I used to make New Year's resolutions. A few years ago I made one last resolution and that was to STOP making New Year's resolutions. It's a set-up for failure, in my opinion. Setting goals is all well and good, but you can do that at any time. Why not Easter resolutions, or Labor Day resolutions? I get that the new year is a good marker and a new beginning, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. Personally I'd rather make any so-called resolutions simple, somewhat vague and do-able. There's a greater chance for success that way.
I've been reflecting on what I did right in 2008 (a good number of things) and what I can improve on in 2009 (lots more things). I decided to try to improve certain aspects of my spiritual life this year so I made a list to remind me to focus. It's NOT a list of resolutions, mind you - just some phrases to keep me headed in the right direction. And since I'm working on my spiritual health you won't see any comments about weight or exercise on my list. Despite what I said in the first paragraph, I can be a bit of an over-achiever sometimes, therefore... my short little list of reminders (DON'T call them resolutions!) is in rhyme. Don't laugh. I worked hard on this! And remember that these are mostly referring to my relationship with God, although some could also apply to my other relationships too.
More time, less hurry;
More trust, less worry.
More listen, less talk;
More obey, less balk.
More faith, less see;
More of Him, less of me.
I reserve the right to add to this list as I think of new ones. Reminders, that is. Not resolutions.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Monday, December 8, 2008
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
That's a good title for this blog, but not my most favorite of Christmas songs. That would probably be "Mary Did You Know". It's most likely because I'm a mother that I relate to that song so well. Remembering my girls when they were infants and imagining myself in Mary's shoes that night is just overwhelming. Along with all the joy that comes with a new baby there must have been such awe and wonder at the specialness of *this* baby. "When you kiss your little baby, you've kissed the face of God." Wow!
I also like a song called "Strange Way to Save the World" for much the same reason. Here's Joseph, his fiance gets pregnant and it's NOT his, and he chooses to stand by her. All the townspeople whisper and point whenever he walks by. How does it feel to be Joseph? He knows what this baby means to the world and to him personally. What a responsibility - to raise the son of God; to train Him up in the way He should go.
And then there's "We Are the Reason" that talks about gifts and how the greatest gift of all was born on Christmas. As much as the world seems to want to cut God out of everything else, at Christmas time they seem to come back to Him in some small way. For all the complaining I hear about Santa and Xmas taking over, I just don't see it overshadowing the birth of Christ. Am I blind? Or maybe I'm just focusing on the good things. Either way, I think I'll just keep my rose-colored glasses on for now.
And I forgot to light the Advent candle last night.
I also like a song called "Strange Way to Save the World" for much the same reason. Here's Joseph, his fiance gets pregnant and it's NOT his, and he chooses to stand by her. All the townspeople whisper and point whenever he walks by. How does it feel to be Joseph? He knows what this baby means to the world and to him personally. What a responsibility - to raise the son of God; to train Him up in the way He should go.
And then there's "We Are the Reason" that talks about gifts and how the greatest gift of all was born on Christmas. As much as the world seems to want to cut God out of everything else, at Christmas time they seem to come back to Him in some small way. For all the complaining I hear about Santa and Xmas taking over, I just don't see it overshadowing the birth of Christ. Am I blind? Or maybe I'm just focusing on the good things. Either way, I think I'll just keep my rose-colored glasses on for now.
And I forgot to light the Advent candle last night.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Advent, Part 1
For years I have attempted to incorporate the celebration of Advent into our family's Christmas. Last year I even went so far as to buy the candles (3 purple, 1 rose and 1 white) and set them up on the dining room table. We just never lit them. I remember thinking about it on Sunday nights and kicking myself for forgetting. When I was a kid, Christmas meant visiting Santa to issue my list of "wants," dinner at my Grandma's on Christmas Eve and an flurry of present opening on Christmas morning. I intend for it to mean so much more to my own children, even though I'm sure that right now they would say that their favorite part of Christmas is the presents. I still haven't followed through on my yearly resolution to buy them less presents but that doesn't keep me from vowing it again this year.
