Christmas Contentment

Christmas!  When I was a child one of the first signs of Christmas was the arrival of the Sears catalog, full of amazing things!  I would take the catalog off by myself and page through the wonders.  I circled the things I wanted and even turned the page corner down if something really special was on that page.  I knew it was only dreaming and that was alright.  I knew I would not get anything from those pages.  I don’t remember wanting any of those things so passionately I could not live without it. 

            I do remember one year when I wanted something desperately and made sure my parents knew.  I was thirteen, in seventh grade.  “All of the girls” were wearing blazers and gray flannel stitched-down pleated skirts.  I thought I had to have one.  I was usually not wearing what was “in”, but this time I wanted to belong.  On Christmas morning I opened my packages and there was a beautiful cherry red blazer!  But alas, the next package did not hold a gray flannel stitched-down pleated skirt.  There was a knife-pleated red plaid skirt, beautiful, though itchy, but not what I had my heart set on.  I remember my mother saying she had searched all over for a gray skirt, but just couldn’t find one.  I’m sure my disappointment also disappointed my mother.

            Christmas is a time we sometimes concentrate on what we want to get.  The older I am the less it matters.  I have what I need and mostly what I want in terms of things. However, there is Santa Claus who will bring you what you want.  More importantly, your Amazon wish list will get you what you want. We cannot avoid that emphasis.

As I said, there are few material things I want, but there are things I want that are not found in a catalog. 

            The first thing I want is my son’s presence.  He is far, far away in New Zealand.  He is far away in many ways.  And, oh, I want him home!

             I want harmony in my family, the laughter and love that’s portrayed in all of those sappy Christmas movies that you can find on Netflix.

            I want time.  I want time with my family and time with friends and time to get everything done and time for .  . . .

            I don’t think any of those things are bad; they are even good.  But there are things that are far more important. Do I long for Jesus, for His presence?  Do I long to spend time with Him the way I long to have FaceTime with my sons?  Do I long to see Him as much as I long to see my daughters or my granddaughters?

             What should I want for this Christmas season?  I choose the advice of Hebrews 13:5, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.  For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you,’” I will focus on the only One will not disappoint, who can bring contentment. May my focus be on the Savior who is enough!

                                                                        Faith Himes Lamb

Framework

My five-year-old granddaughter loves to put together a jigsaw puzzle with me. The dinosaurs are all over the place; it is a confusing picture, but she really enjoys trying to fit the pieces together. However, she does not yet “get” the concept of outlining the puzzle with the straight edges first. She zealously tries each piece in every possible orientation, tossing it out and trying another as quickly as possible. She looks for the shapes, but not the “big picture.” Without the edges, the separate parts of the picture get WAAAY spread out.

Most of us try to outline a jigsaw puzzle before we fill in the other pieces. Maybe that’s because the pieces with a straight edge are easier to place, but it usually gives us security to know where we are working, relative to the whole picture. If we have no framework, we’re not sure how far up or down or how near or far each particular piece might go. We are literally “lost in space” without the frame. Putting together the inside pieces without setting the frame first would make the game more challenging. In fact, maybe I’ll try it, just for fun. After all, challenge is what games are about, right?

Unfortunately, life can be too challenging. When I was a child, I had the blessing of learning about God in Sunday School. I knew He was righteous and He knew all things. There were often times when I lived with untrue and unfair accusations, when there was no one who believed my honest intentions or listened to my words. I felt alone, lost, and hopeless. But I always knew that God knew the truth and it mattered to Him. That was my great comfort, because ultimately He mattered most. Sometimes that was all I had to hang onto. But it was enough.

What if I had not had that framework into which I could fit my confusing, disjointed life? Many of those scattered pieces made no sense. There was often despair. The only hope came from knowing God’s character. For those who do not know God, the framework for life is not there. There is no sense, no order, and no hope. Every time we can communicate to someone that God is, that He knows them, that He is good and loving and understanding, we build into their lives some of the framework of love, order, and strength that we all so desperately need. Psalm 32:10 tells us, “the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in Him.” Sometimes that is all we have to hang onto. But it is enough.

