Smiles for the Season

I woke up this morning after a 12-hour turkey coma to the sound of rain pattering on the window sill. It took a moment before I realized that it was on the inside of the window, since our windows leak from the top and make a nice puddle on the floor. I rolled out of bed and put on the hoodie conveniently located on the floor next to me. My eyes adjusted as I looked at the bedroom clock, did some quick math to subtract 23 minutes from the time shown to determine that it was 8 in the morning. I thought about all of the sales that I had already missed by "sleeping in" until 8 and realized that I really didn't care. I went into the living room and did my quiet time, then decided it was time to go to the gym, so I walk outside into the frigid 50-degree air and took a deep breath. Well, actually it was more of a half breath, as the air in Dallas is not really the cleanest air in the world. Anyway, I took the half breath and a cough and thought to myself, "Christmas is in the air." And I couldn't do anything but smile.

So it's the night after Thanksgiving, and I'm sitting on the couch in our living room unable to see Laura through the Christmas tree we just put up. Tiff and Laura are at the bistro table painting little pumpkins (leftover from Halloween almost a month ago) to look like Santa and snowmen. I'm supposed to be writing a paper, but I'm not really wanting to. So here I am, taking in the moment and enjoying the fact that less than one month from today we will gather together with Christians around the world praising God as we remember and celebrate the birth of our Savior.

And that's exciting...and why I can't do anything but smile.

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Now playing: Chris Rice - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
via FoxyTunes

Where is our hope?

Two weeks off from school is never really easy for me. It's not that I so enjoy spending hours reading and doing homework and these two weeks cramp my style, but more that I don't know what to do with myself with all this free time. On past breaks, I've spent endless hours watching movies, but our DVD player recently tanked and that option has gone out the window. So now I find myself sitting in front of our TV watching bad daytime shows and wondering what to do with myself.

Like today. After sleeping till almost 9, I got up, showered and shaved and got ready for another day of sitting around until work this afternoon. At 11 I turned on the Bonnie Hunt Show, not so much because I really like it but more because it's something to watch that's not a Soap. While it was on I began reading and didn't realize that Bonnie was over and Martha Stewart had started. When I lifted my eyes, I saw Martha talking with Tom Brokaw, and I was intrigued by the conversation. Not that I should have been surprised, but they were discussing the "wonderful" events of the recent presidential election. During this conversation, Brokaw stated that Obama exemplifies the hope of our country, both personally and ideologically. I couldn't help but be bothered by this comment for a number of reasons.

First, that is a lot of pressure to place on a single human being. Sure, he ran on a platform promising hope for America, but now that he has been elected, the whole country is counting on him to make positive changes for us and future generations. The problem is that, being merely human, he is going to let us down at some point in some way. Probably more often than not. Yet so many in America, and across the world, are placing all their hope in this one man. And that, to me, is frightening.

And horribly sad.

No single individual can meet the all the expectations we put on them, especially if we are placing our hope on them to better our future. And not just our temporal future. There is an eternal future that must be of greater concern to us, and there is only one source of hope for this future - Jesus Christ. God has promised that all who trust in His Son for the forgiveness of sins will live with Him in eternity, but those who do not trust in His Son will be forever separated from Him, living for eternity in the torment of being separated from love and good.

Now, there are some who do not believe in eternity after this life. They view death as an annihilation of our being, and therefore there is no reason to look to anything beyond this life. They argue that we must therefore make the best of this life and enjoy it while we can, because once we're dead, we're dead. Yet this view has no hope, and living without hope is not living at all. Though I agree that we only have one life as we know it, the life that comes from Christ is one that will never end, and it is one that is spent in the eternal beauty and love of the Father who made us and loves us dearly.

And that is a life worth hoping in.

So as we look to our newly-elected president as the hope for the future of our country, may this not be the end of our hope. Let us join together with the hymn writer in declaring that "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."





And I'm so sorry if this entry doesn't make sense. My mind was moving faster than my hands...

Morning Devotion

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in his law he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish.

~Psalm 1

It frightens me to think that I may fit in the category of the wicked in this psalm, but I do not seem to fit the description of the blessed righteous man. Sure, I consider the word both day and night, but right now that's because of my homework assignments, not because of a desire for a greater understanding of, and deeper relationship with, God.

I overheard a conversation in the student center on campus several weeks ago that struck me as sadly true, yet I seem to have done nothing about it in my life. These individuals were talking about their relationship with God pre-seminary versus their current situation. It seems many of us are in the same boat: when we come in, we are in a close relationship with God, but as we continue in our schooling, that relationship gets pushed further to the side as increased demands on our time and energy come from schoolwork, jobs, family, church commitments, internships, etc. We get so wrapped up in what needs to get done now that we neglect what is important in eternity – our relationship with God.

I am in need of a priority shift. Are you? Do you push your relationship with God to the side under the pressure of other parts of your life? Do you feel that your relationship with God is not what it used to be? If so, join me as we return our focus to the One who deserves our attention and praise.

PRAYER:

"Lord, you alone deserve all my attention and praise. You alone are due the glory I seek to place elsewhere, even on myself. Forgive me for the way I push you to the side, for you should be the focus and center of my life. Teach me to look to you first in all I do, and guide me to a restored relationship with you. Refine me, O Lord, that I may be used by you. In Jesus' name, amen."