Advent Circumstances

When we ask for intentional, we are bound to get circumstances that produce it.

That’s often why we don’t ask – We fear the condition under which that fruit we desire might come.

Ask for patience and we’ll find ourselves amidst frustrating situations and people. Ask for joy and we find ourselves discovering what true joy is. It’s a scary thing, but it is the sieve through which our heart conditions itself not to our demands, but to Christ’s.

All throughout Advent, I’ve been knee deep in Bonhoeffer, Lewis, and Northwest Bible… Each source revealing old truth in a new way. The Lord is faithful to put in front of us in writing the very nudging our hearts need to be compliant. There is a safe pause in words that allows our heads to nod in agreement and our hearts that extra second to catch up. Advent is about catching up.

Simply put – Advent has been a revelation of how my passions, decisions, motives, and strategies have sprinted a little faster than my prayers, my patient endurance, and my being still.

This morning I read this statement: “Our lesser glory (flesh) may get its way, but God’s great glory and abundance will not be there to distinguish us.”

Ouch. So true.

What are the ambitions, the plans, the way I am setting for the new year? What have I set before God feeling fairly certain that He’s on board before I’ve pulled away from the dock? Have I said in my heart “I know the plans I have for me” without even pausing to consider that God says “I know the plans I have for you”?

The discipline of pausing and asking this of our hearts is essential lest we might arrive in a place where we get our way, but our way will have no godly distinction set upon it. The discussion in our household of late has centered around the common notion that God will not give us more than we can handle… And how this simply isn’t true. God often gives us more than we can handle as a method of binding our hearts to His. Our God came to overwhelm, not merely to placate the status quo.

It is because of this desire to overwhelm that we are led to Luke 2.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

It is here that Billy Graham says, “The greatest sermon ever preached was delivered by angels on this historic night. It has always been interesting to me that this message was delivered at night. It wasn’t night because the sun had gone down. It was night because the world was surrounded in spiritual and moral gloom.”

We find ourselves in night when we make a decision to veer, even if only slightly, from the path that God has set for us. A slight veer jettisons our hearts quickly towards the temporal leaving us undistinguished in the forest of earthly gloom. Our hope is in the sermon of angels, the birth of a baby, and a life distinguished through proximity to Christ.

May we spend this Christmas with a bent knee towards the Christ who gives circumstances meant to overwhelm and overpower our hearts towards His.

Merry Christmas, friends.

Handling Logistics...

Logistics may be the single biggest hindrance to personal growth in the Lord. For logistics, is the machine that busies our hands and idles our hearts. Logistics is a mask that safely says, “I’m doing” tricking both our own selves and the outside world that we are properly handling all that God has for us. Busyness itself is not sinful nor is it in direct opposition to Christ. The Lord himself was busy. However, the Lord was never rushed.

At a certain point in our walk with the Lord, we recognize the obvious deception of social commitment. Being at a community is not the same thing as being in a community and so as the long list of social obligations continues to cover our calendar we find ourselves tired, run down, and empty. The logistics of a life filled with social appointments does not tend to brush us up against the savior.

Then there is the less obvious and seemingly more innocuous pull of the things that are good. Investing in the lives of others, ministry work, obligations to job, school, and family, etc. Yet even these, can without notice, consume our lives and can become what we call our walk with Christ when really, they are merely things that fill our days and consume our thoughts. The things we have to take care of, the things that are necessities get priority... They become our end. When we can finish them, fix them, participate in them, we feel satisfied and lay down in our bed of false comfort only to awake and participate again the very next day.

These logisitics – They consume us and strangle our growth.

BUT, the truth is, that logistics are life’s reality. We should make time for friends, for family, for school and work commitments, for ministry assignments, for small group, etc. But, how do we answer the call of logistics while still being an active participant in conversations with Christ?

Consider these questions:

Do we have time in our schedule to wrestle with Christ over something?

Do we go to our knees willingly or does the Lord have to bring us there through trials and circumstance?

Do we have the time to relate God in such a way as to explore His full worth?

I read a poem recently, that helps us ask the hard questions of our heart. It’s called $3 Worth Of God by Wilbur Reese...

"I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don't want enough of Him to make me love a hated man or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want the warmth of the womb not a new birth.
I want about a pound of the eternal in a paper sack.
I'd like to buy $3 worth of God, please."

So, as this old year closes and the new one begins, we should consider asking ourselves if we fear that too much of God will explode our soul or disturb our sleep? Are we pleasingly filled with the logistics of life and a just small portion of God? Are we prizing comfort and the satisfaction finishing a to-do list over transformation?

