Tis the Season to be Giving: Christmas and Beyond

Gifts of the Season

At times, when I write, the words get stuck somewhere between my heart and my head. For someone who can be a bit of a hummingbird flitting about from here to there that makes perfect sense. However now, rather than getting stuck somewhere with wings flapping wildly about, I know the importance of the pause that happens as the words pass from my heart to my head and then to the place where I put pen to paper. Pauses happened a lot this week. I had a subject in mind for my blog. I began writing, but as often happens, God had another plan.

In the pause, God always speaks to me. He knows exactly what I need and when I need it. I understand the stillness of heart, mind, and soul required if I am to get this right. That hummingbird part of me has gotten me into a fair amount of trouble over the years. Thankfully, the flitting about is no longer as pronounced as it once was. I attribute some of that to my age.

Slow and steady wins the race. I learned that one from Aesop’s tortoise and hare in elementary school. As with many lessons, it takes some of us more time than others to apply the learning in our own lives. That, I think, has more to do with our stubbornness and the choices we make than with getting older. I know plenty of younger individuals whose choices tell me they learned some of their most valuable life lessons far earlier in their lives than I. Their perseverance, persistence, and consistency demonstrate their understanding of walking the narrow road as opposed to the wide one. I see them and know the One who leads them.

As for me, I might not be as young as I once was, but I understand the value of good, though sometimes difficult, life lessons. In that, God gets all the credit for taking hold of me and for placing some remarkable people in my life to help lead me back to the narrow gate. We all need those people in our lives, and we need God’s unchanging Word to give our questioning minds the only truth that leads us to peace—the peace that surpasses our human understanding.

Stepping through that gate onto the narrow road or continuing our lives upon the wider path is a choice we all must make. Matthew 7:13-14 serves as our warning. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (ESV). Not everyone chooses the path leading to life. That saddens me because I know that way, while hard, takes those choosing it on an indescribable journey out of darkness and into an amazing light.

What God promises is real. From Genesis to Revelation—every promise, every truth for our lives can be found there. Of course, reading the Bible is one thing, accepting the truth of God’s Word, quite another. Lately, God keeps leading me back to this truth, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:23-26, emphasis mine).

Tis the season to be giving, and grace is a gift, a precious gift God offers to all of us. It is one we should freely give to others as well. Something miraculous and freeing happens to us when we offer grace like that of God’s to those in our lives. When challenging situations arise, when disappointment comes, when people fail to meet our expectations, I wonder what might happen in our relationships if grace, deserved or not, were our first response? I wonder, too, if we stopped flapping our wings or our mouths wildly about, whichever the case may be, and extended kindness and mercy toward others how our relationships might change, how our own lives might change?

Often, we, too easily, ignore our own sins and mistakes. We have little, if any, tolerance and patience for others often assuming we understand their intentions. During this Christmas season of giving and beyond, a grand erase of what we think we know and a good long look in the mirror might help us see the plank in our own eye first. A simple pause and a glance at my reflection reminds me of the glaring reality of my sins, my mistakes, and my imperfections. I am thankful God’s mercies for me are new each morning, His steadfast love never ceases, and His faithfulness is unending.

I remember....”you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

The reality of who I am in Christ Jesus comes in the truthful answers God gives me when I pray and when I immerse myself in His Word. Here the presence of the Holy Spirit strengthens me and helps me fight every personal battle. Our battles all differ; however, true freedom in Christ requires we walk the same narrow road, and we crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. With God there is no compromise; however, He never intended we fight our battles alone. He gave each one of us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and carrying the fruit of the Spirit, we learn what it is to live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are gifts God gives to us, and like His gift of grace we are all better for passing them along to others. Remembering I do not know the reality of another person’s fight, I pray the grace, so freely given to me, will always be my gift to others not only during this Christmas season of giving but also beyond. Wherever my daily walk takes me in the future, may I pause and remember, too, sometimes my best and most grace-filled response to others is often no response at all.

Seeking wisdom from God and His unchanging truth, I ask, “Is it greater self-control or patience I need, more kindness or gentleness? Do I need to learn more of love, of joy, of peace? Great is Your faithfulness, Father, strengthen mine. Let me not be the hindrance that keeps others from knowing Your truth and obeying it.” From day-to-day, the answers I receive are not always the same, but allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me, I pray to be filled with fruit of the Spirit that flows from my life into another life and then another until one day from our expanding circles of influence we all fill the Earth with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—no more conceit, no more provoking one another, no more envying one another—just grace, simple, abundant grace—everywhere. What a precious and powerful gift!

