These Are Uncomfortable Times

For the last week I’ve spent time sitting in front of my TV watching the world fall apart. The list of places in turmoil just seems to get longer and longer every day: Egypt, Libya, Iran, Morocco, Bahrain, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. It’s kind of scary. If I were an “end times” kind of theologian I would probably be busy right now writing this into my latest end of the world theory.

The problems I have with all the things I see and hear are multiple and in categories.

Some of the problems are my own.
I have a tendency to be overly analytical. You could say that I’m a big picture sort of guy. I try to see all the sides. I want to look at a problem (or an opportunity) from all angles. Part of me believes that if I we lay out all of the facts that everyone will be convinced by the obvious, make the right choices and decide to get along. I sympathize with peoples’ fears and my personality wants everyone to be happy but the world we live in doesn’t operate with those same expectations. Sometimes I am amazed with my own naïveté. My heart aches. These are uncomfortable times.

Some of the problems I see are just splashed across the screen.
I see a lot hate and anger and fear. I hear all kinds of contradictory information and when different people offer differing “facts” on the same subject there’s a pretty good chance that someone is lying. I want to believe that people are honest but what I see and hear doesn’t leave me that option. I see a lot of “the end justifies the means” behavior, which has never been my favorite philosophical model. There is a lot of hopelessness going around. These are indeed uncomfortable times.

So, what can I do? How do I help to change a world that is out of control? What should I do?
The answers (in order) are, “Nothing,” “I don’t” and “Proclaim Jesus!”

I have found myself up against this wall more times than I can count. The world is not always a friendly place, people don’t always play fair and I can’t do anything to change that. One of the reasons I am in the business I am in is because Jesus changes hearts and people need their hearts changed. It’s all right there on the screen of my TV: people needing Jesus. Jesus has a lot of work to do and so do I.

They Were Like Giants

When I was a kid the Green Bay Packers came to Sandy’s (a local fast food restaurant, the home of the plaid beret.) It wasn’t exactly all of the Green Bay Packers, it was Boyd Dowler (wide receiver) and Fuzzy Thurston (guard) but that was enough for me. They were like giants.

Most people came a lot more prepared than I did. There were people with footballs and jerseys and autograph books all waiting in line for signatures from these two sports idols. All I had was what I was wearing so I asked them if they would sign my shirt and they did; felt tip pen on polo.

After Boyd Dowler and Fuzzy Thurston left the area (you can bet that I wasn’t going to leave while they were hanging around) I ran all the way home, took off my shirt, had my Mom help me frame it and hung it up above my bed. It was there for years. This was one of those Kodak moments that I thought would never change. After all, I had some of it in writing, but what I ended up learning was that nothing in this life is forever.

Some years ago I saw Fuzzy Thurston interviewed on TV. Of course, this was forty years later; he’d had some kind of throat surgery at some point in the intervening years and spoke with a prosthetic device. He looked old. He wasn’t a giant anymore.

I don’t exactly remember when my Mom threw out my shirt. I think it was the same time she got rid of my comic books. They obviously didn’t mean as much to her and they did to me and so they ended up in a landfill somewhere.

I think that this is why when Jesus talks about life that is beyond this life he speaks to an emptiness in our souls that we are always trying to fill up with special moments and special people. I know that the critics of the faith (and even some who work within the faith) will say that we Christians made up a messiah specifically because we recognize that our lives are momentary. This theological approach makes our “faith” a fable on par with Little Red Riding Hood. When we are afraid that it isn’t working for us anymore we just change it.

I come at this from a different place. Jesus changed my life when I was feeling lost and alone. There was a transformational moment when I surrendered my pain to this living God and I have never been the same. So, I prefer to believe (what I think the Bible claims) that God saw the emptiness in our lives and came to give us hope that isn’t dependent on how much money we make or on how many awards we’ve been given. We don’t need “things” to make us special. God declares it so.

What I have always wanted people to understand is that this faith we proclaim is more than just an intellectual proposition and more than just a series of Kodak Christmases. This Jesus (the one we give ourselves to) is more than simply an emotional foxhole to hide in when real life wars around us. Jesus is our reality, the world we try so desperately to shape around us is the dream.

In a little more than a week the most current version of the Green Bay Packers will play in another Super Bowl and we will have another crop of heroes. There will be souvenirs and signatures hanging in little kid’s rooms all over the country but we need to remember that this will be simply one more moment in time and soon this too will be gone and when it does, Jesus will still remain.

