Pure Jesus

A photo of a Santa hat.  A list of suggested amounts of cash.  “Holiday tip guide,” the headline read.  Then the TV lady said Christmas was about decorating.  And then there was the song playing overhead about sleigh bells and snow.  And still there is the steady stream of news reports concerning families’ crippling financial debt due to excessive purchases.  Ugh.  Sometimes I enjoy regular days more than holidays.  At Christmastime, the misguided aspects of our world seem to magnify, and I need to step away from it all.  So when intercoms sing about Jack Frost and chestnuts roasting, and when retail customers cram doorways and trample each other, and when choir programs highlight cute, little, red-nosed Rudolph instead of Jesus’ birth, I seek the Lord to impart His purity.  Matthew 1-2.  Luke 2.  They take me to Jesus.  It is for all our misguided notions that He came to this earth.

Among languages

If someone invited you to an event conducted in an unfamiliar language, would you go?  Perhaps Italian, or Japanese, or German? . . . I once saw a man exit a worship service because it was in Spanish instead of the English he presumed.  A bystander told the man Jesus would be present either way, whether the people spoke in English or Spanish, but the man would not stay . . . Regarding this, the Lord continues to teach me.  I speak, read, write, and pray primarily in English.  Yet when I worship the Lord with my Spanish congregation, even while I don’t understand every word humanly spoken in Spanish, I sense His presence as well.  Romans 8:26 talks about the Holy Spirit communicating with “groans that words cannot express.”  And I am thankful for the Lord and His unlimited ways of relating to us.  He transcends our human languages. 

The unforeseen

I once directed a youth group that seemed to minister to a particular mom even more than her young son.  I once was hired to teach English but sometimes found the task was more about prayer than any details of the English language.  I once directed a children’s choir on the assumption I would work with kids but soon realized how the Lord was blessing the adults.  I once taught English to a friend from another country but soon saw that the whole scenario included opportunity to acquaint this friend with the Lord.  God has opened doors for numerous positions based on an initial job skill, but in time He has shown His bigger purpose has been about relationships through that job.  Labels don’t tell whole stories.  I figure in actuality the Lord is stacking the blessings far higher than we can imagine.  Yet for us to tap into God’s bigger picture even the slightest bit is enough to thrill the heart and send us floating on joy.