There are a lot of messages that fly around Christmas, like — “Christmas is about love”, “it is about family,” it’s about gifts,” “it’s about Santa Clause,” “lights,” “indoor trees,” “it’s about giving,” “Turkey,” “ham,” “seasonal songs,” “shopping,” and of course “Shepherds, sheep, wisemen, angels, and baby Jesus.” What if I told you that Christmas’ isn’t about any of these things?Christmas is a mystery, a veil temporarily pulled back, a battle. Christmas is birth and death, bondage and freedom, grace and mercy, love against the background of hatred, goodness pushing past evil, and light breaking through the darkness to give us a glimpse of God.
The smile on a step-father’s face, the gleam in the new mother’s eyes, the wonder of the shepherds and the quizzical expression of the angles who looked down in awe of God’s work of Grace. All of this but a blimp in the course of time, a prequel to a more dramatic moment of God’s relentless love and Grace.
This is Christmas in all its splendor, for which we gather in large groups and small, to worship the God who made it all possible. This is Christmas, I’m just saying — MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Christmas wouldn’t be complete if there wasn’t some kind of controversy about, well, something. This year the anti-gun people are upset because a photographer used a baby as the backdrop for Christmas (or holiday) icons. In the background you have the leg lamp (a classic), the bunny suit, and of course the BB gun, all references to a particular movie. The baby, of course, is adorable, and the gun is kind of funny. Is it offensive, bad taste, abusive, or borderline hilarious? I’m sure that the photographer knew there would be an uproar, that’s why he did it. 
Jonah was angry at the Ninevites because they threatened the sovereign nation of Israel. Jonah was angry because God had called him to take a message of repentance to his enemy. Jonah was angry because he knew that God would forgive them if they relented. Jonah was angry because God wouldn’t let him die as an option. And when he was in the mountains, waiting to see what God would do to Nineveh, he got angry at a plant that died and didn’t give him shade. Jonah was just one angry dude.
I was sitting with a friend this afternoon and we were watching Fox News (liberal friends bear with me). It was a little embarrassing watching Schumer and Trump go back and forth, “you did it,” “no you did it first,” “that’s not true,” “yes it is,” “I’m going to do it my way,” “oh yeah, I’m going to sit over here and sulk.” You can’t make this stuff up. I don’t watch the news very much anymore because it can be disheartening. But then again, 
I can have the tendency to go overboard, and then at some point in the project I want to just stop. I’ve had enough and the work that I have to go seems so much more than what I have done. So, here I am building a Lincoln logesck play house for my grandchildren. It would have been much easier to have pulled out a tent and set it up. For some reason I thought this would be so much more fun for my grandchildren (my boys say I would never have gone to this much trouble for them when they were the same age). But this is the first Christmas we will have with them, and maybe again for a long time. 
I wonder if God ever gets discouraged? I was thinking of my sermon this past week and out of all the people of Israel, God chose Samson to be judge (not a great example of moral character). Yet, he was the best that Israel had to offer. Of course, God chose him before he was born, but to think that even then God knew there was no one better coming down the line. It is God’s relentless grace that filled in Samson’s deficiencies, and his unending love that would bring about a revival and the coming of king David. God knew there would be better days.
The following is an excerpt from my book “Reflections of a Broken Man.” It seems narcissistic to post the reflections of some of my darkest hours, but then again isn’t blogging itself self absorbed. At any rate I thought I would repost some of the poems over the next couple of days and add some additional thoughts. The opening begins:
Ever since I was a little kid, my mom would remind me, “Paul, say please and thank you.” I can understand the please, it’s a requisite to getting something. But the “thank you” part seems unnecessary. Why should I say thank you for someone doing their job, for a mother’s love, or for a polite gesture from a complete stranger, for that matter. I didn’t ask them to open the door. I mean, if they did it for the response, then where is the ultruism in the act? It’s not that I think I am entitled to the goodness of others, it’s just that the goodness should be displayed regardless of a thank you. 
My neibors, to the south, at least I think it is south, Bluffton is layed out at an angle, anyway. My neighbors have a mangary of dogs and cats. The gentleman will walk his five small dogs along his property line and behind him will be an assortment of cats and kittens. They follow him, there has to be at least 20, and they’re cute, and for the most part stay away from our house. Not that we don’t like cats, but I’m not sure what Porthos would do, or at least I didn’t know what Porthos would do.
How do you make the difficult decisions in your life, especially if they affect other people? How do you make decisions when everyone has different perspectives, different goals, and different ideas? What if you know what the right decision is, but to make it, or require others to make it, breaks trust? In the book of Philemon the right choice was to receive Onesimus with open arms, not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. The implication was that every slave who believed should be a brother and not property. It would undermine the whole Roman system. Paul, however, didn’t care about provincial customs, cultural taboos, or religious ritual. He cared only for the will of God. If that meant relinquishing his “right” to authority in order to give people the opportunity to do the right thing, giving them the right to fail, he would do it. The reason he could allow people to fail is because he truly believed the sovereignty of God.
It’s only lonely at the top if you push everyone else off. Our culture looks at power and authority in terms of who is first or in charge. Leadership books and articles will talk about the need for collaboration, working together, sharing responsibility (both blame and praise). It never really works that way. There is always someone who will take the fall or bear the ire of shareholders or customers. 
My jaw dropped. I looked up to where he always sat, stoic, strong, and ready to listen. Frank’s constant presence was a reminder of our need to take a deep breath and remain silent. Frank never spoke, but he said a lot. I remember once speaking to one of the administrators and we were trying to make a decision. Turning to Frank was the logical course of action, he was always frank and spoke frankly on every topic, if you were ready to listen. So what happened to Frank? Someone new and someone old, and an institution of SJM was gone.
Have you ever just craved nothing; no interruptions, no noise, no hassles, no relational problems, no responsibilities. There are times I can sit on the front porch, stare out across the field and enjoy, well, nothing. There are all kinds of nothings, and if life is long enough I hope to enjoy more of them.
The orange leaves rustle in the wind; unfixed they flutter to the ground. Yellow, red, orange, green and the artist splashes color against His canvas until the masterpiece is finished. But, then again, it is never finished as Spring bursts forth life from the dreary cold of winter. Summer’s lush greens fight through a mixture of wet and dry until the earth, beaten and bruised, once again, stumbles into Fall. Silently the leaves fall to the ground like the tears of a battered spouse.
So, we groan and wait eagerly, waiting for our adoption and redemption, not in sorrow but in victory, not in despair but in hope. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 8:37-39). I’m just saying...
