Christmas Reflection 09

Is Christmas still humbling? When you think about the word what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Is it presents, or santa, or family, or even all those wonderful Christmas songs? I bet the last thing you think about is a broken and hopeless word. We’ve made Christmas a time for celebration and gift giving, but we’ve lost the picture of the baby born under the most humbling of circumstances.

Let’s remember right now just what it was like in the days of Jesus’ birth.

It had been almost 400 years since the nation of Israel had heard from God, there had been no prophets, no kings, no ruling Jewish authorities, the people had forgotten what God had done for them, and were now under the oppressive rule of the Roman government. Even the spiritual leaders had lost their way, becoming blind to what God had declared and now administering justice and forgiveness by their own rule and will. This was not someplace you would want to live. Let’s let Luke 2 tell the rest of the story:

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

¹In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³And everyone went to his own town to register.

⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ^[a] the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

There is nothing glamorous about the savior’s birth, yet all of nature is there, in that small stable giving glory to the One who has saved us all. These are quite humble beginnings for the King of Kings. He gave up his warm heavenly throne, and all the angels who worshipped him, and a relationship with his father to come to a cave in the countryside. He left it all in order to save us. A man with no problems became the man of sorrows who we killed with our own hands. From humble beginnings to a humble end.

We’ve lost the humility of Christmas. It’s gone from a humble stable where selfless love was born into the world to a mega commercialized holiday where selfish want corrupts the original message. Christmas was never about getting. His birth teaches us about giving. We’re a blessed nation, and even in these hard economic times there is nothing worth getting more than the knowledge of grace.

Let’s make this year different. Let’s get back to humble beginnings. I’ve got a challenge. This year, evaluate in your life what you don’t need, it could be anything. And then give it away. Take a good hard look at your Christmas presents, at your closets, at your bank accounts, at your movie shelves. If you have more than you need, and I’m talking absolutely need, find a better place for it. I’m reminded of this in so many ways from my own life.

Last winter for Christmas I gave away all but one pair of my jeans, let’s face it, as long as I do laundry I’ll only need one. This year I found that a girl had taken one of the pairs of jeans I put in a donation box and had turned it into a purse! Now that might seem strange, but it’s better than me letting them collect dust in my closet.

Last year I also started making it a point to give away as much money as I could, I don’t need a lot to live off of, so last year for Christmas I saw a lady filling up her car with gas, and I offered to pay for it, then I did the same thing for a single mom in the grocery store. Every time I give not only to I take the glory and give it to God for blessing me, but it also keeps my mind in check with where my blessings come from.

I have a hard time sharing both of those stories because I don’t want to be congratulated or recognized for what I do, I just want to be found faithful in the Lord’s eyes.

So challenge yourself this Christmas. Give it away out of humility. Recognize those in less fortunate situation and bless them. I promise you’ll find joy in a broken world.

With Odds Against You

Matthew 7: 13-14 13″Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
14″For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

I want to take a slightly different approach to this verse than the usual fire and brimstone the world is evil idea. I want to look at this verse from the view of science. (And I know I’m the last person with authority on this subject, so if I get stuff wrong please let me know.)
Do you know what the odds are of you even existing? Let’s start from the very beginning.

First of all let’s look at life on the earth. In order for it to even begin the life cycle it have to be perfect. After the big bang a great amount of rock had to all come together with ice and form a spherical shape and then drift into orbit around a star, but not just any star, it had to be near just the right kind of star, not to hot, and not to cold. There needed to be a moon creating the cleansing tide systems, and acting as a shield to prevent massive collisions. The tilt of the earth is important too, it prevents us from becoming tidally locked, if that were to happen once side of the earth would always face the sun, and other always wouldn’t. There are over 100 different things about the earth that needed to be just right for life to exist. If any one of them were off just a little there would be no life on the planet. The changes of the earth supporting life are astronomical to begin with.