So this year I finally got my Advent act together. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, so I set up the candles, found a guide for the devotional readings and called the whole herd together. It took some doing to get them all collected in the dining room but I wasn't taking "No" for an answer! I even assigned Bible readings to the two 7 year olds. The big kids all wanted to be the one to light the candle (sorry, that's a grown-up job) and the little ones just wanted to pull them off the table. We talked about Hope (the first candle is for Hope or Prophecy, and I thought Prophecy might be a little too advanced a concept for them). We read in John about how Jesus is the light of the world, and we turned out the lights before we lit the candle as sort of a simple illustration. The whole thing lasted maybe 5 minutes. I don't know if it meant anything to anyone else, but I enjoyed it. I love the whole idea of preparing your heart and mind for Christmas by lighting the candles and reading about Christ's coming. I'm sure that as my kids grow older I can involve them more and more. Maybe next week we'll even sing a Christmas carol that goes along with the week's theme.
I'm also thinking about doing a Jesse tree this year, but I'm going to have to decide quickly since today is the first of December. A Jesse tree is a plain little twig tree that you use to hang ornaments that illustrate certain Bible truths that pertain to Christ and Christmas. I'm searching for some printables that the kids can just color in and cut out. That seems like a good way to combine crafts with spiritual training, doesn't it? I'm always looking for ways to multi-task. :-)
So this year I finally got my Advent act together. Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, so I set up the candles, found a guide for the devotional readings and called the whole herd together. It took some doing to get them all collected in the dining room but I wasn't taking "No" for an answer! I even assigned Bible readings to the two 7 year olds. The big kids all wanted to be the one to light the candle (sorry, that's a grown-up job) and the little ones just wanted to pull them off the table. We talked about Hope (the first candle is for Hope or Prophecy, and I thought Prophecy might be a little too advanced a concept for them). We read in John about how Jesus is the light of the world, and we turned out the lights before we lit the candle as sort of a simple illustration. The whole thing lasted maybe 5 minutes. I don't know if it meant anything to anyone else, but I enjoyed it. I love the whole idea of preparing your heart and mind for Christmas by lighting the candles and reading about Christ's coming. I'm sure that as my kids grow older I can involve them more and more. Maybe next week we'll even sing a Christmas carol that goes along with the week's theme.
I'm also thinking about doing a Jesse tree this year, but I'm going to have to decide quickly since today is the first of December. A Jesse tree is a plain little twig tree that you use to hang ornaments that illustrate certain Bible truths that pertain to Christ and Christmas. I'm searching for some printables that the kids can just color in and cut out. That seems like a good way to combine crafts with spiritual training, doesn't it? I'm always looking for ways to multi-task. :-)
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Mouthing the Words
It's that time of year again. I love music and Christmas music is especially touching to me. Once I became a mother, I was even more entranced by the idea of Christ coming to Earth as a helpless, innocent baby and the music of the season really tugs at my heartstrings. To look at my own babies and imagine the Lord of all creation humbling himself to become one of us, and not just anyone, but a newborn baby - well, it's just wondrous to me.
And so I find myself listening to Christmas music on the radio, and in the stores, and on my Zune... and I start to wonder about these so-called secular artists singing about Christ's birth. Just today I heard Josh Groban sing "O Holy Night" and when he sang about "our dear Savior's birth" I caught myself wondering, *Is* He really Josh Groban's Savior? While some secular artists might be true Believers, surely not every one of them who records Christmas songs is. I'd like to think I would be able to tell by the whether or not they seem to put enough passion into it, but so far that's an imperfect strategy. I wonder what goes through their minds as they sing about holiness and our Savior. When they sing "Christ is the Lord, oh praise His name forever," do the words mean anything at all to them? Does the Holy Spirit prick their hearts, or do they feel like a fraud? Do their hearts beat just a little faster? The Praise Team has a running joke about how, if you happen to forget the words to a song, you can mouth the word "watermelon" and make it look like you know what you're doing. Is that what it's like for some people when they sing songs about Christ's birth? Could they be singing "watermelon" and it have just as much meaning to them? And how does God view their singing about Him? Does it sound like Charlie Brown's teacher: wah, wah, waaaah, wah, waah?
SIDE NOTE: That does not mean that there is no such thing as a born again secular musician. I'm sure there are some out there, in the same way that I'm sure there are Contemporary Christian singers who are NOT born again.
