Come, See For Yourself

The Shepherds' Candle is the one we lit in our Advent Wreath this past Sunday. As the new flame strengthened, we were challenged to quietly name - and give thanks for - all those who have shepherded us. You've been led and encouraged, nudged and nurtured by lots of folks. Their influence has helped make you who you are and will continue to shape you throughout life.

Of course, the Good Shepherd is the the most transformational presence in our lives. In fact our life is hidden in Him. Thinking of that great truth, I want to encourage you to hear the invitation first offered to the shepherds at Jesus' birth as an invitation from God's heart to yours ... because it is. God sent a whole covey (as we say in the country) of angels to announce the great good news in song to the shepherds who were just minding their own business in the field that night. "Jesus is born for you!" is what they heard. Part of that good news was the invitation to go and see for themselves what God was doing. Come and see.

Well, curiosity may have killed the cat, but it changed the lives of those who dared find their way to the Christ child to see for themselves. We may not be able to see, except with our imagination, what it was like to peer over into that trough-now-baby bed and look God square in the eye, but we can see plenty if we're willing to go, look. It will probably still be an unexpected, upside-down kinda thing. I mean, if God would make the Prince of Peace to be a baby who's gonna need help with toddling, potty-training, navigating bullies and girls and siblings and more ... well, God's liable to do anything!

I figure the invitation for you and I to come and see for ourselves is really the invitation to look around at the new thing God is continuing to do all around us, maybe even through us and in us. Forgiveness, hope, courage, love, purpose ... all of those things are really God's doing. Of course, daring to open your eyes wide to the reality of God all around means you'll see God for who "He" really is. You ready for that? 'Cause God's probably a lot different than you expected. We expect what's comforting and comfortable, not what will rock our world. (But again, God sent you a Baby King ... who else woulda thunk it?!) A second part of seeing reality is actually seeing the reality of others. The shepherds coulda looked at that teenage mama and that blue-collar dad and seen themselves; they were just ordinary, low-rung folks, too.

There is great danger, though, in hearing that invitation as your own and daring to respond like the shepherds did. Those shepherds took a big risk in going to see what God had done and there will be risk for us, too. They were just doing what good shepherds do when ... who was going to mind the sheep when they decided to end the shift early and head into town? Did one get the shaft and have to stay behind? Perhaps one was glad to be a chicken for once and volunteer to hold down the fort, I mean the flock, while the others took a peek. At any rate, they risked the safety of their flock and their reputation, at the very least. How would YOU explain the angels singing to you about a Baby born to be King and to save the world from sin? They decided that the Holy Child was more important than their sheep. At some point in our journey, you and I will have to set aside what is very important to be able to respond to God. The folks who love us the most may be the ones who give us the most grief. It's a risk.

The second risk ... you're gonna have to do something with what you see and hear. Of God and of other people. When we're courageous enough to come and see, that unfolding story somehow draws us in ... and it's our story. When you see people hungry in your community, until you help get food in their bellies you'll choke every time you sit down to more than plenty. The same is true for every other reality that you might peer into just 'cause you're looking for God.

I'm so very grateful for the shepherds that have come alongside me to get me through the wilderness and safe to a new pasture or paddock. If you've been one ... I love you. Now, what I want to have the courage to do and be is a shepherd. But, not just any shepherd. I want to be the kind that can leave the field behind when I hear God singing to me (even if just for a moment or two) to dare go and see. Go with me?

No Little Places, No Little People

Yesterday, as a part of our Advent observation, we lit a candle in our Advent wreath in honor of Bethlehem. A little place, really, especially compared to Jerusalem. At the time when Jesus was born, it was no center of commerce or culture; Bethlehem was known only because of its fertile hills and valleys. It was known as the Land of Bread. Should be no surprise - but it is, admit it - that the Bread of Life was born there?!

Anyway, Bethlehem was little. And you know what we think of little places and little people. Very little. Which brings me to my next thought. The unlikely choice of Bethlehem as the debut of Emmanuel is God's good news spoken into our little-ness. Hardeman County is almost the poorest county in our state. The ravages of drug and alcohol use/abuse, astronomical joblessness rates, the inability or unwillingness to parent the children you've given birth to ... there are tons of details that point to the smallness of our little town. That is, if you're comparing us to other towns and cities in this nation (or even this world) and noting what we have and don't have to offer. But, I believe that there are no little places and no little people in God's eyes. There is something Divine happening even (or especially) in places like the one where I live and pastor. It may go unnoticed by all for a while, and by most forever ... but ignorance doesn't negate the Divine.

