Monthly Archives: December 2017
“THE WORD FOR THE YEAR IS KINDNESS!”
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. (Lao Tzu. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/kindness”)
“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (Colossians 3:12-13)
In 2017, my word for the year was “FOCUS!” I’m not sure how I did, but my wife says that I have done better on focusing. My wife is a very kind and compassionate person, but she isn’t prone to lying, so I assume that she is right.
The word for 2018 is KINDNESS.
My sponsor encouraged me some time ago to craft my own personal daily affirmations. This year he upped the ante: He suggested that I craft a master affirmation for the entire year—one that would enrich the daily affirmations. Below is my response to him this morning.
“I have thought about and prayed about your suggestion that I have a master affirmation for 2018. I have decided that I like the idea a lot. (I suspect that God likes it too.)
So, after some thought I have decided to pair it with another suggestion from a weekly newsletter I get from Jon Gordon (“Positive Tips” website.) Gordon suggests choosing one word for the year. . . .
The word for 2018 is “KINDNESS”.
So, with all that as preface, here is my master affirmation for the year:
THE WORD FOR THIS YEAR IS KINDNESS: KINDNESS RECEIVED AND KINDNESS GIVEN
AFFIRMATION FOR THE YEAR: This year, by God’s grace, I am consistently kind and obedient to God, appropriately kind to myself, and kind to all living things (which includes other people).”
Of course, it is much easier to be kind to God and others, when I realize that God is kind, and that God has shown me a great deal of kindness. And I do recognize God’s kindness, at least to some degree. So, the first thing I need to do is to meditate on God’s great kindness to me.
But even a realization of God’s kindness and the desire to be kind are not enough. Kindness takes daily practice. No one learns to cook or play the piano without regular, consistent practice. Why should kindness be any different?
I need to keep my eyes, ears, heart, and schedule open, so that I can be kind to others. Kindness is a costly business. Above all, it requires consistent focus. And I can assure you that this selfish, attention-deficit-person is not good at either consistency or focus.
Who knows? Maybe the 2017 emphasis on focus is a good preparation for 2018: The Year of Kindness!
“NEGATIVE WORDS ARE SO MUCH EASIER”
A friend asked me a wonderfully thought-provoking question this morning: “Why do we have ‘invincible,’ but we don’t have ‘vincible’?”
Actually, there is such a word as “vincible,” but it is rarely used. (In fact, my spell checker flagged “vincible” as misspelled.)
My immediate response to my friend’s question was, “I don’t know, but offhandedly I would say that we are better at negating words than we are at using positive words.”
I don’t know if that is true, and I will need to do some more research, but I can think of several words that occur in a negative sense, while the same root is not used in a positive sense. For example, why do we speak of someone as “ruthless,” but we don’t generally describe anyone as “ruthfull.”
There is “distress,” but we don’t usually speak of “eustress.” This is so, despite the fact that the same psychologist (Hans Selye) coined both words. Why did one word catch on, but the other one didn’t?
Well, I’m not too confident about my response to my friend’s question, but I do think it was a wonderful question. (In fact, I commented to him that a good question is better than a really excellent answer.)
And here is one more thought: This gravitational pull toward negative words may say something rather uncomfortable—and negative—about us humans. (Of course, we do have the words “comfortable” and “positive,” don’t we?)
In any case, my friend’s question suggests some other, even more interesting questions. Do we really have more negative words than positive ones? If so, why is that?
Of course, these questions are not simply linguistic. They are philosophical, psychological, even perhaps spiritual questions.
I think I’ll live with these questions a while. Do you have any thoughts about the matter? Let me know!
“GOD —ALWAYS AT WORK IN US”
Here is a slightly revised recent journal entry.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Good morning, LORD of the universe! I won’t trouble myself asking how you are, since you are always good!
And thank you so much for always being good! I wish that I were more like You.
Wish, yes. Will, no. I do not will consistency. Sometimes, I don’t think I’m capable of willing consistency or being consistently willing to be like You.
Yet, I am tremendously comforted by Philippians 2:13.
“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (New Living Translation)
In the original Greek, all these verbs are in the present tense, which conveys the ongoing, continual nature of what God is doing. It isn’t about my ability to be good or holy or even human. It is about God’s continual work in me.
God is working in me, both to will and to do what pleases God—when I feel as if God is working, and when I do not feel that God is working in me. God is working when I feel a billion light years away from God, just as much as when I am afraid to open my eyes because I do not think it appropriate to see God with the naked eye.
And God is continually at work in you, too. I know! It doesn’t feel like it. It doesn’t make sense. But God is not the God of our feelings or our logic. He is the God who is continually working in you and in me.
God, help me, help us, to hang on to this truth. Or, better yet, may this truth hang on to us.
“Waiting in Hope and Paying Attention to Our Surroundings”
“21 Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived.
