The Gift of the Unexpected and a Link Up

by Lora Lynn on January 6, 2010

in Christmas Change

When we began the Christmas Change project, my husband and I vowed to give fewer gifts in order that we might give more money away.  Our immediate families were on board, we saved some pennies with our naked tree, and I kept a running tally of how much we might give to our charity of choice.  Yet, as December pressed on, I realized that while we were going to be able to give, it wasn’t the total I had hoped for.

Until one day another blogger and her family pledged to double any donations made to Amazima Ministries.  Guess what our charity of choice just “happened” to be?  In the end, with help from a friend, we gave even more than we’d originally set as our goal.  Only God could do that.  It felt like an extra little tiny gift from Him to us.  For them.

Another unexpected present was the Gift of Time.  I didn’t spend hours on Etsy and Amazon or wandering the mall, seeking the perfect gift.  Everybody was getting an African chicken.  Shopping list?  Done.  I was prepared to sit back and coast through December, congratulating myself on finally achieving a peaceful holiday.

But this gift of time?  It wasn’t for me.

The week before Christmas, we had two friends in crisis with immediate needs.  Needs we could meet.  Needs that required time.    So we spent our time, as wisely and prudently as we could, in service to others.  I say this, not boastfully, but humbled by all the other Decembers where I may have missed out on opportunities to serve because I was snowed under by the holiday Noise.  I shudder to think what it would have felt like to have to say “no” to our friends.  Or to serve, but to serve poorly, unable to spread ourselves any thinner.

In this moment, the Christmas Change gift came full circle.  We served others, not just with our wallets, but also with our selves.

Because, this year, Christmas Change gave us time.

And, just like we’d promised, we gave that away, too.

What were your unexpected gifts this Christmas?  How did you get to give them away?

————

If you have reflected on what you’ve learned this season, how you would like to prepare for this coming Christmas, or how you would like to devote your life to Change this year, or if you would like to post your personal struggles or success stories about Christmas Change, please leave your permalink (to the post, not your home page) in the MckLinky. Thank you for joining us for Christmas Change 2009, and be sure to check back here from time to time to be encouraged toward that Life of Return.

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a life of return

by Mike Rusch on December 26, 2009

in Christmas Change, Mary, The Story

Christmas is over! Come on let’s go! Get moving! No time to waste! Move it, move it, move it! We have a lot of things that need to get moving again! Back to normal & quickly!

…wait!

At this point, if you stopped for one more moment, you may have a couple thoughts rolling around in your head. You may be looking back over the past few weeks and saying…

“Wow, that was great. I feel like I lived well during this season of Advent”

or maybe you are feeling more like

“Wow, I really messed that up. I gave it my best shot, but I’m glad that’s over”

I hope it is more of the former and less of the latter; however, either way, there is one larger question still looming. The question of…

“Where do I go from here?”

Regardless of your perceived “success” or “failure” this Christmas, it is now behind us. But this question of “where do I go from here?” Well, that is a really big question.

(Thank goodness we have a little help in trying to answer this question. Last week, I heard Dr. Mark Bailey make some of the following observations about the story found in Luke chapter 2)

If we return to Luke 2, we find that Mary has just given birth, and her actions immediately following are nothing short of incredible.

“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger”

Did you catch the incredible part of that?

Shortly after this, Luke 2:11 describes a scene where Angels find some shepherds in a field to tell them…

“And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

Did you catch the incredible part of that?

Look again at Luke 2:11 and ask “what was the sign the shepherds were to be looking for?” Was the sign the manger or the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths? This is very significant because…

…swaddling cloths were not just used for birth in biblical times. They were also used to wrap the dead.

I am told it was common for men and women to carry these swaddling cloths with them while they traveled. In the tragic event that they died along their journey, these swaddling cloths were used to wrap their bodies so that they could be carried home.

All of a sudden, this Messiah King who was wrapped in “swaddling cloths” gives us a picture of something far greater.

…His birth pointed to His death. He was a baby born and yet he was prepared for death.

So, if you’re still asking “where do we go from here?” I think the road ahead is clear. The road we’ve been traveling along through Christmas Change now leads us to the defining moment of the Christian faith.

…this road leads us to the cross.

Jesus, from the moment that Mary laid Him in the manger wrapped in those swaddling cloths, told us where He was going. We are simply called to follow Him there.

So, “Where do we go from here?” The answer first depends on our response to this question…

Is Christmas Change just about how we change our approach to Christmas, or is Christmas Change about how we change our approach to living?

because if this is about living in such a way that means following a King to a cross, we need to move very carefully. We need to move very carefully because that means that this road we are on has the potential to change everything.

