Joy to the World!

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

May His love fill your life with wondrous blessings throughout the coming year. Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus.

Test Pattern

I am a child of the 60s and 70s. Being such a child, one lived under the threat of nuclear destruction at any moment – or so we were lead to believe. In order to prepare for such eventualities by our enemies we were always practicing safety drills.

I recall that at Noon every Friday a huge air siren would blow from the top of City Hall, as an “all clear” signal. If we heard that siren at any other time we were to seek shelter. At school, we would practice seeking shelter by either getting under our desk top or lining up in the hall and crouching on the floor next to the wall. Neither one of these “shelter” methods strikes me as providing much of it, buts it’s what we practiced doing on a regular basis.

The most annoying of all the constant disaster-avoidance preparation had to occur while watching television, however. There you are enjoying a perfectly good program then suddenly and without warning a “test-pattern” appears accompanied by a loud horn. Then a voice is heard stating “This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test. For the next 60-seconds the broadcasters in your area are conducting a test of the emergency broadcast system. If this had been an actual emergency the siren your heard would have been followed by …”

It was the most annoying thing in the world. It was sudden and unexpected. It was loud. There was no way to make it go away. It was on every channel, of which there were only three, four if you counted PBS. The only thing to do was sit there and wait for “the broadcasters in your area” to finish the test and restore normal programming.

But as annoying as that test was, it turned out to be pretty good practice. Turns out God does pretty much the same thing. God has this way of suddenly and without warning throwing me into these tests and challenges.

My life appears to be running smoothly then I’ll be interrupted by an event that will really test me. Generally speaking, there is no way to speed up these trials. There is no way to make them go away or avoid them. I just have to be patient and persevere through them.

We are told in James to “count it as joy” when we find ourselves in various trials “knowing that the testing of faith produces patience.” (James 1:2-3). Well, let me say now, that I am one joyful and patient person! Which is really to say, God has put me through lots of trials of faith.

It seems as if I get through one and there not too long afterwards I encounter a new and improved trial. That’s the ladder of faith we are asked to climb. We can stop and stay at any rung on the ladder we choose but if we want to climb higher with our God then we are going to encounter periods of testing. The higher we climb the testier things can get.

However, we are not alone during the testing; we have all the help we need to be successful, although it might not feel like it. David was promised that He would be king and rule the land. But to get there God had to prepare him and test his faith. David went through many, many trials along his way. Many times he felt he was not going to make it. Things got so bad he found himself hiding in a cave. There were times he got so off track and appeared not to be headed in the right direction but in the end David did sit on the throne that God had promised him.

When that test-pattern appears in our lives we need to be not so quick to try and make it go away. But try to embrace it. See it for what it truly is – an opportunity to grow closer to God. Because the test will end, our normal life will be restored but in the interim we will have become so much more of what we and God aspire for us to be.

I'd call that the ultimate safety drill.
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Bullet Proof

"How do I protect myself?"

"Integrity is a good shield."

    - James A. Michener, The Covenant
     
Ephesians 6:10-20


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Racing Speed

Have you ever been driving down the highway lost in thought? So lost in thought that if asked you could not report what road side attraction you just passed or even what mile marker you were approaching. You were comfortable just cruising on autopilot.

Then out of nowhere, a car whizzes past you and startles you from your little world. Shaken, you decide in an instant to dare the driver to a duel. You flip off the cruise control and put your foot to the floor catching up to your new buddy. You tail him for a few miles then when you spy your chance you quickly maneuver into the next lane and pull ahead.

You don’t look to the side as you pass but you know your challenge has been accepted. You can feel the car next to you speed up and suddenly the race is on. Wheel to wheel, bumper to bumper you go.

Your eyes become stealthily focused on the road ahead. You and the car have become one. Your grip on the wheel gets tighter. You turn up the radio because the perfect road song has begun playing. That sneaky little grin you get when your heart races and your hair is on fire appears across your face.

The road rises and falls as you go. If there is a cop on the other side of that overpass, so be it. You’ll deal with those consequences later. The two of you are flying now. It’s been a back and forth race for miles. You have no idea how fast you are going and you don’t care to know. The only thing that is important is which one will hit the “finish line” first; that exit sign way off in the distance looks like a good one.

The exit sign screams by in a blur. Who won?! Who knows; it doesn't even matter. You laugh out loud at yourself and for the first time look over at your very worthy opponent. He is laughing too. You both wave as you slow down to something close to resembling the speed limit. That grin glued to your face as you rejoin the regular flow of traffic.

You don’t know how far or how fast you’ve travelled. But you do realize that you have not felt this alive in a long time. This awake. All of your senses are engaged right now. You could even report on each roadside attraction you passed – and who passed it first. Your adrenaline is crashing through your veins and you don’t remember the last time you had such pure fun. "Why can’t life always be lived going mach 2 with my hair on fire?" - you think to yourself. Traffic may return to normal, but nothing else for you on this day will be.

So, has that ever happened? I bet it has. And if it didn’t happen while behind the wheel of a car then I bet it happened while you were doing something else. But I would bet my bottom dollar that at some point – or at several points – in life you have lived going mach 2 with your hair on fire.

You have lived while feeling fully alive.