Let's Give It One More Shot

So, all of us have rolled out of bed right into a brand new year and not for the first time. Just like last year (and the year before that) we will now spend time talking about this calendar change as if it has some great (almost spiritual) significance. This is a day of new beginnings. There is a lot of hope in that statement. This is our chance to live our lives differently, but, I think it is important that we acknowledge the New Year for what it is; an opportunity.

There is no magic in 2011. There are no quick fixes or easy answers. The reality is that 2011 will be remarkably like 2010. The sun will rise and set and the seasons will change and we will, most likely, live each day in much the way we have lived up to this moment. We are about to be confronted by the power of habit, tradition and repetition. Anyone who has resolved to lose a few pounds or give up their cigarettes or get more exercise can testify that change is hard.

The good news is that no matter how hard it is to make changes to our lives and no matter how many times we’ve tried and failed in the past we know that change is still possible. This is what makes each New Year a hopeful moment. We have been given an opportunity to be new people so why wouldn’t we want to try?

To be honest, this was an opportunity that was there for us last month and will still be there for us six months from now. Our lives are a series of endless opportunities but before we can move on to become the people we would like to be we have to embrace this moment and then work with it. Much of our lives are dominated by that little voice that says, “been there, done that, no use trying again.”

New Years says to us that it is time to try it again; it’s OK to give it another shot and we should.

The Christian faith is built around this same message of continual opportunity. Jesus invites us to trust in Him and allow Him to transform our lives. It can happen today if we are willing to surrender. What often gets in the way of our chance at new life is that same little voice that says, “been there, done that, no use trying again.”

Think of this New Year as God saying, “let’s give it one more shot. OK?”

Now With Extended Hours

As I drive back and forth from home to the church I serve I pass by another church which has, on its lawn, a sort of tri-cornered sign. On one of the panels of this sign there is a picture of an Advent candle with the words, “Hope,” “Joy,” “Love,” and “Peace” (a typical Advent display) but then on a small banner underneath this Advent panel it reads, “Now with extended hours.”

I know where the Advent candle panel came from. We are still in the liturgical season of Advent; a time when we are supposed to prepare our lives for the coming of the Savior and so many churches have something “adventish” displayed somewhere either inside or, as in this case, on the church lawn. I also have some insight into the “extended hours” banner. I’ve been up and down this road enough to know that this church also runs a day care and the day care program now has extended hours.

So, it is my assumption that these two signs were not intended to be connected they just are displayed that way. At first I thought of this display as simply humorous but as I’ve thought more about it I’ve decided to take it as a bit of serendipity.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we would (or could) extend the amount of time we spend living out our hope and joy and love and peace? Just think about how our lives and our personal world would change if we spent more time hopefully, joyfully, lovingly and peacefully living our lives for people to see.

And on the other side of this conversation, wouldn’t it be nice if we could be certain that when we needed someone to love us or smile for us or say a hopeful word to us that it would be readily available because they were operating on extended hours?

Our lives can be so easily tied up in petty problems and momentary irritations that we miss all of the good things that are happening around us. Maybe it’s time to take the cell phone out of our ear and pay attention to all of the little bits of wisdom (even unintentional wisdom) that are lining the roadways of our lives. You might find something that will wake you up to a new way of living and the world will be a better place because of it.

It kind of reminds me of a baby in a manger and a world that was never the same. It was almost as if God were saying, “Hope, Joy, Love, and Peace now with extended hours.”

It's Christmas. Isn't It Wonderful?

I mentioned in last Sunday morning’s conversation that my mother hasn’t put up any kind of Christmas tree for years. The only thing that would suggest that my mother is celebrating Christmas is the nativity scene, a set that has always been a part of our family’s Christmas, which she has set up on her kitchen table. It’s not that she isn’t into Christmas it’s just that she doesn’t have a huge need to fill her apartment with lights and bulbs.

It’s possible that part of her attitude toward Christmas decorations goes back to her childhood. She told me that when she was a child there were no decorations in their home until Christmas day. Santa Claus brought everything with him on Christmas Eve and so she woke up on Christmas morning to a house that had been transformed overnight. Her childhood Christmas tree had candles instead of electric lights and they were only lit for a very brief time so she didn’t really have a lot of childhood memories of rooms full of Christmas baubles.

To be fair, my mother isn’t the only one who has decided not to over decorate for the holidays. I’ve run into a number of people (mostly older people) who have decided they didn’t want to bother with a tree and lights and I’m OK with all of that. After all we keep trying to remind people that Christmas is about more than the decorations and the parties.

However, over the years I have always thought it was kind of sad to not decorate for the day, which gives you an idea of how important the lights and baubles have become to me. It’s not that I need them “spiritually.” I don’t need lights and balls and evergreens to celebrate the birth of Jesus. My relationship with Him is not built upon tradition; it is built upon a spiritual connection that is bigger than anything I can hold in my hand.

