Ready for Christmas?

Suddenly it's December 21st and we're well into the 4th week of Advent and it feels as though the pressure is on.  How do I not lose Christ at Christmas?  Here's my latest post over at the Jesus Boat Blog.

**********************

Ready for Christmas


Are you ready for Christmas?

The question hangs in the air as you review an internal checklist: gifts purchased? cards sent? menu planned? travel plans confirmed?

While the house may be clean and decorated to celebrate with friends and family, how have you prepared your heart to celebrate the birth of our Savior?

Christmas Day is preceded by the season of Advent, or “coming”: four weeks of preparation and waiting marked by reminders of our need for a savior and punctuated by joy that God has indeed redeemed us through his son, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

To read the rest, visit http://www.jesusboatmuseum.com/blog/?p=844

Shalom, y'all!
Karen

Advent Adventures: Seek Him

“If you seek this

baby Jesus,

seek the Lord 

with all your might,

you will find him

as the shepherds did

as they searched for him

one starry night.”

--Luke Gambill “One Starry Night”

I have a confession to make: I’m a bit of a Christmas crier.  Every time the people of Bedford Falls unite to help George Bailey at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, I reach for the tissues.  When Linus cues the lights and recites Luke 2:8-14 to the Peanuts gang, hand me a Kleenex.  The Grinch realizes that Christmas isn’t about presents and feasting?    White Christmas’s Wallace and Davis surprise General Waverly with his old unit singing “We’ll Follow the Old Man”?  Start the waterworks.

A couple of weeks ago I subbed in one of the pre-Kindergarden classes while the children rehearsed their song for the musical One Starry Night.  I sat behind the class as those cherubic voices sang about seeking and finding Jesus.  I was in big trouble.  It was either pull myself together or use the only absorbent surface available, my sleeve.

These simple, yet profound lyrics sum up what we’ve been doing this Advent season, seeking Jesus with all our might.  Our search is not in vain, as scripture reminds us:

But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  (Jeremiah 29:13)

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  (Matthew 7:7)

I’m astounded at the simplicity of this message.  God does not demand that we pass a test, or pay a fee, or make ourselves worthy before entering into a relationship with Him.   There’s no fine print, no levels we must reach first.  He assures us that He will be found if we seek Him with our heart and soul...with all our might.

Have you found Him this Christmas?  He’s not hidden away--but ever present. When the shepherds heard the angels’ proclamation they went to Bethlehem as fast as they could to see for themselves what God had revealed to them.  Seek Him this week, as the shepherds did and see for yourself.  

“For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”  (Matthew 7:8)


Shalom y'all

Advent Adventures: Joy

Poor little pink candle.  Every Advent season she stands alone among the purple candles, ready for this particular Sunday, in which we celebrate the joy of Christ’s coming.  We should be joyful all season--but especially on this day, the third Sunday of Advent.  The candle waits, but every year she’s passed over.

Evangelical churches, in my experience, don’t know what to make of the pink candle.  For many years running I’ve watched believers approach the church’s Advent wreath with hesitation. They light the first two purple candles--but nobody wants to touch the pink one.  Better to keep doing what we’ve been doing so far--lighting purple candles. So a third purple candle is lit and the pink one is left for last, not by design but by default.

It’s not the fault of the candle lighters.  Contemporary worship tends to shun tradition--and the lighting of the pink candle on the third Sunday is an old tradition.  We simply don’t understand and miss out on an important symbol of the season. It’s too bad.  With our emphasis on praise and worship and the Advent Conspiracy movement, this is a tradition Evangelicals could really embrace.

The third Sunday of Advent is about joy.  Not the “joy of toys” or the “big joy” of “lower prices” that the sales circular promised today.  No, this is the time in Advent in which we celebrate our Lord’s coming and our redemption. This Sunday is Gaudete Sunday--gaudete being Latin for “rejoice”.  It takes its name from the first word of the traditional worship introit, which is taken from Philippians 4:4-6:

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice; let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

Have no anxiety?  Pray with thanksgiving?  Throw off the shackles of holiday materialism and let others witness your joy in the real Hope of Christmas?  Sign me up!  What a wonderful kick in the pants as deadlines loom and chores pile high.  We need the bright pink candle to remind us, once again, that Christmas is all about the birth of our Savior.

Just as it’s easy to pass over the pink candle on this third Sunday, it’s easy to miss the joy of Advent by doing what we’ve been doing so far.  No matter the deadlines, no matter your circumstances, stop what you're doing and just rejoice:

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.  (Psalm 118:24)

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. (Psalm 51:12)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds (James 1:2)

Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again : Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)


Shalom y'all

Advent Adventures: Praising

Today begins week 2 of our family’s journey through Advent.  The first Sunday in December is a busy one in our church.  The Christmas Cantata is a big production: adult, children, and college choirs, musicians, pipe organ, and handbells (that’s us). The sanctuary glows with white lights and greenery.  Already we’d had 3 morning services of traditional and contemporary praise and worship with carols and communion. 

It was a wonderful, worshipful time, but I knew we’d all be tired by the evening.  It was tempting to shorten our family night--or even move it--but what a loss that would have been.

Tonight’s theme was “concern for others” and our activity was to make cards for people with whom we want to share the joy and love of Jesus during this Advent season.  My 2-year-old son wanted to make a card for a friend at school.  He scribbled a picture, stuck on some stickers, signed his name, and danced around with his card--singing his friend’s name.  My 5-year-old made his best friend “the best card he’s ever seen.”  Bruce and I chose family members who are facing tough illnesses.

The most beautiful part of the evening was the time when we shared when each of us felt close to God this week.  I wasn’t sure that the boys would understand the question, but DW got very excited.  He called out, “We feel close to Jesus when we praise him!”