Once the planet is a go life has to start. Millions of years ago it started, and the formation of a protein had to follow just the right kind of process to even exist. We’ve never been able to re-create this process in a lab. So this whole process started a long time ago, and over time and very specific evolutions life finally formed and crawled it’s way onto land and eventually became a man. If you don’t see the infinite chances of all of this going wrong so far you’re not looking very hard. Everything had to be perfect, what if every organism evolved a different way? How did we get two of the same animal if not for the pre-programmed genetic evolution structure? And even that process must have taken millions and millions of years. Even after a giant asteroid kills all the dinosaurs life still grows. Life at this point in history already has massive odds stacked against it, and we haven’t even gotten to man yet.

I not a scientist, and I may be getting lots of facts wrong in these processes, but I’m convinced that up until the first man appeared in all his Neanderthalic splendor there was so much shear luck being sucked out of the universe that it’s no wonder no other planet has been found supporting evolved life. And even look at early man. He had to find a mate, he had to find some form of shelter, and he needed to do anything he could to survive in the earliest world. He had to create fire, the wheel, irrigation, language, art, communication. I don’t even want to know what the odds of this man even existing are. We’re getting closer to you now, are you seeing what I’m getting at? I doubt it.

Millions of things in the span of mankind could have preventing your existence. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, England. Any wrongly spear or blade or arrow in any war in history and you’d suddenly stop existing. Your ancestors fought with their lives and survived: The dark ages, the plagues, the wars, the journey to the new world, the industrial revolution, world war one and two, anything out of place anywhere in history jeopardizes your very life. Everything that is who you are, even the fact that you don’t live in a third world country was way out of your hands.

The odds of your very life are stacked against you. And you choose the fate of the world after you. All of history is calling out to you, the finger of time is pointing at you. You exist now. For such a time as this. Don’t waste your life. You’re not here just to exist; you are here to do so much more. Anything!

Wide is the road that leads to destruction. This isn’t just about life now, it’s about all of history, and destruction is all around you. The path to your life has been small and narrow weaving in and out of the fabric of time itself. History has given you a chance; don’t squander it.

Live for something more! See the odds of your life and make them count for something. There is a 1×10 to the power of a really high number chance that you are here right now today.

Do you feel small yet?

I don’t know the real science, or even the real math, but this is just how I see it. Life is a gift, and to live it just for ourselves is a waste of that gift. Every person’s life is just as rare and special as yours, what if we started treating each other like the gift that we are.

So do good! Be kind! Love others! We do not exist to live life for our own desires; we exist to help the people around us live their gift of live to the fullest. Everything is bigger than you, you’re such a small part of a much bigger plan. No one remembers the selfish, but who can forget the selfless?

That’s enough rambling for today.

Ps. When you add in an all loving God the chances of you surviving the human era stay the same, but purpose for living is given a whole new meaning.

Be The Change

Yesterday I had the oppertunity to teach Core 100 while my instructor was out of town. So instead of MBTI debriefing I decided to take the conversation in a more productive direction. We talked about how to be people who influence change. I took the time to type up the notes we took, and I thought I would share them on here too. Enjoy:

We started with a quote:

“Be the change you want to see in the world” –Gandhi

We took away the words “the world” and broke it down into smaller “worlds” that we found ourselves in everyday. We said we wanted to be the change we saw in:

-This classroom
-On your floor
-Dorm
-Sports team
-job
-church
-family/extended family
-neighborhood
-community

We spent some time talking about what that means, and what we thought about it. Then we spent some time over in James 4: 7-17 and Philippians 2: 1-18 and we did a small devotional about priorities, and imitating Christ’s humility.

Then we broke down the worlds we said we wanted to change and how we could do that if we were imitators of Christ.

In the classroom we could:

-Bring in food to help people wake up
-Plan events that helped other people (service projects)
-Cents of Love (saving change and giving it on top of a tip when we go out to eat)
-Having an RA dinner, where we make dinner for our RA’s
-Shoveling driveways once the snow comes
-Speak up in class
-Engage in one another
-Support group members

 

On our floor we could:

-Clean up our messes
-Get to know people
-Accessibility (be available when people need something/open doors)
-Eat together and spend time with our floor mates off the floor too.

