Today is May 22 and here in Kodiak gas is up to 4.25 (what is with the 9/10 anyway?) a gallon. It was only 4.10 at the beginning of the month. The price of a barrel of oil keeps rising. So everyone is talking about how high gas will go. Here on an island, it affects more than just driving. Boats and planes need fuel too. Houses are heated with oil. Food, as well as everything else, comes in by plane or boat. So expenses are rising daily. How are people coping? I see more people walking and riding bikes. Of course, our weather is notoriously rainy so perhaps this is more a result of a week of sunshine than high prices. More trucks are for sale. Since everyone owns a truck there is a limit to how many of these will sell. Trucks are losing value by the day. There are few small cars for sale. That's mostly because we only have one major auto dealer (Ford) on the island and it has no Ford Escorts on its lot and only one Escape Hybrid. The only major used car dealer is still stuck with lots of trucks and SUVs which are not exactly flying off the lot right now. People are talking about growing more food but because our growing season is so short I know of only a few people who are successful at it. It seems like rhubarb is the only thing that grows easily here.
One benefit of living on an island with few roads is that you don't have to drive much. So our family has been walking and riding our bikes a lot more ( still it has been sunny...). Our truck which gets 12 mpg around town sits idly (not idling) by. Our Toyota Matrix which under performs at 20 mpg is our basic mode of vehicular transportation. This not only saves money ($4.25 for every 12 miles you walk or ride!) but it is good exercise since Kodiak is a very hilly place. It has always been expensive to live here compared to upstate New York where we used to live so the uptick in prices is not a huge surprise. When I talk to my family in New York they were stressing over gas in the $3.50 plus range; we've been paying that for a year or more.
We have been making changes in the way we eat, too. We don't go out to eat as much. This is not as big a sacrifice as it may sound since there are few places to eat out here and you get tired of going to the same places all the time. We don't stop at the coffee shop every day. A latte costs about what a gallon of gas does. So if you go without a latte a day you have saved up 7 gallons of gas which you can use when you really need your truck (that's a week of driving here!). We still go to the coffee shop for the conversation with friends and drink the very good brewed coffee which is locally roasted here in Kodiak. One of our favorite coffee shops is run by a French pastry chef so it's hard to pass up a muffin or scone. Our dilemma is: brewed coffee plus a muffin equals a gallon of gas but if we walk the three miles to this particular coffee shop we have saved $2.12 at the current prices (assuming we drove the truck) which buys a muffin and the walking takes care of most of the calories so you see its a win - win deal.
These changes slow us down too. This is good and bad. Life is already slower here so you can feel like a slug at times and we have plenty of those already (did I mention it rains a lot?). It takes longer to walk places but you do see more and the scenery is pretty spectacular here and you can take that for granted. So overall I think its a plus to slow down.
We are making other changes too about the way we eat and what we eat. Fish is plentiful here and cheaper than many places in the lower 48. A lot of times in the summer people share fish like people used to share produce in upstate New York. And one good trip out on a boat can put enough fish in the freezer to take you well into the next year. Salmon is good for you and we eat a lot of it. Even our local Subway sells salmon subs. It's hard to get fresh produce here so we pay a premium for it. No way around that. You are not going to grow it. The only fruit that grows here are salmon berries and due to two years of cold, wet Springs even those berries have been in short supply. The bears get most of what's there and you're not going to win many arguments with them. But we have been baking more: bread and cookies. We have changed our oatmeal brand to one that we can get in bulk and is cheaper. We are eating less which is not a bad thing because we discovered we were eating too much before. When we shop we try to stay to the outside aisles of the store - the perimeter - where you get more for your money because all the processed stuff is sold in the inner aisles.