Galatians 5

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Keep in Step with the Spirit

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Choose Something Like a Star: Being Still, Knowing God

Choose Something Like a Star

The final weeks of 2024 are upon us. Here in Kansas only remnants of the beautiful colors of Fall remain. Soon, we will be steeped in gray December. A new year follows. Then the winter’s dreariness gives rise to the newness of Spring, followed by Summer’s warmth. The winds of change buffet us along and we, too, usher in the new seasons of our lives. Through it all, “He [makes] everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastics 3:11, ESV, emphasis mine).

I cannot fathom all that God has done, all that He is doing, all that He will do. Still, I praise Him. Sometimes I wonder about the why of it all especially when I see others struggling even though I know their painful circumstances and their trials—big and small—like yours and mine, are not a measure of God’s love for us. In fact, even in the struggle God works all things out for both our good and His glory. Taking hold of that promise, we need never doubt who God is nor the power of His love for us. His divine nature is real.

The evidence that God is present in our lives is everywhere. Satan prefers we focus on him and not on our Creator God. When we give the world and those of it our attention, our eyes grow dim and Satan’s job of tempting us and enticing us to sin becomes easier. The world clamors for our attention. Satan craves it, but leaving the noise, the chaos, the confusion, and our own busyness behind and simply turning our eyes to the heavens could change more than that moment for us. In it, we might find the path to hope, to healing, to restoration.

God does make everything beautiful in its time. I have seen it. I understand doubt and frustration and the search for understanding; however, standing in the darkness of a silent night, when I see the stars, serenity and peace wash over me. Finding God in this messy world might be as simple as choosing something like a star.

Humor me while I step back into my literature classroom for a moment. The mere mention of an author or one of his or her works brings back fond memories of my students and the time we spent together exploring the writings of classic authors whose words, I hoped, would leave a lasting impression upon their hearts and minds. Now retired, my heart for literature and the classic writers of old remains. The words resonating most with me today come from those I discovered to be authentic men and women of faith. These days, I return to them often and quote them in my writing, too.

Robert Frost is one of those. Rabbi Victor Reichert, a friend and neighbor of Frost’s, once said, “I hear the voice of God in his poems. He was deeply spiritual. He was listening to God.” I hear that, too. The words in his poem Choose Something Like a Star allow us to experience the pause of which I wrote earlier.

There is something so personal in the darkness surrounding Frost as he fixes his gaze on a single star. That star, the one he calls “the fairest one in sight,” remains silent even as Frost implores it to give him a word or some direction to be remembered and called upon later. The poet desires much more than the star’s “I burn.” As the poem progresses, I am reminded that the contemplative moments of my own life calm me and settle my mind, and it is only in rising above the fray and stepping away from the world that I hear,

“Be still, and know that I am God.    

I will be exalted among the nations,    

I will be exalted in the earth!”

(Psalm 46:10)

Like Keat’s Eremite myself, I am an introvert who is comfortable with solitude. I find seclusion appealing, and yet, I know God created me for a purpose I cannot ignore. In that, I am reminded, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that [we] may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which [we] shine as lights in the world as [we] hold forth the word of life....” (Philippians 2:14-16a). In the changing seasons of my life and the lives of those I love, I hold fast to my faith in Jesus Christ and to the truth of God’s unchanging Word. God exists and is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. I see all around me His remarkable glory in creation making me ever-more aware, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

I pray as we enter this holy Christmas season and await the Savior’s birth that you choose something as simple as a star to slow you, to bring you hope and to lead you to Jesus, the one who heals and restores those places of your heart, your mind, and your soul needing it most.

Choose Something Like a Star

by Robert Frost

O Star (the fairest one in sight),

We grant your loftiness the right

To some obscurity of cloud –

It will not do to say of night,

Since dark is what brings out your light.

Some mystery becomes the proud.

But to be wholly taciturn

In your reserve is not allowed.

Say something to us we can learn

By heart and when alone repeat.

Say something!

And it says "I burn."

But say with what degree of heat.

Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.

Use language we can comprehend.

Tell us what elements you blend.

It gives us strangely little aid,

But does tell something in the end.

And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,

Not even stooping from its sphere,

It asks a little of us here.

It asks of us a certain height,

So when at times the mob is swayed

To carry praise or blame too far,

We may choose something like a star

To stay our minds on and be staid.

"You keep in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."

Isaiah 26:3

The Ones I Thought I Knew: Living Out a Biblical Worldview in a Conflicted Modern Culture

Into the Darkness

At the conclusion of my last post several weeks ago, I chose to remain a quiet election observer. As a woman who has worn many hats over the years—daughter, student, wife, mom, educator, expat, friend and now grandmother and great grandmother—outcomes matter to me. Many had a personal stake in this one, and it seems my worldview differs from that of the many...This time, however, the ones I thought I knew who had and still hold such bitterness and contempt for anyone not walking in lock step with their worldly ideals leave me baffled.

