The Repeat

A quick glance down the driveway or into the den confirms what the calendar reveals—the Christmas season has arrived once again.  Once again, we trim trees, hang lights, and move Nativities from the attic to the open.  Once again we buy gifts, bake cookies, and mail cards.  Once again we sing carols, ring bells, and light candles.  But why? Why, year after year, December after December, for all of all of our lives, do we do these same things again and again and again?

The answer goes back to the sermon I heard last Sunday. (Yes, I’m still wondering about those words in the warehouse.)  The man who spoke at my daughter’s college church was a guest preacher.  He works with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and he preached on Jesus’ parable about prayer in Luke 11.  It brought back memories.

One Sunday twenty-five years ago at my college church, the man who spoke was a guest preacher.  He worked with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and he preached on Jesus’ parable about prayer in Luke 11.  Both men said the same thing—when we ask, God supplies, so we can share His love and life with others.  (For the record, I don’t think this is a planned topic for Graham group speakers; I think the repeat was divinely directed.)

Since I had already heard a sermon on that Scripture, why did I listen again last Sunday?  Why didn’t I close the Book and be done?  For the same reason you and I are once again hanging lights, trimming trees, and wrapping presents—God’s faithful love endures forever.

Give or take a few dozen, I’ve experience over nine thousand days of God’s faithfulness since I heard that sermon the first time, and not once for a single moment during any of those days has God’s grace in my life faltered or faded.  Not once has His mercy lessened.  Not once has His love wandered or wavered.  His compassion has been constant, His forgiveness unfailing, and His salvation secure.  The God who pours out on us abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine—this God who supplies love and life to fill our souls and to share with others—should be worshiped and praised over and over, again and again, day after day, year after year.  

His passion for our hearts moved Him from heaven to earth to make us His own, and such an event is worth celebrating season after season.  So trim the tree.  String the lights.  Give the gifts.  And celebrate.  Again and again. 

We will never tire of the repeat when it’s done for right reason—“Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Warehouse Wonderings

“Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.”  Luke 11:5-6

I went to church in a warehouse today.  The powers that be had done their best to spruce up the place by hanging weather-boarded accent walls and painting bare rafters, but a few decorations couldn’t hide the fact of concrete floors and industrial doors.  And they didn’t need to because the sermon fit the setting.

Honest admission #1—I didn’t feel much like church today because my internal calendar is thrown off by being out of state for Thanksgiving.

Honest admission #2—I didn’t feel much like church today because as soon as the service ended I was leaving my girl at college again with her facing her first finals week.

Honest admission #3—I didn’t feel much like church today because tomorrow is Monday which means back to busy.

Honest admission #4—I didn’t feel much like church today because on the early morning trip from south Alabama to north Florida, I said that for the first time in three years, I dreaded heading to work.

In other words, it was the perfect day for me to go to church.  And God took full advantage of the opportunity.  The sermon was about being God’s warehouse.  Those weren’t exactly the preacher’s words, but it’s where mine ended up.  The message was on the parable Jesus told about the man who asks a friend for bread to pass along to another. I guess you could call him the “middle man.”   Someone with a need had crossed his path, and since he didn’t have supplies on hand, he turned to one who did and asked—not so he could hold on to what he got but so he could pass it on.   

A lot like a warehouse.  It’s a place that gets filled up so it can be emptied out and then get filled back up so the same thing can happen over and over again and again.  The walls and roof of a warehouse aren’t worth much on their own, but when used in the service of one rich and wise enough to keep it steadily supplied, the needs of many are met by what passes through its doors. 

But it’s not about the warehouse.  It’s all about the One who built the warehouse (ever heard the verse, “We are his building”??(1 Cor 3:9))  It’s all about the One who supplies the warehouse (“God shall supply…”Phil 4:19).  It’s all about the One who daily sends family, friends, acquaintances, co-workers, strangers, and students to His warehouse so He can meet the needs of others through the bountiful supplies of compassion, grace, forgiveness, love, and joy that He has placed in my heart for me to pass on.

And so I sat at the wonderful church in the warehouse in downtown Tallahassee—at the same time rebuked, refocused, and renewed—ready to kiss my girl goodbye and trust her week to the One who holds her finals and her future, ready to step back into the blessed busyness of being a wife and mom, and ready to unlock the door of my classroom with a purpose bigger and better than school curriculum and state standards.  

Are you willing to be a warehouse?  It won’t be easy, but it will be effective.  It won’t be popular, but it will be a privilege.  It won’t be glamorous, but it will be good.  

And the God who saves, strengthens, and supplies will always be worth it.

More and Most

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30

I spent last weekend searching for words to describe what it means to love God fully, and I found the answer during Sunday’s offertory.

He was sitting on the end of the second pew.  Standing, actually, as we often do after the giving plate has passed.  The praise band was leading the congregation in a modern version of the old hymn, “Come Ye Sinners,” and I was lost in my own little world of tunes and truth when my husband nudged my arm and gently whispered, “Look at Bobby.”   

A quick glance would have turned to a gawking stare if my mother hadn’t taught me better.  I’ve been blessed to see many beautiful sights in my life—snow-capped mountains, roaring waterfalls, golden beaches, blazing deserts, newborn babies, airport reunions, and little girls on Christmas morning for starters, but few can compare to the absolute delight that consumed the man to my left.  

Bobby hasn’t been in our congregation for long, and I don’t yet know him well, but I do know that he never forgets a name and that he notices minute details.  His brilliant brain functions a bit differently than most, and many would describe him as challenged, but on Sunday the only word that could define him would be “whole.”  Bobby was loving God with his whole heart, his whole soul, his whole mind, and his whole strength. He could barely contain his joy at belonging to Jesus.  As we sang the words, “I will arise and go to Jesus; He will embrace me as His own, and in the arms of my Savior there is life forevermore,” his rapture was so great and his bliss at such astounding reality so intense that he was giddy with delight.  He was singing and smiling and beaming so big that he was almost giggling in euphoria at the splendor of such a Savior.

I fought back the tears, but they fell anyway.  Oh, to love the Lord like that!  To have a heart so enthralled with the beauty of God’s holiness and the magnificence of His grace that a few simple lyrics could evoke such love.  

The incredible truth of God’s sovereignty and mercy and passion and compassion and patience and sacrifice and power should continually translate into a ready response that consumes all that we are and ever will be. He should be the focus and the priority of our thoughts, our desires, our choices, our words, our actions, our attitudes, our purpose, our plans, and our promises.   “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’”(Mk 12:30). Head to toe, up and down and all the way through, our entire being should be completely His—every moment of every day of all of all our lives.

Our God is worthy of nothing less, so we should love Him more and more.

And we should love Him most.