For many, it has truly been a season of change, and the potential for more change is great. For others, we may not be ready to change it all, and that is okay. It is okay, because we are simply called to follow.

…However, the one thing that we cannot do is remain here.

We must continue asking the difficult and challenging questions that cause us to move forward as a community. It is in moving forward that we truly begin to understand the need for a season of change. However, as these seasons come and go, they must do so in a way that progressively draws us deeper and closer to the heart of our Creator. It must be a progression that moves in the direction of living out this idea of “a life of return.”

A life of return?

consider this King who…

…returned to the world’s brokenness and suffering

…returned to proclaim freedom for the captives

…returned to rescue, redeem and restore

…returned to bring good news to the poor

…returned to restore the prostitute

…returned to establish justice and mercy

…returned to feed the hungry and care for the orphan

…returned to bind up the broken hearted

…returned to adopt us as His sons and daughters

…returned to give us a future and a hope

…returned to rebuild the ancient ruins

…returned to restore the places long devastated

And this is a King who will return again…

…so, until that day comes, may we be known as a people who are the active foreshadowing of this returning King.

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Christmas in Unlikely Places

by L.L. Barkat on December 24, 2009

in Art

Pine in storm

For one year, I sat outdoors almost every day. Teacup in hand, I rested beneath an old pine tree in my back yard. It was an act of seeking, in an unlikely place. I found a few poems that year, or maybe they found me. Like this one…

Christmas

wind whips
flakes fleck
dark pine

leans shivers
shakes cold
grace pours

sky opens
soul bends
breaks.

Tomorrow, Christmas will be here at last. In the most unlikely places, may your heart bend and break. Grace is poised, waiting to pour.

“Christmas” is reprinted from InsideOut: poems. “Pine in the Storm” pastel by L.L. Barkat.

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Resist the Darkness

by L.L. Barkat on December 23, 2009

in Art, Christmas Change, Good News To the Poor

resist the darkness

The match strikes. You hold your breath. A child is lighting the Advent candle, and the wick is stubborn. Flicker, flicker. Will it go out? You wait, heart beating.

At last it sets flame.

The bending, tentative light seems so small. Still, you begin to breathe again. It’s truly beautiful, a curve of expectancy.

This Christmas, I’ve been thinking about bringing gifts of light to a particular kind of darkness, though I feel as inadequate as a little child, sputtering match in hand.

Sixty to one hundred million women are “missing” from the world’s population; among the living many are oppressed. I will never forget a picture I once saw in the New York Times magazine, of girls in a window display. Each girl had a number pinned to her clothing.

They were so young, and despite that they would be “otherwise engaged” throughout the day and night, they were sitting simply. One was combing the long black hair of another, like any young girl playing with friends.

Reading Forgotten Girls I was taken by the invitation to write a poem from an oppressed girl’s point of view. As I began to write, I remembered the girls in the window…

“Number 100 Million and One”

I am the girl in the window
combing her hair twined and black
smiling so no one will know

there’s a scar on my heart that grows
in the night, when I lie on my back
I am the girl in the window

crimsoned with memories of low
men and high, bright keepers who track,
smiling so no one will know

even the wind, when it whispers and blows
disperses my secrets beyond the black
I am the girl in the window

beseeching the stars to silently show
a hidden path past wall’s slim crack
smiling so no one will know

the shush of my soul as it ebbs and it flows
searches for red silken ribbon gone slack
I am the girl in the window,
smiling so no one will know.

The world is a pretty big place, needs all ’round. Maybe the need of our enslaved sisters speaks to your heart. If so, strike a match. We are holding our breath with you, waiting.

—-

“Resist the Darkness” in soft pastel, by L.L. Barkat. First published with the poem “Number 100 Million and One” at Love Notes to Yahweh. To learn more about our forgotten sisters, go to Stitchable Sisters, where you can listen in on a Conversation with Michele Rickett of Sisters in Service, which encourages us to Resist the Darkness.

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bring presence

by Mike Rusch on December 22, 2009

in Belief, Christmas Change, Good News To the Poor, The Story

Settle in, remove the distractions, pause, just breathe and read this slowly…

…it’s almost here. The day that literally reset the course of human history is now quickly upon us. The moment when “Emmanuel” became more than prophecy and “God with Us” came into a small corner of the world in the presence of shepherds to breathe for the very first time.

I’m curious. At that moment, what was the world really expecting?

Today, in this moment, what is the world really expecting? Something that looks like this?

