This Christmas

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Does Christmas ever feel like a burden to you?

It sometimes does to me.

I was looking up "inspirational" quotes about burdens and I found this one several ways:


http://www.iwantcovers.com

I'm not sure this is right. I think maybe it should be: "Don't ask for a lighter burden; ask for GOD'S HELP to carry the one you have."

Remember: "The government shall be upon His shoulder." (Isaiah 9:6)

"You are tired, and driven, and worried, and weak, and ill, and depressed, because you have been trying to carry the government upon your own shoulder; the burden is too much for you, and you have broken down under it." (Quote from Power to Constructive Thinking by Emmet Fox:)

Lord, during this busy Christmas season, help us to leave the government of our lives up to You.

I want to be first in line

...Don't you?

I think we all want to be first in line, at least to some degree.

Last night a water main broke on the military post where I live, and we received notice that we should "conserve water" because it was going to "run out" by evening.

(image from atiqahuda.blogspot.com)

This made me want to run to the shower and get myself clean before someone else took all the water.

I didn't do it, but that was my first instinct. (In fact, I STILL haven't showered. Don't stand too close to me today.)

We all want to be first.

When I was in kindergarten, I learned this Bible verse at church: “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35 ) I was impressed by this bit of wisdom.

So I decided to apply this verse to my life at school. While the other kids were fighting over who would be Line Leader before lunch, I positioned myself at the very back of the line.

(image from www.huffingtonpost.com)

Then after lunch, lo and behold, THE TEACHER TURNED THE LINE AROUND.

I was first!

I was very pleased how this bit of Bible teaching had worked out so well.

Of course, the result was that I now had competition for last place as well. You can't win in this world, I tell you.

But of course, I was missing the point. If I had truly been placing myself last, I wouldn't want to be first at all!

This is a hard teaching to live out. Even the disciples had a problem with it. We all remember how they argued over who would be first in the kingdom, and jockeyed for positions closer to Jesus' right hand. It's in our human nature.

We all want to be first.

But Jesus calls us to live beyond ourselves... and put HIM first.

Matthew 20:25-28
25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Lord help me to follow You instead of striving to be first.

I guess I don't have it figured out after all

Difficult Passages in the Bible

There are some Scriptures I don't particularly care for.

Is is wrong of me to say that? Maybe, but I'll bet I'm not alone.

Seriously though, some Bible verses, IN PARTICULAR some of the sayings of Jesus Himself, are hard to understand. And even harder to accept if you do understand them.

Here's an example:

Luke 17:7-10

7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Okay. I don't like this.

I mean, is Jesus saying that when the servant comes in all sweaty and tired from the fields, he doesn't even deserve DINNER?! Not to mention a "thank you." Sheesh.

This is problematic. Especially if I'm the servant in question, because I'm tired. And thirsty. And hungry.

But a friend in my Sunday School class pointed out another way to look at this.

Rather than a denial of the servant's reward for his service, maybe Jesus meant this as an admonition against false pride.

After all, He tells us many times in the gospels that a reward awaits us in heaven, and that we we will receive rest and sustenance from Him. (Matt 16:27, Mark 9:41, Matt 11:28)

But He also says to be on guard against trusting in our own righteousness, and not to do our good deeds expecting a reward. (Matt 6:1, Luke 6:35)

So this passage tells us: Don't look for recognition when you're doing what you're supposed to do. Don't trumpet yourselves about saying, "Look at me! I help the less fortunate! I give to the needy!"

Lord, help me to remember that when I am serving others, I am only doing what I was made to do. Help me to seek no reward but Yours.

I Blame the Snake

A little story for today:

I was watching the kids' group once at church. As we were walking back from the playground the kids went past the restrooms, and most of them went inside. I proceeded to the classroom to wait for them. 

From the hall I heard a collective scream as a boy named Dominic came into the room with me, grinning a little.

"Quentin just went in the girls' bathroom," he informed me.

A moment later, Quentin came in, looking harassed. "Dominic pushed me into the girls' bathroom!" he complained.

I'm sharing this story because it was funny. Also because it's slightly relevant to the topic I wanted to write about:

In the beginning there was blame.