So all in all, we do have some good choices here where our choices are fewer than many places in the lower 48. I know we are fortunate here because there are many places in the world where people's choices are much more limited and food shortages are making living nearly impossible. Organizations like Food for the Hungry and Compassion and World Vision are getting food to some of these people who have no good choices. Hopefully, this focus on high prices in America right now will help us change our lifestyles enough so we have more to share with those who have far fewer good choices than we do.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Myanmar
The news of the cyclone that hit Myanmar causing massive destruction and loss of life is all over the front pages of the news this week. Many people probably are not familiar with Myanmar. On the maps the news reports are showing Myanmar shares a border with China, Laos, India and Thailand. It is a nation slightly smaller than Texas. It is a major rice producer. Most people probably have heard of it by its old name, Burma. The Burma Road was a vital supply line to China in World War 2. Burma was also the destination of Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann, in 1812. They were the first western missionaries to Burma. Judson spent the rest of his life there. It was a hard and unforgiving place to minister. Most of his family died there. He worked for six years without a convert to the Christian faith. He dreamed of finally building a congregation of just ten people. He translated the Bible into Burmese and worked on an English - Burmese dictionary. Much of his work was with the Karen people who live in the south of Myanmar close to the Thai border. His life and ministry is told in rich detail by Courtney Anderson in the book, To the Golden Shore.
Many of these Karen people have been fighting for democracy for years against the military rulers of Myanmar. Hundreds have fled the country as refugees and are living in the US and other countries. Burma was colonized by the British in the 1800s. In 1948 it became independent and since then has been ruled harshly by a military junta. There are few freedoms and any resistance is severely dealt with. Recently, the resistance of Buddhist monks was crushed violently. The Myanmar rulers are secretive and suspect any outside interference as subversive to their government. So they have been slow to welcome aid for the cyclone victims. You can dontate to the relief effort through many agencies such as World Vision, Food for the Hungry and the American Baptist mission board which has had a longstanding mission presence on Burma/Myanmar at www.abc-usa.org
Many of these Karen people have been fighting for democracy for years against the military rulers of Myanmar. Hundreds have fled the country as refugees and are living in the US and other countries. Burma was colonized by the British in the 1800s. In 1948 it became independent and since then has been ruled harshly by a military junta. There are few freedoms and any resistance is severely dealt with. Recently, the resistance of Buddhist monks was crushed violently. The Myanmar rulers are secretive and suspect any outside interference as subversive to their government. So they have been slow to welcome aid for the cyclone victims. You can dontate to the relief effort through many agencies such as World Vision, Food for the Hungry and the American Baptist mission board which has had a longstanding mission presence on Burma/Myanmar at www.abc-usa.org
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Rich Fool
Luke has a story Jesus told in chapter 12 of his gospel. It's been called the Rich Fool. Fool in the Bible doesn't mean stupid but Unwise in a Biblical sense. That would mean someone who looks at the world only through his/her own eyes. God is not in view. That was the Rich Fool's point of view. When he made the decision about what to do with his surplus, he talked only with himself. Not with his family, his friends or his spiritual advisor. Certainly not with God. This proved to be his fatal error. Since, God spoke to him or about him and said, "Tonight your life is demanded of you." The phrase that is used in Luke is a banking phrase. It means "your loan is being called in." From God's point of view our lives are on loan from Him. Life is not a right nor an entitlement. We don't deserve 8 days or 80 years. Every moment we live is a gift from God.
So all our stuff is a gift, too. We don't own it. None of it. When we die, which is the fact of life the Rich Fool overlooked, we take nothing with us. Tolstoy has a short story about a greedy man who had a chance to own as much land as he could encircle in one day, from sunup to sundown. He bit off more than he could run around and he wound up dead of heart failure. The sellers of the land buried him in a six foot grave. Tolstoy's story was entitled, "How Much Land Does A Man Need?". When the end comes that is all any of us need.
Jesus warns us in this story to check our greed or insatiable desires as it is sometimes translated. Watch out for it. We used to be aware of greed enough to at least want to hide it. It used to be something to watch out for. Anymore it seems like a good thing. Advertising cultivates it. Our sports stars model it. When one professional athlete signs a new mega bucks contract with another team he or she justifies it by saying he had to do what was best to care for his family. Most families get by just fine on millions less. When the college superstar leaves his studies early to jump to the pros, he or she justifies it by saying the money was too good to pass up.
