New Year Nuances

I have a hate/love relationship with this time of year.  Business wise, bringing in the New Year means that some extra work needs to be done to close out the previous year and plan for the new year.   The end of the year also means tax prep is just around the corner, which I avoid like the plague.  I'm a "routine" guy, so I am pretty good at doing the same things that are important every day.  But, the "once a year" things are tough for me.  I find that the hardest part of tackling the "once a year" things is starting them.  Once I start them, I can sometimes almost enjoy the process, and the feeling of accomplishment when those things are finished makes it all worthwhile.  Personally, the new year also presents opportunities for fresh starts.  Those can be more challenging than the business fresh starts.  Each year, I find myself making good on commitments to change for the first few weeks, and sometimes a couple of months, but it seems the natural cycle of the seasons pushes me back to the routines that I have been in for 62 years.   I pray for more consistency this year, and if you have some changes that you are thinking about making, I pray the same for you.

The Great Mystery

This is the first year in a while that Caroline and I have not been a part of The Georgia Wind Symphony.  We elected to take a break this year.  While we felt the break was needed, we definitely miss being a part of the group, and especially the Christmas concert.  One of my favorite songs of all time (any genre) is O Magnum Mysterium.  I have posted about this song in the past, but when I think of my favorite Christmas memories, this performance always rises to the top of the list.  Here are the lyrics from the original composition:

O great mystery,

and wonderful sacrament,

that animals should see the newborn Lord,

lying in a manger!

O blessed virgin, whose womb

was worthy to bear

the Lord Jesus Christ.

Alleluia!

My favorite choral performance was at King's College in Cambridge with the original Latin lyrics.  Take a moment to be still and focus on the reason for this season.  Merry Christmas.

Skeptic's Struggle

 

Most of my closest friends believe Jesus is the son of God and that God sent him to earth to show us how He meant for things to be, but I have plenty of acquaintances that don't.  Some deny that Jesus was the son of God, and others don't believe there is any God at all.  Some believe that Jesus was an important historical figure, but don't choose to follow him.  Many just don't want to think about it and have the position, "I don't know, and I'm too busy with stuff to think about it."  Talking about Jesus with people who don't believe is difficult for me, but I think it is easier to talk to someone who has carefully considered Jesus as the Son of God than someone who just doesn't care to think about it.  Julie Hannah is a mathematics professor in Johannesburg.   While her parents took her to church when she was young, her mom told her she did not believe in God.  As a teenager, Julie decided for herself that Christianity was nonsense.  As a young adult she studied other religions attempting to find a worldview that worked for her.   She also studied science looking for creation stories that could debunk any hope for a story based on intelligent design.  Nothing satisfied her.  She went back to the gospels and found a new attraction to the life and message of Jesus, but it was a recognition of her own inability to control the sin in her life that brought her to her belief that what she was reading in the Bible was true.  Praise God for never giving up on Julie and for Julie's willingness to share her story.  For more on Julie, read this article in Christianity Today, and for more detail on her personal research, check out her book.  I hope I have more opportunities to talk to people about what Jesus has done for me.

For Such A Time As This

 

Our Connect Group from church wrapped up our study of the book of Esther last night.  Esther grew up Jewish, but her heritage was not known in the Persia where she was living.  Due to her physical beauty, she was selected by King Xerxes as his queen.   One of Xerxes' lieutenants, Haman, came up with a plan to annihilate all of the Jews in the area and was able to get the king's approval for the plan.   Esther's uncle, Mordecai, was also living undercover as a Jew and learned of Haman's plan to kill the Jews.  Mordecai admonished Esther to use her influence as queen to get Xerxes to reconsider the plan, but in doing so her Jewish heritage would be revealed, which could lead to her own death.  In his closing to his argument Mordecai states, "And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this."   Esther is obedient and the Jews are spared.  Haman's fate was not as good.  He was impaled on the stake that he had built and intended for Mordecai.  

We will have mountain top moments in our life and our faith when it seems like there is nothing that can separate us from the light of God.  We will also have times when we feel that we are in the deepest of valleys, and that there is no hope of being delivered from the darkness that surrounds us.  Esther teaches us that it is in those moments when we need to depend on God's faithfulness for the strength to deliver us from the pain we are in.  Who knows that we might be in that position for such a time as this.  I found this worship song that does a beautiful job of describing this.