Because of Emmanuel, in the midst of lament, we rejoice

        Right now I'm listening to the haunting, yet stunningly beautiful strains of a single piano playing "O Come O Come Emmanuel."  It surely is one of the most powerful of all the Advent/Christmas carols, and it nearly always moves me to tears.  The minor key, the lament, the longing for Emmanuel to come...and to come in the midst of this world's sorrow and brokenness.  O come, please come, dearest Lord Jesus, and "free Thine own from satan's tyranny.  From depths of hell Thy people save.   And give them victory o'er the grave." 
         Yes, "Thou Day-Spring come and cheer our spirits by Thine advent here. Disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadows put to flight.  Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel." 
         Isn't that the kind of Advent and Christmas so many of us are celebrating/mourning/rejoicing/lamenting?  Yes, it feels like Narnia--where it's "winter but never Christmas"--but we know, we call to mind, we remember and then we choose to rejoice that You came and broke into this sin-sick, broken world to redeem us and, as the carol says, to save us from the depths of hell and gave us victory over the grave. 
       Thank You, Thank You, thank You, Lord Jesus!  Help us to remember in the midst of our struggles and sorrows that You came, You are here, You are with us and in  us, You will never ever leave us, and You are coming again to make all, all, all things new. 
      You will defeat and destroy forever the sin that hurts us...and the cancer that robs those we love of health and life...and the brokenness that haunts our world and harms Your children that You love and for whom You died and rose again. 
      Our family is enduring one of those hard, dark, winter times right now with my dear sister-in-law very sick.  But as  heartbreaking as it is at the moment, her future is utterly, wonderfully secure.  One day, she will step into heaven and experience unimaginable glories, love, peace, joy and wonder.  Praise You, Lord, for the hope and promise of heaven!  She and all who love the Lord have infinitely more ahead of them than what is behind them.  Life on this planet is but a speck, a dot in the limitless ocean of God's glorious forever.
      How I love these words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, written to his fiance while he was imprisoned in a Nazi prison cell.  He would be executed months after writing these words...but oh how they speak to all of us who might be going through our own winter suffering right now:
        "We shall both experience a few dark hours--why should we disguise that from each other?  We shall ponder the incomprehensibility of our lot and be assailed by the question of why, over and above the darkness already enshrouding humanity, we should be subjected to the bitter anguish of a separation whose purpose we fail to understand...And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God.  Our eyes are at fault, that is all.  God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment.  No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives."
        Whatever winter you might be enduring right now, please remember that "God is in the manger" but He's also on the throne of heaven and earth and He is with us.  And He is bringing unconquerable wealthy in your poverty, light in your darkness, and succor in your abandonment. 
       Emmanuel--"God with us"--is with you, in you for you, behind you, beside you and before you.  He will put "death's dark shadows to flight" forever and ever when you wake up in the eternal wonders and glories of heaven. 
         And so, in the midst of lament, we rejoice.  O come, O come Emmanuel. 
        To God be all the glory.   

Choosing thankfulness...on Thanksgiving and everyday!

        Happy Thanksgiving!  What a wonderful holiday—lots of delicious food eaten with people you love, celebrating the amazing story of the pilgrims and indians and the gift of our great nation, and doing it all with a deliberate and intentional focus on thankfulness.  Not to mention, none of the pressure and craziness of shopping for gifts and desperately trying to create the perfect Pinterest Christmas!  What’s not to love! 

        But seriously, gratitude should not, must not be just a once a year holiday we celebrate or a short-lived activity we engage in for a few weeks every November.  As Cicero said many centuries ago, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”  And I really think nothing has a more transformative impact on our attitude, our witness, our contentment, and indeed our lives, than being thankful people.  And as believers, that means first and foremost thankfulness to Almighty God both for who He is and what He’s done, as well as thankfulness to Him for His many blessings in our lives.  And also consistently expressing thankfulness to the people He has so graciously put in our lives. 

        As believers we have the joyful, amazing privilege of daily going to the throne of the Lord of the universe and giving Him thanks and praise.  G.K.Chesterton once wrote that “The worst moment for any atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.”  And that’s the point behind singer Andrew Peterson’s wonderful song called, “Don’t you want to thank someone?”  He sings about dark, long nights…and then the beauty of the morning sun burns thru the mist or when, after a hard, bleak winter, “spring arrives and warms you like a mother’s kiss”—“Don’t you want to thank someone?  Don’t you want thank someone for this?”

        I couldn’t help but think of Coach Jim Valvano after NC State won the national championship in basketball years ago.  Immediately after the winning shot, Valvano starts running around with his arms outstretched.  He’s overcome with joy and wonder and excitedly, almost desperately looking for someone to hug.  Yes!  That’s what overwhelming thankfulness will do for you—you want, you must find someone to thank and with whom to share it!

        Try being grumpy and irritable when you’re thankful—you can’t do it!  Gratitude displaces fretting and complaining like nothing else!  One more G.K. Chesterton quote that’s always been one of my favorites.  He declared, “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled with wonder.”  Read that again—“gratitude is happiness doubled with wonder.”  (That’s Valvano!) Don’t you love that!

        Over and over again, God’s Word commands us to be thankful!  Read thru the Psalms—you’ll see it time and again, “Give thanks to the Lord,” “Enter His gates with thanksgiving,” “Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name.”  And Paul’s epistles, oh my, constant, overflowing thanksgiving!  “I give thanks to my God for you,” “I do not cease to give thanks for you,” “We ought always to give thanks to God,” and on and on! 

