My Favorite Christmas Gift of 2007

This weekend was my extended family's Christmas and I have come to find that the annoying dynamics of my family are also the ones which make me love them so much. Last night was all the prep work for today, we baked, made sleeping arrangements at my parents' house, bought last minute groceries and supplies, wrapped presents.....all that good stuff. Well as I mentioned before there are things about my family which annoy me sometimes like saying breakfast is going to be at 10:30 and then we don't even sit down till 11:30, my sisters following me around wherever I go while being loud and obnoxious, and also being ultra dramatic about where everyone will sleep. So anyway Frankie has never seen this side of my family before, naturally, since this is our first Christmas together. Who would ever imagine deciding where everyone would sleep would be such a huge deal? Satya says, "Oh my gosh! Where are we all going to sleep, I mean Ben needs a bed, Libby needs a bed, the girls, Jon and me, Frankie....we all have to sleep somewhere!!!" OH HORRORS!!! I usually get irritated at this unnecessary drama but seeing Frankie's humorous reaction to the whole thing made me realize just how funny it really is! Being someone who loves to laugh I wholeheartedly rid myself of all irritation. So as we were sitting down to dinner tonight I looked around the table at my dear family and felt a wave of emotion come over me. I love my family so much, and thinking of the fact that God brings us all together in such a unique and wonderful way makes me so grateful. We always talk about the church being the "body" and that we all work together as one vessel. I think we often forget the smaller part of being one "body", our own families. My family is made up of an array of different backgrounds and beliefs. My grandparents are Mennonite, my Uncle a Quaker, my Aunt is Methodist and her husband not religious at all. My brother-in-law is searching for answers and the rest of us are Pentecostals. All raised in different eras and times, old-school and new, quiet and loud, irritable and tolerant, such a variety of personalities and backgrounds! Thinking about this made it so much cooler to know my family still loves each other, builds each other up as one unit, and that God has an ultimate plan. I'm glad Frankie laughed, otherwise I may not have recognized this till later down the road. So from that one little act of finding humor in the silly things God gave me such a sweet and lovely gift this Christmas about my family. Thanks for the gift, Lord, it's my favorite!!

Are You Serious?

Serious:
1.of, showing, or characterized by deep thought.
2.of grave or somber disposition, character, or manner
3.being in earnest; sincere; not trifling
4.requiring thought, concentration, or application
5.weighty or important
6.giving cause for apprehension; critical

I looked up the meanings for the word serious because someone asked me a question the other day about how serious I was about something. Actually they asked me how serious my boyfriend Frankie and I are and I said, "Very, very serious....we never smile...." Not really, we laugh all the time actually but it got me thinking about "serious". I love to laugh so sometimes I have a hard time taking things seriously. The definition I thought about was number 6, giving cause for apprehension. Sometimes apprehension is what saves us from ourselves. I've felt myself holding back in situations and I strongly feel the Holy Spirit has used apprehension in my life to tell me something wasn't right for me. When that disquiet moves on my spirit I know it is a "serious" matter, something worth thinking about, then I allow my apprehension to help me slow down. So, just some random thinking, next time you feel trepidation over something don't let let it panic you, just let it show you it's something you need to slow down and think about.

Desperate

I've been doing a lot of thinking about being desperate for God. How desperate are we? We sing songs at church about being desperate for Him, longing for more of Him, and panting for Him like a deer pants for water, but do we truly go to the depth of that longing? Or is it just a lyric we say to make ourselves believe we are? The other day as I was driving home from work I saw a deer struggling along a fence....literally beating itself to death trying to jump over this fence, the fence was just too high, and the scene created a traffic jam so I had a minute to see what exactly was happening. At one point the deer jumped into the fence and fell backwards onto it's hind side and just laid there for minute, panting, then it got back up and kept jumping....it had a bleeding gash on it's shoulder and was bleeding from its eye and mouth as well because it was trying to hard to get over the fence to the woods where it knew it belonged. I thought about this deer when I thought about our "desperation".....are we as desperate as that deer was? We should be. I think what happens is that before people are saved they see over that fence, they see the place they need to be with Christ and will do anything, even to the point of pain and anguish, to get there for the sake of knowing God. But after we get over that fence and find our salvation, that desperation is still a necessity to our growth in Christ. It's the longing which pushes us further into the woods, further into the lands and valleys and mountains which mature us and make us realize that no matter how far we go there is ALWAYS something more to learn about God, there is always another treasure to find in Jesus, another story to find, other lives to touch. Desperation for Jesus isn't something which only pushes us to our salvation but pushes us to find the actual heart of God! Not too much later that evening I went running down that same road and all was back to normal, as it should be. Life changes by the minute my friends, and without our longing and desperate pursuit of the Lord the experiences we may face one day will not make a difference the next. But it's our choice. Let your longing push you further into Father God's heart, allow your passion for Him make a difference...let it change your life.