When I think about this, I am reminded of a piece of scripture from Isaiah 50 that says:
“The Lord [a]GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples,
That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.
5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear;
And I was not disobedient
Nor did I turn back.”

I pray that as we are awakened morning by morning that we are neither inclined towards disobedience nor turning back. That the busyness of our days would not become the definition of our days and that we would know that God can take care of any and all logistics, but we are responsible for participating in our relationship with him. Let us not be satisfied to merely brush against him, but to sit as his table and feast in His full worth.

Look Up And Raise Your Heads...

Have you ever started something and, halfway through, realized you’re not really doing that thing anymore? Or, have you ever begun a new thing with momentum and inspiration only to realize that the surrounding world didn’t get the memo and it’s you that’s left to fight and decide to keep something sacred and a priority?

That’s kind of how I feel about Advent. It started so strong. So much absorbing, so much taking in... And then, as I told my small group, Satan must have found out about my intentional advent and began to concoct a plan to deter me. But, unlike the cardboard calendar with its boxes untouched, all is not lost if I’ve done more meandering than marching in these last few weeks. Life has a funny way of happening and; truly, I’ve caught a glimpse of how my plans are not His Plans and how God has intended this advent for something far different.

Most people hate the word discipline. To many, it conjures up thoughts of rules, punishments, and various other violations of what the self wills. And though the truth is that discipline often takes effort, maybe pain, and a death of the personal will, the end result of discipline is comfort. When life is crazy, when my walk with God is feeling off, when sin abounds and it feels like I’ve lost control, I find myself walking back to discipline to begin again.

Discipline, to me, is sort of a promise. A promise with action steps. A promise that says, if I genuinely lay down my will, desire, etc. for one moment in prayer, in study, in journaling... Then I have a chance to taste and see and be renewed again. To me, the spiritual disciplines are this safe harbor where my ship can rest, be restored, and go out again. There are promises from God that I find challenging to believe, but the promise that seems to be apparent is that when we draw near to God, then He draws near to us too. Amen?

In the midst of searching out discipline and casting off the chains of the temporal, I also crave to be in the classics. There is a sweet spot with the saints that have both lived and died in Christ and their words shape us in ways that others can’t. So, when I was searching for some words to prompt me and my thoughts at the onset of this weekend, I turned to Bonhoeffer (No surprise there...) and found this advent gem...

“Let’s not deceive ourselves. “Your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28), whether we know it or not, and the only question is: Are we going to let it come to us too, or are we going to resist it? Are we going to join in this movement that comes down from heaven to earth, or are we going to close ourselves off? Christmas is coming—whether it is with us or without us depends on each and every one of us.
Such a true Advent happening now creates something different from the anxious, petty, depressed, feeble Christian spirit that we see again and again, and that again and again wants to make Christianity contemptible. This becomes clear from the two powerful commands that introduce our text: “Look up and raise your heads” (Luke 21:28 RSV). Advent creates people, new people. We too are supposed to become new people in Advent. Look up, you whose gaze is fixed on this earth, who are spellbound by the little events and changes on the face of the earth. Look up to these words, you who have turned away from heaven disappointed. Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who are heavy and who are crying over the fact that the earth has gracelessly torn us away. Look up, you who, burdened with guilt, cannot lift your eyes. Look up, your redemption is drawing near. Something different from what you see daily will happen. Just be aware, be watchful, wait just another short moment. Wait and something quite new will break over you: God will come”

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer


Look up and raise your heads dear friends. Our redemption is drawing near.

Psalm 5

I love my iPhone. I love that I'm on a bus to New York and can still type up a blog entry. To be honest, it's the longest I've had to sit and think in a while... Well intentioned advents are subject to the worldly reality that life happens and truly we operate in the ministries of distraction and disruption... Neither are inherently bad and it is margin that allows us to adjust and be flexible to what the spirit has for us... Even if our feelings are still lagging behind.
But, praise Jesus, that He gives us circumstances that cause us to be dependent before we want to... Because without that, I'm not sure I'd be able to talk myself into them. Difficulty, surprise, etc... These are things working against the human spirit, but fully aligned with the holy spirit. Though we may wiggle and and wrestle against it, it is through this means that we wind up on our face before God. And it's scary to think that we would wrestle our way out of the things that bring us closer to Christ simply for the sake of our comfort. It's a hard thing, but it's a good thing... So we should not encourage ourselves to let it slip away.

