This was the question that greeted me yesterday as I, and the person who asked it, chatted about their first Christmas without a loved one.
They told me of Christmas past - one word ('past'), many iterations:
Christmas as a child - full of excitement and promise;of stockings, nuts, an orange, toys and family. A home filled with siblings, cousins and wider family members.
Christmas as a lover - those heady days when all that was needed, wanted, had was that other person. Lost in each other - two surrounded by many.
Christmas as a parent - creeping around and making wishes real. The joy of seeing joy in the little lives you've brought into the world.
Christmas when the nest is flown - struggles as the pressures and challenges of being an 'in law' come home and Christmas is compressed into a visit and a meal. The 'two of us' again - but now the passion's gone and .... ?
Christmas as the grandparent - fleeting glimpses of days gone by. The realisation that 'rad' isn't the thing that keeps you warm and that the best route is a gift voucher lest you give a gift that's as welcome Asa heat wave at a snowman convention.
Christmas alone - the grandchildren are married, the kids are divorced and the love of your life has gone. Memories and pain, anger and loss. Confused and crying out for touch - a hand, a word a hope.
So what would your answer be?
Jesus?
But what does this mean?
Something real - something of meaning - a life full of hope and energy?
Something trite - hollow words - empty world ?
The story of a girl without a room, without a husband and a baby without a cradle. Born in a strange town amidst strange accents surrounded by smelly strangers (Shepherds) and (eventually) some geezers from the East with strange gifts.
OR
The ultimate plan - planned and enacted - delivered to your door - constructed in your heart - made real in your heart - the gateway to eternity?
OR ......
The choice - the opportunity is yours
Showing posts with label in love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label in love. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
I'm not impatient - I waited ages!
The number of people who tell me that being Christian isn't about doing stuff but about being. Now this really challenges me because recently I met someone who turned up for a service at a local church but it wasn't on because someone had got the roats wrong. Not this really challenged me and so I've embarked upon a little navel gazing which goes like this:
First select any one area of activity in the church and when it looks like whatever it is might not happen because someone hasn't turned up or has forgotten to do something. Once under way (or rather not) smile and standing back, watch what happens; for usually a few distinct groups will appear:
Absenting Folk - Who somehow manage to vanish before you've even looked up Just like the man upon the stairs - they're never there!
Tutting Folk - Who, as the name suggests, 'tut' that someone has failed to do whatever it was they were supposed to do. You'll never find them being tutted at for failing to do something they were supposed to do - often because they don't do anything!
Consuming Folk - Who come and seeing there's nothing for them to come to, leave (often mumbling about what a poor show it is that it's not happening, after all, they've been coming for years and it's 'always' happened)!
Flapping Folk - Who panic because something that apparently no one wants to do isn't happening.
If the area under scrutiny is something that's happened for years, you'll get to meet:
Traditional Folk - Who will tell you that ever since Jesus as walked the earth, St. Bumbles weekly old folk's scone and knackwurst tea dance has happened! Even through the wars!
To not happen is unthinkable - 'someone must should do it," they cry.
But who?
This is the question
for if all we are to do is to 'Be' with God
rather than 'do' with and for Him
- and there are too many who do too much and rest in Christ too little
- but if perhaps some of those who are excelling in the 'Be' areas of the Christian life
might just come and add their weight to the plough
then the furrows would be straighter
and longer
and the harvest would be bigger
and then we'd have more to celebrate
and so we could sit back
and rest in God
as more people came into the Kingdom
and,
having done nothing but love God for a while,
got up and added their weight to the plough
so that in the end there would be so many of us doing stuff
that we all be doing nothing!
And then we could look at what Jesus paid
and see that from the paucity of our little faith
we have achieved much in the world for,
through,
by
and with Him
who is the Saviour of the world!
Anyone willing to join me sow the seeds for the next harvest and reap the harvest that demands our attention today?
And the title? When I asked the person who was complaining that the service didn't happen those were the words they used:
'I'm not impatient - I waited ages... but no one came or did anything!
First select any one area of activity in the church and when it looks like whatever it is might not happen because someone hasn't turned up or has forgotten to do something. Once under way (or rather not) smile and standing back, watch what happens; for usually a few distinct groups will appear:
Absenting Folk - Who somehow manage to vanish before you've even looked up Just like the man upon the stairs - they're never there!
Tutting Folk - Who, as the name suggests, 'tut' that someone has failed to do whatever it was they were supposed to do. You'll never find them being tutted at for failing to do something they were supposed to do - often because they don't do anything!
Consuming Folk - Who come and seeing there's nothing for them to come to, leave (often mumbling about what a poor show it is that it's not happening, after all, they've been coming for years and it's 'always' happened)!
Flapping Folk - Who panic because something that apparently no one wants to do isn't happening.
If the area under scrutiny is something that's happened for years, you'll get to meet:
Traditional Folk - Who will tell you that ever since Jesus as walked the earth, St. Bumbles weekly old folk's scone and knackwurst tea dance has happened! Even through the wars!
To not happen is unthinkable - 'someone must should do it," they cry.
But who?
This is the question
for if all we are to do is to 'Be' with God
rather than 'do' with and for Him
- and there are too many who do too much and rest in Christ too little
- but if perhaps some of those who are excelling in the 'Be' areas of the Christian life
might just come and add their weight to the plough
then the furrows would be straighter
and longer
and the harvest would be bigger
and then we'd have more to celebrate
and so we could sit back
and rest in God
as more people came into the Kingdom
and,
having done nothing but love God for a while,
got up and added their weight to the plough
so that in the end there would be so many of us doing stuff
that we all be doing nothing!
And then we could look at what Jesus paid
and see that from the paucity of our little faith
we have achieved much in the world for,
through,
by
and with Him
who is the Saviour of the world!
Anyone willing to join me sow the seeds for the next harvest and reap the harvest that demands our attention today?
And the title? When I asked the person who was complaining that the service didn't happen those were the words they used:
'I'm not impatient - I waited ages... but no one came or did anything!
So I left'
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