Jesus seems to be saying that its good to pass up the money. He talked more about money than any other subject. Money must be one thing in life that can really mess us up. Like the Rich Fool shows. Money is not evil. Its the misuse of it that gets us into trouble. Problem is Jesus figured the misuse of it was way easier than the right use of it for us. The Rich Fool was already Rich. He had enough. He wanted more. He had to build bigger storehouses to put his more in. Why is it so hard to say, "That's enough!" "I don't need anything else." Jesus said, " Life does not consist in the surpluses we acquire." Yet, we live as if it does. He meant happiness or fulfillment does not come from stuff. Secular studies bear this out. They find that once our basic needs are met having more stuff does not make anyone any happier. In fact, more stuff brings more problems.
Jesus told this story after a brother came to him and asked him or told him to tell his brother to divide their father's inheritance with him. In Jesus day a father's estate went to the eldest brother unless the father had made other plans. Apparently in this case the older brother got it all and the younger brother wanted justice. He approached Jesus as a Rabbi who could give religious rulings. He sought Jesus out as if he was a spiritual guru and he probably wanted Jesus and the crowd on his side to put some pressure on his brother to share the goods. Money had already divided his family as it so often does. Jesus replied with a question," Who made me a judge or arbiter (divider) between you? Jesus did not come to divide people but to bring them together. Money brings division; Jesus brings reconciliation.
Keep your greed in check he told the brother and the crowd and then he told the story of the Rich Fool. It's a story not only about money but how money affects relationships. The Rich Fool is isolated. He is all alone. He has no one to talk with about the most important things in his life. It seems like the more money we have the more isolated we become. We buy bigger houses, surrounded by more land with higher fences and finally locate them in gated communities with security forces patrolling day and night.
Instead of letting our greed go unchecked, Jesus said, we should aim to be rich toward God. In another one of his sayings he said we should use our wealth to make friends for God. Money can be used for people's sake seems to be what Jesus is saying. Stuff is temporary but people are eternal. Jesus is not much concerned with stuff but he is with people. We need to be that way too. Money can easily divide us from others but it can be used to bring us together. Jesus parable teaches us to find ways to do that with our money and our stuff.
So all our stuff is a gift, too. We don't own it. None of it. When we die, which is the fact of life the Rich Fool overlooked, we take nothing with us. Tolstoy has a short story about a greedy man who had a chance to own as much land as he could encircle in one day, from sunup to sundown. He bit off more than he could run around and he wound up dead of heart failure. The sellers of the land buried him in a six foot grave. Tolstoy's story was entitled, "How Much Land Does A Man Need?". When the end comes that is all any of us need.
Jesus warns us in this story to check our greed or insatiable desires as it is sometimes translated. Watch out for it. We used to be aware of greed enough to at least want to hide it. It used to be something to watch out for. Anymore it seems like a good thing. Advertising cultivates it. Our sports stars model it. When one professional athlete signs a new mega bucks contract with another team he or she justifies it by saying he had to do what was best to care for his family. Most families get by just fine on millions less. When the college superstar leaves his studies early to jump to the pros, he or she justifies it by saying the money was too good to pass up.
Jesus seems to be saying that its good to pass up the money. He talked more about money than any other subject. Money must be one thing in life that can really mess us up. Like the Rich Fool shows. Money is not evil. Its the misuse of it that gets us into trouble. Problem is Jesus figured the misuse of it was way easier than the right use of it for us. The Rich Fool was already Rich. He had enough. He wanted more. He had to build bigger storehouses to put his more in. Why is it so hard to say, "That's enough!" "I don't need anything else." Jesus said, " Life does not consist in the surpluses we acquire." Yet, we live as if it does. He meant happiness or fulfillment does not come from stuff. Secular studies bear this out. They find that once our basic needs are met having more stuff does not make anyone any happier. In fact, more stuff brings more problems.
