you better be good?

"Tis the Season to Prepare

Get ready.  Get set.  Go.  The holiday season is upon us, and quite frankly this year it has caught me by surprise.  I’m not ready to be rushed into Christmas.  I want more time – a lot more time.  I don’t have my list of things to do done.  And I’m not quite certain how that happened.  I always have my list done.  I always make sure that I’m prepared.  But there it is and here I am, caught off guard. 

It’s odd in a way.  The more I thought of it, the more I realized how many people do get caught off guard by the season of Christ’s coming.  They don’t see the angels in the sky or the angels in their lives.  They miss the bright, shining star and they don’t hear the carols singing.  They are so caught up in holiday expectations that  the holy day catches them unaware, unprepared. 

It’s easy to do.  We all know that.  All we have to do is look at our lists of things to get done as we get ready for the big day.  The question is who or what are we getting ready for?  Is it the parties, the pageants, the coming of Santa Claus --- or are we preparing for the unadorned arrival of a Savior? Are we preparing ourselves this year for the advent of the coming of God?  And if so, how do we prepare? 

Not by shopping in the mall but by bringing food for the hungry --- not by putting up our Christmas lights but by praising the light of the world ---  not by a rush of parties but by a discipline of prayer.  This is the way we must prepare for the coming of Christ --- not at Walmart but in our lives.  Tis the season to prepare.  Prepare your heart for the coming of our King. 

Suicide and Faith

I just left the funeral of a seventeen year old girl whose father gave her the Native American name “Gentle Wind.”  And from all accounts the name fit her.  She was indeed a gentle wind, a gentle spirit among us filled with life and love.  Yet this gentle wind took her own life just the other night.

What pain, what feelings of hopelessness filled her in those moments I don’t pretend to know.  I know she carried them alone, hiding behind a smile and butterfly kisses and assurances that she was fine.  Perhaps you’ve smiled such a smile, made those assurances, thinking the pain was too great, too private to share.  Please don’t.

Please tell someone, share the depths of your heart for even when they do not know the words to say, even when they have no easy answers to the questions or the pain, their love can wrap your hopelessness in their hope as they walk alongside you. 

Know too that God is with you.  Some people say that the hardest thing about suicide is the terrible aloneness of it.  Yet I believe that even in the moments of that deepest despair, no one is truly alone.  God is there even in that.  I believe that God’s love was with Gentle Wind and is with you and me even in the moments when we feel most alone.  He was there wrapping her in understanding and His Spirit prayed for her spirit to trust in His strength when she had done left of her own. 

And yet, as she could not do that this one more time, He understood her pain and gentled her home to His eternal heart.  Now He is with us as we walk through our own valleys of pain and grief and, yes, perhaps feelings of guilt we do not want to even speak of.  Now we must surrender to a love and strength beyond our own. 

I encourage you to do that now. 

And if a friend, an acquaintance, someone you know and love, or a stranger on the bus reaches out to you, take their hand.  You may not have the words, the answers, but God will give you the strength to be with them.  See that they get the help they need.  Get the help you need.  Place them in the care of someone trained.  And if they seem suddenly calm and at peace after sharing deep troubles, talk with them more.  They may have developed a final plan to end this life.  Anyone who has such a plan must be taken to a safe place, whatever that place might be.  It takes strength and courage to say this is more than I can handle.  But please have that strength and that courage. 

Finally, I want to give you a gift given to me.  It is the Native American version of the 23^rd Psalm.  It is a tribute and a prayer to all the Gentle Winds among us.

The Lord is my Great Father and Shepherd Chief.

I am His and with Him I want not.

He throws out to me a rope and the name of the rope is love.

He draws me to where the grass is green and the water not dangerous,

And I eat and lie down and am satisfied.

Sometimes my heart is very weak and fails me

But He lifts me up again and draws me into a good road. 
His name is WONDERFUL.

Some time, it may be very soon, it may be a long, long time off,

He will draw me into a valley. 

It is dark there, but I shall not be afraid,

For it is in between those mountains that the Shepherd Chief will meet me

and the hunger that I have had in my heart all through this life will be satisfied. 

Why I'm A Christian

It’s a pretty basic question.  So, why are you a Christian?  What’s the deal?  What’s the payoff?  It’s no longer the “in” thing to be anymore.  People don’t get up and go to church these days because that’s what you’re “supposed” to do.  These days, you’re “supposed” to sleep in, mow the grass, anything but go to church.

 And forget church for a moment, who wants to be a Christian? Aren’t they those judgmental hypocrites who want to send everyone else to hell?  Aren’t they the ones with the long list of “Thou shalt not’s” who look like a smile would crack their face and think “fun” is a four letter word? 

No.  They’re not.  I’m a Christian because of how much God loves me, how much He enjoys me, how much strength and joy He gives to me.  He loves me more than I can even imagine --- even on my bad days – even when no one in their right mind would love me, and He loves me just as I am warts and all.  I can be totally honest with God and He is still there.  He will follow me through -- and out of – hell if necessary --- and has. 

Why wouldn’t I love a God like that?  Why wouldn’t I want to live into the person He longs for me to be, the person He created me to be?    Because of God, I can believe in love when I can believe in nothing else.  And because of His strength, I can make it through the worst that life can offer.  I can do more than just survive life.  I can find its joy, a joy that bubbles up to the surface in moments of laughter and is still there running underground in times of tears.

I’m a Christian because I can’t imagine life without Christ.  Quite frankly, I’ve seen what  life without Him is like.  I’ve seen what it can do to people and I can’t imagine how or why they choose the darkness, the pain, the loneliness over the joy, the love, the life I have in Jesus. 

I’m not the kind that will ever stop you in an elevator and ask when you gave your life to Christ.  It’s not my place to assume anyone is going to hell.  That’s God’s job and frankly I think He’s more likely to let you choose to go there than to send you there, but I’ll be glad to tell you what I’ve found and what you will find in the source of love.  Just email me or post a comment.  Let’s talk.