The Next Big Thing...

 

I love looking forward to something. A deadline reached, vacations, the next time my grandchildren will be on my lap, our kids all together, the end of a diet. But a top favorite is preparing for sacred holidays; intentional time spent in anticipation.

This is not news for those of you who have been reading around here for a while. It seems I've become the poster child for heralding the news when the next big thing on the holiday calendar is almost here. This is my job, and I love it!

Christmas is in the rearview mirror (sniff!), so Easter is on the horizon. 

Arguably the most important holiday in the life of a Jesus-follower, without Easter, there'd be nothing to hang our hat on regarding our faith and what we believe. It's a biggie.

Clearly our commemoration of the cornerstone of the Christian faith – the death and resurrection of King Jesus, our Savior - could (and should) this be the new most wonderful time of the year? Both holidays focus on Jesus and matter to our annual rhythm of life.  

During Advent, we watch for His comings to earth (the first 2000 years ago, the 2nd date TBD). During Lent, we walk the footsteps of Jesus to the cross of suffering all the way to the empty tomb. He is risen, hallelujah!

The true Gospel story is brimming with miracles and prophecies fulfilled which must never become humdrum or yada yada yada or less than awe-inspiring.

That said, doesn’t it deserve more than one Easter morning worship gathering and possibly a Good Friday service if we don’t get a better offer?  

Let’s back up a second before we buy a new Spring dress or plan an Easter egg hunt.

For Christians who are paying attention to the Church Calendar, we are about to move from Ordinary Time to Lent. 

To skip Lent and jump right into Easter is missing depth and richness leading up to the Big Day.

Like Advent (my 2nd favorite sacred holiday), Lent is a time to open the doors of our hearts a little wider and understand our Lord a little deeper, so that when Good Friday and eventually Sunday comes, it is not just another day at church, albeit an exciting one bursting with pastel colors and Spring flowers.

Unlike Advent, characterized by anticipation and eventual abundance, Lent is a more solemn season, meant to be like lament – to feel or express sorrow or regret for; to mourn over. One can't appreciate the light and the miracle of resurrection (new life!) without spending a significant amount of time remembering the dark side, the sin, the pain, the rejection, the suffering, the death.

Did you realize the majority of the Psalms are laments? It's important to give lamenting time to do its work in us.

Maybe consider practicing Lent a form of spiritual housekeeping: 

Praying (drawing close to God)
Fasting (denying self for a spiritual purpose)
Giving (to the poor what we don’t need)

If you want seasonal heart transformation and to present God with pure, meaningful worship on Resurrection Sunday, it must cost you something. All spiritual growth does. 

I guess you could consider this my annual invitation for you to open your calendar and heart a little wider. To approach Easter - the holiday that sets Christians apart - by entering a 40-day journey with Jesus on His path of suffering and death to purchase our salvation with an empty tomb. This is the stuff!

This could look like many things.  (more ideas below)

• Focused Bible readings.  Start with any Gospel. That's where the story picks up. In addition, there is no shortage of printed and digital devotional guides that will lead you to a heightened awareness of sin, repentance and appreciation. 
• Fasting from something you will truly miss daily (not something you hate, but something you love and think you can't live without - go big or go home!); denying yourself a pleasure (when you miss it, you trade that desire for prayer).
• Giving to the poor. Purging our souls of sin and self, also emptying our home of excess. What can we give away to benefit another (both money and stuff)?

If you've never done anything like this and are willing to experiment, I'm excited for you. You are in for a treat. It might hurt a little, but you won't regret your effort.

We can do this. We need to do this. When we decrease (fast), Jesus will increase, and our focus become sharper (any other 50+somethings out there need some clarity?).

Living Lent is not simply a religious ritual. It's so much better - this is about relationship, relationship, relationship. God wants more of us and the attention we give to sacred holidays is an outward sign of how much we give to Him. It matters. Our efforts will not be wasted.

Trust me, forty days of attentiveness to the cross of Jesus, His earthly ministry and words spoken WILL elevate your Easter Sunday celebration (what Easter bunny?) – and transform you too.  That, my friend, will surprise you the most. Don't miss it!

When you hit the final stretch - Holy Week - you are going to have so much to share with those around you regarding what you've experienced. How real and present God is. How sinful and helpless we are without Him. How mighty and loving Jesus is. 