Jesus told this story after a brother came to him and asked him or told him to tell his brother to divide their father's inheritance with him. In Jesus day a father's estate went to the eldest brother unless the father had made other plans. Apparently in this case the older brother got it all and the younger brother wanted justice. He approached Jesus as a Rabbi who could give religious rulings. He sought Jesus out as if he was a spiritual guru and he probably wanted Jesus and the crowd on his side to put some pressure on his brother to share the goods. Money had already divided his family as it so often does. Jesus replied with a question," Who made me a judge or arbiter (divider) between you? Jesus did not come to divide people but to bring them together. Money brings division; Jesus brings reconciliation.
Keep your greed in check he told the brother and the crowd and then he told the story of the Rich Fool. It's a story not only about money but how money affects relationships. The Rich Fool is isolated. He is all alone. He has no one to talk with about the most important things in his life. It seems like the more money we have the more isolated we become. We buy bigger houses, surrounded by more land with higher fences and finally locate them in gated communities with security forces patrolling day and night.
Instead of letting our greed go unchecked, Jesus said, we should aim to be rich toward God. In another one of his sayings he said we should use our wealth to make friends for God. Money can be used for people's sake seems to be what Jesus is saying. Stuff is temporary but people are eternal. Jesus is not much concerned with stuff but he is with people. We need to be that way too. Money can easily divide us from others but it can be used to bring us together. Jesus parable teaches us to find ways to do that with our money and our stuff.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
How Big is Your Bible?
When we got married one of our wedding presents was a big Bible. I am talking huge here. It was from my wife's uncle and we think he intended it as a coffee table book or a family record keeper. It had a family tree in the front of it. Needless to say, we never used it. It was way too big to lug around and it was not very comfortable to hold on your lap. As big as it was, it was not useful. Most of our Bibles are not that big. In fact, most of our Bibles are pretty small when you consider how much of them we use. We have favorite verses or books or a Testament that we prefer. Usually that is the New Testament. We have this strange love-hate relationship with the Old Testament. We love the Bible but we don't like the Old Testament very much. It is filled with strange names, places, customs and laws. God seems a lot different from the Jesus we find in the New Testament. So we mostly don't read it very much.
If it was announced that an archaeological research team had just discovered the personal library of Jesus Christ imagine what a buzz that would create. A museum would no doubt be built to house it and Christians from all over the world would make pilgrimages to visit it. What would it be like to hold onto a book that Jesus held onto? Of course, we can and we do. The Bible Jesus used is the same one we have today. We have his personal library nicely bound for us many different editions.
He talks about his Bible in Matthew 5:17-20. He says there he did not come to do away with the Old Testament but to fulfill it. He takes a very high view of Scripture here and commands us to do the same. For us that means to love and use the Old Testament the way he did.
That does not change the fact that the Old Testament is strange to our ears. But it can become more familiar as we expose ourselves to it more and more. There are many good study Bibles available today that have extensive notes in the margins that cover much of the distance we feel between ourselves and the Old Testament.
We would like to have Jesus apart from the Bible. We want to love him and follow him without being bogged down by a big book. But this book was so important to him: not one letter or pen stroke did he overlook. There was a group of Christians in Germany just prior to World War Two who decided they wanted to have Jesus but not the Old Testament. Look at the Jesus they came up with. To know Jesus, to understand more of him, to love him we have to love his Bible and live it.
If it was announced that an archaeological research team had just discovered the personal library of Jesus Christ imagine what a buzz that would create. A museum would no doubt be built to house it and Christians from all over the world would make pilgrimages to visit it. What would it be like to hold onto a book that Jesus held onto? Of course, we can and we do. The Bible Jesus used is the same one we have today. We have his personal library nicely bound for us many different editions.
He talks about his Bible in Matthew 5:17-20. He says there he did not come to do away with the Old Testament but to fulfill it. He takes a very high view of Scripture here and commands us to do the same. For us that means to love and use the Old Testament the way he did.
That does not change the fact that the Old Testament is strange to our ears. But it can become more familiar as we expose ourselves to it more and more. There are many good study Bibles available today that have extensive notes in the margins that cover much of the distance we feel between ourselves and the Old Testament.
