Intentions & Resolutions 2013

Resolution

                                                     1.The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination.

2.A resolving to do something.

                             3.A course of action determined or decided on.

It's that time of the year...again. That time that we sincerely promise...uh,resolve...to turn over a new leaf...to give up a bad habit...or two. I love this quote from Ben Harper,

“Life is short and if you're looking for extension, you had best do well. 'Cause there's good deeds and then there's good intentions. They are as far apart as Heaven and Hell.”

We live lives of good intention sometimes...but most of the time we don't. As you can see from the definition, a resolution is based on a firm determination...and that firm determination is usually based on our individual limited will power and what we can do on our own. Apparently it is the most difficult thing because every year the resolutions are essentially the same...we long for the same things and seek some personal or hopefully, physical transformation. Sadly, every single year, the majority of us fail. In fact, here is a list of the “Top 10 Failed New Years' Resolutions”:

1. Lose Weight and Get Fit
2. Quit Smoking
3. Learn Something New
4. Eat Healthier and Diet
5. Get Out of Debt and Save Money
6. Spend More Time with Family
7. Travel to New Places
8. Be Less Stressed
9. Volunteer
10. Drink Less

I am sure that you might see some of your 2013 resolutions and maybe even ones' from years past. I certainly do. I am also sure you realize that broken resolutions are not personal moral failures but simply broken promises...some made to yourself...some made to others...some even made to God. I would imagine that a broken promise made to God carries much more weight than one I would make to myself. I would guess, however,that God might be used to that from us. He is well aware of our glaring inabilities and our stubborn determination to always do it “our way”. I think it is abundantly clear...we can have all the good intentions possible but if we do not follow up the action plan with...well, action, then it's doomed to failure. These resolutions, in effect, mirror how many of us live out our daily comfortable faith journey. In James 2: 14-17, it says,

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

It seems obvious that faith was designed, from the beginning to be a two step process...just as with your soon to be abandoned New Years resolutions. We more often travel on a tear stained trail of broken promises and surrendered dreams because of our affinity for self sufficiency. We love to sit back and admire what we have done operating under our own power. We love to make elaborate plans and set goals and spend inordinate amounts of energy on that process. As the verse from James says there's an action piece required. That action piece requires stepping out in bold and resolute faith despite any logical reason not to. God empowers us in an unexpected and extraordinary way to succeed where we are likely to fail. This, of course, glorifies God...not us. We can be very determined to get fit, eat right, improve our health all we want, but if we don't take the first step... which leads to more steps, it really doesn't matter. I have heard it said many times...faith is a verb. It is. I also have hear it said New Years resolutions never change...they don't

Christmas 2012...

For my annual Christmas blog, I have decided to revisit, revise and repost a blog I wrote in 2008 on my previous blog, On the road to Redemption. It feels as fresh and timely as ever...some things never change, I guess. Having recently returned from Haiti, this is some of what I have been thinking about...

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.... And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."— (Luke 2: 8-10-11.)

As the song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year… ” . Or is it really? The Christmas season is a paradox and each year we don’t get any closer to the understanding of this than the year before. Or do we? I find myself, many times, being torn between the crass materialism and consumption mentality that plagues many of us during the holiday season. I find myself wanting something “different” this year. I think the situation that we all find ourselves in currently, with the economy reeling and on virtual life support from the government, demonstrates the necessity to just stop this pursuit of the “right present” at the right price. I am completely disgusted by the masses of people who have turned the day after Thanksgiving shopping experience into a chaotic life threatening full contact sporting event. Sadly, someone got killed several years ago while just doing their job. This really returns us to our most primal hunting, gathering and killing roots. I can just imagine a proud shopper boasting on Christmas morning, “You like it? I had to kill for it…” WOW. Too extreme?? Is that too harsh? What have we become this season? We talk out of two sides of our mouth. We say we know the “reason for the season”. So, if we really do then why don’t we act like it? Seriously, it is time to just say ENOUGH. As Shane Claiborne says, 

“Enough to the myth that happiness must be purchased. Enough to an economy that is awarding CEOs salaries 500 times that of their workers and still manages to seduce people in poverty and wealth alike to give more money to these predatorial  corporations. Enough to the American dream that now consumes over 40 percent of the world’s stuff with less than 6 percent of the world’s resources. Enough to a dream that would need four more planets if the world pursued it … a dream the world cannot afford. Enough to the advice of government leaders who fearfully order us to “just keep shopping” after tragedies like September 11 and November 28. ENOUGH. Maybe God has another dream”.