God picks teenage girls who struggle but still stand on Divine strength and courage to say, 'but God has something for me to do.' God chooses wise, blue-collar, carpenter-type folk who'll do the right think not because they've been educated to do that, but because they'll be true to their heart ... especially when their heart belongs to God. God breathes and acts and speaks through those who will dare to see the BIG hope and possibility in all of life. A teenage mom-to-be and her soon-to-be carpenter husband are the ones God chose to bear Emmanuel to the world first. And, God is choosing you and I today, crazy as it sounds, to bear Christ to family, friend, neighbor, and stranger alike. You may feel small; people may even tell you they think you're too little. Doesn't matter. In God's eyes, there are no little places and there are no little people.

Waiting

Waiting ... I don't like. That's probably not what I'm supposed to say (seeing as how "patience" is a fruit of the Spirit, evidence that God is working in your life). And, I don't believe it's because I've been coddled by a culture that now provides drive-up windows for just about everything. In the Western world, we've been taught and told in many ways that it's up to me/you. I've been encouraged to trust is my own ability and to deepen my stick-to-it-iveness for that very reason ... it's up to me. There's something pretty deep inside each of us that understands where I'm coming from. When was the first time you told your mom or dad, "no! I do it myself!"? Whether it's your struggle or not, I own it ... I hate to wait.

So you'd think Advent would be a stretch for me. Advent is that season of preparation and waiting all at the same time, believing God's promise of Love coming to us as Savior and Friend is a true and dependable promise ... even before we see Him in that manger or feel Him in our hearts. Advent is glorious to me! So, it grieves me when our church families want to sing the Baby Jesus right into the manger from the get-go. What's your hurry? O.K., so we know more Christmas hymns than we do Advent hymns ... learn some new ones. And, learn to wait.

Shauna Niequist released a book about a year ago Cold Tangerines. The first chapter of that book was an honest confession that much of her early life was waiting for life (as she hoped, expected it to be) to begin. You know, waiting for the end of junior high so that the real life of senior high would start; waiting for graduation from high school or college, waiting for the perfect job or the perfect life partner ... Shauna's realization was that beautiful life moments that were real and full and beautiful were passing her by because she was not waiting well.

I was struck today when I read her most recent blog post ... again about waiting. Even as I was finishing her thoughts, my own ran away with me making a list of all the things I have been or am waiting for. I sat yesterday with a family and we waited for 6+ hours during risky heart surgery to hear that their loved one was holding his own. And, they continue to wait for one more good day to be added to the first. I am waiting with young adult children who see their mother's alcoholism destroying her life and theirs; we wait for their courage to love their mother in a tough and tender way that will bring hope and healing, and for their father to join them in a commitment to love her to health, not death. I am waiting for a very private couple to find courage enough to speak aloud the reality of their coming days as they face cancer that they might wait through tests and treatments not alone, but with the company of friends who long to love them well by standing close.

There a jillion other things I am waiting for you; I am confident that you're doing your own waiting right now. As Shauna pointed out in her blog today, how we wait probably says more about us than we realize. If I trust in God as my constant companion, capable and willing to bring about my best for His glory ... then I wait patiently and confidently on Him. See? I want to challenge each of us to commit to learn to be better waiters this Advent season - to let the season really be about the Gift named Christ, not how many you can cram under the tree; to let the season be about preparing your heart and home for Jesus' residency and not just fleeting company of family and friend; to get excited about the coming of Christ for you, for me and not just about getting what you'll get and getting through the holidays.

I don't know what you're waiting on, but I'm pretty sure you're waiting on something, or someone. But, how will we wait? May each moment of this season be an opportunity for you and for me to wait on God's presence. It is our Divine Promise and one that can be depended upon. As I wait for healing, for restoration and reconciliation, for courage and for comfort, I will do best to wait on the One who is the Source of all good things and whose timing is always just right.

How will you wait for all things you hope for?