So I can come and nurse several cups of coffee while steaming along on a fast and free wireless network for hours at a time! Greatness.

this car is going nowhere

Because of the work I do, I make it a habit to always be on the lookout for things around me that I can use to illustrate spiritual principles. It’s my achiles heel, but comes in handy when I need an illustration!

This car has a story to tell. I walk by it, typically, at least once a week. The funny thing is that I have been doing so for about 4 years now!

Here’s the story: This car has actually been in this spot as long as I can remember. About 4 years ago, however, the building that I am standing beside as I take the photograph was being constructed. For some reason, whoever owned this car never bothered to move it. There were bright stickers placed on it, clamps, notes; anything and everything to warn the owner to move it or else. I would love to know why, but the owner never did anything about it.

Now here’s the amusing part: rather than remove the car, the workers who constructed the new building and the road beside it simply did so with the car still there! I guess they couldn’t be bothered with picking up the phone and calling a tow truck. What was left was a once fine running car rendered useless as the road was built up around it. As you can see from the picture it is, literally, hemmed in from every side. I don’t know if it could be removed now even if someone wanted to. So there it sits, exposed to the elements, windows broken out…stuck.

As I think about my life in Christ, I am reminded that there are times where I flirt dangerously close to things that could potentially be quite dangerous for me. Maybe you like to flirt with lines, looking to see how close to them you can drift without going over, only to wake up one day so far past the line that you don’t even remember crossing it. You’re stuck. And the longer you stay there stuck, the more destructive it becomes.

Well, the good news is that, while we can’t unstick ourselves, there is One who can. God desires to reach in and pull us out. God’s heart is to make old, broken ikons new.

I often wonder if there will ever come a day when I walk down that road and no longer see that old stuck car. I wonder the same for some of my friends who are stuck in destructive patterns of living. I guess, for the latter, I can only pray and hope.

One of the benefits of taking notes when reading through a book is the ability to go back very quickly and revisit some of its ideas without having to do a full reread. I’ve been reading through my notes of a book I read a few years back and absolutely loved, R. Paul Stevens’ The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective (here’s my original blog post). Many Christians wrongly view their experiences of Sunday worship as punctuation so that Sunday becomes sacred beginning (or ending) while the rest of the week remains secular. I wouldn’t argue that Sunday isn’t a special day; certainly the gathering of the redeemed people of God for corporate worship is a special event. I would only argue, with Stevens, that it is not the division between the sacred and secular parts of our week, but rather the event that turns the whole of our weeks into sacred days. It is the time in which we are nurtured together to then be sent out to all the different places God has called us. Here’s how he put it:

“The church, like the gathering and dispersion of blood in the body, is a rhythm of gathering (ekklesia) and dispersion (diaspora)…The church gathered must not be separated from the church dispersed any more than the heart and lungs can be separated from the body. Gathered, the blood is cleansed and oxygenated. Sent out, it fights diseases and energizes” (p. 211).”

So come and go, Church. Come to be energized, equipped, and encouraged; then go and be salt, light, and priest to those around you.

Have you ever experienced darkness like that? Darkness – be it literal or metaphorical – can be daunting and, almost, oppressive at times? In fact, sometimes the figurative darkness is even scarier than the literal. The economic outlook is, at the moment, shrouded in darkness. Many are living in the darkness of unemployment. Sickness and death are daunting reminders of the darkness that we must endure as humans. If you’ve ever faced the darkness of an uncertain future dealing with a disease, you know that it can be paralyzing.

We’ve come along way as human beings. Technologically we can transmit information all of the world in the blink of an eye. Medically we can take organs out of one person and put them in someone else. We can even transplant a face! We have machines that can do the work of every part of our bodies. And yet, at the end of the day, the darkness overcomes us. There’s nothing we can do about it. The darkness reminds us that we are frail, broken, needy creatures. It reminds us that as big as we think we are, there are forces outside of our control that exert power over us. That as much as we have accomplished as a people, we are still small.

Enter Christmas. Christmas is the story of an invasion. At Christmas, God invaded the domain of darkness. The Prophet Isaiah said it like this, “The people who have walked in darkness” – that’s you and I – “have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined.”

God didn’t dodge the darkness that we find ourselves in. He met it head on. He invaded and conquered it. The Light of His Son has appeared in the midst of our darkness. This is what we remember at Christmas.

Christmas isn’t just a distraction from the darkness. It’s not just a drug that we take once a year to relive the depression with which we live in the other 11 months of the year. The realities of Christmas Day invade everyday because that baby grew to be a man. No, the beauty of Christmas can only be fully appreciated in the light of the Cross. It’s at the Cross where that God-man died in order to once and for all destroy the power of darkness.