You know what, I believe He does. I believe there is a better way and it is called the Advent Conspiracy. A couple of years ago, people who had enough of this madness, from four churches, got together and did something totally radical. They changed their spending habits at Christmas, shunned the spending mania, and gave presence instead of presents—the way Christ modeled for us through his gift of himself. They took the money they saved—nearly half of a million dollars—and gave it to Living Water International so that desperate communities could have the gift of clean water. Families from those churches are still telling stories of how Christ returned to their Christmas. Communities were renewed. Lives were changed. It was a Christmas to remember. Last year, 1,000s churches banded together for Advent Conspiracy 2011. Millions of dollars were given to the neediest people in our neighborhoods and in communities across the globe. Simply, this Christmas the idea is to worship fully, spend less, give more and love all. You too can be a conspirator. I love these words from author Alex Gordon, 

“There is no Santa Claus, no, there is something better. Every Christmas Eve a Great Spirit comes to this world and flies around it and scatters energy over the earth, and wherever that energy falls, like fairy-dust, it changes despair to hope, tears to joy, want to abundance, and when it touches a hard heart, it seeks to melt it, and when it touches a hateful soul, it seeks to change it, just like the spirits tried to change Ebenezer Scrooge. If you listen carefully, just before mid-night on Christmas Eve, you may hear this Spirit, and you will be blessed. But this Spirit is tired, and the times of its coming are few now. Time is of the essence”.

 Of course, you and I know what that “Great Spirit “is. It is the Spirit of the Lord God that has come in this season to bring hope and tidings of great joy. It is this same spirit that in Isaiah 61:1 it says,

“ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;”

 So, let’s open some prisons instead of presents, let’s bring good tidings of the redemptive and restorative power of love to someone broken and lost and let’s give presence, NOT presents, unlike any Christmas ever before. And maybe, just maybe the real Christmas will come back. Merry Christmas, y’all.

"where are you Christmas ?"...

My own personal Christmas came a little early this year...I got to go to Haiti. Admittedly, for many of you that may not be something on your Christmas list this year...or any year, for that matter. For me, personally, this trip simply could not have come at a better time. It is so easy during this time of the year to be deceived and distracted by the crushing press mounted by retailers and our culture to redefine what is Christmas. It feels like the push to control our minds and wallets begins earlier and last longer every year. It’s 10 days before Christmas and it doesn't feel any different than the week before I left for Haiti. Or the weeks before that. But...in Haiti, it's really different. While December and winter is in full swing back in Kentucky, I’m profusely sweating every day as if it was the middle of summer. It is very difficult for me to believe Christmas is right around the corner when I am having to putting on sunscreen and bugspray to ward off hungry mosquitoes. Certainly, that's very different. However, that's not the difference I am talking about. Everything that prepares us for the Christmas season in the U.S. does not exist anywhere in the Haitian countryside, particularly where I am at. There seems to be little awareness that Christmas is rapidly approaching. No one is decorating their front door with beautiful wreaths, no Christmas lights on houses, no Christmas music in the air, no Christmas parties, no cookie exchange or gingerbread house making, no winter, no eggnog, no wreath making, no fancy present wrapping, no Nutcracker, Christmas Vacation or even worse...no Elf. But that’s okay. I find it refreshing and restorative because there are none of the above. It is very much a blessing to be away from the chaos and commercialization of this holy holiday. Instead of immersing and drowning ourselves in all the events of the season, we have this rare opportunity to focus solely on why and who we are celebrating. Being in Haiti allows that in a profound in your face way. It is the season of Advent. It is the time of expectant waiting. Haitians know this waiting well. While they may not call it Advent and celebrate it formally in their churches and homes, they live it. The season of Advent is completely about waiting and hope. It is not just hope for a better day or hope for the lessening of their everyday ever present pain and suffering, although that is certainly a significant part of it. It is more about hope that their existence has meaning and possibility beyond the present and limited experiences, a hope that the limits of their lives are not nearly as narrow as we experience them to be. It is not that we have possibility in ourselves, but that God is a God of new things and so all things are possible. My experience thus far, in Haiti, tells me that those who have suffered greatly and still cling to hope understand far more about God and about life than those who have not. This is where many Haitians that I have met leave me in the dust, so to speak. Maybe that is what hope is about: a way to live, not just to survive, but to live authentically amidst all the problems of life with this amazing resilient faith that continues to see possibility when there is no present evidence of it, just because God is God. That is also the wonder and the mystery and joy of Advent. So, that was my present this year and that's awfully hard to wrap up in a box...

“Evil visited this community today”...

We now interrupt this blog...to bring you this unexpected blog...

I had planned on another subject for this blog today...but things change. Sometimes things change in such a dramatic and unexpected way that we're are momentarily stunned...I call it being knocked out of our tree. No doubt, some obscure reference to where we roost. Sometimes things change in such a horrific and evil way it forever defines who we are. We lose any shred of innocence...any sense of safety...This incomprehensible evil visited a small town in Connecticut, shortly after 9:30 am, on a sunny winter morning leaving carnage and mayhem in its' wake. In an instant...in the blink of an eye...things changed...forever. Not one single mom or dad, when sending their child off to school that morning, imagined or could ever imagine the idea that gunshots would ring out as teachers cowered and struggled to maintain their composure as they protected their children. It's just the absolute worse case scenario for both parent and teacher. No training...no college course...no advanced degree prepares you for this day. Your basic raw instincts take over...your focus become acutely sharp...time stands still. We try to protect those we love...not because it is our job, but because it is in our DNA...it is really in every fiber of our being. It is placed there by God. This is the exact place that we struggle so desperately to understand. Thousands of “hows” and “whys” are resonating all across the world. There are no words that can come close...we strive to make some sense of a day turned so upside down it's surreal. Sometimes there are just no answers...nothing can be spoken that doesn't provoke even more questions. In the season of winter there are many references to darkness and the bleakness of the days. I am sure that it couldn't feel any darker and more bleak and hopeless than it feels for many in light of this heinous act. However, I also know that in the midst of all that darkness and despair... there is light. While it may be exceedingly difficult to see, it is there. In John 8:12, it says, 

“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." 

 And in 1 Peter 2:9, it says, 

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

I have suffered my share, if there is such a thing as a share, of losses and unexplained tragic events and I understand the difficulty to focus on these verses from the Bible. Admittedly, I have never lost a child and simply cannot even imagine the depth of grief I would feel. But, the one thing I do know is that light dispels the darkness and we are called to be that light in the world...especially to others who are in darkness for whatever reason. We are called to be the ones to reach out to those who are suffering...are hurting...are trying to make sense...to struggle to move forward...to heal...and most importantly...to forgive. Endless hours of analysis and investigation and blaming and finger pointing are not helpful and only serve to mire us in a victim mentality. Sometimes very bad things happen that breaks our collective hearts. As much as we struggle to know why, sometimes...many times...we just can't know. There is no understandable explanation no matter how bad we want it. The sovereignty of God is easily accepted when all that matters is our intellectual agreement and understanding. But most often it is very difficult for us to accept, even unfathomable, especially when that practical reality strikes close to home through a difficult, tragic event like so many we have witnessed in recent months. In practically all cases like this, we feel compelled to ask, "Where was God?" I know this question echoed both out loud and silently with many of us. This is probably the tandem question to why. I really like what Father Dwight Longenecker says on his blog, Standing on my Head, 

“Where was God in Sandy Hook? Just where he always is, in the midst of the mess. He’s there suffering with the victims, bearing the horror with us and weeping with those who mourn and raging with those who rage. Do you feel righteous rage at the insanity and senselessness of this evil? So does God. Now you understand what God’s wrath is like. Do you feel helpless sorrow, pity and nameless frustration in the face of such terror? So does God. Now you understand his frustration and anger at humanity’s inhumanity. Do you feel compassion and heartache, and don’t you want to do something for the people who are hurting–do just anything you can? So does God. Now you know how much he longs to come in to our lives and help us and do something for us to heal and reconcile and make things right. Don’t you feel rage and frustration and confusion and fear for the poor sick boy who pulled the trigger? Don’t you ask what made him do such a thing? What turned him into a murderous monster? God is in the middle of all the emotions–in the middle of the mess with us. “ 

Indeed, he is...I pray we find comfort and healing in that...