In these things, I am moved to stay in it by Psalm 5.

Read and be encouraged in your heart dear friend!

1 Listen to my words, LORD,
consider my lament.
2 Hear my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.

3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly.
4 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;
with you, evil people are not welcome.
5 The arrogant cannot stand
in your presence.
You hate all who do wrong;
6 you destroy those who tell lies.
The bloodthirsty and deceitful
you, LORD, detest.
7 But I, by your great love,
can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
toward your holy temple.

8 Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make your way straight before me.
9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;
their heart is filled with malice.
Their throat is an open grave;
with their tongues they tell lies.
10 Declare them guilty, O God!
Let their intrigues be their downfall.
Banish them for their many sins,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

12 Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

Close To The Manger

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “For the mighty ones, for the great ones of this world, there are only two places where their courage deserts them, which they fear in the depths of their souls, which they dodge and avoid: the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ.”

I’m not sure where to start. Having discovered only recently that he penned an Advent book and that it was not in my collection left me… Longing. Not longing in a sinful way, but hungry to hear how this saint prepared His heart for the birth of Christ. Christmas must mean something much different when locked in a prison. Where would our hope be given a similar condition? It’s guaranteed that is something we would soon discover as there would be no veil of gifts, of pomp, of holiday cheer to feign a joy incomplete.

Even during this perpetual masquerade of a season, we can, if we allow ourselves, brush up against the authenticity of courage when we willingly approach the manger. It’s interesting to think that the manger itself would be something to avoid, but this symbol of naked humility is truly where fear is exposed and faith is found out. Further, in proximity to the manger is also where we live a faith based not from memory, but from true encounter itself. We may fear the seemingly long bend down from being upright to kneeling beside the manger, but once we’ve bent to see what’s inside a hope is born and a promise is kept.

Bonhoeffer goes on to say, “Who among us will celebrate Christmas right? Those who finally lay down all their power, honor, and prestige, all their vanity, pride, and self-will at the manger, those who stand by the lowly and let God alone be exalted, those who see in the child in the manger the glory of God precisely in this lowliness. Those who say, along with Mary, ‘The Lord has regarded my low estate. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’”

This quote makes me restless. Restless in that I fight my own will to be exalted on a regular basis. Restless because I am simultaneously inspired by and resistant to standing by the lowly. Restless because, if I am being honest, I too often have one hand on the manger and one hand on the frankincense and myrrh. Or even worse, are the days when both hands reach for the gifts alone.

But restlessness is better than apathy. So, though I am restless, I am encouraged also by this particular Bonhoeffer thought on the battle to wait and associate with God in our own lives:

“The only ones who can wait are people who carry restlessness around with them and people who look up with reverence to the greatest in the world. Thus Advent can be celebrated only by those whose souls give them no peace, who know that they are poor and incomplete, and who sense something of the greatness that is supposed to come, before which they can only bow in humble timidity, waiting until he inclines himself toward us – the Holy One himself, God in the child in the manger.”

Do we exist with the sense of the greatness that is supposed to come? Are we restless because we are poor and incomplete? These are questions that have abound as a result of reading this saint today.

Heaven and Earth

At the risk of being CS Lewis heavy in my advent, I can’t help but associate him with many of my thoughts related to Christmas. Today is the day of the annual CS Lewis Institute Christmas Tea. For two short hours, current and former fellows and their guests gather together to drink tea, share life, and reflect on the positing of Lewis regarding the Christmas season. The day ends with everyone singing carols to one another in a grand display of fellowship and community.

And, for just a brief moment, we feel as if we are living in Oxford and attending some type of Inklings meeting.

I didn’t take any notes last year (Yes, I’ve been known to take notes at something as casual as tea), but I do recall this Lewis quote:

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

Not that the notion was nascent, but on that particular day it did strike me.
And, looking ba
ck a year later, I have to wonder if, after it struck me, did it actually change me? Biblical truth is not merely for savoring. It is for marinating, infiltrating, and eventually transforming the fabric of our lives. Life is a challenge and sometimes it seems as if God is asking us to do a little more than we are capable, hurt a little longer than we are comfortable, surrender a little more than we can afford, be humble in a way that is more than conceivable. And despite this, He has never asked for anything more than He has ever given himself.