I reflected on the joy I’d felt this morning as the choir and congregation sang carols and songs of praise--telling and retelling the Christmas story and offering praise to God for the gift of salvation.  Each song was like a present held out to Jesus--”Master, open this one!” At the time I’d wished I could bottle up that closeness to save for later.  My son reminded me that I don’t have to.  Just praising brings me close to my Lord all over again.

I pray this week that I will have a child-like heart, that I will offer praise to Jesus with the full assurance that he is close.  Emmanuel.  God with us. 

Shalom y'all.

Journey Through Advent--The Cypress Times

Speaking of Advent.....


The following article is featured on the front page of  The Cypress Times today.


Journey Through Advent: Our Family's Adventure


I'm hoping to continue the series this season. 

Advent Adventures: Waiting

Can it really be Thursday already?  We celebrated the first Sunday of Advent 4 days ago and the week is almost over. Feels like I’m in one of those old movies that shows the passing of time by the flipping (and flying) of pages from a daily calendar.  I’m compiling lists and checking things off; making plans and filling my schedule.  Are there enough days to get everything done before Christmas?

On the other hand, my children feel that time is moving too slowly.  Christmas will never get here.

I want time to slow down and wait.  My boys are tired of waiting.

Advent is a season waiting: not the secular-Xmas waiting in line for Black Friday sales and Santa Claus, but of learning to live in the post-Resurrection time of waiting by revisiting those who anticipated Jesus’ birth. We read Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. We remember the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth, waiting years to conceive a child. We tell the story of Mary and Joseph, waiting for the fulfillment of the angel’s promise.  We recall the story of Simeon and Anna, who waited for decades in the temple courts for the promised redeemer.

Yet, they weren’t characters in a Christmas pageant, waiting offstage for their cues.  They were full flesh-and-blood participants in the life around them: doing laundry, sewing clothes, preparing meals, shopping, repairing, visiting, consoling. They went about their daily tasks, season by season, anticipating the fulfillment of a promise. Their hands were busy, but their hearts and minds were focused.

In her book, The Liturgical Year, Joan Chittister says, “the function of Advent is to remind us what we’re waiting for as we go through life too busy with things that do not matter to remember the things that do.”

I have a million little things to do in the next three weeks.  I pray that, like Zechariah and Mary, Simeon and Anna, I’ll remember the things that matter.  I’ll watch and wait for Jesus, our Messiah.

Plant Good Seeds

Summer was not kind to our yard. An agreement to put down new sod never came to fruition. White grubs attacked the front yard. Weeds ran rampant in the back.  An extra month of Florida's broiling summer temperatures baked the remaining lawn.  If I had a dollar for every dollar weed.....


Still--our grass continues to fight on as I try to remedy problems which have developed over the past few years.  I haven't been able to do much yard work since the birth of our first son.  My boys have only recently allowed me to work on household projects while they amuse themselves.  It's hard to mow and trim with preschoolers clinging to my shirt.  It's been over 5 years since I've been able to help with the yard and it shows.  The condition of my lawn fills me with equal parts despair and determination.


So my heart and mind were primed for a recent sermon illustration.  Pastor told the story of a man who battled crabgrass in his yard, digging it up wherever he found it.  He discovered that he never could get rid of it.  He could dig forever and the crabgrass would spring up somewhere else.  Finally, he asked a lawn expert what to do.  The man told him, "Forget the crabgrass. Plant good seeds."


It took him 3 years of planting and nurturing the good grass, but he looked out one spring and his yard was beautiful.  The crabgrass was on the edges of the yard, trying to get in, but it couldn't. The good grass was too thick. Its roots were too deep.


As I approach this Advent season, it's easy for me to look back over this year and see where I've failed. Resolutions made at the beginning of 2009 were choked out by the weeds of busyness and neglect.  The demands of projects and appointments cling to me, keeping me from tending the garden of my soul.


I could keep digging at these regrets--or I could get busy planting good seeds.  The season of Advent begins next Sunday: the first Sunday of the liturgical year.  Our family will begin a weekly devotional time. I have my "Bible in a year" plan ready.  I've discovered some tips that other busy moms have shared for meditating on God's word during the day--and will share those here. I'm ready to plant good seeds and encourage deep roots. Life's weeds will still be there, but hopefully they won't grow in as far.


Yesterday, I hauled out the spreader and put down the first bag of fertilizer toward reclaiming our yard. We've sprayed for grubs.  I'm preparing to re-sod or re-plug parts of our yard in early spring.  Hopefully one day our lush, green lawn will return. In the meantime, every weed will serve as a physical and spiritual reminder to plant good seeds.


Shalom y'all.

Getting Ready to Get Ready

Christmas is coming. That means the Advent season is upon us in just a few weeks.  With 2 kids in the house quiet time is a rare commodity.  But I don't want to miss Christmas in a flurry of Thanksgiving cooking-shepherd costume making-cookie baking-gift wrapping hyperactivity.


So now I'm getting ready to get ready to observe the Advent season again.


Advent is the four week period prior to Christmas in which we celebrate the birth of Christ and anticipate His second coming. The word "Advent" comes from the Latin "adventus" which means "coming" or "arrival". Advent is a time of reflection, confession and preparation.  In our household we light candles on each of the Sundays of Advent as we reflect on a different Advent theme. Our Advent wreath contains 4 candles: 3 purple and 1 pink. [More on that later.] The wreath surrounds a white candle, which is lit on Christmas Eve.


I've been shopping for candles, much easier to come by in previous years.  Where are the purple and pink votives this year? (!)


I'm also digging through our seasonal devotions and looking for one to do with my family--and possibly our Sunday School class.


November 29, 2009 is the first Sunday of Advent.


Don't miss the Messiah this year. It's time to get ready.