The Adoration

Christmas is really all about worship. The immensity of grace and favor shown by God could yield no other result. Mary worshipped with her believing heart and willingness to serve God. Zechariah worshipped after naming his son and his tongue was loosed. Joseph worshipped by believing the angel in the dream and taking Mary as his wife. The shepherds worshipped by leaving their flocks to find this baby; spreading the news to everyone. The angels delivered messages of the good news and burst into song above the fields of Bethlehem. Even the sky put forth a unique star over the place. The wise men travelled from somewhere in the east to find the place and give their gifts. Everyone recognized the significance of the event, what the world had been waiting for since the fall. The Savior had come. Emmanuel was here. The bondage of sin could be broken. The Messiah, the Christ had come to redeem. The love of God seen so clearly by His people produced a uniform response: worship. Each had a different means of expression, depending on what they had to give. Given the overwhelming amount of grace, what else could they have done? And what about us? We know the ending of the story. We have the salvation that they welcomed in Bethlehem. What is our focus of this time of year? What is Christmas really all about for us? Given the overwhelming amount of grace what are we doing? Come and worship.

No Title

Can't shake the sense of God's overwhelming greatness and love. An anchoring peace that nothing will shake. A driving purpose that I am where God wants me to be.

The Cell

Some walls are meant to be broken. Sometimes you hit a wall and you have to get around it, go a different direction. Walls in life are supposed to be our limits. You cannot proceed any further in a direction. So you go around. Sometimes you turn around. But you keep moving. Either you see a wall in front of you or you don't. But sometimes you zoom out and the walls form a prison. The only way out is through a wall. Sometimes God has to stop you in your tracks. Show you that you can't do it. Strip everything you thought you had. Break down everything you had built your life upon, thought to be true. Break your walls. To show you the truth. To lead you on with life. To show you His love. To take you back to that foundation: that all you have is found in Him. That all you can offer Him is what He gave you. That He made you to love you. That you've got nothing, but He's given you everything. That in Him you can do anything. Some walls are meant to break you.

"He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."- Matthew 21:44

The Wall

Hit a wall. Kind of stops you from getting anywhere. Out campaigning in WI. Good couple of days so far. Great team of leaders and the kids are awesome. Campaigning isn't so bad: some rough times with crabby people, but its good to get away from school. I like talking with people about this stuff. Sometimes wish I could do more to get individual people answers, instead of marking down another call made, house visited. Sometimes you can only do so much. But stuff was going well. We had a lot going. The kids were working hard, behaving, all that stuff. The team was making things happen. Leading the kids. Helping each other out. Tonight something happened. Maybe its just catching up with me. All the pressure and lack of sleep. I could tell I was starting to be sarcastic and short with people. Started getting kind of annoyed at some of the kids. I overthink things. So I start to be critical of my ability to lead, the fact that I'm affecting my kids and the rest of the team. I ask what happened? Where did I start to go down hill? How do I get back on track? No answers. Things grind to a halt and I hit the wall. The thing about walls is that they don't move. You can't really just push through them. Working harder doesn't get the job done. Can't figure this out. All I see is what I think is reality- my failings. Just the fact that I hit a wall proves that. But maybe a wall is to tell me I'm going the wrong direction. Maybe a wall is to prove nothing more than that I can't do it.