But, I am afraid that I need them “emotionally.” They have become a link to the memories I have of Christmases past. In my head they are attached to footie pajamas, transformers and Nintendo games; to times when my children were small and there was wonder in their eyes. It’s kind of scary to think that strings of lights and balls of glass can have such a hold on my life, but they do.

The challenge for me (and maybe for all of us) is to keep the spiritual and the emotional parts of our lives straight. It doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice one in order to have the other, it just means that we need to see them for what they are. Like my mother, I don’t need the decorations to celebrate the birth of my Savior, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t important.

It might be best to remember that we are all complicated creatures and that Jesus understands the complications and is still willing to work in us, with us and through us. It’s Christmas. Isn’t it wonderful?

Taking Time To Get Ready

I grew up on the north side of La Crosse, two blocks from what came to be called the Caledonia Street Shopping Center. It was actually the business district from a time when North La Crosse had been a separate city. There was a hardware store and a pharmacy, a movie theater and a “five and dime.”
Everything you needed was right there, nestled into two blocks on Caledonia Street.

Every year, in early November, someone would put up a little red house in an empty lot next to the Klinkner & Jensen’s shoe store. This was Santa’s house and all of us knew that when the little red house appeared that Christmas was coming.

Santa’s house was important because Christmas was important and Christmas was important because of all of the stuff that came along with it. It wasn’t just presents (although that was a big part of it) because there were decorations and celebrations and food that were part of Christmas that we never saw during the rest of the year. There was a lot to get excited about.

Advent (the four Sundays prior to Christmas) is a time that the church has set aside to help us prepare for Jesus’ coming into the world. Like Santa’s house it is supposed to remind us that something wonderful is soon to arrive.

If you’re like me, you will still get a bit excited as you put up the decorations, plan for the celebrations and prepare those special foods that are part of this season. But it seems to me that this is the reason we need a time like Advent in our lives. If we aren’t careful we will get so caught up in these seasonal memories that we won’t have any time or room for Jesus. How ironic is that?

So, I offer this reflection early (even before we’ve gotten to Thanksgiving) because I have a feeling that we could all use an extra bit of time to prepare our hearts and lives for what should be one of the most precious moments in our year.

We will still plan to light the Advent candles (in Church and hopefully as families) and set out our nativity sets (and remember all of the players in this beautiful story) and remind ourselves again that there is something, even more wonderful, coming that we can be excited about. At Christmas God became a human being and loved us like we’ve never been loved before.

For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. +Luke 2:11

When a celebration is as important to us as Christmas is we want to make sure that we take whatever time is required to get our hearts and our heads in the right place. Let us begin.

A Child In The Best Possible Way

I recently finished up (hopefully) raking and bagging 40 bags of leaves. It was quite a switch for me because the house we moved from had a row of pine trees in the back (read that as no leaves) and one small maple tree in the front yard and most of those leaves blew away before I ever got a chance to pick up a rake. The house we live in now has a nice selection of mature trees, which provide good shade in the summer and good exercise in the Fall. I should have seen it coming.

When I was 10, leaves were all about playing. We would rake up huge piles of leaves just so we could jump in them. Once we got tired of jumping we would spread them out into rows and move the rows around to make the outline of a house (complete with leaf furniture) and then pretend to live there.

When I was a child, the falling leaves were something to celebrate, but today those same leaves have become mostly a nuisance. The leaves haven’t changed. They still smell the same and they still crackle when you step on them. The only thing that has changed is me.

So, I began asking myself, “Is this what it means to get old? Have I become so jaded to the world around me that I no longer have a sense of wonder in my soul; a bit of whimsy in my life?” I’m afraid the answer might be, “yes.”

I tell myself that I’ve just gotten responsible and that this is called “maturity.” I tell myself that this is what is supposed to happen but then I remember that Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Luke 18:17) and I wonder about losing touch with the child I once was.

Then, it struck me that part of my Christian journey might be to re-learn something that I once intuitively knew but have lost along the way. The real issue might not have anything to do with being old or having an abundance of leaves. The real issue might be how much I trust Jesus.

I (like so many others) may have simply decided to let the challenges of life dictate my response to life. Without really thinking about it I’m afraid that I have said to God that He can take a break because I've got it handled and then I come to those reflective moments when I realize just how much of a burden that really is. I'm starting to have sympathy for the OT people of Israel.

To jump or not jump is not the question. To trust or not to trust is. I think I want to be a child again, in the best possible way.