In our whole dorm building we could:

-Take care of the laundry room
-Hold doors for people
-Proper public behavior, be respectful in lobbies and labs
-Be respectful to other people-Be sensitive with our words
-Seek out relationships with people who live in our downs
-Be intentional with getting to know people
-Serve those around us
-Be present when people need us/be real
-Be authentic

On our sports team we could:

-Be and example
-Be a team player
-Be selfless (know it’s not all about you)
-Encourage
-Show love and grace when people screw-up
-If we’re not on a team we go and support the people we know on teams

The Like Button

So I saw a bunch of people on facebook that was something along the lines of “If a million people join facebook will create a dislike button” The problem was it’s not like facebook was going to take the group seriously, it was only a petition, and even though it had 1 million members within 5 days, there is very little chance of facebook adding a dislike button. Let me share my thoughts on this.

While I could really value the initial idea of a dislike button (I could finally tell people how I feel about their new relationship status) There are millions of cons that would be come clear almost instantly.

Here is one of my biggest issues with all of the internet in general, whenever a system of good or bad is introduced the true black heart of internet is revealed. The internet is the single most empty place for tolerance I’ve ever seen. It’s here that everyone thinks their opinion is the only right one and the differ from it makes you a moron. Let’s look at my favorite example of this both on facebook and outside of it.

On facebook we have large group discussion boards. I once saw a topic called “There is no God, prove me wrong” and it was simply page after page of stubborn people entrenched very deeply in very shallow conversation. It hurt me so much I actually left the group that was hosting that discussion. Outside of facebook take a good look at youtube. Wither you realize it or not, youtube is the single most “progressive” site on the web. Half the top rated videos at any point have to do with the fact that atheism is the only way, and then on the comment boards scores more of absolutely terrible conversation that rips people down. Youtube does use a like dislike feature which is generally twisted to take anything conservative far away from being seen by the daylight. People when given an opportunity to share their true feelings generally prove that we really are living in a selfish postmodern culture. Where it’s all about the I and the You stands for useless.

So if facebook were to install a dislike button I think there would be a terrible surge of human negativity that might ultimately be it’s own downfall. But that doesn’t mean that I’m all about the happy go lucky of the like button either

I hate the like button. First of all I think it cheapens all interaction, it means that when I write a status that people enjoy instead of commenting on it and leaving how they really feel it just becomes a simple “I like this” which could possibly be the shallowest of all complements. What if I went to an art gallery and simply told the artist “I like this” That would be ridiculous no? Instead I would take the time to think about what I really liked and disliked and I would tell the artist in person. I learn nothing about how people really feel by them just liking my stuff, while it’s like a small warm fuzzy for like a second it really doesn’t have any lasting value in my mind.

The like button also feeds America’s obsession with being lazy. “Hey instead of thinking about stuff I can just click one button and like this, how simple is that” What a terrible symptom of cultural complacency if we can’t even type out a few quick notes for someone we would call a friend.

Needless to say the Like button causes me serious problems, so much so I wish I could take it off my page.

So it comes down to this. When you see something you like online, take the time to write up a quick comment to the user, chances are they will really appreciate it. and when you see something you don’t like, make it a point to talk to the author in a more personal way, don’t ever think about tearing them down publicly, because that will reflect terribly on you.

And that’s all I’ve got this morning. Today I’m going to see Tony Campolo speak

Everything Old Isn’t New

So when all my friends began to blog again, I knew it was a sign. Either I was just stuck with way too tech-savy friends, blogging was cool again, or God was telling me maybe I needed to put my thoughts down in written form. I’m going to say it deals more with the first two than the last one, but hey, God could want that right?

So it comes to this then, I’ll be blogging, and you can read it or not. Just know that most of it will be my rants about silly things. But if you hang with me long enough I may just be able to type a few nuggets that really mean something. Off we go I guess. The road stretches miles before us, and I’m glad you’ve decided to come along for the ride.