Friday, January 6th, 2012
As we cleaned up the last of Christmas, I awakened from “peace on earth” to CNN’s latest report on world conflict. Not wanting the peace of Christmas to be a mere stoplight, just how do we have more peace in our lives? Now, aside from wishing that our mean ‘ol neighbors would move or get run over by a Greyhound bus – let’s ask ourselves, “What would God desire I do to have more peace in my life when each of us are surrounded by others having different beliefs, opinions, habits and quirks?”
I guess if we could create our own utopia, we would only hang out with those we like/love or agree with. Conversely, all others who we dislike or hurt us, disagree with us or just plain get under our skin could move to eastern Mongolia where they wouldn’t affect our otherwise happy lives.
But life does not worketh that way.
Reality says the very same people who fill us with the abounding joy, love and fulfillment can cause us pain or tick us off. And we do the very same thing to them and gulp… even repeatedly.
For this dilemma, the Bible gives us this instruction, from Colossians 3:13:
- Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. (New Living Translation)
- Put up with each other and forgive each other (God’s Word Translation)
- Bearing with one another and readily forgiving each other (Weymouth N.T.)
Listen closely to the heart of the Lord as you openly say to yourself “Put up with… make allowance for… and readily forgive”, knowing that others who love you are thinking of you in the very same way – perhaps at this very moment. Even more so, Christ did this for us and continues to do it every day.
And watch the season of “Peace on Earth” get just a little longer.
Posted in Bible Study, Christianity, Community, Friendship, Love, Relationships | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
One of the Christmas traditions in our church family is presenting our Nativity Drive Through to the community where each year, some 800-1200 cars pass through 11 scenes, each depicting an account of the birth of Christ. Now, I am not a math wizard, but most cars have an average of 3 or so people, meaning 2400-3600 people get a glimpse of the reason of Christmas. Since I am a bit a people watcher, I get to see lots of small things like:
- Moms and dads racing home from work, shoveling down some Kraft dinner or Wendy’s burgers as they enter the church to dress up for one of the scenes. Venti-sized Starbucks and Timmy’s are prevalent supplying a dose of energy to get through the evening. Some are on cell phones closing off business and family commitments to don robes or put out traffic cones or feed the sheep and light all the candles.
- Volunteers braving freezing winds or our typical Lower Mainland downpours (or both at the same time) to set up scenes or take them down at near midnight on the last night of the event.
- Folks putting their Christmas shopping on hold to grab a flashlight and steer traffic with a smile and add some cheer to a car-full of kids and their haggard parents on their way home from the mall.
- The warmth of good friends in our coffee break time, complete with all the laughs at Ivan’s jokes (I think every church needs an Ivan – he is a sure cure for sourpusses) or watching Stevie, one of our traffic directors, doing his penguin imitations for passersby.
- Cars full of people who know Jesus, being encouraged in their faith one more time as they forget their to-do lists and think again on the miracle of Christmas.
- Wide-eyed folks that are not quite so sure about this God or Jesus thing but choosing to take just one more step on their journey of faith.
In the end, as the last Nativity scenes are stowed away for next year and the sheep and hay are loaded on the truck, I cannot help but think of all these small things that happened in our Nativity Drive Through.
I was reminded of Zechariah 4:10 (N:T) “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.”
One day we shall all see the fruit born of these seeds faithfully planted… albeit small seeds, but seeds planted nonetheless.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »