Spirit

The spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of Christ in us, a life that sets us free to be strong while weak, to be free while captive, to be joyful while in pain, to be rich while poor, to be on the downward way of salvation while living in the midst of an upwardly mobile society.  Henri Nouwen

 

Out of Egypt

The USPS has unveiled their Christmas stamp for 2012:

This is a change from the traditional stamp depicting the Madonna and Child that has been used for almost 60 years. A member of the Postal Service Board of Governors stated, "The primary reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ." 

The Postal Service chose a dramatic rendering from the Matthew 2:13 - 15--- ¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

This started me thinking of one of my favorite Advent paintings:

 

It's called "Rest on the Flight to Egypt" by Luc-Oliver Merson. 
Spend a few moments just looking...can you not feel the exhaustion? Joseph sleeping on the desert floor while Mary cradles the Child. Traveling through the desert is not easy even in the best of times...but knowing that death could be following close on your heels adds mental fatigue as well.


Notice that the Christ Child is the only source of light in the painting. He was homeless from birth. He was a refugee, an immigrant, a stranger in a strange land.

Faith and Hope

Last spring the Youth Bible Study was focused on the "7 Deadly Sins". In order to bring it full circle, this fall (until Advent), we are studying the comparable "Virtues". Last night's lesson was about Faith and Hope, two of the three theological virtues that are qualities of Christian character. 

I knew there had to be a verse or two that would sum up the idea of faith and hope and as I prepared the lesson I read and re-read each of the verses noted. While each dealt with one or the other, none actually encompassed both...at least not as far as my mind and heart could agree. 

And, as often happens, just before lesson time, I hit upon one of my absolute favorites:


Romans 8:38-39
³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am thankful that God finds a way to get His word through my sometimes scattered brain. For He, and only He, knows just what to say. 

Accomplishment

I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of it's heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
                                                           Helen Keller

 

Unity

In light of yesterday's "What's Next?" meeting at church, I felt this was most timely (emphasis mine):

 The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity.  It makes us into one body.  The apostle Paul writes:  "As there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf" (1 Corinthians 10:17).

The Eucharist is much more than a place where we celebrate our unity in Christ.  The Eucharist creates this unity.  By eating from the same bread and drinking from the same cup, we become the body of Christ present in the world.  Just as Christ becomes really present to us in the breaking of the bread, we become really present to one another as brothers and sisters of Christ, members of the same body.  Thus the Eucharist not only signifies unity but also creates it.                                 Henri Nouwen

The good old days...

I'm not one of those that feels that everything is better the way we "used" to do it...but then again, it's a shame that some of these will never be learned...

Such as

Reading a Map

If you ever took a road trip as a child, you may have fond memories of sitting in the backseat with a map spread across your knees, tracing the highways, and measuring the distance by the smallest digit of your little finger, which was a perfect match in size for the scale provided on the corner of each page. These days children watch a car-shaped icon navigate a digital road on our GPS system. These fancy gadgets have even put an end to the classic childhood question "Are we there yet?"

And

Encyclopedias
For our generation, writing a research paper meant spending a lot of time copying, by hand, the necessary information from heavy, leather bound volumes of an encyclopedia. The information was limited, static, and they required regular (and costly) replacement to stay current. These days kids need only power up the computer to instantly access a wealth of up-to-the-minute information on an endless variety of subjects. It certainly renders us less sympathetic when they complain about having to do 'research' for their school projects. 

And also, 

Playing Outdoors
 The final thing we enjoyed regularly as children that our kids may not is the simple act of playing outside. As the world we live in becomes increasingly tech-crazed, kids are more likely to play a video game, surf the web, or check out what’s on one the hundreds of channels that cable television now has to offer than to step outside. Still, running through the sprinklers, tree climbing, bike riding, and firefly catching — there is no App for that.

Like I said, not all of them are great, but it's a shame to loose some of them. Check the rest of the list  here...

Mega Church

Which we are not...thankfully. This article was posted by one of my Facebook friends...I read a lot of truth there...

 The solution is to stop focusing on strategies meant to help a church become the next big thing, and simply be the church in your neighborhood in whatever form that takes. In the end, the age-old parish model, or neighborhood church is still the healthiest option. Tensions are present, but close proximity requires the fidelity which is essential to a healthy church. Small churches celebrate diversity. They no longer copy the mega-churches, because they don't have the resources to replicate their programs anyway. The small church doesn't ask, "What program can we create for single mothers," but rather, "What do we do for Sara? She's raising her kids all by herself." The result is a wonderfully diverse response to the challenges of communal life. When the solution to each local issue is not a program, but a relationship, then it is sustainable over time, and is free to grow without artificial means.

Take a moment to read the rest...