If He aimed only at earth, there would be no prospect of heaven for us.
Some days, the hope of heaven coming is the only hope that progresses us through the day. Life may be beautiful, but it is not without hardship or messiness. Jesus’ birth meant the rise of authenticity to our lives. With authenticity comes mess, comes grace, comes forgiveness, and so much more.
We can pursue earthly excellence like the Pharisees or we can pursue authenticity with Christ like the disciples. If we choose the former, it’s all we will ever get. If we choose the latter, we get heaven with earth thrown in.

This is not a new notion, but certainly one to consider this advent season.

Praying as we pursue heaven together!

Holy Confrontation

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

A few years ago, I picked up a book called Seven, which juxtaposed the deadly sins against the beatitudes. This book was rare in that its account of the deadly sins allowed me to see myself in all of them. I call this humble recognition. The result of this can be one of three things: wallowing in self-pity, complete apathy, or need for a way out.

Since coming to know the Lord I have learned one lesson repeatedly – I cannot be my own way out. If it’s up to me, I’ll fail all the time. I can be determined, I can be disciplined, I can even be enthusiastic, but the human will cannot will itself to do the things that only God can do. Amen?

So, in the book, it discusses the necessity for good to triumph over evil. But, when we look around we see a different landscape. We see evil winning the head to head match ups on a regular basis. It doesn’t appear that good is winning very often. This is a fallen world, one in need of a savior. And this is where the relevance of Advent and what it leads up to is so important to the human soul.

Because Jesus is born, lives a perfect life, offers it up in sacrifice, dies and rises three days later, good triumphs over evil. And, this is the source of our hope. This is our way out. In the birth of Christ we see a holy confrontation. Jesus has come. He is here to challenge the status quo and to triumph over evil.

In response, as Jeff Cook (author of Seven) says, “… (because of this) we have a reason to walk the hard roads where goodness often leads us. Such confrontations give us hope that, yes, the sacrifices we make, the passions we restrain, the drops of blood we give are not vanity but are marks of the complete and happy life.”

I guess I never really thought that sin would be so central to a focused advent. But, it is. And the rigor of the Christian walk is the very thing that excludes it from vanity and motivates us towards eternity.

Bringing Gifts

The purpose of Advent is to take one’s mind off the preparation of gifts for man and; instead, focus on the preparation of gifts for our Father. Then again, the Little Drummer Boy, makes it very clear when he indicates, “we have no gifts to bring.”

So then, where does that leave us?

Yesterday, I was listening to an old John Piper sermon on Advent and it talked about the ways that Satan wants to thwart the gifts we can bring – The gifts of focus, attention, intentionality. Satan is consumed with wrapping us up in the frivolity of the holiday so that we neglect the intention of the season. In Christmas, He tempts us yet again to put religion in front of relationship.

CS Lewis sums it up fairly well in this quote from his essay God In the Dock when he says:

"The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left."

Advent is the reflection on the miracle. It is the bringing forth of the gifts of focus, attention, and intentionality on the birth of Christ. This is keeping CHRIST in Christmas. But, it is also the bringing forth of these gifts to the day to day that we live from now until Christ “bring(s) nature up with Him.”

May the day come expediently.

What are you expecting?

In celebration of Advent, I should probably get an Advent Wreath (super serious advent). Or maybe a calendar (playful and jovial advent)?

Usually, the German Club at my school sells them, but come to think of it, I don’t know if my new school has a German Club. I did order some grapefruits awhile back though, so maybe I can use those instead? I mean, nothing says “Jesus is coming!” like a fruit that is hard to peel and squirts a vicious acidic juice in my eye.

Advent is an anticipation of what’s coming.

In that way, I’ve been adventing all year long. Or so it seems.
I recently switched schools. And, there’s a back story there (not a sketchy “I got caught stealing paper clips” back story, but a back story all the same) and that back story is the one of how God took me from one place to another unexpectedly.

I think that was some sort of blind advent season. I was waiting and anticipating without knowing it.

And now, for all intents and purposes, it’s an active advent. I am in full anticipation mode with my new school. I am waiting for the day when it feels normal, waiting for the day when I won’t feel new, waiting for the day when all seems comfortable. There are many prayers that are directed toward this end.

But, what if that’s not what this advent is about?

Is my hopeful anticipation for my life to go exactly as I plan? Is my advent about achieving normal as quickly as possible? Or, even worse, is my advent about being settled?

What if advent isn’t about getting exactly what we expect? What if advent is about the new thing that God is doing?

The more I think of it. The more I know that’s true.

