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THE VIRTUE OF PARAGON

12/28/2015

While serving as the Minister at First Community Church in Columbus, Ohio in 1997, Richard Wing once wrote a series of messages for Cycle C of the Common Lectionary titled Deep Joy for A Shallow World: Sermons for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Based on Gospel Texts.

He makes the contention therein that we are all much too busy in this modern world. For this reason, we all need to have some down time. Specifically, he writes about the importance of incorporating leisure time into our lives…

“Leisure,” from the Latin, means “to be free.” Leisure is anything that restores you to peace while you are doing it. So, gardening, golf, reading, puzzles, and many other things can restore us to peace as we do them.

But then he carries his thoughts further.

Another cousin of leisure is the word “paragon.” This little-used word means “the second thing that we do in life that keeps the first thing in tune.” Hence, our work may draw energy from us, and we have then a “paragon,” a leisure thing we do in order to restore us.

But, alas, for many today, finding time for leisure is all but impossible. Our busy schedules simply will not allow for imposition of anything additional, even if that addition is time off for refreshment and renewal.

Thus, he fittingly admonishes us:

Most often, to build toward leisure demands that we disassemble something else. In Thomas Moore’s book Meditations, he tells of a pilgrim walking along a road. The pilgrim sees some men working on a stone building.

“You look like a monk,” the pilgrim said.
“I am that,” said the monk.
“Who is that working on the abbey?”
“My monks. I’m the abbot.”
“It’s good to see a monastery going up,” said the pilgrim.
“They’re tearing it down,” said the abbot.
“Whatever for?” asked the pilgrim.
“So we can see the sun rise at dawn,” said the abbot.

As the year 2016 dawns, what is it in your busy life that is keeping you from experiencing the glory and goodness of God? And thus, what is it that you may need to tear down or otherwise remove from your busy life?

SOURCE: Richard A. Wing, Deep Joy for a Shallow World (CSS Publishing, 1997).

SEE ALSO: Thomas Moore, Meditations: On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life (Harper Perennial Publishing, 1995).

A PSALM FOR CHRISTMAS EVE

12/24/2015

In the Bible, an individual named David was described as "a man after God's own heart". He was also a prolific writer who wrote numerous psalms tot he glory of God. My post today comes from another man named David who was moved of God to pen a modern day psalm.

It all began with Joseph T. Bayly, who himself was a prolific author, well known publishing executive, and President of David C. Cook Publishing Company at the time of his passing.

In this generation, two of Joseph's sons, David and his brother Tim, are both Presbyterian Church in America pastors in the United States. They each have the same gift of communicating that their father was once given. These days, the Bayly brothers are known far and wide for their own writings, which can be found online at http://baylyblog.com/.

Their blog post for December 24, 2009 is a masterful piece of reflection for Christians on this most holy of nights. It is titled “A Psalm for Christmas Eve”. Fittingly, I post it here on Christmas Eve.

Praise God for Christmas
Praise Him for the Incarnation
for Word made flesh.

I will not sing
of shepherds watching flocks
on frosty night
or angel choristers

I will not sing
of stable bare in Bethlehem
or lowing oxen
wise men
trailing distant star
with gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Tonight I will sing
praise to the Father
Who stood on Heaven’s threshold
and said farewell to His Son
as He stepped across the stars
to Bethlehem
and Jerusalem.

And I will sing
praise to the infinite eternal Son
Who became most finite
a Baby
who would one day be executed
for my crimes.

Praise Him in the heavens.
Praise Him in the stable.
Praise Him in my heart.

And all of God’s people said, “Amen!”

SOURCE: This piece available online at the Bayly brothers' web site at: http://baylyblog.com/blog/2009/12/psalm-christmas-eve. Originally printed in “Psalms of My Life”, Christianity Today Magazine, Vol. 33, no. 18.

CHRISTMAS TRAVEL EXPENSE

12/21/2015

Many Americans are tickled pink as Christmas approaches this year. The reason? Unlike in recent years, the cost of Christmas travel is actually going down, down, down. Here in east Tennessee, the cost of a gallon of gas is now down to nearly $1.60. That makes for a lot of smiling faces for those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina and then the Gulf oil spill.

