The Bachelor

Recently Dawn and I have started watching, "The Bachelor." I'm pretty sure neither of us could tell you why, but we have. Part of the appeal, it seems, is trying to figure out the genuineness of the intentions of the women on the show, the bachelor as well I suppose. There are a lot of accusations about being fake flying across the television screen and in our living room. Yet, is that really fair as audience members? How often have you had the following conversation:

"Hi, how you doing?"
"Good, thanks."

How often have you genuinely cared about how the other is doing when you ask that question? How often have you been genuine in your response? How often do you ask just to be polite? How often do you respond to make the other person happy so they will simply continue on their way?

In Romans 12:9-16, Paul encourages our love to be genuine, to really care when we ask things like, "How are you doing?" We are encouraged to serve, love, and care for others out of the goodness of our heart. It is the kind of love we receive from God first. God's love for us is ALWAYS genuine. When we pray God REALLY wants to know how we are doing and what we need. God loves us so deeply. So let us join our hearts together and genuinely love one another.

Scandal

I read the birth story from Matthew today. What really kind of struck me today was the scandal of it all. It's kind of surprising that Hollywood hasn't picked up more on the scandal in the Bible, for there's plenty of it. My goodness, the birth of our Savior is born out of scandal. Here are Mary and Joseph engaged to get married and suddenly Mary shows up pregnant. Now if I'm understanding church politics correctly, I'm pretty sure that if Dawn showed up for worship on Sunday pregnant I would be absolutely done for as a pastor and I would be the talk of the town, if not a wider region. Yet this is how God comes to us. Of course, it's scandalous simply for God to break into our world. God is God and was just fine in God's heavenly realm, there really was no reason for God to break into this world other than for God's great love for us. It is a scandalous, never ending, sort of love. It is a love for you and a love for me. It's beautiful.

Shopper's Psalm

This is from a friend I met while in Nome.

"A Shopper's Psalm"

I'm weary, Lord.
Bone tired.
In spite of the fact that my shopping's half done I need to crash.
The crush
of the crowd has gotten to me.
So, too, the deafening sounds
of a pre-Christmas city
throbbing with incarnate greed.
I need to be reminded
that this season's more
than plastic Santas,
perpetual sales,
and Muzak.
I need back
on the track
of reflection.
I've derailed, Lord.
My emotional fuel is leaking.
I'm about to explode.
And then I see it.
A miniature creche
in a gift shop window.
A guardian father;
a grateful young mom;
a baby asleep on the hay.
A trio maintaining their harmony
despite the dis-chord all around them.
And with my nose pressed against the frosted pane my inner pain subsides.
At once I am rested,
renewed, and revived.
And I linger
and ponder
God's peace.

By Greg Asimakoupoulous

God's Grace at Work

Here is a fun story I came across...

"Anne Lamott, author of the wonderful book Traveling Mercies tells of how in her church babies get passed around the moment they're brought into the sanctuary - everyone takes care of everyone else's babies. Every baby instantly has more parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles than he ever knew.

Imagine what that teaches children about Christian community! What they learn about love even as infants! For the adults everyone gets a chance to remember the miracle of birth, God's hand in our human being.

If there is a heresy today it is that we're so preoccupied with other things that we fail to pay attention to the fact of God's spectacular grace at work in and through our humanity, God's miraculous unmerited love in evidence around us. God's Son born to bring us Second Birth while we labor under the assumption that we have to do it all ourselves."

Peter Buehler, With God Nothing Is Impossible