And that's part of the point - spiritual growth and celebrating sacred holidays is never just for us, it's meant to be shared. It simply must be, or how will they know?

Then finally, when Resurrection Day comes, and Eastertide begins (50 days of Easter! More on that later), we will gather at church, and we will sing "Up from the Grave He Arose", "He's Alive", and all the other Easter songs with gusto! 

Let’s look forward to that day together.

Ash Wednesday, March 5, is day one. Plenty of time to be ready to begin.

Equally stimulating ideas:

Scour your playlists and listen only to faith-based songs. So many Easter selections to choose from (Hello Andrew Peterson's Resurrection Letters). Try Music Inspired by The Story too - gold!

Add a spiritual practice: memorize Bible passages, set specific prayer times and lengths, silence and solitude, prayer walking

Fast from: food, drink, media, headlines, criticism, shame

Pro tip: push through the first few days - they are the hardest! And take Sundays off for Sabbath rest.

Approach Matters

Typically, in January, readers of the Bible and wannabees make a new plan for how they will approach this effort in the new year. Hands up over here! There are no few options from which to choose.

Read through in a year

Read through in a year chronologically

Read the New Testament once, or more

Read a chapter a day

Read and study one book at a time

Read one passage from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament

Read a little OT, a little NT with a psalm and proverb for fun

Read it once a week

Read it every day

Read it first thing in the morning upon waking and the last moments of the day before sleep

Read it more than last year

Which one is for you? Pick one! God will bless each and every effort.

Are you like me and own a collection of copies of this holy book? I lost count many years ago when it became clear that my husband and I have our own library full here in our home (not to mention those in his office). His first children's bible and my first "student bible" given from our parents to us upon coming to faith in Jesus. 

Then we have various translations, some written in reading plan form, others including theological commentary, those with devotional thoughts sprinkled throughout, and (my favorite) ones that leave open lines for recording my own notes. 

Lucky Scott and I inherited a volume or two from his Bible loving grandmother - brimming with her handwritten sermon and study notes - precious indeed. 

Honestly, we are just Bible junkies. We love a new print - all colors, shapes and sizes. Giant FAMILY BIBLE coffee table size, medium not too thick or encumbering to take to church, pocket size to keep in purse or car in case of emergency need, and tiny oh so old treasures found in used bookstores. Paperback, leatherbound and hard cover. We'll take them all!

Does this anthology make us super spiritual and more holy than those content with one or two? Absolutely not. Collecting printed pages does not make one more blessed by God. Especially if they collect dust and are never or rarely read. 

Maybe you've prioritized anew scriptural consumption in 2025. Congratulations! I have too and am excited for us. No matter which "plan" or path you've chosen may I gently declare that nowhere in the pages inside is a decree that it must be read in a calendar year. Psh. Take as long as you like, just keep reading. Don't quit. 

If you're new to the whole of it - this ancient miraculously preserved text - you've embarked on an adventure. Not to oversell, but this glorious opus (bestseller of all time) has it all - drama, travel, war, romance, horror, good, evil, angels, villains, instruction, warnings, promises, poetry, beauty, jokes (did you know God has a sense of humor?), invitations to redemption, love, and a Hero (the very subject of the whole) who can be found present from first page to last. 

I've heard it described as a library of genres within itself. I call it the book of truth and wonder.

It's anything but boring. Or outdated. Or irrelevant to present day.

That said, the way we approach it matters.

Are we reading because as a Christ-follower we are supposed to? To gain knowledge? To add or maintain as a spiritual discipline? Are determined to prove it wrong? Or curiously prove it right? 

Hopefully, it's for love in effort to discover the contents of this love letter from the Creator of the universe; a genuine desire to understand it at the heart of the matter.

I've learned from many a teacher to begin each session with prayer. Critical for optimum understanding, I also find it helps to ensure a pure motive and the most enlightening experience to boot. Influenced by many, here is a compilation of words and requests I intimately ask of the Author before I open the cover. 

Teach me, train me. Discipline and disciple me. Correct where I've got it wrong. Delight me and thrill me.

Open up all my senses - eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to touch, nose to smell and mouth to taste the goodness inside.

Show me what's helpful, 

show me what's true. 

What is from you 

and what do I do?

Help me receive, understand, apply and obey, 

share it with someone and remember it along the way.