Their expectation that I blindly walk the same road they have chosen and follow this messy world and those of it into the abyss of nothingness not only breaks my heart for them but also makes me wonder, “What happened?” At one time the ones I thought I knew traveled the road of truth. They now live the mantra, “Find your truth. Live your truth, and of course, choose only that truth which allows you to live your best life now.” Anything beyond the here and the now seems insignificant. They draw a line in the sand and build ineffaceable walls. They choose self above all else and make the desires of their selfish hearts the ultimate authority in their decision making.

The ones I thought I knew normalize sin and say, “You are wrong. You are the selfish one. You are confused about truth and about the things God desires for our modern culture.” They are right about one thing...I am selfish about God and the truth of His Word. Every attempt the ones I thought I knew and others make to change my mind about that will not be successful. The roads I have traveled and my personal choices assure me life works best not only for me but also for those I care about when I leave everything in God’s hands.

I look around and see God has simply gone out of style for some. The voices of those choosing to be of the world shame only themselves. If anything, the voices of the ones I thought I knew have given me more courage to be the unflinching daughter of God and the woman He created me to be. I will continue in my endeavor to seek His truth and to keep His Word. God is my ultimate authority in all things. “For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:18, ESV).

God’s Word gives each one of us discerning wisdom. The warnings found there are more than mere cautionary tales. They are promises.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;    

call upon him while he is near;

let the wicked forsake his way,    

and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

let him return to the Lord,

that he may have compassion on him, 

and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

(Isaiah 55:6-7, emphasis mine).

As for the ones I thought I knew, I have this, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). I embrace the truth of God’s Word and trust in every biblical promise found within its pages. The ones I thought I knew did at one time too. They trusted in God and His plans for their lives, and they believed in the truth of His Word. We did not always get it right. We failed miserably at times and still do. I wish sin did not live in me, but it does. Where God and my salvation are concerned, I take nothing for granted. I do not always understand what God is doing in my life and the lives of those I care about most, but I wake daily with the prayer that today might be the day we finally get everything right. Some days are better than others. Fortunately, for us God remains. He does not let go, and I hold onto Him and His promises until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is a BIG thing to me that God wants none of us—you, me, and the ones I thought I knew—to perish. “For God so loved [us] that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn [us], but to save [us] through him.” Those words from John 3:16-17 always get me, and when I read further, I am aware the Holy Spirit pushes this gal to write even on those days when I would rather be a silent observer. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God” (John 3:18-21, emphasis mine).

Knowing this, I wonder as I write. Is this merely confusion caused by the noise and the chaos of the world and those of it or is there something deeper and darker residing within the hearts, the minds, and the souls of the ones I thought I knew? I would like to believe that is not the case, but they stand firm in their belief that I am confused, confident in what they say is God’s truth for their lives.

This world is a treacherous place. We need to pray, without ceasing, for one another. “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication”(Ephesians 6:16-18). Personal experience tells me those flaming darts often hit their mark. The fight is real. Not one of us is immune from the attacks of the evil one.

I struggle when I see the ones I thought I knew and others whom I do not intent on taking up the causes and crusades of the evil one and calling it the will of God. When everything in me struggles to understand, God’s unchanging Word answers me and I am comforted “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14:1-7, emphasis mine). What a promise for those who walk in truth!

I know the One who calls to us, the One who permeates the noise, the chaos, and the confusion of the world, and I know the one who takes the hand of anyone choosing to follow the path into darkness and destruction rather than the path of light, of absolute truth, and of salvation. Everything in me fights to believe the ones I thought I knew would willfully choose to be enemies of the cross of Christ, for I know discerning minds understand the things of which they speak, the principles they support, and the agendas they follow are not biblical, and therefore, not truthful. Could it be “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” (Ephesians 4:18)? I do not want that to be their truth, but what else could it be? A hardened heart, lack of discernment or merely the need to be right? Whatever it is my prayers become more fervent with each passing day for the ones I thought I knew. 

C. S. Lewis said it well when he wrote, “The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose, the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light; and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling. In plain language, the question should never be: 'Do I like that kind of service?' but 'Are these doctrines true: is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper? 'When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong, they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.”

We do not all arrive at the same time, and I pray the ones I thought I knew and others choose not to stand too long in the hall, that they, instead, open the door leading to Jesus...the way, the truth, and the life.