Jesus didn’t simply invade the darkness around me. He invaded the darkness within me. The eternal Son of God wrapped Himself in broken humanity to rob us of the penalty that we owed because we had done wrong to God. The Light of Life met the darkness of sin head-on. And so we remember that dark lonely night all those years ago when an eerie silence was shattered by the cry of a baby. It was on that night that the Light of Life, the Son of God, veiled in flesh, invaded our darkness.

Christmas is recession-proof because of the Cross. He invaded our present in order to secure our future. The Jesus that came at Christmas is good enough…forever. There is no darkness that He cannot overcome – albeit sometimes ultimately. That’s what makes Christmas so fantastic. It’s not the trees, the gifts, the food. It’s the reminder that Christmas was the beginning of the end of sin’s domination over us. Christmas is all about light. The Light of Life who came into the world to forever destroy our darkness.

“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” - John 1:3-5, 9-13

That’s what Christmas is about.

Well, recently someone recommended another documentary about food (there are so many). It’s called Fat Head (it’s available on Hulu if you’re interested). Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that it is the bizarro Supersize Me. The writer and star attempts to debunk Spurlock’s conclusions. But he doesn’t stop there. In the second part of the film he goes after everything that we have been told about cholesterol, fat, carbs, etc. Nothing sacred is spared! Of course he pulls in a lot of men and women in white coats who are saying the same thing. Here’s the premise: he decides, mimicking Spurlock, that he will eat fast food for each meal for a month. But (and this is the important bit), he limits his total daily calories to 2000, his total daily carbohydrates to 100g, and continues his normal routine of light but consistent exercise. Anything else goes. In the end he loses weight, body fat, and his cholesterol stays steady. At the end of the film he ups the stakes a bit. He decides that he will zero carbohydrates and nothing low fat. The results are pretty amazing.

So here’s the thing…

I’m not saying I’m sold, and I’m certainly not interested in being an evangelist (I could probably assemble some white coat guys to say anything I wanted). I’m just saying that I’m interested in doing some more research. There are some great explanations on cholesterol, why high cholesterol can be good (which is what I’ve always thought ), and why a relatively fatty diet can actually increase the level of good cholesterol in our blood. Can you imagine? What a world that would be!

Anyway, it’s at least worth a watch.

One highlight: In the very beginning he conducts an experiment at several different McDonalds, Wendy’s, and Taco Bells where he stands outside the door to see if any employees will drag him inside and force him to eat. Classic.

Again, if you’re interested, it’s available on Hulu.

Well, I’m ready for a nice juicy steak topped with bleu cheese and garlic. mmmmmm

What a short time we have.

I’ve noticed it with the other girls, too. It seems like only yesterday that our oldest, Emma, was lying in that same bed (different house, same bed) and now, out of nowhere, she’s 6 going on 16.

Time flies.

We better take the time to enjoy it.

God, please help me to lean into what’s really important.

The first was Inception. I wish we would have seen it in the theater because the effects were excellent. It was very entertaining, that’s for sure. But it also had some deeper aspects to it, too; wrestling with the questions, “What is reality?” and “How do I know it?” Those that have seen the film will think this is funny: the night we watched I dreamt that I gave my ATM pin number to someone! I’m watching my account pretty closely.

The second film was the latest installment of the Chronicles of Narnia, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I thought it was, by far, the best of the three films they’ve made. Mandy wasn’t so sure. Here’s why: she read the book. I astutely pointed out to her that this is why I have a policy NOT to read any book for which there is a film either already released or in production. All kidding aside, she liked the film, just not as much as I did in my ignorance of all the places it diverted from the writing of Lewis. Two things I was disappointed in; sections of the book that I have read that I thought the film fell short of were 1) the scene where Reep-a-Cheep defies his fellow travelers who, in the face of the upcoming danger want to turn back while he is willing to die to get to Aslan’s land even if it means he goes alone and 2) the scene where Eustice Scrubb’s selfish idolatry turns him into a dragon and only Aslan can save him. This was in the film, but I didn’t think it was as good as Lewis wrote it. I must say, however, that they captured the essence of Eustice Scrubb’s character quite well.

“The church, like the gathering and dispersion of blood in the body, is a rhythm of gathering (ekklesia) and dispersion (diaspora)…The church gathered must not be separated from the church dispersed any more than the heart and lungs can be separated from the body. Gathered, the blood is cleansed and oxygenated. Sent out, it fights diseases and energizes” (p. 211).”

So come and go, Church. Come to be energized, equipped, and encouraged; then go and be salt, light, and priest to those around you.

Well i’m certainly not trying here to make myself feel guilty, i’m only saying that I’m really interested in communicating. And while it is difficult sometimes being so busy and so far removed, it is important.

So let’s do it…