We would like to have Jesus apart from the Bible. We want to love him and follow him without being bogged down by a big book. But this book was so important to him: not one letter or pen stroke did he overlook. There was a group of Christians in Germany just prior to World War Two who decided they wanted to have Jesus but not the Old Testament. Look at the Jesus they came up with. To know Jesus, to understand more of him, to love him we have to love his Bible and live it.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Marriage Today
A study done at the Center for Applied Research at Georgetown University (as reported in the Wall Street Journal Friday February 22, 2008), discovered that young Catholic adults -millennials- born between 1982 and 1989 believe in marriage but their faith is not an important part of that belief. They believe strongly that marriage is a lifetime commitment and that couples don't take marriage seriously when divorce is an easy option. They believe these things much more strongly than their parents do. What they don't believe as strongly is that the faith of the Church needs to inform their beliefs about marriage at all. What they tend to believe is more of what they have learned from their culture. They believe that who they marry must be their "soul mate" and that falling out of love is an acceptable reason for divorce. "Catholic young people have an individualized idea of who should set the rules", said Christian Smith, a sociology professor at Notre Dame. He went on to say, "Most younger Catholics have defined their inner self as the authority, and many freely distance themselves from church practices they don't believe in."
I find that to be true among Protestants, as well. In fact, it is a culture wide phenomenon. However, as far as marriage goes, it is pretty much left up to the couple to decide its meaning and how it is lived out. I have had couples come to me to do a marriage service for them and when I ask them why they want to get married in the church the best they can offer (usually the bride to be) is that she just always wanted a church wedding. How the Christian faith informs her decision or practice of marriage is not part of it.
The trend that I see is for even Christian young people to wait longer to get married and to live together before they do. If what they have is true love, then they choose to get married. If true love fails, then they choose to end the marriage.
In one of my early marriage sermons I said marriage is a calling from God. It is a "vocation", to use the Catholic term. Two Christian persons are responding to something God is doing in their lives. God is the center of their relationship. He will support, sustain and bless them. This understanding is missing as many couples think about marriage today. For most of them it seems like marriage is something the two of them have just come up with. In fact, the idea has been around a long time.
I find that to be true among Protestants, as well. In fact, it is a culture wide phenomenon. However, as far as marriage goes, it is pretty much left up to the couple to decide its meaning and how it is lived out. I have had couples come to me to do a marriage service for them and when I ask them why they want to get married in the church the best they can offer (usually the bride to be) is that she just always wanted a church wedding. How the Christian faith informs her decision or practice of marriage is not part of it.
The trend that I see is for even Christian young people to wait longer to get married and to live together before they do. If what they have is true love, then they choose to get married. If true love fails, then they choose to end the marriage.
In one of my early marriage sermons I said marriage is a calling from God. It is a "vocation", to use the Catholic term. Two Christian persons are responding to something God is doing in their lives. God is the center of their relationship. He will support, sustain and bless them. This understanding is missing as many couples think about marriage today. For most of them it seems like marriage is something the two of them have just come up with. In fact, the idea has been around a long time.
Oscar Season
This is Oscar season. The film industry's annual attempt to evaluate and reward itself. We film goers wait to see what the Industry thought was good work. We do not always agree, especially this year. Violent movies were the first choice for excellence this year. Violence that the reviewers in praise of the movie, nevertheless, called "disturbing". The films were nominated for Oscars because of their technical excellence, scriptwriting and performances. And most of the nominated films were outstanding in those areas. Still, why so much graphic, disturbing violence? I saw American Gangster, one of this years highly touted films, which opens with a scene of graphic violence and includes many others plus "disturbing images" of drug use. I chose not to see Sweeney Todd, In the Country of Old Men (even though I loved the Coen brothers "O Brother Where Art Thou?"), There Will Be Blood and Eastern Promises - all technically excellent films according to reviewers but very violent, as well. I watched In the Valley of Elah which cast Tommie Lee Jones, a favorite of mine, in an Oscar nominated role as a distraught father who is searching for his missing son who just returned from the Iraq war. Jones' work is lost in a film that says soldiers returning from the Iraq war are out of control. Numbed by the violence they have seen and experienced in Iraq, they have lost any moral compass and are liable to recreate the war violence on friends and family. It is as hopeless and dark a movie as you could ever watch. For this the academy awards it's highest honor.