22 Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
23 The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the LORD.”
24 So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord– “either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
25 At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him
26 and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required,
28 Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,
29 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised.
30 I have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared for all people.
32 He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”
33 Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him.
34 Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, but he will be a joy to many others. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him.
35 As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”
36 Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years.
37 Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer.
38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.” (Luke 2:21-38, italics mine)
“Like Anna and Simeon, when we wait in hope and pay attention to our surroundings, we too will see God revealed before our very eyes.” (3-Minute Retreat, December 28, 2017, italics mine.)
Today, my 3-Minute Retreat from Loyola Press concerned Simon and Anna recognizing that Jesus was the Messiah. It was about waiting and recognizing.
I’m not good at waiting. I don’t like long lines at checkout counters, traffic jams, or any other form of waiting. This may be exacerbated by my attention deficit disorder, but I suspect that is an inherent human struggle. One of my least favorite proverbs is “Good things come to those who wait.”
But perhaps waiting is a prelude to recognizing crucial stuff. Perhaps others in the temple were simply too busy to wait. They were in a hurry to sacrifice, to worship, to get on with their lives. How many important things do I not recognize because I refuse to wait?
My 3-minute retreat concluded with the following prayer:
“(Speak to God, using these words or a prayer of your own.)
God of life, I wait in joyful hope for your kingdom to be revealed in its fullness. Open my eyes to recognize your Son in everyone I meet today.”
It was very early this morning when I was doing this brief devotional/retreat. I was working at my desk. The first person I saw after reading this prayer when I looked up from my desk was my own reflection in the window. Is Christ in me, I asked myself.
Yes, Christ is in there! I may not always act as if He is, but He is! Perhaps I should be more patient, waiting in hope. Perhaps if I practiced such hopeful waiting, I would come to recognize Christ—even in myself.
“BARN BABY!”
I was about eleven years old, and it was Christmas morning. I woke up ready to inhale breakfast and open presents.
Unfortunately, there was a very large glitch in my plan—my dad.
Like many young children, I had always believed that parents never got sick. My mom disabused me of this childish fantasy in a hurry. “Your dad has come down with some kind of virus. Could you do the feeding of the cattle this morning?”
I don’t remember saying anything to my mom. Maybe I did. If so, Mom, even though you’re long gone, could you please forgive me?
Whether I said anything to Mom or not, I had plenty to say on the hundred-or-so yards between the house and the barn. They may have been questions in form, but in content, they were accusations. “How could Dad get sick on Christmas Day! I think it was deliberate! And why did cows have to eat and drink on Christmas Day? Let them wait ‘til tomorrow!” I seem to remember even calling God to account for this tragic matter of me having to do the feeding on this particular morning. I was determined to do the feeding, and draw water from the well for the cattle in record time.
Our barn was a ramshackle affair with a small door which was opened and closed with a two-by-four dropped into a notch on the door. I lay my hand on the latch to the door, still fuming, and had an immediate encounter with The Divine Mystery of the Incarnation. I had never been spoken to by God before, and have only rarely been spoken to so directly since. (Or, perhaps, I just don’t listen very well.) Certainly, I was in no particularly spiritual frame of mind.
But as I grabbed that latch, I heard—as clearly as I have ever heard anything—God saying, “It was in a place like this that My Son was born.”
That, and nothing more.
My hand was frozen to the latch, but not from the cold. I couldn’t move for what seemed a very long time.
Finally, I slowly lifted the latch, as if I were lifting a chalice. I reverently opened the door, and eased the latch down beside it. I slowly scooped the cattle’s feed out of the barrels and into their mangers. I gave each of them some extra feed. I patted them on their muzzles as they ate. I very slowly broke apart several bales of hay, carefully spreading it in another part of the manger.
I went outside and drew water from the well. Cattle can drink a lot of water, especially right after they’ve eaten. I made trip after trip from the well to their water tank, and considered it an honor to do so. Before I left the barn, I wished the cows a Merry Christmas.
My heart and mind and behavior are often more like our ramshackle barn, than they are like a Currier and Ives print. Barns are not sanitary places.
And yet . . .
And yet . . .
And yet, it was a stable in which Jesus was born. Perhaps that wasn’t an accident. Perhaps God was making a point. No one, no one, is too unsanitary to be saved. No one is too messed up for God.
No one!
“MY MOST MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS EVE”
My most memorable Christmas Eve was spent in a ditch beside Ohio State Route 125 in the Shawnee Forest. The time was in the late 1970’s or perhaps 1980. I was on my way with my wife and three small children to a Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. The weather had been very warm earlier in the day, but by the time we got on the road, the temperatures had plummeted, and the roads were icing over.