Lead me to the treasure of Your character on each and every page and form me into the image of the Subject of this book.

Amen.

Happy adventuring, my friends.

Entrusted

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with the events of the day ahead even before it actually starts?

As I pray through a busy day in the morning, I consider the souls created in God's image with whom I will interact. 

Isn't that everyone, you ask? Yes, that's right.

Church ladies' breakfast in my dining room, visit with my sister and nephew, guests, host and mom-to-be of a baby shower, dinner with two longtime friend couples; one we're living life together with and one we haven't spent time with in decades, and many hours in the car with my husband. 

I wonder how each meeting and conversation will go. 

Will I enter each room with enthusiastic outward gaze, "Yay! You're here!" or will it be about me, "Oh hey! Here I am!", tilting the room in my direction?

Will I be able to read these rooms, looking into eyes, asking thoughtful curious questions with care or let my insecurities into the driver's seat shrinking back wondering if anyone will really care to engage, and wait to be approached?

Will I be a better listener than talker (anyone else interrupt much)? 

What can I lend to each life? How can I encourage? Where can I bring merriment (new year's goal!)?

Will I know when to speak up with confidence or with discernment resist unnecessary comment?

Entrusted. (Definition: charged or invested with a trust or responsibility; in the care of.)

Regardless how each scenario plays out, one thing is plain. I'm about to be entrusted with many people this day. God will entrust them to me. Risky on His part.

Which brings another question, "How will I steward this day - these people - for His glory and the benefit of others?" This is the goal of an apprentice to Jesus, you know.

I pray. I ask my Father in heaven to equip me to be His representative (showing what He's like) and His ambassador (present and able to do any sacred work needed). To give me eyes to see and ears to hear what He sees and hears. First, instruction from the Bible on what is required of me this day (and what's not). Then, how to best care for each individual in my care.

For this day - and every day - is not about me or you if we belong to Jesus. Our plans revolve around Him - the very environment we live in - as Paul describes in Colossians chapter one.

Read this passage loaded with Old Testament language:

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 

For by Him, all things were created, in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, 

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created 

through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 

And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, 

that in everything He may be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 

and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether in earth or in heaven, 

making peace by the blood of His cross." Col. 1:15-19

I know. A word nerd could go nuts with this passage. 

The main thing I want us to see today is that everything in our life is about Jesus and He's in it all. He started it all, sustains it all and rules it all. 

Did I mention all of it?

What if we framed our daily responsibilities and interactions around this truth? What if we begin to see the souls entrusted to us each day through Jesus' viewpoint? Asking Him, "What do you want me to bring to this one today?"

It will require our attention and intention and maybe some rewiring to revert our thought process outward, off self. 

Start with prayer. We can know this is God's will and therefore, He will help us do it. Win win.

Later in chapter three of Colossians, Paul gives us specific direction on the how to. 

"Put to death therefore what is earthly in you...anger, wrath, malice, slander, 

and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off 

the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. 

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, 

kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 

bearing with one another...forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you...

and above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." 

Love is the main point, I think. To be loving in all things. Check your words.

One of my favorite authors, John Mark Comer, asks: "What is Christ trying to express to the watching world through your particular life?" What if in whatever we do or to whomever we speak, "we do (it) the way we imagine Jesus would do it if He were us... We must come to realize that following Jesus is the main point to life."*

Oh, you mean like we learned in the Colossians verses above?

At the end of the day, I took inventory of all the rooms I entered and conversations that took place within. I was surprised. Putting into practice listening and asking questions, I learned so much. And so many opportunities to encourage and speak hope and love presented.  

No personal agenda to include my opinion, no insecurity, no sucking the air out of the room with my self-driven neediness for attention or affirmation. 

It was glorious and I came away filled and better for it. No wonder the Bible teaches to "do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others as more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others (Phil. 2:3,4). Of course, so like Jesus. 

Entrusted. It's a Bible word peppered through the New Testament. It's a good word for us. Weighty. Risky proposition God has offered us for sure. Can we be trusted with what He's entrusted to us?

Will we receive it today and consider all interactions as assignments? Let's.

Bonus song for the day: Andrew Peterson | All Things Together (Audio Video) 

*Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer, p. 152,153,203

Here's to a New Year (a little late?)

 "January is the new week after Christmas." 