What was expected was a king that would bring riches and triumph to the land. What they got was a baby in manger living a humble life. Yes, this baby would become the savior and hope to all people, but He wasn’t what people expected, so many turned away.

There’s a lesson in this. And, I’m on the fringes of it.

As we sit in advent this Christmas season, what is it that we are expecting? What is it that we are awaiting? And how we will respond when God performs in a way that we do not expect?

Reflections on Christmas and Modern Man

I started off this first week of advent by venturing into the archives of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. In thinking about Christmas and what it’s all about and what it actually means, one might head to the gospels for a frame of reference, but today, we headed to 1 Corinthians 1:20 - 21.

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

The message of this sermon was clear: Satan wants to abduct the message of Christ and he desires to stand between people and the real message of Christ.

The world’s Christmas message – Christmas is man at his best and man in his best mood.

BUT, is this what Christmas is all about?

The Christian message – Christmas is a challenge to the world.

In Corinthians, it asks – “Where are the wise of the world?”

It is a challenge for the wise to speak for the world. It is meant to humble the world. And Christmas is the onset of this humbling. That is the challenge inherent in the birth of Jesus and culminated in His death a nearly thirty years later. It is a display of the glory and the triumph of God. God making foolish the wisdom of the world. That is Christmas. The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than man.

The message of Christmas is the announcement of what God has done. Any message lifting up man instead is a renouncement of the message of Christ.
So, what is it that we are lifting up this Christmas?

Christmas plays out in this threefold manner:

1. God enters world. Emmanuel!

2. What God has done on Christmas is something that does not conform to this world. It doesn’t belong to the human order. As believers, we can proclaim the miraculous and supernatural. This gives us hope! For, if we were to be saved by ourselves, then everything would be hopeless. So, Christmas should inspire us to not conform. (Romans 12:1)

3. The world does not understand. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. And this reality that the impossible becomes possible through Christ in a virgin, Mary, is overwhelming and gnaws at our brain. So, Lloyd-Jones concludes that if we have never had as issue with the Christmas message, then we may have never known it. We should struggle with the fullness of what the Christmas message reveals. The natural man struggles to believe it. And, to Mary, it was impossible too. But faith prevailed even when it baffled.

Does your faith baffle you?

God makes human wisdom look foolish.

The world, by wisdom, did not know God.

The world’s wisdom failed to arrive at a knowledge of God.

In his miracles, God exposed the failure of wisdom.

In his miracles, God revealed the triumph of faith.

Advent. Intentionally.

Advent.

I think I most closely associate advent with a cardboard calendar and cheap chocolate candy.

I found a picture the other day. It was my school picture from when I was 5. I was wearing a plaid jumper (yes, jumper) and a gold cross necklace.
I had to laugh for two reasons:

1. I looked ridiculous in that jumper…

2. Where in the world did I get that cross and why did my parents let me where gold when I was 5?

Being neither committed to jumpers nor the Jesus when I was 5, that picture seemed so out of place. Like a funny little picture of someone else. It was totally me and yet it wasn’t all in the same breath.
And that’s how my Advent memory feels too.

There was no preparation for the King or anticipation of His birth. There was simply the single-minded determination to survive another day for that waxy, toy-shaped piece of chocolate.

Now that I’m a believer, I’ve regularly thought that the Christmas season should be lived out with far more intentionality than it actually is. And despite my regular thoughts, there has been an absence of action to follow. Last year’s Christmas season caught me with a sucker punch. I think I waxed poetically about Joseph and a pregnant Mary on a donkey and how tough the journey was. Little did I know that my own journey on a donkey was soon to follow and it seemed a lot less glorious than the one I wrote about in the weeks prior. Those days were all about survival and so, in the spirit of forced obedience, I trudged a path I didn’t want to be on with valuable yet scarring lessons as the reward.

Since then, I have this felt donkey that hangs from my rear view mirror. A donkey to remind me that the journey from now until next will rarely look the way I want (I mean who wants to be riding on a donkey?) and it often won’t go the way I plan (Much like the days and life of Mary), but God is faithful in growing us in good and perfect ways with good and perfect timing and good and perfect execution…

Ok, so back to Advent and living it intentionally.

This year, I’ll be blogging Advent – What God’s teaching me, what text, scripture, etc. He is putting in front of me, and anything else that pops up along the way. For me, to put an experience into words is to convey my intent to chase it down and commit to its lessons. So, for those that are friends, readers, etc. I encourage you to Advent intentionally too… And share with me your experience to prepare room for the King of kings.