And that is exactly how we are supposed to live – all the time. Not just for brief glimpses here and there. Not just on weekends and vacations. Not just on holidays and birthdays. Not just during stolen moments or sudden out-of-nowhere moments that startle us awake from our cruise control.

Jesus came so that we may “have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). And He means for us to have that life now, while we are here, not sometime later. That full life is not waiting for us “in eternity”, somewhere in the clouds. That life is here on earth.

A full life is one that is lived while being fully awake, heart racing, senses engaged. It is a life that does not utilize cruise control. It is a life that takes risks and will deal with the fall-out from getting a ticket from the cops on the other side of the overpass later.

When we live our lives trusting our hearts to God, we begin to experience a more full life. A life we can feel in our bones we were born to live. God’s love and strength takes us places we cannot fathom and it takes work on our part to lean on and trust in Him. But when we partner with and trust God and turn off our cruise control our lives become so much more vibrant and well lived. We become fully awake.

Think I’m wrong? Who do you think was your partner and Co-pilot during that race, protecting you from a crash and the cops? God wanted you to get a taste of the life He offers in the hope you’ll come back for more.

He just hopes next time the two of you can do it while obeying the posted speed limit.
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Super Duper Rubber Ball

Did you ever have one of those little rubber balls as a kid? The indestructible kind that came in a bright swirl of color? It was hard and compact and it could bounce for days. And boy, could those little balls bounce.

I had them. All kids did. I usually lost mine pretty quickly. It would start bouncing and then just bounce and roll out of sight – generally under the refrigerator into no-man’s-land – lost forever. I also lost several on our roof. I recall a time trying to see if I could get mine to bounce higher than our two-story house.

I threw the ball hard against the driveway in an effort to make it bounce skyward. I recall my first several efforts were not successful in getting past the second story window. Then with all the strength my young little arms could muster I crashed that ball into the ground and in turn it was lofted skyward higher than ever.

That little ball flew past the second story, past the gutter and as near as I could tell from my earthly perch it soared above the entire roof line. Unfortunately, I didn’t throw it directly down so the ball didn’t return to me, it kept on soaring. When it came down somewhere on the other side of the house it joined the Frisbee and other paraphernalia stuck on the roof. Didn’t matter though, mission accomplished.

When I think about it now I find it interesting. To get that little rubber ball to accomplish the task I had set out for it, to get it to soar and fly as far I as I could make it, first I had throw it down against the ground as hard as I could. When I didn’t throw the ball down very hard, its bounce back up was not very great. But the harder the fall the greater the ball’s rise.

If it works this way with rubber balls, I wonder what else it works with? Jesus was a kid once, you think He and His Father know about these little balls?
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Sparklers

When I look at the state of the world it can make me a little depressed, to be honest. We are in the midst of a deep global recession. There is hunger, disease and devastation at almost every turn. It is almost enough to make me throw up my hands and proclaim all is lost, that it’s hopeless. Because after all, what can I do? I’m just one person and one person can’t do much of anything.

Tell that to the governing body of the PGA, Professional Golf Association. They will tell you one person is all it takes. They will tell you that one person can lift up and change an entire industry. Transformation can happen with the spark from just one individual.

Golf can pretty much be divided up into two eras – Pre-Tiger and Post-Tiger. His influence on golf and the world (advertising world anyway) has been so great that he is one of the few people that no longer need to use their last name to be recognized.

I used to play gold growing up. It was back then literally an old man’s game. My grandfather taught me how to play the game. I would play with him and my best friend and her grandfather. I enjoyed it because of the company but really thought the game itself was a snooze-fest.

Tiger came on to the golf scene with hurricane force winds. His father taught him the game when he was just a child. He learned the game quickly and easily. He stormed out of college where he had been winning collegiate and amateur tournaments. Once he turned pro he pretty much won at will for years. He has had some recent trouble and there are those who think he won’t make much difference anymore. (History tells us they are going to eat those words.)

But with his arrival came energy and excitement. Golf was transformed from a slow, plodding gentleman’s game into one of power and finesse. Golf became cool, hip and sexy. And young. I don’t know that golf was on the verge of becoming irrelevant to the next generation but Tiger single-handedly took the game and made it one of the most relevant and happening events going. Golf is now a multi-billion dollar a year industry.

I don’t know what Tiger’s intentions were when he chose to take up the sport. He probably wanted to be the best he could be at it, win and make a living playing golf. I don’t know if he set out to transform an entire industry. But he did. All by hitting a little white ball into a cup. That is some spark.

I can’t hit a golf ball very far. I don’t think my talents will transform much of anything. But I don’t have to try to change the whole world.  Tiger didn’t set out to do that, that was just a consequence of him following his heart and lighting sparks along the way. Those sparks ignited other sparks until a transforming fire began to burn and spread.

I can’t solve the problems of the poor in India, for example, all by myself. But I can send my spark of a few dollars to a charity that works over there. I can help those in my city by giving of my time to an organization that helps those who are less fortunate. I can send a spark of encouragement to a friend who is down. By following what is in my heart I can make a difference. And so can you. It only takes a spark.

There are some who thought One man wouldn’t make a difference. They were wrong. He went about doing His Father’s business and changed the world. He lit many sparks along the way. Those sparks turned into mighty flames and are still burning today. His life is still transforming lives. He also is known by only one name.  Jesus.  His birthday is coming up.

A perfect time for lighting sparklers, don’t you think?
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