As soon as sin entered the world, invited and aided by Eve and Adam, so did blaming others.

Adam: Uh.. It's Eve's fault!
Eve: Uh... It's the snake's fault!
Snake: Who, me?!

We as humans love to shift the blame for any and everything onto someone else.

And truthfully, you CAN often find someone at the bottom of it all who was To Blame. (Snake, this means YOU!) But is it productive to blame others all the time instead of taking responsibility for our own actions?

Whenever Jesus was approached by someone trying to push blame on another person, (Matthew 15:1-6, Luke 12:13-15, etc.) He always shifted the person's focus back to themselves. "What does the law say?" He would ask. "What does the Lord tell YOU to do?"

Matthew 7: 3-5
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Lord, help me to remember not to blame others for what happens, but to look to my own responsibilities. After all, I am the only person whose actions I can control.

But I JUST washed up!

Have you ever just finished washing up after dinner, finally jamming every single dish that you can into the dishwasher and switching it on? And then, before you can even enjoy looking at the clean and empty sink, one of the kids brings up more dirty dishes?

Maybe it's just me, but I find that extremely frustrating.

Even worse is the kid who complains of being hungry right after you've finished putting everything away and wants to open up some more food and dirty up some more plates.

I tend to start yelling. ACK! STOP! I just washed that!

I mean, the LAST thing I want to see at the end of a long day is more stuff to wash!

Did you realize this actually happened to the disciples?

Luke 5:1-11:

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,

the people were crowding around him and 

listening to the word of God. 

2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, 

left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 

3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, 

and asked him to put out a little from shore. 

Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 

“Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night 

and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, 

I will let down the nets.”

6 When they had done so,they caught such a large number 

of fish that their nets began to break. 

7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat 

to come and help them, and they came 

and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees 

and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 

9 For he and all his companions were astonished 

at the catch of fish they had taken, 

10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, 

Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, 

“Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 

11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

I never noticed this before, but Peter and his partners were done fishing for the day. They had already washed up their nets and were ready to head inside for the day.

But here was Jesus, asking them to get the nets all dirty again!

I can understand why Peter said, "But we've fished all night! And we haven't caught ANYTHING!" They were tired, and the LAST thing they wanted to do was more work.

Amazingly, though, Peter had the faith to say, "But because You say so, Lord, I will let down the nets." And look how he was rewarded!

Lord help me to have the faith to see Your rewards in the midst of my weariness.

The Broken Branch

A few weeks ago I was picking some plumeria blossoms for the ladies in my hula group to wear in their hair.

(Wow. What a Hawaii-specific sentence that just was.)

All the flowers were pretty high up so I had to pull the limbs down towards myself to reach them, and I ended up accidentally pulling off one whole branch. Whoops.

So I took it home. At home I pulled off the flowers I wanted and thought about making some sort of arrangement with the remaining branch and leaves.

Then I noticed it was swarming with ants, so instead I screamed and threw the whole thing into the backyard.

Except the flowers, of course. I just rinsed the bugs off those so we could still wear them in our hair. (Shh... Don't tell my hula sisters.)

Anyways, I forgot about the branch until I was in the backyard with the twins and noticed it still blooming. I  was surprised, because I knew it had been a while since I'd tossed it back there.

I counted back to remember when my halau had danced.

(A halau is a hula dance group. See how you learn something new every day?)

I realized it had been more than two weeks since that branch had broken off the tree. But that thing was still industriously blooming away! I guess it was drawing from the sap it had stored and the buds it had already made.

But of course, I knew it wasn't going to last, separated from the tree like that. It was only a matter of time before that branch withered and died.

In fact, the branch was dead already; it just didn't know it yet. It had died the minute it broke from the tree.

That branch was in denial. Although it was still working hard to bear its beautiful blossoms, all its effort was wasted while it was apart from the tree. It was busy busy busy, and it appeared from the outside to be healthy, but inside it was dead already.

Have you ever met any people like that?

Have you ever been a person like that? I have.

John 15:5 (Jesus said,) “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing."

Lord, help me to stay connected to You, the true vine, and not spin my wheels trying to perform through my own efforts. Amen.