If we are happy, just imagine how Ol’ Santa feels. He will have himself one more busy night here in three days. He will be travelling 226 million miles to deliver presents to 675 million households, all in one night’s work. And as many modern movies have attested, reindeer apparently can't get Santa every single place he needs to go; so these days, the prevailing assumption is that his sleigh is, at least in part, jet-propelled.

Accordingly, assuming his sleigh is about the size of a Chevy Suburban, he gets an estimated five miles per gallon of jet fuel. Therefore, Santa will need around forty-five million gallons for the evening. That being said, with jet fuel going for around $1.20 a gallon, his total fuel cost will be a little less than $54 million. And even if that is less than it has been in recent years, all I can say is “Ouch”!

Of course, there has always been some expense associated with Christmas travel. Mary and Joseph had a long journey to Bethlehem from Nazareth. The Wise Men came even farther, most scholars say all the way form Persia.

The wise men could probably afford the trip. They even brought treasure to give away. But Joseph and Mary were likely destitute. I am quite sure that the gift given to the holy family at Jesus’ birth helped to sustain them in their years travelling down in Egypt and until they could get back to Nazareth.

And yet the longest journey that first Christmas was still the one made by Jesus Himself – all the way from Heaven itself! Did that cost Him anything? You’d better believe it did! In the second chapter of his New Testament Letter to the Philippians (verses 1-11), the Apostle Paul writes:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In verse seven, the translators of The New International Version use the phrase “made himself nothing”. Other translations, such as the English Standard Version, use the phrase “he emptied himself”. The Koine Greek of the original manuscripts uses the term “ekenosen”, which means “to empty out, to render void, to make valueless”.

Based upon this term, Christian theologians often speak of the “kenosis”, or the self-imposed emptying out of Christ, whereby He voluntarily gave up all the rights and privileges of His Heavenly status in order to come to earth, to incarnate Himself into human flesh, and thereafter to give His life as a ransom for men and women in order to set them free from the devastating power of sin. Any way you look at it, my friend, that is the most expensive price ever paid for Christmas travel!

Of course, as Paul contends in Philippians 2, those who would follow Christ must also be willing to sacrifice themselves and their interests in view of the interests and needs of others. If there is ever a time to begin assuming such a price, it is surely Christmas. In light of this, just how much will it cost you this year?

SOURCE: Time Magazine re-posted an article titled “This Is How Much Oil It Would Take to Fly Santa’s Sleigh” on their internet web site at: http://time.com/4153678/santa-claus-sleigh-oil/. The original article is available online at: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/How-Much-Oil-Is-Needed-To-Power-Santas-Sleigh.html.

NOTE: In a similar tongue in cheek article, Phillip Bump, a technology writer for The Atlantic, has attempted to provide an answer to a related question: What exactly is Santa's yearly workload? Bump calculated the number of Christian children in the world and the geographic distribution of those children around the globe. After factoring in all the nuances of time zones, distance between houses, and how many children live in each house, Bump shared his conclusions about Santa's yearly task:

[Based on CIA estimates] there are just over 526,000,000 Christian kids under the age of 14 in the world who celebrate Christmas on December 25th. In other words, Santa has to deliver presents to almost 22 million kids an hour, every hour, on the night before Christmas. That's about 365,000 kids a minute; about 6,100 a second.

Bump does mention a few caveats: such as that not all Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25th, the CIA's data isn't always up-to-date, and some non-Christians celebrate Christmas too. But all in all, he concludes that Ol'Santa has an enormous job to do! He has to serve over a billion kids in one night as he pulls a huge sleigh with nine reindeer, all while he tries to avoid being detected and shot down by the North America Aerospace Defense Command. And, this might be quite a task as one of his reindeer has a very shiny nose.

SOURCE: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/12/santas-christmas-eve-workload-calculated/249844/.

T’was the Night Before Crisis

12/17/2015

T’was the Night Before Crisis

T'was the night before crisis,
And all through the house,
Not a program was working,
Not even a browse.

