Gifts for Christ

I have a couple of candles in my office that I enjoy lighting. Call it aromatherapy if you like, but there is something soothing about the scent and the flicker of candlelight. I'm not the only one who values soothing aromas. Apparently God does too. Much has been written about the gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus. The value of gold is obvious to us. But frankincense and myrrh speak to different senses. The connection of these aromatic resins to acts of worship, healing, anointing and burial preparation made them recognizable as valuable substances to those who lived in ancient cultures. They were fitting gifts for a special King: A King who was worthy of worship; A King who was born to bring healing. Jesus was a King who was anointed and who commissioned others to carry on. Finally, let us never forget that Jesus was born to die so that our sins could be buried.

The God who Sees

This morning I was enjoying my time in chapel with the Preschoolers. As usual, I opened up our time together by attempting to illustrate the message of the day with some Play-Doh. Today was a Christmas message, so I made a manger, a star and a baby Jesus which I carefully placed in the manger. My artistic ability is pretty limited. Baby Jesus was a work of art: a small round head wrapped in a blue blanket. I thought it looked pretty good, but one of the children was not satisfied. She kept shouting "Baby Jesus doesn't have any eyes!" I tried to dismiss her comments by explaining that Baby Jesus was asleep, but she wouldn't let it go. So, I stopped and made too little eyes to put on Baby Jesus. After this she began to shout "Baby Jesus doesn't have a mouth!" As I thought about her persistent objections to my Play-Doh Baby Jesus, I realized how important the essence of her observations are to me. When Jesus was born, God came near in a special way. Among the other great and wondrous messages of His incarnation, He wanted to remind us that He is a God who sees us and speaks to us.

Gadgets and God

The Christmas season is a time when lots of new gadgets are rolled out. A constant barrage of fevered pitches make us wonder how we ever lived without the ability to eat a bowl of cereal without digital content streaming on the box for our viewing pleasure. Sadly, my sarcasm is going to have to get much much sharper because I'm only slightly exaggerating. Ahh, the wonderful world of advancing technology. Meanwhile, the pace of life and the abundance of messages that fill our heads hinders us from pausing long enough to consider how these changes affect our communion with God. Consider this...How does our ability to manipulate content affect our carnal bent toward selfishness? Let me explain. There is a common thread in most of the sales pitches that relates to our ability to "have it our way". We can have "our" music, video, pics, messages on any number of devices. That way we are never without what we want, when we want it, where we want it and how we want it. If I attempt to translate that thinking into my relationship with God, I'm heading for a fall. God's goal is not to respond to our selfishness by accomodating what we want when we want it. In fact communion with God has been known to produce patience in my life. Please don't misunderstand this post as a rant against technology. Remember, I'm not preaching a sermon behind a pulpit in a church building - I'm posting my thoughts on a blog that can be read around the world on phones and a host of devices. I used my Kindle to read from an electronic copy of a book at a Bible study last night. However, we need to cultivate an awarenss of the deep truth of Romans 12:1. The Message reads "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out." The bottom line? Don't forget to think about God. God is still the only one who can change us from the inside out.

The Battle

This weekend I will be with our youth on their Winter Retreat. I am very excited to have the opportunity to invest some "sleepless" time with a great group of teens. I plan to speak to them about winning the battles of life. Sam Bradford, quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners is a committed Christian and a great leader for his team. Even though he has been sidelined by injury this year, I admire his leadership a great deal. When sharing his testinony Sam has said, "Everything's a battle, when you're going through those battles without a relationship with the Lord, you're going through those battles by yourself". My greatest concern for the next generation is not the magnitude of the battles they will face, it is whether they will attempt to fight those battles alone. Somewhere along the way, they must develop a strategy for fighting those battles that relies upon the Lord.

The Heart and Soul of Leadership: Part Seven

For my final post (for now) about leadership, I will offer a word about courage. Leadership requires courage. It begins with the courage that is required for raw honesty. We have to be willing to look in the mirror and invite God to help us see and confront the reality of what we have become. As Heifetz and Linsky (Leadership on the Line, p. 225) have said, “No one looks in the mirror and sees a cynical, arrogant, and callous self-image. We dress up these defenses, give them principled and virtuous names. Cynicism is called realism, arrogance masquerades as authoritative knowledge, and callousness becomes the thick skin of wisdom and experience.” Before we can lead others, we have to allow God to transform us. The transormation begins with a redeemed heart, then we can lead others. We do ourselves no favors when we underestimate the courage that is required to surrender our own defenses and lay our lives down for the sake of our Savior. In the words of Apostle Paul, we discover that "we" no longer live, but "Christ" lives in us. He defines me. He prescribes my actions. He directs my path.