        Here’s the thing—have you ever wondered what God’s will is for you in your life?  Well, I can tell you what God’s Word makes crystal clear on that subject, and it’s in I Thess.5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  God’s will for you is to give thanks in all circumstances.  How well are we doing that?   

         Jon Bloom writes that  the repeated commands in Scripture to give thanks “are not the exhortations of a vain deity. They are the loving prescription of the Great Physician; they are the loving reminders of our caring Father. Just like a parent helps a child to cultivate thankfulness through frequent reminders, God intends his frequent reminders for us to give thanks to him to help us experience the profoundly healthy and deep joy of seeing grace and feeling grateful.  And like all of God’s greatest blessings, He has made our thankfulness something that gives Him glory and gives us joy! He gets the glory of being the grace-Giver, and we get the joy of being grace-receivers and the gratitude-feelers.”  That’s a win-win!

        Giving thanks is a habit that must be cultivated like any other—the more you do it, the more habitual and second nature it becomes.  And the more habitual, the more you will find your mindset and attitude being joyously transformed.   Mary Mohler, in her wonderful book, Growing in Gratitude, reminds us when we make thankfulness an intentional mindset, it becomes like an overflowing fountain that continuously spills over and splashes joy and thankfulness to all around us. “If others happen jostle us,” she writes, “we spill gratitude.”

         So how do we do it?  We simply start choosing to obey God’s simple, health-giving command to “give thanks in all circumstances.”  Maybe you all already keep a gratitude journal, but if not, (or of like yours truly, you’ve let that habit slip away!) how about if we commit (or recommit) to doing that starting today?  Here’s one suggestion: get a notebook and every evening before going to bed, write down 3 things for which you’re thankful.  Make the first item on your list everyday something about Almighty God, His character, or His works for which you’re particularly thankful.  And then write at least 2 things for which you’re grateful that day—whether it’s a lovely sunrise or your child coming home from college or the hug of a friend.  And then here’s the kicker—let’s try to keep this up past Thanksgiving and all the way into the new year and beyond! 

        God has been so extravagantly good to us—even in the hardest, darkest times of our lives—for He is always with us, behind us, before us, beside us, in us, and for us.  Let’s start counting His blessings, His gifts—big and small—and in the process, not only will He be glorified, but we’ll be strengthened and encouraged as we remember and recite His relentless goodness.  

          To God be the glory.  

Open your eyes...and then thank Him!

        Good night!--its been almost a month (and quite the busy one), but I'm thankful to be back. The last time I was here, Halloween was still a few weeks away...now we're staring Thanksgiving in the face.  It sounds so terribly trite, but oh my how time flies! 
        And whew, thank goodness for Thanksgiving, surely the best time of the year, and how badly we need it right now.  There's our horribly polarized and divided culture, the relentless mud-slinging political ads (providing another good reason not to watch too much TV), and the general negativity and incivility in public discourse...I could go on, but why?  Do we really need reminding of mankind's all too evident sinful, selfish nature?  And that includes me...and you. I always think of G.K.Chesterton's famously response to a newspaper's request to write an answer to the question "What is wrong with the world."  He simply wrote back, "Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton."  Yep, that pretty much sums it up.   
        But all the more reason that we all need to hit the pause button, take a step back, look around with new eyes to see how much good God has showered upon us (in spite of ourselves), and then look up with gratitude. 
         It's all grace. All, all, all, God's amazing grace. 
         Just this morning--walking Bingley on the quiet greenway in the early morning stillness...the cold, bracing air...the sun beginning to filter through the changing, brightly colored leaves...the scattering of fallen leaves making a gentle carpet beneath our feet...the sweet face of our happy dog as we walked...the deer sauntering up ahead across our path. 
         What did I do to create any of that?  What did I do to earn it?  Nothing. Nada. All grace.  All by the gracious Creator.
        How about lunch the other day with two dear friends...or dinner last night with folks we love...or text messages from priceless buddies on a trip in Israel...or Bible study with amazing women...or planning Christmas with my wonderful sisters and family...or having any of our children home (JOY!)...all the wondrous gift of the people we love--all grace, grace, grace. 
         Watching our beloved Tar Heels lose again in football...but on a spectacular fall day...cheering our hearts out while those boys--bless them!--played just as hard as they could...seeing that lovely campus bathed in autumn colors...hugging our son who gets to go to school there...simply being alive and breathing and seeing and laughing and eating.  So many simple but oh so wonderful joys, gifts of grace and more grace.
           None of it earned or deserved, but all grace.  All gifts from our gracious, glorious God. 
           So a very simple message that I'll be coming back to again and again over the coming weeks: have we thanked Him?  Have we thanked the Author and Finisher--not just of our faith but also of all the stuff of our daily existence?   Surely fall is an a time when His handiwork explodes all around us in riotous color, smells, gifts and more gifts. 
          Today, take time to pause and open your eyes to see--really see all that's around you.  There's so much, but we allow the familiar to blind us to the extraordinary.  Look around at His extraordinary work, and then look up and thank Him for His gifts and for His amazing grace. 
         “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” Ps.107:1
         Aren't you thankful you have Someone to thank?!  Yes, He is the One! He is the Giver!  He is the God of all grace!  Open your eyes, look around, and then thank Him! 
         To God--the relentlessly good and gracious Giver--be all the glory.