Programmers were wrung out,
Too mindless to care,
Knowing chances of cutover
Hadn't a prayer.

The users were nestled
All snug in their beds,
While visions of inquiries
Danced in their heads.

When out in the lobby
There arose such a clatter,
That I sprang from my tube
To see what was the matter.

And what to my wondering
Eyes should appear,
But a Super Programmer,
Oblivious to fear.

More rapid than eagles,
His programs they came
And he whistled and shouted
And called them by name.

On Update! On Add!
On Inquiry! On Delete!
On Batch Jobs! On Closing!
On Functions Complete!

His eyes were glazed over,
His fingers were lean,
From weekends and nights
Spent in front of a screen.

A wink of his eye,
And a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know
I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word,
But went straight to his work,
Turning specs into code,
Then he turned with a jerk.

And laying his fingers
Upon the ENTER key,
The system came up,
And worked perfectly!

The updates updated;
The deletes they deleted;
The inquiries inquired;
And the closing completed.

He tested each whistle,
He tested each bell,
With nary an abend,
And all had gone well.

The system was finished,
The tests were concluded,
The client's last changes
Were even included!

And the client exclaimed,
With a snarl and a taunt,
"It's just what I asked for,
But it's not what I want!"

I share this cute poem today because I am currently at a moment of crisis during this week before Christmas. You see, my trusty old laptop is at the end of its usable life. It is virtually out of hard disk space, out of memory space, and as a result, often completely out of touch with reality!

So, with much trepidation, shortly after this particular post, I will lay it down. The plan is to transfer its contents to a sleek, new, modern, high-powered machine through a process I do not understand and could not begin to explain, but is what amounts to transplanting a brain into a whole new body!

In any event, I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully, here in about 48 hours, I will have a brand spanking new lightning fast machine, complete with a truckload of transferred material.

If so, I’ll be up and blogging again right away. If not, especially if any of my material is somehow lost in the transfer, I’m sure you will hear my wailing and gnashing of teeth far and wide!

Wish me luck!

POEM SOURCE: This and lots of other humorous computer jokes can be found at: http://www.ahajokes.com/com026.html.

BIG LITTLE WOMAN

12/14/2015

Thomas Berger once wrote a picaresque novel titled Little Big Man. It was later made into a movie starring Dustin Hoffman. Today, I would like to reference a “Big Little Woman” by the name of Charlotte Griggs “Lottie” Moon.

In my November 30th post earlier this year, I touched on the annual International Missions Emphasis undertaken each year by the in the 40,000 plus member churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. At that time, I mentioned the fact that throughout the month of December, most of these churches typically undertake a season of prayer, conduct international missions studies to raise awareness, and collect an offering for international missions purposes.

(The goal for this year’s offering is $175 million. The theme of this year’s emphasis is “Because of Who He Is”, referencing the person and work of Jesus Christ. If you desire, you can read more about all of this at: http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/default.asp.)

I also shared that Southern Baptists' most famous international missionary was Charlotte Griggs “Lottie” Moon – the namesake of the annual missions offering. (Her convicting story can be found here: http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/details.asp?StoryID=13793#.Vl0SPdoo45s.) I thought I would share a little more about Lottie Moon in today’s post.

In their masterful 2003 work titled The One Year Christian History: A Daily Glimpse into God’s Powerful Work (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003), Michael and Sharon Rusten relate in 365 successive daily devotionals the various stories of men and women throughout Christian history who have experienced the extraordinary hand of God upon their lives and work.

Their December 12th devotion is titled “LITTLE WOMAN, LONG SHADOW”. In it, they tell us more about the story of “Lottie” Moon. Even though this woman stood just four feet three inches tall, they make it clear that she cast a very long shadow! They write:

Two WEEKS before Christmas, on December 12, 1840, a baby girl was born into an aristocratic plantation family in Albemarle County, Virginia. Her name was Charlotte Diggs Moon, but everyone called her "Lottie." She grew to just four feet three inches, yet her intellect and force of personality were enormous. In a day when embroidery and dancing distinguished most young ladies, Lottie spoke six languages fluently and earned a master's degree in education from the Albemarle Female Institution in 1861, making her the most educated woman in the South. Lottie's older sister became the first female physician in the state.