I don't know who said it or where I read it, but I kind of dig this.

I'm not sure about you, but after a bustling month of December and a glorious extended celebration (with our whole family) of Christmastide to Epiphany, New Year's in the middle was hard to give proper annual attention to. 

Finally settled back into routine just this week the initial inclination to feel behind dogs me. Why? Why do I allow this? Is someone watching the calendar or peering into my journal waiting for my resolutions, goals, intentions? Will I imminently fail 2025 if I don't have all my ducks in a row on January 1?

The answer is no, of course. I know you know this I'm just typing it here for my benefit.

I do, however, believe in the discipline of writing things down. A year-end inventory to exit one year with a feeling of completion is a good place to start and enables launching into the next with intention and vigor.

Don't click away if you aren't a fan of New Year goals/resolutions or whatever word makes your skin crawl. Trust me to the end that I have your best interest at heart!

At the finish of 2023, I recorded successes and failures of the goals set the previous year. I had to dig out my journal to find them. Lesson learned - not a good practice to just write the list once as some hopes were forgotten by February. 

Additionally, from the get-go I framed my intentions in hopes that keeping them in front of me would ensure a higher success rate. This was a good practice.

Did I still "fail" at about half of them? Yup. But because I set so many, I found a better probability of return.

It's good and right to keep track of successes which lead us to celebration and thanksgiving. Probably not too many of us record our failures alongside but I find it a kind of grace. A starting point for the next year. An evaluation asking, 'did this matter anyway?' Or a recommitment to give it another go. (Also, permission to not have to kill it every time, no one can reach this status.)

Lesson learned - second year in a row I vowed to use my cookbooks weekly and didn't. I have a myriad of them I love and cherish. But do I pull them out on the regular to select a tried and true? Ahem. Don't judge me. Who can resist the convenience and speed of Pinterest finds? At least I do that.

Consequently, perhaps I should resist carrying it over to 2025 endeavors. Does it really matter? Can life still be good and pleasurable and meaningful? My husband would respond, "That's fine - can we get rid of all these volumes now that take up so much space?" Get rid of my gorgeous hardbound recipe collection?!

Alas, this is why he and I will not be having this conversation.

What about you? Are you on it? Have you set in motion (in writing and action) some fresh initiatives for the year ahead? If you have, high five! 

Or do you rarely turn the annual page with a plan to guide you? I hope you'll consider trying something new. 

Remember it doesn't have to be so lofty it's unattainable. One of my favorite authors - whose book I read every winter - writes, "I scribble my list of promises. The ways I hope to be kind. To be gentle. To forgive. To try and try again."* 

Character, not production perhaps?

Maybe you, like me, just need a bit of quiet time to look back with gratitude and resolve for all 2024 meant to you (make adjustments in expectations of self and others) and some stillness to wonder and dream about the future with appropriate growth-inducing challenges.

Embrace January for this purpose - as long as it takes. Let it do a finishing and beginning work in your soul. 

Take a look at what you really want. How a life well-lived is defined as and move toward that with gusto. Don't worry about failure - it's imminent and shows you tried and that's a win.

Consider what might enrich your life. Add it. Subtract what won't. Make a little list. Check it twice. Frame it? Give yourself purpose and grace all year long.

I will steal more from my winter-appreciating mentor, a more contemplative direction:

Dear New Year, "...each new year demands my full and unwavering attention. Demands the full attention of all of us standing here on the cusp, filling our hearts and our imaginations with promises, vows, hopes, resolutions of the deepest kind.

I beg you, nascent year, to be gentle. I realize the gentle needs to come from deep inside me. I need to find the holy balm to steady me through rough waters to come. I'm bracing myself with double doses of those few things that have proven to be my salvation: prayer; silence; rampant and unheralded kindness; the rapt company of a rare few companions, deep in the act of holding up each other's hearts."*

Isn't that beautiful and pointed? You can steal it too. For a "successful" new year, we all need prayer, silence, kindness, a few trusted companions to hold each other up. Double doses! And Jesus to focus all our gaze on, our Savior, Brother, Keeper who prays for us daily (John 17:20-26). 

Revelation 21:5 teaches us, "He is making all things new."

May that be said of you and me in the year ahead. Amen?

Let's revisit this in twelve months.

*The Stillness of Winter by Barbara Mahany P. 96-97