SoapBox

Christmas always gets me going. I search for that soapbox to get up on and scream at the world. I promise I won't scream...much.

Contemplate this description of Christ in Isaiah 53:2-5:

"He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed."

When I contemplate the gift which God gave us in Jesus, somehow, I don't envision celebrating His birth in the "me-centered" way we do.

Christmas is the time for the most family altercations, the highest level of depressions and suicides, the highest use of credit cards, and the most amount of disappointed people because they didn't get what THEY wanted out of Christmas.

I watched my three-year old daughter, Lily, ask about a dozen times, "where are my presents?" I can't help but envision God watching us going through the throws of the Holiday season with some disappointment. We are missing the opportunity to truly celebrate our Savior.

They way most of us celebrate Christmas is not a reflection of who Christ is and what He did on earth. Most of our traditions are not centered on the mission of Christ. I'm finding Christ is mostly an after thought in our traditions. Most of our traditions are centered on our own fulfillment.

My husband got a full-dose of what I think the celebration of God's gift is all about. Someone gave us a bike to give our daughter. My husband had already bought her a bike for Christmas. The people who gave it to us said, "Give it away to someone else." My husband put the bike in the back of his Jeep until he could figure out what to do with it.

He wasn't really thinking about it when he was driving one day and passed a woman and a little girl, just about the same age as Lily. He felt instantly compelled that they were just the ones to get the bike. He drove back, opened up the back, set the bike out and said, "Merry Christmas!"

He said, "I can't remember what I got for last Christmas, but the look on their faces will stay with me forever." Now THAT is celebrating an eternal, loving, and life-giving God.

Next year, we're going to purchase gifts to keep in our car to give away. I want Lily to exclaim, "Mommie, where are the presents to give away?" THEN she will understand who Jesus is.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45

Absolutely Ruined

I haven't written for awhile as I've been doing heads down, keep your nose to the grind stone writing. Tonight, I felt drawn to writing something a little lighter. Maybe "lighter" isn't a good word choice here, maybe it's just more free-form and personal than what I've been writing. I needed a moment tonight to just let my hair down and write what's on my heart.

I recently read a quote from Matt Chandler's (the lead pastor of The Village Church in Dallas) blog and it keeps reverberating around in my mind - resonating within my heart - almost haunting me. He says (I added the emphasis):

"He grabbed hold of every part of me and has absolutely ruined me for anything but Him. The process of sanctification has been and still is quite often a very difficult one. No one told me (or maybe they did) that Jesus wanted my heart. I thought there was going to be some behavior modification and some new friends but I didn’t understand how He was going to search and destroy in me anything that wasn’t of Him. Nor did I understand how dark my heart truly was and how out of fear, pride and arrogance I would argue, complain and resist almost every advance of the Holy Spirit to reconcile every part of my being into holiness."

If I had to summarize the emotions I feel in my passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ - this pretty much nails it. He has ruined me for everything else but Him. Nothing brings me the same "high" as it once did. He keeps destroying those parts of me which don't reflect His image.

Two things strike me funny about this:

ONE - I told Him He could do this to me. Yes! I gave Him permission to seek and annihilate all that isn't of Him. I consistent tell Him He owns me - I am His slave - all that I am and all that I'm not is His to do with as He pleases. I surrender and relinquish my control over my life as well as the many, many expectations I have about what my life should be and shouldn't be on a daily basis. I ASKED for it!

TWO - I wouldn't change it for anything. Nothing is compares to what He has given me in return. Nothing. Nadda. Zilch.

One of the many projects I'm working on is an exploration of the "Tipping Point". What does it take a Christ-follower to "tip over" from the mundane, "I go to church on Sundays" kind of faith to a passionate, all-out, onslaught of pursuit kind of faith?

I've come to the conclusion that it takes an evacuation - an emptying. The more we surrender to Jesus our fears, our pride, our expectations, our dreams, our skewed sense of right and wrong, and our own desires - the more space we open up for Him to fill with all those things we really want; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Okay, so that sounded very simplistic, but I think it is really that simple. However, living it out is what is so difficult. I have literally argued, complained, and resisted this process at almost every stage. In fact, I'd add moaned, whined, bargained, and pouted to the list as well. I have not done this journey gracefully, that is for sure, but I have done it and still am willfully allowing God to empty me of my life so He can replace it with my true life.

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 10:29

I'm so glad it doesn't take my perfection because I'm not even in the same ballpark. I'm convinced this journey toward God simply takes my passion and persistence and HIS perfection. That is the recipe to be absolutely ruined for anything but Jesus.