Lottie came from a family of dedicated Southern Baptists and attended church most of her life. But at seventeen, Lottie was a staunch skeptic. Faith seemed antithetical to intellect, and Lottie had no need of it.

In December 1858, Dr. John Broadus, later to be one of the first four professors at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was holding evangelistic meetings for students at his Charlottesville Baptist Church. Lottie went to one of the services, intending to scoff.

That night after she went to bed, a barking dog kept Lottie awake. She was in the habit of using otherwise wasted hours to consider various intellectual propositions. That night she decided to ponder the merits of Christianity. As she lay in the dark, Lottie mentally reviewed Dr. Broadus's sermon, adding to it the Bible texts and arguments she'd heard throughout her life. By the time she got to the evangelist's altar call, the Spirit of God prompted her to respond, and Lottie Moon, the brilliant skeptic, believed. When she finished her prayer of commitment to Jesus, she realized that the dog had stopped barking.

At age thirty-three, Lottie was working as a teacher when she heard a call to missions "as clear as a bell." In July 1873 the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention appointed her its first unmarried woman missionary to China.

Lottie arrived in Shantung (now Shandong) Province that year and settled in the city of Tengchow (now Qingdao), where she opened a school for girls. Over time, the focus of her ministry became personal evangelism among the poor. She wrote to her supporters: "I have never gotten so near the people in my life. . . I have never had so many opportunities to press home upon their consciences their duty to God and the claims of the Savior to their love and devotion. I feel more and more that this is the work of God."

Through such letters, Lottie tirelessly advocated for the needs of the people in China. In 1888, she persuaded the women of the Southern Baptist Convention to take an annual missions offering on Christmas Eve. But by 1912, despite such gifts, thousands of people were dying of starvation every day in famine-ravaged Shantung Province. Lottie's cupboard was always open to the poor, even when she herself had to go without food.

On Christmas Eve that year, as Southern Baptist women collected their special missions offering, many were looking forward to meeting the woman who inspired their gifts. At seventy-two, Lottie Moon was coming home. But that same night, aboard a ship off Japan, she died—of complications from starvation. A few months before she had written, "If I had a thousand lives, I would give them all for the women of China."

Lottie Moon walked with God for fifty-four years and with the people of China for thirty-nine. She helped pioneer the role of unmarried women missionaries in evangelism and planted more than thirty Chinese churches. The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering continued after her death, and by 1995 it had raised over $1.5 billion dollars for missions.

In a day and age in which far too many men and women seek to make a name for themselves and their respective “ministries”, broadcasts, and/or publications, it is indeed convicting to see how God used a humble woman who was willing to give her life, literally, in relative obscurity solely for the sake of the propagation of the Gospel.

As I read her story, I could not help but be reminded of the words of Jesus in the twenty-fifth chapter the Gospel of Matthew (verse 31-46):

31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

My suspicion is that little Lottie Moon’s shadow was so long as to be seen even in Heaven!

BOOK SOURCE: Rusten, Michael and Sharon. The One Year Christian History: A Daily Glimpse into God’s Powerful Work (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale house Publishers, 2003).
SCRIPTURE SOURCE: http://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/25.htm.

SPECIAL DELIVERY

12/10/2015

I have in my files an old story about the discovery of a very valuable diamond and the somewhat unique method by which it was once delivered. It seems that...

A South African diamond miner found one of the world’s largest diamonds. It was the size of a small lemon. The miner needed to get the diamond safely to the company’s office in London, so he sent it in a small steel box and hired four men to carry it.

Even when it was in the ship’s safe en route, it was guarded day and night by at least two armed men. But when the package arrived at the company’s office in London and was carefully opened, it contained no diamond. Rather, it contained a lump of black coal.

Three days later, the diamond arrived by ordinary parcel post in a plain package. The owner had assumed correctly that most people would not pay attention to an ordinary cardboard box.

