Winter has arrived...

 

 Winter has arrived here in north central PA.  We've received around 18" in the last day and a half or so.  It was good snow. Soft, light, easily shoveled...

I continue to feel so very blessed to be in this place at this time.  In addition to being closer to family, mortgage free and retired from the rat race of institutionalized ministry, I am able to appreciate the beauty and the splendor of God's creative prowess.I've generally been able to adapt to (or at least learn to tolerate the many varied settings in which we have lived - the wonderfully temperate highlands of Nairobi (in spite of the poverty, noise, and pollution), the heat and humidity of Chiang Mai (along with the haste, overcrowding, and what was terrible and is now the worst air quality in the world),

and the heat and humidity (along with the Harmattan winds, the noise and waste) of Accra Ghana (in what is often considered the hottest and most humid area of the world).

Not that I didn't complain from time to time, but I have long had the sense that complaining about that over which one has no control is a waste of time.  It neither makes good, helpful, or endearing conversation, nor does it change anything.

I've known people who say "I could never live anywhere else" when referring to the place in which they've lived all of their lives.  And I guess I can appreciate that the good Lord does not call all to the lifestyle to which I seem to have been called.  But I do wonder what might happen if each of us, and I include myself in all of this, were to say to God, "Here I am, send me."  Do we have the trust in our Lord to be uprooted from our jobs, our homes, our family, all that is familiar...

Can we say, in spite of what we might want, in spite of what we may think we can and cannot do, in spite of what we like and enjoy, that we are truly WILLING servants.

Carol and I are currently in something of a discernment mode regarding our future work with the Great Guana Cay congregation.  It would put us back into a more active ministry role.  It would move us from our comfortable home here in north central PA, near our family...to the Bahamas.  Some might say, "and you VACILLATE?

Many of us tend to stay put because we fear change or we tend to go because we love adventure.  The human spirit is fickle.  So how do we discern the will of God?  It begins with a willingness to set aside all that we like, all that we love, all that we have established, and say openly and honestly, that we would rather live in destitute poverty in the slums of Kibera witnessing to God's grace, than to live in the lap of luxury and confidence, comfort and convenience, doing little for the Lord.

So as Carol and I look forward to getting a furnace installed in the next couple of weeks, we realize too that this will free us up for more possibilities. We won't be locked in to feeding the wood stove every 3-6 hours.  We wouldn't have to flush the toilets with antifreeze, turn of the water and drain the lines.  We will be more fluid, more free to move about... God just keeps making it easier to do His will (for all of us).

Internet communication makes things possible that have hitherto not been possible.   Information flows freely across the airwaves.  Travel is easier now than it has ever been (in spite of people's anxiety about having to produce a vaccine card and wear a mask, and even quarantine oneself).  

Since Christ suffered so much for us, might we not more easily and willing follow in His footsteps, taking on His yoke? Who are we to whine, complain, make excuses, or otherwise neglect the wonderful possibilities he sets before us.

It's not so much a matter of "I haven't heard God's call."  It's more a matter of not really having been interested in listening for that call nor being willing to obey when we hear it, forsaking all others...Too often we hear God's call once and we stay with that, even past the expiration date of the call, thinking it wouldn't, couldn't, and won't be done with out us, never wondering if maybe it could or should be done without us, or maybe not done anymore at all. God's call is difficult to construe to be sure...but it must be that which we seek with all the intelligence, imagination, and love he makes available to us

The new Heaven and the new Earth which God promises should make one realize just how bland, sick, broken, and ugly this earth is.  Our future resurrection lives will mock today's existence - the Grand Canyon, the Pyramids of Egypt, the small Parisian Cafe, are all but things which moth and rust consume, things which will be made new without decay, without decline, without destruction. 

So what's holding you back?

It's Christmas somewhere...

 

It's Christmas Day.  My wife and I have exchanged gifts.  The fire is burning in the wood stove.  We are snug in our home.  Some of our children will arrive in an hour or so. And I am reflecting, yet again, on why Christmas always seems so empty to me.  

I don't recall ever truly enjoying the gift giving.  I do recall sometimes waking up in the middle of the night and going out and just sitting in the living room.  I recall a very specific time when my dad came out and just sat with me in the silence.  It was snowing.  I had turned the Christmas Tree lights on.  I was sad and my dad comforted me. Even then I recalled thinking that there must be more to Christmas than just singing a bunch of songs at church lighting some candles, exchanging gifts. But I never caught the excitement bug.

Later in life, when we entered our child raising years, we would have the children come in on Christmas morning to wake us with a Christmas Hymn.  It had to be a Christian Hymn, because Christmas, irrespective of the social nonsense, is a Christian Holiday. Period.  That was often the highlight of Christmas, the drowsy, raspy early morning voices trying to stay in tune.  I missed that this morning...

Nevertheless Christmas comes each year and each and every year I get caught up in listening to the ne'er do well pundits trying to explain, "the real meaning of Christmas."

But this year it seems seems to have struck an especially sour note.  I hear it in pulpits. I hear it on the radio. I read it on the internet.  Asininity is everywhere.

And yet that is the reality of Christmas! 

Jerusalem was awash with do-gooders and well-intentioned people who didn't have a clue God was amongst them.  Just like today.  Rulers made baseless claims and were fearful to the point of insanity.  And yet in their midst, without their approval, without their opinion on the matter, the Very Begotten of God dwelt amongst them in Glory; not the kind of glory world defines as glorious but the kind, of Glory that belongs only to the King of Kings, which only the broken, repentant, and humble could give.

Amidst all the idiocy of "christmas," - the blasphemous warm fuzzy family, cozy up to the fire, "you'll shoot your eye out nonsense, Christ still dwells among us.  At least for those with eyes to see...not in the decorations, not in the songs, not in the gift-giving or the "twinkling of an eye," not in the cinammon scented pine cones, the  bittersweet branches, the hand carved trees, or the well-wishes of neighbors.  

He dwells in the hovels, rude and bare, amongst the displaced refugees and those on the run in fear for their lives. He visits the grieving, the embittered and distressed. He is near to the broken-hearted and ignores the comfortable and affluent.  He is apparent to those who seek Him, those who dwell in the shadow of the Most High. But He is NOT under a Christmas Tree or in a gift exchange, or in a merry celebration.  

I think I will always dread the nonsense that seems so attractive to so many at Christmas.  But I will seek Him while he may be found.

Maranatha!