In Heavenly Peace

My heart has been begging my mind to slow down and focus on the intent of this Christmas season:  Advent, a time of reflection, introspection, quiet and rest.

But it wasn't until Friday, that all the little things that seemed so urgent, were abruptly placed into perspective. 

Shop for one more holiday trinket, or pause for a mommy-daughter lunch?  Get on top of my year-end reporting, or actually get home in time for dinner with the family? Holiday party or quiet time with my 4 year old boy who is feeling under the weather?

Suddenly these questions seem ridiculous.

There is silence as we mourn with the Newtown families and community.  We are bound to them in prayer as we empathize with their unfathomable loss. We are reminded of how fragile life is and how important it is to embrace every second of it with our loved ones. 

And we wonder if "safe" exists for any of us anymore.

Micah 5:4  He will stand and shepherd his flock...and they shall live securely.

Because of His birth, life, death and resurrection, we can live secure in the knowledge that He waits for us.  He is always close.   He is desperate for us to invite Him in.  Regardless of what we are living through right now, there is comfort and security in his deep and fierce love for us.

Our Shepherd feels our anguish. He knows the pain of losing a child to a terrible death at the hand of sin.  He humbled himself and lived it first hand, so that we could receive the promise of His restoration, and live in the confidence of life everlasting without sin and without pain. 

In this season of faith and family and friends, this tragedy is all the more cruel.  But because He came, we have the promise and assurance of a time and place where we can live, and love, and forgive.

As we focus on the birth of the Redeemer, hold on to the promise.  Be consoled.  Be assured.  Be at peace. 

I shall dwell secure.
He shall be my peace.


Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won’t you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

Hopefully,
Your Children
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The day after

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It's the day after.  Disappointment hangs heavy in the quiet recesses of the city today.  Somber faces acknowledge me, hope a fading ember in their eyes.  A day of mourning not necessarily for the events of the previous night, but of the state in which we find ourselves.

We are disheartened by the widespread disintegration in shared values and beliefs.  We are alarmed. Are we truly now the minority?

Like the tale of the frog in boiling water we have been obliviously content in the busyness of our daily lives.  We had not realized that the temperature in our culture has changed.  We have been complacent.

My intent here is not to talk politics, point fingers or cast blame.

I do choose to point the magnifying glass inward, and to the church standing with me on the other side of this great moral divide.

 My question is quite simple:  Are we, the church, failing?

If Jesus is the light of the world, and we as His disciples, imitators of Christ, commissioned to be salt and light to the world, are not shedding that same eye opening, awe inspiring light, then.... are we, the church, failing?

For if there is darkness in the world today, in the form of misunderstanding, ignorance or plain contradiction.  And darkness is simply a lack of God and His life giving light, then.......... are we, the church, failing?

Christ is the Word made flesh that dwelt among us.  As His discliples, can we say the same? Have we truly taken on the image and likeness of Christ?  Are we the walking, talking Word of God?

My first response is to react.  I am, I'm sure, a direct descendant of Martha.  My instinct is to be "anxious and troubled about many things".  In fact I can support my tendency to worry with additional scripture.  I mean, doesn't James also tell us that we should "be doers of the word, and not hearers only"?!

Determination wells up in a surge of adrenaline and self-righteousness.  This natural introvert becomes convinced that I must use all of my natural will and strength to push back this tide that is changing the face of our beloved nation, threatening to undue, erase, even eradicate all that our founding fathers fought for so desperately.

And yet the word tells me that in Martha's most anxious moment, Jesus told her that only one thing was needful.  We must choose the "good portion, and it will not be taken away."

More than ever, we Christians have to lay aside our petty differences, distractions and divisions, and be true disciples, obedient and attentive to the word of God, sitting at the feet of our Father.

That is not to say we should be passive.  Salt and light are active.  But it is at His feet where we must start. 

It is at His feet we are equipped to exalt Christ and evangelize the world.  That is the place where we take on the mind of Christ.  At His feet is where His Word permeates our minds, hearts and lives so that He can truly become flesh again and again through each of us.

So in the days after this, let the mourning stop.  Let us return to the beginning.  Rest at the feet of the master, choose the good portion, so that this time, our light shines a little brighter, and the world can see more of Him and less of us.

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This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who draws strength from mere flesh

and whose heart turns away from the Lord.

That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;

they will not see prosperity when it comes.

They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord“,

whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:5-8