Game Day

So this past weekend was Hope Community Church's Christmas production "A Christmas Tale" (directed by one of the best creative arts directors, my Mom). It was a great success and they had six performances in front of roughly 9,000 people. The show itself is not just what made it great, it was everything together: there were parking attendants dressed up with Christmas hats and gear, buses shuttling people to their cars decked with lights as well as a "tour guide" explaining what you could expect from the evening, the greeters were all dressed up in Renaissance gear, and finally there were just a whole bunch of people. All these people coming to this event to hear about Jesus, and it got me thinking...

What if this sort of thing happened on a regular Sunday at church? What if people not only arrived on time (gasp!) but early? Here comes a frank reality check. We have "Christians" who claim Jesus is #1 in their life, who go to sporting events and other activities early so as not to miss any of the game, but think it is merely ok to make it to church right as it starts so that they can feel good about only missing part of the opening worship song and not the whole thing? (I said it was frank) I just don't get where this idea comes from where we claim to worship God, yet get decked out in body paint for a game that has absolutely no eternal impact while telling others that we really live for Jesus. I'm not saying getting excited about something other than church is a bad thing at all, but what would it look like if we applied that same enthusiasm to church? What would it look like if instead of five minutes late, everyone arrived five minutes early so that they wouldn't miss even a second of celebrating the Lord and how much he has done for us?

I was standing on a balcony looking over the lobby slam packed with people waiting for the auditorium doors to let them in. All of these people smiling and anticipating the show to come. I just couldn't help but wonder: what if Christians were this excited about church. Can you imagine the impact a church like that would have? Can you imagine if what I saw was something someone completely new to church saw? You can bet they would want whatever it is that all these people seemed to have. Talk about sending a powerful message, and I'm only talking about going to church...

Happy People

Christmas is my favorite time of year because everyone is (or at least acts) happier than usual. People are friendly, they host Christmas parties and get togethers with all their friends, and there is a lot of compassion for the less fortunate during this season as well. I know the holidays bring stress as well- worrying about buying gifts and hosting friends and family, but the general mood overall is typically positive. You get a lot of happy people around this time of year.

This is why I love Christmas, and this is why I don't know how what to make of it this year. As many of you know, these last six months have been the hardest of my life. It is nothing but the love of God that has gotten me here today. But something I have struggled with because of my difficult times has been happy people. I'm not upset with individual people, I'm not upset when people are happy, I actually love it. It just can be hard to deal with sometimes, because I'm not. This season of my life has been trial after difficult trial, staying positive and happy is extremely difficult sometimes. I have even been described as having "moods" or told I don't always act the same. Yes it hurts when those who know my situation say that, but I know they probably just aren’t thinking. The thing is, there are times when life seems almost normal, but there are also days that are as hard as the day my father died. During those hard days is when Satan attacks me the most. I have thoughts like "of course they are happy, they have never dealt with a difficult thing in their life." I become jealous; I wonder how they would do in my situation. And then I remember...

Just because I can't see it, doesn't mean they aren't hurting to. One of the biggest things the Lord has shown me in all of this is the pain so many are going through. I have heard countless stories of difficulties that would have blew my mind, before I went through one myself. Yet through the strength of God these people have managed to get through. It is so easy to think that you are the only one dealing with something, never have I seen that been farther from the truth then through my situation.

"You will be stronger because of this." Can I just say, I hated when people told me that when my father first died. To be honest, some of that was because some of those who told me only said it because they didn't know what else to say, and knowing some of those people I knew they hadn't gone through something like this, so I didn't find their words credible. But then I found others whose Christian walks with the Lord I respected and who had been through real tough stuff telling me that. And at first I didn't care, I didn't care how strong I was going to be, I just wanted my father back and I didn't want any good to come of this. Well score one for the Lord, because I have seen the love of God like never before. And I can tell you that I'm becoming stronger because of what I have gone through. I can face things I never thought I could before, and "difficult" situations aren't so difficult anymore because God was worked out my spiritual "muscles." And God is still God no matter what, and He is good.

I would like to thank those of you who have gone beyond your calling to show your love to me during my difficult time. No, life is not normal for me. It's a little better, but still a long way from normal. Who knows how long it will take, a year? Two years? But the Lord has been here for me through it all, even when I didn't want Him, or more importantly deserved him.

"Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."    -James 1:2-4

Angry People

Yesterday I went to a basketball game here at UNCW against George Mason. We lost (what's new), but I had the wonderful opportunity to stand next to a guy who felt it was his duty to yell and complain about everything during the game. Now if you’re a sports fan, you know what I am talking about- the obnoxious fan who yells at the refs (who clearly cannot hear them) every play, cusses like they are getting paid to do it, etc. What doesn't make much sense to me though is why in the world he would even come to the game when he seemed miserable the whole time (he even found something to complain about when we scored)! I have to admit, he was even putting me in a bad mood at times. This guy was messed up! Or was he?

I myself am a complainer, it is something I constantly have to work on. But what does it look like when we let everything get to us? They guy at the game was complaining even when things were going our way! In the words of the American poet Randall Jarrel, "The people who live in a golden age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks. As a Christian, what excuse do we have to become so consumed by the world that we fail to see what is really important? Now I'm not condemning the guy next to me at the game, because I don't know what he believes, but I'm not so sure he would call himself a Christian. So for him, that would be his excuse, he doesn't know about the redemptive love of Christ and the hope we have in Him.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:27 "Who by worrying can add a single hour to his life." And also in verse 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life..." The everlasting love and life given to us by the Lord is, when it comes down to it, the only thing that matters. When we lose sight of that, when we become wrapped up in us and not in him, we will even complain about the good, complain about how yellow everything looks. In the book of Revelation of the Bible, God describes the New Jerusalem of the new earth He will create after the end times, "The great street of the city was of pure gold" (Revelation 21:21). This leaves us with two options, praise the Lord for what he has given us, or complain about the yellow.