 --Lynda Shenefield

God Speaks

One of the great things about teaching at Grace Baptist Academy is that the faculty meets for devotions twice a week. It's wonderful time to hear what God is doing in the lives of our teammates and to be encouraged in our work together.

This past Friday, one of the elementary teachers talked about her personal struggles with doubting God's leading in her family's life. But, she said, she had been listening to music in her room after school and heard a song that spoke to her and gave her courage to keep trusting. She then sang for us, and it was truly stirring.

It got me thinking. How many times do we hear someone say, "I happened to come across this verse in my reading. . ." or "God spoke to me when I heard my pastor say. . . " or "This song has a message I needed to hear"? The common factor in all of these remarks is that the person put herself in a place to hear the truth. She opened the Bible, went to church, turned on the music. Then God spoke.

Most people have struggles and doubts from time to time, and the world makes it easy to let those doubts grow. But God tells us that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). We are instructed to gather with other believers so we may "provoke" one another  "to love and good works" (Hebrews 10:24-25). Paul told the Colossians they should teach and admonish one another in "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Colossians 3:16).

We can't make it on our own, and we were never meant to try. I used to hear people say that if you don't want to go to church, it does you no good. Or that reading the Bible out of duty is useless. But being in church and opening the Bible exposes us to truth; it puts us in place to receive the help we need. So come on to church even if you don't feel like it, and read your Bible faithfully. Then wait for God to speak.

--Sherry Poff

One Fall Day

For years now, I get a bitter-sweet feeling in the fall that I haven’t been able to place. I see clear blue skies and breathe in the clean fragrance of crunchy leaves. I delight in squatty pumpkins, scarecrows (that scare no one), and trick-or-treaters lost in make-believe. But there’s always that feeling – somewhere on the tip of my subconscious, sometimes fleeting, but always there. It’s funny how certain things remind us of something else, but we may not know exactly what.

This year, I figured it out.

As a teenager, I wrestled with typical teen issues. I asked, “Who I am I?” “What am I good at?” “What will I do with my life?” I explored interests and hobbies. Like many teens, I felt inferior to my peers. I wanted male attention, but feared it. I longed to be myself, even though I didn’t know who that was! I had many thoughts and feelings to sort out. In the processing, I developed rebellious behaviors and attitudes. I was careful to be a subtle rebel though. I didn’t draw too much attention, but instead ran a quiet, mostly internal, rebellion.

I brought my confusion and bad attitudes with me when I attended a youth retreat at Fort Bluff Camp in the fall of 1983. There we wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags for breakfast and shed layers in the afternoons. We played “Capture the Flag” and other games, but always had time to sit by a fireplace and laugh with friends. Unencumbered with adult responsibilities, I felt happy and free.

In the evenings, we crunched through the leaves to the dining hall for dinner and a spiritual challenge. One night, God used a special speaker to work on my heart. Although my heart was hard at that time, God had given me a hunger for Himself. He had called me to salvation when I was a child. But this was something different. He drew me into a deeper level of commitment – a deeper level of intimacy - and it would be all or nothing. The speaker challenged me to put Jesus first even if I had to stand alone. (That’s a hard thing for teenagers.) My rebelliousness and lying had to end. His Spirit insisted I submit to my parents’ authority and do right when I got home. God’s hand of conviction sat heavy on my heart, and I tried to resist. But when I finally submitted, He forgave my sin and set me free. I think of that every time I sing, “My chains are gone. I’ve been set free.” 

I went back to my cabin that night with a sweet peace I hadn’t enjoyed in months. I experienced the bitterness of sin and God’s disapproval, but also the sweetness of a restored relationship with Him.

Bitter-sweet. And it all happened one fall day.

From Isaiah 61

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendor.

joyce hague