The reason I love this story is because it encapsulates the Christmas event. Jesus Christ, God Himself Incarnate, came into this world, not in some fine palace with much pomp and circumstance, but rather in a lowly manger amidst common folk.

And why? For many reasons, no doubt. And yet, chief among them was surely to clearly communicate that He Who was to be called “Immanuel” or “God With Us” was making Himself available to all people in all circumstances.

And that gives me hope! For even if the world looks upon me as insignificant and chooses to ignore me as a result, God does not. He values me, no matter who I am. And it is for this very reason that He comes to me exactly where I am. You might say that He meets me on my very own turf!

One time Poet Laureate of Texas, Grace Noll Crowell, summarized these thoughts succinctly in her poem titled I Am So Glad:

I am so glad He was not born
In some rich palace bed.
I am so glad to know it was
A lowly place, instead,
A place where soft-eyed cows and sheep
Were sheltered and were fed.

For to the country-born of earth
a stable will ever be
A wholesome place where night comes down
With its tranquility,
A place of heart’s ease and content
For all who choose to see.

And so I like to think of Him,
First opening His eyes
In that good elemental place
Beneath the friendly skies,
That the men of fields could find Him there,
As well as the great and wise.

STORY SOURCE: My copy of this story is without sourcing. However, the piece itself has been around for a long period of time. It appears in numerous works and in differing versions as a result. See for example: Jack Mccormac, The Sketching Detective and the Bluffton Murders (Xlibris Publishing, 2014), pp. 172-174.

POEM SOURCE: This is likewise available widely. See, for instance: http://www.bulletingold.com/goldvol10_12.html.

A WORLD WITHOUT CHRISTMAS

12/7/2015

As the war on Christmas erupts all over again, I thought I would post the following piece based on Nan Weeks' classic short story, first written over a generation ago.

If I Had Not Come

It was Christmas Eve, and after Bobby had carefully hung his stocking by the fireplace he went off to bed. Usually Bobby did not like to go to bed early, but tonight he was eager to get to sleep so as to be sure to wake up early to see his gifts.

For their daily Bible lesson that day, Bobby and his father had read Jesus' own words to his friends found in John 15:22. Five words had stayed in Bobby's mind, and he kept saying them over and over again until he fell asleep. They were the words, "If I had not come."

It seemed as if he had not been asleep any time when a cross, harsh voice said: "Get up, get up, I tell you. It's time to get up."

Thinking about the skates he wanted and the flashlight and the motor and the books for which he'd been wishing, Bobby got up and hurried into his clothing and went downstairs. But all was still. No one was there to greet him; no stocking hung beside the fireplace; no wreaths were in the window; no splendid tree was there.

Hurrying to the door, Bobby looked down the street. The factory was open and he could hear the rumble of the machinery. He grabbed his cap and sweater and raced down the street to the factory door, and there stood a grim-looking foreman.

"What's the factory running for on Christmas?" asked Bobby. "Christmas?" asked the man. "What do you mean? I never heard that word. This is one of our busy days, so you clear out of here."

Filled with wonder, Bobby hurried on down the street toward the stores, and to his amazement he found them all open. The grocer, the dry goods man, the baker, each one was busy and cross, and each said in reply to his question, "Christmas? What's Christmas?"

When Bobby tried to explain, "It's Jesus' birthday," and that the first part of the word "Christmas" means "Jesus," he was gruffly ordered to move along, as this was a very busy day.

Going round the corner, he thought: "I'll go to church, our own church, for there's to be a Christmas service there." All at once Bobby stopped short before a big vacant field, and he mumbled to himself: "I guess I'm lost. I was certain our church was here. I know it was." Then he noticed a signboard in the center of the big vacant lot, and ongoing nearer to it he read the words, "If I Had Not Come."

Suddenly the meaning of it all dawned on the puzzled boy, and he said, "Oh, I know, 'If I Had Not Come' - that's why there's no Christmas day, nor any church."

He was wandering along in a gloomy way, when he thought of the box of toys and games his class had sent to the Orphans' Home, and he said, half aloud, "I guess I'll go up to the Home and see the children get their presents." But when Bobby reached the place, instead of seeing the name of the Home over the gateway, he read these same five words, "If I Had Not Come" and beyond the archway there was no fine building.