I attended a Christian college in the 70's which had strict regulations about movies. We were not allowed to see them. It was a bit hypocritical since you could watch tv and there were movies to be seen there although heavily edited. How things have changed! I am still not used to the way Christians consume popular culture today, mostly uncritically, I think. When I was working with youth groups in the 80's and 90's I was frequently surprised when I heard what movies my church kids were watching. Parents seemed not to know or care. Today, I am surprised at how many Christian adults just "go to the movies" without any idea about what they are viewing or why.
Why were our Christian forefathers so concerned about movies that they were banned on many Christian college campuses? The movies back then were certainly tame compared to the "disturbing" sexual and violent images seen on the screen today. What do movies seek to do? Is movie going just an innocent use of leisure time such as watching a high school basketball game might be?
Movies have a point of view. They are windows on our culture. There are many good reasons to watch them. But we need to watch them critically. A film like In the Valley of Elah is making an anti-war statement. More than that it says that this country because of its war commitment is all wrong and in deep trouble. Do we need to see that? Does it need to make that point with its "disturbing images" of sex and violence? Maybe, maybe not. That's why we need to discuss it if we see it. It is more than "just entertainment."
Some movies are not quite so heavy, or as heavy as some think they are. Some like Enchanted or Hairpsray are for entertainment. Christians can enjoy them, too. The Bible warns us about what we put before our eyes because it goes straight to our minds and some of those images which are made to disturb you can't ever get out.
I attended a Christian college in the 70's which had strict regulations about movies. We were not allowed to see them. It was a bit hypocritical since you could watch tv and there were movies to be seen there although heavily edited. How things have changed! I am still not used to the way Christians consume popular culture today, mostly uncritically, I think. When I was working with youth groups in the 80's and 90's I was frequently surprised when I heard what movies my church kids were watching. Parents seemed not to know or care. Today, I am surprised at how many Christian adults just "go to the movies" without any idea about what they are viewing or why.
Why were our Christian forefathers so concerned about movies that they were banned on many Christian college campuses? The movies back then were certainly tame compared to the "disturbing" sexual and violent images seen on the screen today. What do movies seek to do? Is movie going just an innocent use of leisure time such as watching a high school basketball game might be?
Movies have a point of view. They are windows on our culture. There are many good reasons to watch them. But we need to watch them critically. A film like In the Valley of Elah is making an anti-war statement. More than that it says that this country because of its war commitment is all wrong and in deep trouble. Do we need to see that? Does it need to make that point with its "disturbing images" of sex and violence? Maybe, maybe not. That's why we need to discuss it if we see it. It is more than "just entertainment."
Some movies are not quite so heavy, or as heavy as some think they are. Some like Enchanted or Hairpsray are for entertainment. Christians can enjoy them, too. The Bible warns us about what we put before our eyes because it goes straight to our minds and some of those images which are made to disturb you can't ever get out.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Back to Normal
Christmas is over, the artificial tree is put away, and holiday visitors are gone. New Year's diets have begun as we try to shed the pounds of Christmas treats we consumed. So we are back to our normal routine again. We like holiday breaks but we may like getting back to our normal routine even more. But what is normal, anyway? After Christmas the news was grim. Stocks were down, oil was up. There were reports of ethnic cleansing in Kenya. Pakistan was on the verge of chaos after Bhutto's assasination. Millions were homeless, jobless and hopless around the world.
In Matthew's gospel, after Christmas was hardly back to normal either. There was a surprising visit from foreign royal astronomers who read the stars and found their way to the Christ Child. When they got there they worshipped and were overcome with joy. Hardly normal when you consider that the normal thing would have been for the ones who knew the Old Testament scriptures and who lived nearby to pay a visit. Yet, it was the outsiders who came to Jesus birthday party and the insiders who apparently didn't have a clue or didn't care. Matthew is telling us that the gospel is for all people.