My question doesn't only apply to secular artists, of course. How many people sit in churches every December and sing about their Savior and the wonder of His birth, and they might as well be singing "watermelon" over and over? I'm not just talking about the Easter and Christmas Christians either. I think sometimes we sing about Christ and we don't even think about the words coming out of our mouths, much less whether or not we truly mean them. Maybe over time we get hardened to the meaning behind the songs and they don't affect us anymore. I know I have had periods of time when it seems like the world has me distracted and I might as well be singing "watermelon" instead of "How Great Is Our God" but thankfully that hasn't happened lately. Or maybe we're in some misguided self-protection mode, not wanting to think too hard about the words because if we do, we're afraid we will be overcome by emotion and embarrass ourselves. When I first accepted Christ, I was in high school and I was a crier. Maybe a more accurate word would be "blubberer" because I couldn't get through a service without bawling. Whenever we had the Lord's Supper I was an absolute sobbing mess! After one particularly wet Sunday morning service, the Youth Pastor stopped me and told me this: "Don't ever be ashamed of your tears. That's a sign that you are being sensitive to the Spirit." That has stayed with me all these years. Nowadays I WANT to cry. I never want to get to the place where I am no longer affected by songs about my Lord.
So this Christmas, when you hear a Christmas carol, take some time to really think about the words. When you sing, "Hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn King! Peace on Earth and mercy mild; God and sinners reconciled" turn that over in your mind for a while. God and sinners reconciled - that means you and me, folks. We're the sinners God came to be reconciled with. Bad sentence structure, but right idea. He came to us, in the most humble of ways, to save us. The baby Jesus was born to die for our sins. That's something worth singing about.
And so I find myself listening to Christmas music on the radio, and in the stores, and on my Zune... and I start to wonder about these so-called secular artists singing about Christ's birth. Just today I heard Josh Groban sing "O Holy Night" and when he sang about "our dear Savior's birth" I caught myself wondering, *Is* He really Josh Groban's Savior? While some secular artists might be true Believers, surely not every one of them who records Christmas songs is. I'd like to think I would be able to tell by the whether or not they seem to put enough passion into it, but so far that's an imperfect strategy. I wonder what goes through their minds as they sing about holiness and our Savior. When they sing "Christ is the Lord, oh praise His name forever," do the words mean anything at all to them? Does the Holy Spirit prick their hearts, or do they feel like a fraud? Do their hearts beat just a little faster? The Praise Team has a running joke about how, if you happen to forget the words to a song, you can mouth the word "watermelon" and make it look like you know what you're doing. Is that what it's like for some people when they sing songs about Christ's birth? Could they be singing "watermelon" and it have just as much meaning to them? And how does God view their singing about Him? Does it sound like Charlie Brown's teacher: wah, wah, waaaah, wah, waah?
SIDE NOTE: That does not mean that there is no such thing as a born again secular musician. I'm sure there are some out there, in the same way that I'm sure there are Contemporary Christian singers who are NOT born again.
My question doesn't only apply to secular artists, of course. How many people sit in churches every December and sing about their Savior and the wonder of His birth, and they might as well be singing "watermelon" over and over? I'm not just talking about the Easter and Christmas Christians either. I think sometimes we sing about Christ and we don't even think about the words coming out of our mouths, much less whether or not we truly mean them. Maybe over time we get hardened to the meaning behind the songs and they don't affect us anymore. I know I have had periods of time when it seems like the world has me distracted and I might as well be singing "watermelon" instead of "How Great Is Our God" but thankfully that hasn't happened lately. Or maybe we're in some misguided self-protection mode, not wanting to think too hard about the words because if we do, we're afraid we will be overcome by emotion and embarrass ourselves. When I first accepted Christ, I was in high school and I was a crier. Maybe a more accurate word would be "blubberer" because I couldn't get through a service without bawling. Whenever we had the Lord's Supper I was an absolute sobbing mess! After one particularly wet Sunday morning service, the Youth Pastor stopped me and told me this: "Don't ever be ashamed of your tears. That's a sign that you are being sensitive to the Spirit." That has stayed with me all these years. Nowadays I WANT to cry. I never want to get to the place where I am no longer affected by songs about my Lord.
So this Christmas, when you hear a Christmas carol, take some time to really think about the words. When you sing, "Hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn King! Peace on Earth and mercy mild; God and sinners reconciled" turn that over in your mind for a while. God and sinners reconciled - that means you and me, folks. We're the sinners God came to be reconciled with. Bad sentence structure, but right idea. He came to us, in the most humble of ways, to save us. The baby Jesus was born to die for our sins. That's something worth singing about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)