Peace on Earth?

I know this is probably a bit late, but I wanna talk about Christmas. Yeah, I know the holiday is over, but I heard this in a Christmas day sermon, and it impacted me in a deep way.

There's a song called "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." I used to think it was an original song by Casting Crowns, but apparently this song goes way back. It was originally written as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who was quoted as saying, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays," and, "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me."

So what's the deal? Why would someone who doesn't find joy in the holidays write a song about Christmas? Well, if you take a close look at the lyrics, you would understand. The song is all about the fact that the writer doesn't understand why everyone's talking about "peace on earth" and "good will to men" when there is so much pain in this world. The song quotes:

And in despair I bowed my head.
"There is no peace on earth," I said.
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth; good will to men."

The background to the song sheds light on the bitter words that Longfellow penned: composed in 1864, a few months before the Civil War ended, Longfellow wrote amidst the emotional turmoil of the death of his wife, Fanny, who was burned to death in an tragic accident. In this accident, she caught fire from candle wax, and died the day after receiving her burns, despite Henry's best efforts to put out his wife's flaming body. To top off this pain, he learned that his son was shot underneath the shoulder blade - a wound which would force Henry to take his son into bed-ridden care.

After unsuccessfully dealing with the hurt surrounding his circumstances, Longfellow came to a turning point 3 years after his wife's death, and on Christmas Day of 1864, he penned the words to this poem, which rebuts his previous bitterness with a resounding victory:

"God is not dead, nor does He sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth; good will to men."

So, in this Christmas season, filled with all of the fakeness and hypocrisy that surrounds it, don't be fooled into thinking that your hurts and distresses should just be filed away with a big smile to show to the world. For all those who deal with suffering, especially during this season, I'd just like to encourage you with this: God is not dead, nor does He sleep. He sees you, and knows you're hurting. So, reach out to Him, and be comforted by a Saviour who is well acquainted with sorrows. (Isaiah 53)

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Excuses

I find that human beings are experts at making excuses. It's a gift, really. I mean, there is no other creature on this planet that has the ability to justify it's shortcomings and weaknesses. In the animal world, weakness = getting eaten.

But we all do it. Our lives are filled with it, in fact.

"I thought I told you to take out the trash." "Oh, my bad. I would've, but I was playing Call of Duty."

"You told me you were gonna be able to hang out today." "Oh, sorry man. I got tied up with my other friends."

Now, at the same time, I do understand that certain excuses are acceptable. Not being able to follow through with your promise of going to the movies with your friends because your dog just died is understandable. But there's one specific excuse that always gets to me. It sounds a little something like this:

"I would spend more time with God everyday, but I'm just not a disciplined guy."

Or...

"I wish I could forgive my father, but it's not easy for me."

Moses did the same thing in Exodus 3, when God asked him to go tell the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go: "But, Moses said to the LORD, 'Oh, my LORD, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue."

God's response is amazingly simple: "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now, therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."

In other words, God points to a deep truth that I always want to drive home: God did not pick us because of our merit. If He needs us to do anything, He'll give us the strength to do it regardless of how terrible we are at it.  So let's stop making excuses, own up to our weaknesses, and let God work past them.

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Mack Trucks

I was driving with my dad one day, and he pointed something out, which for some reason, has stuck with me ever since. He pointed to to a big construction truck and said something along the lines of, "I've been seeing more of these big trucks, lately. You know, that's a good thing - more big trucks means a better economy."

I guess he figured that more trucks equated to more construction, which in turn equates to a better financial position. In any case, this is not an economics lesson, and I'm not trying to make a point about finances. But I do want to get at something important: Hebrews 11.

"What could Hebrews 11 possibly have to do with Mack trucks?" you may ask. Well, I'll get to that in a second.

Anyways, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Hebrews 11, in a nutshell, is all about faith. It goes through a ginormous list of the outcomes of the faith of many famous Bible characters. It's like a Who's Who of immensely holy people. Almost every verse basically follows this pattern:

"By faith, (insert epic Bible name here) did this crazy thing, and had this crazy result."

Some of those crazy results include having children as numerous as the stars in the sky, making walls fall down by walking around them, and escaping death. So, this begs the question, "What is faith?"

Well, if you would stop interrupting me so much, I would tell you. In this context, faith is simply trusting God to follow through on His promises. So, if one were to trust God to do just that, I bet we would see a lot more risk-taking in the walks of believers.

"What do you mean by 'risk-taking?'" you say? Wow, you feel no shame in interrupting me this much, huh? As I was saying, if we believed the promises of God, we would probably be willing to step out and pray for healing with complete expectation. We would not be afraid of not knowing what to say when we are attacked for our faith. We would trust God to walk into certain situations that, at first sight, feel dangerous and uncomfortable, like proclaiming our Jesus loudly to anyone who would hear it.

Back to the trucks. Just like seeing large amounts of trucks on the highway is indicative of a burgeoning economy, large amounts of risk-taking should be indicative of faith in a Christ-followers' life.

In the end, the strengthening of our faith through prayer and pleading leads to pretty good things. Check it out: "for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Raise your hand if you want to be perfect.

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Sponsoring the Bench Warmer

I feel like we get confused sometimes.

"Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." - Exodus 3:5

So, dirt, right? Dirt is not holy. Dirt is dirt. It's dirty. Anyone who gets around it also gets dirty. My point? The dirt did not earn its own right to be made holy.

Take Moses, too. For crying out loud, he knew that he wasn't the man for the colossal job God had planned. Don't believe me? Moses himself said, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" - Exodus 3:11

In other words: "Uh-uh. I know you ain't talkin' to me." And if you were him, you probably would have said the same thing, considering the stutter and murderous past and all.

But, no. God told him specifically, "I will be with you."

Look at the even bigger picture: God wanted Moses to go up to the Pharaoh and tell him, "The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God."

First of all, keep in mind that Moses is telling the king of one of the most powerful empires in history that the God of the universe is advocating a nation of slaves. Essentially, that's like Google sponsoring a high school, junior varsity, bench-warming basketball player.

Well for those of you who haven't seen what I've been getting at, I'll shoot straight from the hip:

We tend to think that it's all about how good we are.

Now, I've written about this in the past, but I wanted to get at something I missed about what happens when we believe our strength comes from our own will-power: when we fail, we have no where to go.

Any failure or sin will always lead to us believing that we need to just try harder. And when we figure out, after failing countless times, that we can't try hard enough, we are left with nothing no hope.

In all of the examples given, God was working with the bench-warmers, high school drop-outs, and all-around sinners. Why? To make the world understand that the miracles produced at the hands of such people were the result of God's great power, not the strength of the people He recruited.

So have faith that "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ," and that He will give you the strength to do the things that He planned out for you.

I'll leave you with Proverbs 3:5-8:

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
   and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
   and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
   fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
   and refreshment to your bones."

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