Obviously not…

I believe that so often we have this picture in our minds of a manger scene that was full of peace and silence where all the animal looked in (and didn’t smell), and for our convenience the manger had a couple of little side rooms for reflection and prayer.

Just for a moment consider what the world outside of this Norman Rockwellesque scene may have been like.

The streets must have been full (there was no room at the inn). Certainly people were preparing meals, transactions were being made, to-do lists needed to be checked off & people had places to be. Did anyone in that little town really even know or care about what was happening among them? I very much doubt that all was quiet and peaceful both within or just beyond the paneled walls of that barn.

However, for some reason, on that day and at that time God spoke softly in the fields during the still moments to those that were listening to the promise that He was coming.

…because, this is a God who speaks softly to all who listen to His promise of “God with Us.

The reward of “God with us” was given to those who were listening. It was given to those that could pause long enough to lift their eyes to the sky and search for the star pointing to a King. God was with them; this Messiah became present with them. He brought no armies, sat on no throne and didn’t use facebook to announce that He had arrived. He was present with us, and we only know this because of a small gathering of people who were listening.

…they were present, and this God brought His presence to give to them.

Time and time again, as this story of rescue and redemption unfolds, we find Jesus and his disciples reenacting this scene of being present & giving presence.

But, do we even know what it looks like in our world today?

…to be present.

…to be the “with Us” part of Emmanuel?

Our world places little value in being presence because we do not understand it. We must trick ourselves into thinking we are present by thinking it’s a stare, a momentary pause to pay attention or not checking my phone for five minutes. Certainly this Messiah King did not come so that I could learn how to put my phone down for a day.

…His presence and my presence must certainly be about something greater.

We have just a few days remaining in this season of waiting, preparation and arrival, so what will we do with these next few moments before they are gone forever? What will we give that moth and rust will not destroy? What will we give that will not be forgotten?

…the gifts and measures of this world that mark our days and years are simply insufficient.

In one short story found in the third chapter of the book of Acts, Peter & John encounter a man begging for money. Peter says to the beggar “silver & gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you freely.”

In that moment, at the temple gate called Beautiful, they gave him Christ, and Christ, by His very name, is presence.

…Peter & John gave him everything.

Once I heard Rick McKinley ask this question…“What would our family, church and community look like if we said ’silver & gold I do not have?’

As we celebrate Advent, I can chose to follow this story and give the greatest possession that I have ever been entrusted with to those that I love the most. It is really the only thing that I came into this world with, and it is the only thing that once lost can never be regained.

…Presence is something that God gave to me, and He entrusted that I would give it away to others.

In our crazy, busy, excessively connected & to-do list filled world, may we be a people that seek out a place to lift our eyes and search for a God who is speaking softly that He is coming. And, like the Magi, once we find that star, may we travel over the difficult & treacherous roads that allow us to be fully present.

Today, there is still so much to learn from these shepherds…

…they were present and waiting for their King.

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Yard Sale

by Annie Downs December 20, 2009

I’m not a natural giver. It doesn’t come easy to me. But an idea came to me [that I probably heard from someone else though I can't remember who it was] to have a yard sale and give all the stuff away.
No tags. No haggling. No $1 boxes or $2 books.
Just everything for free.
I wanted [...]

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On Christmas and Standing Firm

by Arianne December 19, 2009

We ended the night feeling blessed.  We had been worried about the outcome of this conversation, of the process, having the right words, but everything had been there.  We felt lighter, peaceful — right.  Like truth had won that night.
It hadn’t been a huge revival, or an amazing service at church, it happened with just [...]

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No, I’m gonna let it shine.

by Stephanie @ Adventures in Babywearing December 18, 2009
Thumbnail image for No, I’m gonna let it shine.

I let her sleep now, even though it is late in the day, because it lets me have quiet. I fold laundry without her busy hands un-doing what I need did. I’ll pay for it later, but right now, [sigh] it’s worth it.
Often I don’t even know who I am anymore. What is scar, [...]

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in flesh

by tonia December 17, 2009

Eventually, we stopped buying gifts for the foster kids.  Sometime around Thanksgiving the ads would pop up on the radio, the Giving Trees would show up in the grocery stores, and church groups would hold their annual toy drives.  By Christmas Eve, my parents would have received a few industrial-sized garbage sacks full of brightly [...]

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around every corner…

by Finley December 16, 2009

Have you ever had the feeling that you were seeing the same thing around every corner? Whether it is going to Seattle and seeing a Starbucks every two blocks or driving cross country on the interstate and seeing signs for McDonalds at every other exit. It seems that life occasionally has its seasons of repetitive speaking. [...]

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