Leading the Season

Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift--articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

-- 1 Kings 10:25

Marketers call it leading the season or Christmas creep. It's the rollout of holiday-themed merchandise and decorations prior to the traditional start of the holiday-shopping season. This year, some stores began displaying festive tinsel, blinking lights and artificial evergreens well before Halloween.

Black Friday--that hectic day after Thanksgiving--is considered the official kickoff to Christmas. And retailers and websites are already prompting us to make our gift purchases. Just count the repetitious holiday-themed commercials on TV. Meanwhile, the Christmas catalogs are piling up on the coffee table. Odds are that your email in-box is also struggling with the Yuletide onslaught.

But there is some holiday rest for the weary. If you don't feel like finding a parking spot at the mall, that perfect gift for that someone special is just a tap or two away with your smartphone, tablet or laptop. Money, however, is particularly tight these days for many of us, so every purchase must count. We need gifts that will make an impression. We need value. And above all, we want bang-for-the-buck.

There's nothing wrong with trying to stretch a dollar. But let's consider that a gift's real value has much more to do with its meaning and the person behind it than with a Low Everyday Walmart Price.

That's certainly the case if we're to believe what God's telling us through the Bible. And what does he say about the characteristics of a super gift? And more to the point, what should we know about being a super gift-giver? The example of Jesus' life and ministry holds the answers.

First, we need to give with an attitude of generosity: one that exceeds what we expect to receive. Our gifts should also affirm the value of the recipient. But most importantly, our gifts--whatever they might be--should be given out of love. When it comes to gift-giving, it really IS the thought that counts. (Your mother was right all along!)

With Thanksgiving now just a memory, what are your thoughts, attitudes and motivations this holiday season? And have you thought about sharing just a few of your blessings with someone you may have never met--perhaps someone living around the world or maybe just around the corner?

The marketers have a point: Christmas really is closer than we think. And the clock is ticking. But before we head to the mall, log onto Amazon.com or tune into the Home Shopping Network, let's follow the example of Jesus, who was and is the ultimate gift-giver. His greatest present is the salvation he bought for us through his death on the cross. It's an incredibly expensive gift that we can never repay. But it's one given freely out of love. And it's available to anyone who's willing to open the package in faith. 

Best Laid Plans

We are ruined by our own stupidity, though we blame the Lord.

-- Proverbs 19:3

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray," wrote Scottish poet Robert Burns. No matter how well we prepare, stuff happens. And when it does, it can lead to disappointment and confusion. Just ask the Apple, Inc. executives about Apple Maps.

Several years ago, Apple replaced Google Maps with Apple Maps on its wildly popular iPhone and other devices. The company's executives expected the app to be yet another user-friendly feature that their customers would rave about. Instead, Apple Maps rapidly disappointed its users because of a variety of remarkable glitches. For example, the app's 3D flyover feature displayed grotesquely distorted images of well-known landmarks. It also rendered the wrong locations for well-known addresses. And famous monuments--even entire cities--seemingly evaporated into cyberspace. Apple's engineers had planned for success. But not thoroughly enough.

It's safe to say that just about everyone who's ever walked this planet has wondered why God allows disappointments. We reason that if he's all-powerful, he should prevent them. But consider that God's mysteries extend far beyond human experience and comprehension. For example, why should a year-old child die of an incurable disease? Or why do thousands of seemingly innocent people around the globe die each year in natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis? 

In both instances we must remind ourselves that God's ways aren't our ways. Moreover, our human minds are simply too limited to grasp the entirety of his greater purpose.

However, we're not totally in the dark here. God's word to us--the Bible--gives us several clues. First, we live in an imperfect world where bad things can (and often do) happen. Ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, perfection on Earth was spoiled. Indeed, we can read about the world's first murder in the opening chapter of the Bible. And it was downhill from there.

Our own bad choices are another reason for disappointment, pain and suffering. If someone chooses to get drunk and then gets behind the wheel, tragedy often follows. But that's hardly God's fault. We instead reap from the foolishness we sow.

The flip-side here is that we worship a God who specializes in turning seemingly bad situations into very happy endings. Consider someone who gets laid off from a job, only to find a much better one in a different city--and with better pay--in a completely different industry. If it weren't for the "tragedy" of unemployment, that worker might have become stuck in a boring, dead-end job with little future. God (as always) knows best!

Finally, God often turns bad into good by using it to discipline and mature us. Are we ever the same after experiencing a major illness or family tragedy? It's through adversity that we draw closer to God and depend on his help. And our Creator can even use our suffering as a witness to others. If you're a Christ-follower faced with a God-sized situation, where you place your faith speaks volumes to others.

