Past Articles from 2004 until last year. Many important lessons can be found in each of these articles.
In the 170’s, in the evenings, as campfires were burning along the Danube river, after a hard day of fighting against the Germanic tribes that threatened Rome’s northern frontier, Marcus Aurelius made notes in his journal. Marcus Aurelius, last emperor of the Pax Romana, and perhaps the greatest of Rome’s emperors, wrote not about tactics, the events of the day, billetings, homesickness, the weather, or any of the other things generals keep a log of. His notes, which may or may not have been intended for others, were about ethics, about wisdom, about living in balance with the ordered universe. Although trained to be emperor at least from the age of 17, he did not love the trappings of power. Although trained as a Stoic, he was influenced by many schools of thought. Although a persecutor of Christians (who were in violation of Roman Law), the vocabulary and sensibilities of his Meditations often correspond with New Testament thought. For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us the spirit of timidity, but of power, love and a sound mind.
(II Timothy 1.6-7)
I have always felt a filial relationship with Timothy. He is a local preacher, as am I, and our backgrounds, though separated by 19 centuries, are similar in many points. And so Paul’s letters to him about the work of a preacher have been particularly personal for me. I find I and II Timothy easy to take literally. For instance, Paul tells Timothy to treat the older women as mothers, and the younger ones as sisters. So if you are twenty or more years older than me I’ve probably kissed your forehead, and if you are younger than that I’ve probable punched you in the shoulder. That is easy enough.
The holidays are now in full swing and the beauty and sparkle of the season is something I look forward to. I can't help it. I just love all of the decorations and lights and I am so easily distracted by them. My girls and I get excited about that special trip to the mall to see Santa and all of the beautiful decorations. But sometimes, those strolls through the mall can quickly move from moderate excitement and generosity to feelings of frustration and discouragement. It happens in an instant it started with a stop at a kiosk loaded with shiny, sparkling hair clips.
They caught my eye because I was hoping to get something like those very clips for an upcoming wedding. I must have been standing there for a whole 2 seconds when two women wearing about 67 of these clips (each) in their hair sandwiched me and began shoving bling all throughout my hair. I thought I was being scalped) When the poking and prodding finally ceased and I realized that there was no blood, pouring from my head, I broke out the bottom line. How much? The moment my facial expression made it known that I was not going to spend $60 on 1 hair clip, they began pulling the clips out of my head as if it were on fire and left me standing in the middle of the mall, looking like Captain Jack Sparrow. I figured I would be better off purchasing a first aid kit.
After narrowly escaping injuries from the hairclip gypsies, we ambled through the crowds donning a carefully planned Christmas list making choices these days can be mind-warping and the holidays are an exceptional challenge. I had no idea that mankind could concoct so many different kinds of body lotions and fragrance combinations. What is even more distracting and disturbing are the advertisements that transform the real world into a magical dreamland where everyone is happy, carefree and beautiful, except for the fact that they suffer from malnutrition and are grossly underweight (Am I the only one who notices this?).
The people of "Dream Land" are presented to the real world in images that instill a longing in us to be included and can cause us lo rethink our contentment in life. They are all eating cookies and chocolate because in their world, one can eat those things but the calories get shipped over to third world countries to those who really need it. How incredibly thoughtful. They have an endless supply of credit because who else could afford the 7 layers of designer shirts they are all wearing and the endless stacks of pretty packages they are opening as they surround a mammoth Christmas tree at the cozy ski lodge they are wintering in? I wonder too when I scan these advertisements how such weightless people are able to stand upright with all that bling they are sporting. Though these people appear to be having the time of their lives, they are quite an exclusive bunch. They seem to say with their eyes, you can't join this party unless you have the products. You can only be a part of Dream Land if you have the right clothes and your garage is perfectly organized with matching labeled containers. Before I know it, I am feeling like my life would be more carefree and exciting if I just had better clothes and my dining room looked like the one I saw in Pottery Barn (oh and if I had a couple, of those great $60 hair clips)!
As I stood there comparing my life to the lives of the Dream Land dwellers, I realized there is no comparison. I will always want things and some of them will be things I cannot have (many of which will also be things I do not need). But there is nothing keeping me from celebrating all that I do NOT have at this moment cancer.... heartbreaking infertility... fear for my life every time I worship a God who loves me... an imprisoned family member... a drug problem (unless you consider coffee a drug)... foreclosure… A cot with my name on it somewhere in Iraq... a missing or suffering child... slavery chains of one kind or another...The workload and worry of a single parent... and the list goes on.
As I shielded my excited children from the Build-a-Bear window and we headed for the parking lot with checking account barely in tact I could hear the Dream Landers beckoning me "Stay! Take one more look at that blouse you were eyeballing - it's so you and YOU DESERVE IT." Then came the gentle hand of God tapping me on the other shoulder saying with a loving smile "Hey you! Yes, you, my beloved, with the hair extensions... "Keep it Real!”
May this holiday find us all counting our blessings for all that we do not have and for all that we stand to gain from life's difficulties and sad moments.
" My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9
...Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I weak, then I am strong."
photograph courtesy of © Disney Films Usa
I’ve always been fascinated by movies and television shows about firefighters – Third Watch, Back Draft, Ladder 49, among others. Firefighters are the most highly regarded of public servants, and rightfully so – their vocation is not only dangerous, but it is difficult. In the midst of a terrible fire a firefighter finds himself triangulated by three competing demands. There is the demand to rescue those trapped by the fire, the demand to fight the fire itself, and the demand to preserve his own life. I cannot imagine the challenge to balance these three demands in the midst of the most stressful and confusing of situations, but failure to do so will likely mean loss of life. If the firefighter doesn’t attack the fire, it may spread to other buildings, or intensify to the point that rescue is no longer an option. If the firefighter doesn’t quickly find and remove those trapped by the fire, the window of opportunity will close and those lives will be lost. If the firefighter doesn’t protect himself, and move cautiously he may become injured or killed, and will be unable to help anyone. – Three balls have to be kept in the air in the midst of mayhem and conflagration with lives in the balance.
In Robert Frost’s poem, Christmas Trees, a stranger from the city visits the poet’s farm near Ripton, Vermont, not to talk poetry, but to buy Christmas trees. Frost had never thought of his forested hills as being groved in Christmas trees, nor had he thought of the potential cash to be made by harvesting these trees, so against his instincts he allows the fellow from the city walk his hills and put his trees to “the trial by market everything must come to.” After careful consideration Frost realizes that his acreage is furnished with fine festive trees – “Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools/Could hang enough on to pick off enough.” The man from the city estimates that he could harvest about a thousand marketable trees. “A thousand Christmas trees! – at what apiece?” Frost asks.
