responsibility, so that we can live in peace and quietness, spending our time in godly living and thinking much about the Lord. This is good and pleases God our Savior, for He longs for all to be saved and to understand this truth:

That God is on one side and all the people on the other side, and Christ Jesus, Himself man, is between them to bring them together, by giving His life for all mankind.”

—1 Timothy 2:1-6, Living Bible

This, too, is worship.