Seeing an old man, feeble and ill, by the roadside, Bobby said: "I guess you're sick, mister. I'll run to the hospital and tell them to send an ambulance for you." But when he reached the grounds no splendid building was to be seen, nothing but signs and posters bearing the words, "If I Had Not Come."

As Bobby hurried back to the corner where the Rescue Mission had been he said, "I'm sure they'll take the poor old man in there, anyway." But men with angry faces were gambling and swearing and over the door Bobby saw, instead of the name of the mission, the same words, "If I Had Not Come."

Thinking still about the poor old man, Bobby hurried home to ask his father and mother to help him. On his way across the living room, he waited to look up in a Bible these words, "If I Had Not Come." Turning past the pages of the Old Testament, he found that there was no new part. After Malachi all the pages were blank, and as he held them up to the light on each one he could see a faint outline of the words, "If I Had Not Come."

With a sigh Bobby said, "Oh, what a terrible world this is - no Christmas, no churches, no homes for little orphan children, no hospitals, no rescue missions, no almshouses, nothing but jails and gambling-houses and police patrols and sickness and wrong and..."

Just then there came the sound of bells. The chimes were playing. Bobby listened, and sure enough, it was his favorite hymn, "Joy to the world, the Lord is come," and then he heard his mother's cheery voice saying, "Merry Christmas, Bobby!"

With a joyous bound, Bobby was out of bed, and kneeling down, he said, "O Lord Jesus, I thank You that You did come, and I'll show You how thankful I am by always trying to be the kind of boy You want me to be."

SOURCE: Based on a classic story originally written by Nan F. Weeks, this piece is now available widely on the internet. See, for example: http://www.angelfire.com/home/carolynsscrapbook/if_he_had_not_come.html
.hrsot.

NOTE: To read more about what the world would really be like without Christmas, and thus without Christ and without Christianity, check out the book by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe titled What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001). In this excellent book, the authors detail Christianity’s impact on charity, education, politics, civil liberties, science, economics, sexuality, medicine, morality, art, and many other matters over the last two thousand years.

“SLOW RIDE, TAKE IT EASY”

12/4/2015

I have previously referenced Charles R. Swindoll as one of my favorite Christian Communicators. He is a well-known pastor and teacher who founded “Insight for Living”, which today airs on over 2000 radio stations. He was later President and then Chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary.

Currently, he is the founding Pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas. He has been recognized by Christianity Today as one of the top 25 most influential preachers of the last 50 years. And, along the way, he has written over 70 books, most of which were developed from his sermons.

In two of those works, Come Before Winter and Share My Hope, he relates the story of a bumper sticker that caught his eye while he was out driving one particularly hectic day before Christmas. He writes:

The bumper sticker caught my eye. Made me think. Even aroused some guilt.

I was on the freeway as his car was pulling off. My day had been full and it was far from over. Stuffed in my pocket was a list, most of the items not yet purchased. A little panic rushed over the back roads of my mind as I pondered all the things yet to be bought in those few days left before Christmas. The guy didn't seem in much of a hurry, which irritated me a bit, yet it told me that his sign was for real. I began to study the words in my head. They started making sense. His bumper stick read:

I BRAKE FOR CHRISTMAS

Easing up on the accelerator and releasing my frown, I began to calm down my inner motor with questions like: Why the hurry? What's the rush? Could this explain the reason you've been unable to enjoy the spirit of the season?

Psalm 46:10 drifted into my mind like the ringing of a distant bell on a clear morning.

"Be still, and know that I am God." (NIV)

C'mon, slow down. Be still.

This year . . . let's give Christmas a brake!

Is that perhaps a bumper sticker you needed to see this time of year? Is that perhaps a message you needed to hear this Christmas season? I know I did. And I am choosing to slow down just a bit as a result.

SOURCE: Excerpted from Come Before Winter and Share My Hope, Copyright © 1985, 1994 respectively by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc., as posted at: http://daily.insight.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=1903.