125 through the Shawnee Forest was our shortest route—our shortest route to a ditch! There was one place in particular that involved a slight curve and a small hill. That was sufficient! We were going so slowly that neither we nor the car were hurt. However, there was no way I could push our car out of the ditch. We (along with lots of other people) weren’t going to be going anywhere for a while. All we could do was wait for a tow truck to come and pull us out.
After a bit, a man came back from walking about a mile to the Shawnee State Park lodge to call for a tow truck. His news was not good. “It will be at least three hours before anyone can get to us,” he informed us.
Three hours! Our extended family was opening our gifts on Christmas Eve, and we weren’t going to make it.
We sat in our car, running the engine to keep warm. Eventually, several people began getting out of the cars and chatting with other folks. “Where were you headed for?” was the most common question. A fairly large group gathered.
Eventually, someone had an interesting idea. I would like to take credit, but if my memory serves me correctly, it was someone else.
“Hey!” somebody said. “If we all pushed, we could probably get everyone back on the road again! Once we’ve gotten someone up on the level spot at the top of this little hill, they can come back and help push others out of the ditch and up the hill.”
I was initially skeptical, but I thought, why not try?
And it ended up being easier than I had thought. There were a lot of us out pushing. Despite the slippery conditions, I think we had enough people to have picked up the vehicles and to have lifted them onto the road. Before many minutes had passed, we were past this tricky spot, and on our way.
I believe (at least, in my better moments) that God came to earth in His Son, Jesus Christ, about two-thousand years ago. I believe that he came to push us (or lift us?) out of the ditch we had gotten ourselves. It’s so much easier to get into a ditch, than it is to get out of it, isn’t it?
But I also believe that God has called us in Christ to help one another to get out of our ditches.
As an addict, I have had a lot of friends who have helped me to get back on the road. Twelve-step friends, pastors, other believers, family members, and above all my wife, have come back to where I was stuck. They refused to leave me in the ditch.
And now, God has called me to believe in God’s rescue mission in Christ, and to participate in it, as much as I can.
The illusion is that the Christmas Season is “. . . the most wonderful time of the year.” The reality is rather different. Some of you may feel very much ditched. Perhaps this blog may give you the courage to believe that Someone and some ones have your back and your bumper, and that there is a road forward for you after all.
“HANDLING DISAPPOINTMENTS”
I don’t handle disappointments very well. That means that I don’t handle life very well.
Life, at least as I live it, is inherently disappointing. (I’m told that death is rather disappointing as well, but that is a subject for another blog post.)
“Life, at least as I live it . . . .” I suspect that the words in italics are what fuels most, if not all, of my disappointments. The problem is not life; the problem is me.
Disappointments flow from two sources, which are not two, but one. One source of disappointments is my expectations of myself. The other source is my expectations of others. Did you notice that in both cases, there is the little phrase “my expectations”?
I expect too much of myself and I am disappointed. I expect too much of others and I am disappointed.
Years ago, I took a course in basic fire safety. One of the first lessons we learned is that, if you want to put out a fire, you don’t aim at the tip of the flame; you aim at the base of the flame. If I simply mull over my disappointments, I’m wasting my time. It is the expectations that feed the flame of disappointment, and need to be doused.
“But don’t we have the right to have some expectations?” I hear someone ask.
My answer would be this: “Yes, we have the right to have some expectations—as long as we are willing to be disappointed.”
There is an old saying that comes to mind. “Always expect the unexpected.” That is one of those proverbs that sounds like a contradiction in terms. Perhaps it is a contradiction in terms. However, it also encapsulates an important truth: The unexpected (a.k.a. disappointment) is so common that it might as well be expected. In fact, expecting the unexpected may be the only expectation that is helpful.
Hopes and goals and plans are another matter. They are important. However, expectations are a drag. When I am marinating in my own disappointments, I am not hoping, setting goals, or making plans. I am just stuck in my disappointments.
And, of course, my disappointments can easily deepen into resentments. And resentments are real killers.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
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- “Delighting in Being Told What to Do?!?” February 23, 2024“Psa. 112:1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures […]
- “Character is the Real Lesson” January 19, 2024I am often confused about what lesson I’m really supposed to be learning. For example, this morning I was trying to knock out several Spanish lessons. My intentions were a lot better than my internet connection. I’ve done three lessons. Or rather, I’ve done two lessons. One of them I did twice because the internet […]
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- “Searching for the Noble One” December 26, 2023My wife and I were reading Luke, chapter 2 on Christmas Day. Luke 2 talks about the shepherds being told to look for this very special child—in fact, this King—in a stable. I prefer the word “barn”. I grew up on a farm. I know what a barn is. A stable is entirely too biblical […]
- “That Don’t Impress God Much” December 14, 2023DTEB, “That Don’t Impress God Much” “That Don’t Impress Me Much” (Song by Robert John Lange and Shania Twain) Micah 6:8 (MSG) “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be […]
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