Then we read the disturbing story of King Herod, hardly a normal guy. It is said he killed his wife and other members of the royal family for suspected alliances against him. When he was close to death himself he had numerous citizens of Jerusalem killed so there would be plenty of mourning when he died. After the wise men's visit, he had all the children under two killed in Jesus hometown. This may have been normal behavior for Herod but Jesus birth hardly heralded a sense of normalcy for the area of his birth.
From this moment things were not normal when Jesus was around. Plenty of people found help and healing in his presence but many others were profoundly threatened by him, just as Herod was. "The shadow of the cross" fell over his life from this point on. Jesus turned things upside down. People, too.
I know people whose lives were changed dramatically when they met Jesus. And not only when they met him but all their lives. I heard from a friend who is a pastor and has been for almost 30 years. He has been at his last church for well over 20 years. His family is raised. He is getting close to his retirement dreams. Instead, he and his wife are selling out and moving to Texas to join a new church planting mission in some of the most unchurched areas of the world. He is trying to raise his own support. That is not normal. At least the way our culture views it.
Following Jesus often leads to all sorts of non normal behavior. Like the wise men, followers of Christ are on a journey. It is tempting to stay still, to become comfortable and secure in our careful lifestyle planning. Plenty of Christians are settled down and the excitement has gone out of their lives. Their lives are as normal as they can make them. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the comforts home and family bring. Just so long as we don't forsake the journey. God may not call you to leave home and job to take long trips to follow him. A lot of times the journey is much shorter. It may be to the living room early in the morning for a quiet time of prayer and Bible study. It may be across the street to care for someone home from the hospital. It may be to the other side of town to ask for forgiveness or to give it.
There will be a journey. Like the wise men, that's where we will find the joy of the Lord.
In Matthew's gospel, after Christmas was hardly back to normal either. There was a surprising visit from foreign royal astronomers who read the stars and found their way to the Christ Child. When they got there they worshipped and were overcome with joy. Hardly normal when you consider that the normal thing would have been for the ones who knew the Old Testament scriptures and who lived nearby to pay a visit. Yet, it was the outsiders who came to Jesus birthday party and the insiders who apparently didn't have a clue or didn't care. Matthew is telling us that the gospel is for all people.
Then we read the disturbing story of King Herod, hardly a normal guy. It is said he killed his wife and other members of the royal family for suspected alliances against him. When he was close to death himself he had numerous citizens of Jerusalem killed so there would be plenty of mourning when he died. After the wise men's visit, he had all the children under two killed in Jesus hometown. This may have been normal behavior for Herod but Jesus birth hardly heralded a sense of normalcy for the area of his birth.
From this moment things were not normal when Jesus was around. Plenty of people found help and healing in his presence but many others were profoundly threatened by him, just as Herod was. "The shadow of the cross" fell over his life from this point on. Jesus turned things upside down. People, too.
I know people whose lives were changed dramatically when they met Jesus. And not only when they met him but all their lives. I heard from a friend who is a pastor and has been for almost 30 years. He has been at his last church for well over 20 years. His family is raised. He is getting close to his retirement dreams. Instead, he and his wife are selling out and moving to Texas to join a new church planting mission in some of the most unchurched areas of the world. He is trying to raise his own support. That is not normal. At least the way our culture views it.
Following Jesus often leads to all sorts of non normal behavior. Like the wise men, followers of Christ are on a journey. It is tempting to stay still, to become comfortable and secure in our careful lifestyle planning. Plenty of Christians are settled down and the excitement has gone out of their lives. Their lives are as normal as they can make them. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the comforts home and family bring. Just so long as we don't forsake the journey. God may not call you to leave home and job to take long trips to follow him. A lot of times the journey is much shorter. It may be to the living room early in the morning for a quiet time of prayer and Bible study. It may be across the street to care for someone home from the hospital. It may be to the other side of town to ask for forgiveness or to give it.
There will be a journey. Like the wise men, that's where we will find the joy of the Lord.
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