The human experience is filled with disappointment and heartache. But God never promised us a pain-free existence. In fact, Jesus told his disciples to expect trouble. But let's take comfort that we worship a "Big Picture" God--one who sees beyond our nearsighted plans to turn even the greatest disappointments into the greater good. 

Ut Prosim

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?

-- James 2:14

Is Jesus a Hokie?

Although most people--particularly University of Virginia and James Madison fans--would answer that the Savior doesn't play favorites when it comes to college sports, it's still probably safe to say that Christ closely identifies with Virginia Tech's motto. Literally carved in stone on the scenic Blacksburg campus are the words Ut Prosim, which is Latin for That I may serve.

Serving others and giving back go hand-in-hand with being a Christ-follower. Indeed, we're called to serve as Jesus' hands and feet on earth while we wait for his return--or at least until that day when he calls us back home. Until then, God wants us to help prepare his kingdom by making the most of the gifts and talents he's given us. What's more, we're to serve as a beacon amidst the darkness of today's so-called progressive, enlightened society.

"Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise you Father in heaven."

That's how Jesus puts it in Matthew's Gospel. But what sort of light is he talking about? It's really that spark or inner power that God grants each Christ-follower for demonstrating his goodness through their words and deeds. For example, we can shine a light and serve by running a much-needed errand for an elderly neighbor. We can help clean up a neglected school or a community park--or even work in a food pantry or visit the residents of a local assisted living community. There's no shortage of options.

Why is this principle of service so important for Christ-followers?

"In the same way, the Son of Man did not come to be served," Jesus explains. "He came to serve other and to give his life as a ransom for many people." Our Master--Jesus--embodied a service-focused life during his ministry. So as his modern-day disciples, we should turn our faith into actions of service by accepting his invitation to shine a light of hope and truth.

Let's wind things up by considering the original question: Is Jesus a Hokie? Whether he is or not, let's limit our rivalries to the football field and basketball court and become of one mind when it comes to serving others. It's one time that every Christ-follower (whether they're a Wahoo, Tar Heel or even a Mountaineer) can agree to live out Virginia Tech's Ut Prosim motto and become just a little bit more like our Savior.

Comeback Kid

Don't toss me aside, banished forever from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

-- Psalm 51:11

Playwright Oscar Wilde was right on the money when he noted that experience is simply the name we give to our mistakes. Whether it's on the job (a missed deadline) or in the home (left the water running in the tub), mistakes can be both costly and painful. 

If there was anyone who knew something about mistakes--and also rebounding from them--it was David, Israel's most famous king as well as an ancestor of Jesus. His mountaintop moments included killing the giant Philistine warrior Goliath and leading his army to decisive victories. On the other hand, David was twice a fugitive: once while evading jealous King Saul and then years later when his own son chased him from the throne. David also committed adultery with one of his officer's wives and then had the unsuspecting man killed to cover his own sin. Psalms, a collection of poems written and compiled by David, records his emotions as he encountered the epic peaks and bottomless valleys of life.   

Maybe your own slip-ups and blunders haven't been of biblical proportions. But they might have felt like it. After all, how many times have we all made such huge mistakes that it seemed like the end of the world? We blew it. It's over. And we'll never get back.

Life-changing errors can cover a lot of territory. They might affect our personal relationships, careers or even spiritual lives--and maybe all of the above. But the good news for Christ-followers is that we worship a God who not only knows what we're going through, he also cares. What's more, he's also a God of second (and third, fourth, fifth, etc.) chances.  

Like King David, the apostle Peter had a world of experience with mistakes and comebacks. In fact, after Jesus was arrested and the other apostles had scattered in fear, Peter emphatically denied that he even knew Christ. And not just once, but three times!

Jesus was soon tried and convicted on false charges. And then he suffered a horrific, painful death--in our place--through his crucifixion between two deserving criminals. Crushed by guilt, Peter believed that his own life was essentially over. After all, if anyone had blown it, it was him. But Christ had other plans for this apostle of little faith. We read early in the New Testament's Book of Acts that Peter--now filled with the Holy Spirit--boldly defied the same religious authorities who had earlier condemned Jesus to death.

Failure and defeat are both elements of the human experience. But here's the Good News: They don't have to be permanent or define us. As we search for our own life-comebacks, let's take Peter's victorious testimony about his Master--Jesus--to heart:

"In no one else can salvation be found," he proclaimed. "For in all the world no other name has been given to men but this, and it is by this name that we must be saved!"