Kelly Minter's Blog, page 11

3 Things Boaz Teaches Us About A Gospel Heart For Refugees

The topic of refugees has stormed to the forefront of our news and conversations in recent days. I hope we can all bear in mind that caring for refugees doesn’t equate to having no regard for our nation’s safety; and caring for our country’s safety doesn’t equate to not caring for refugees. Competing interests are always tricky and it seems unwise to think that whatever someone’s thoughts are on the matter relegates him or her to one side or the other.

I say all this because what I’ve written here is not meant to be a statement on our country’s policies. I will leave that to those more informed and knowledgeable than I am in these areas. What I would like to do, however, is consider with you, not what our personal politics or interests are, but whether we have a Gospel heart when it comes to refugees.

A few years ago I wrote a bible study on the book of Ruth and the story deeply convicted me. While Ruth was not a refugee in the technical sense, her plight was the same: a foreigner from a rival nation, a widow, poor, without social standing, no way to support herself, and fully dependent upon the harboring nation’s kindness. While writing that study the Lord showed me what a Gospel heart for the foreigner and outsider looks like through the life of a man named Boaz. And as a result, how much closer my heart needed to move toward Christ’s.

A Gospel Heart not only Permits, it Prizes

When Ruth entered the Israelite town of Bethlehem as a Moabitess she could only hope to meet a landowner who’d have enough pity on her to permit her to glean in his fields. (It’s worth mentioning that Moab’s beliefs and practices stood directly opposed to those of Israel’s.) But Boaz, a wealthy Israelite landowner, did far more than turn a blind eye and permit Ruth on his fields; He prized her. He invited her to sit at his table, offered her a place among his workers, protected her from men who might take advantage of her, allowed her to freely drink from the water the servant’s had drawn. So overwhelmed by Boaz’s kindness, Ruth fell on her face exclaiming, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you would notice me, a foreigner?”

A heart left to its natural inclinations might hope that the refugee crisis just goes away, or that other countries will deal with the problem. Or maybe our attitude is that we’re okay if refugees are allowed into our country as long as they keep to themselves. But permitting refugees and prizing them are two different things. Boaz continually showed me that a Gospel heart goes beyond cultural norms, beyond meeting basic needs, beyond what would be considered “enough”. It crosses over into lavish.

A Gospel Heart not only Gives Lodging, it Gives a Legacy

Near the end of this short book, Ruth and Boaz get married and have a son named Obed. After Boaz officially announces his intent to marry Ruth in the presence of the leaders of the community—including the religious leaders—the people make one of the most convicting proclamations in all the Bible. “May the Lord make the woman [Ruth] who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11).

Listen closely to what is being said here. Rachel and Leah were the all-star matriarchs of the Israelites. They were the mothers of sons like Joseph and Judah, respectively. Ruth was a widow from the dark, enemy, anti-God nation of Moab. Imagine the humility and graciousness it would have taken for the Israelite leaders to pronounce this kind of blessing on Ruth, essentially saying, we hope our God weaves you into the legacy of our nation, making you as great as the most legendary women of our heritage. And great God made her—Ruth, the Moabitess, became the great grandmother of King David.

The Israelites offered Ruth far more than an offer to lodge in their community; theirs was a proclamation of legacy. 

Are we willing to cheer the refugees on in our country past giving them shelter over their heads? Are we willing to champion them into the most meaningful places in our society? And more than those earthly places of standing, are we willing to lead them into the most sacred places of our spiritual heritage? As we’re to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, what an opportunity when the ends of the earth travel to those with the Gospel.

A Gospel Heart not only Offers Refuge, it Offers Redemption

In Ruth 2:12 Boaz said to Ruth, “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge”. Boaz knew that no matter how wealthy, resourced or generous he could be to Ruth, he was ultimately powerless to save her. He could offer provision in this life, but he couldn’t be her Redeemer. Only the God of Israel could do that.

The food, water, place at the table, protection and job offer that Boaz gave Ruth were tremendous blessings, but his deepest desire was for her to harbor beneath the eternal refuge of the wings of the God of Israel. As New Testament believers, while we seek to provide for the physical and material needs of the foreigner, we should always hold out the promise of refuge in the arms of Christ through forgiveness of sins, the only Redeemer.

Despite the heated exchanges and valid implications of differing policies regarding the refugee crisis, Boaz reminds me that the most important question I can ask myself at this moment in history is, do I have a Gospel heart toward the refugee? Not everyone will be able to do everything all the time for all those in need. But if our hearts align with the Gospel, when the opportunity arises, we’ll already have the table ready.

 

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7 Gifts The Family Dinner Table Gave Me

My mom does not relish the spotlight. She has always been more comfortable doing her thing in the background. So you can imagine how surprised all of her children were when she asked us to recount our memories of the family dinner table because of a talk she was preparing to give at a women’s gathering.

Only one topic could have propelled my mom to such levels of duress: The Importance of the Family Dinner Table. 

She began her talk with a quote by filmmaker and journalist Miriam Weinstein.

What if I told you that there was a magic bullet—something that would improve the quality of your daily life, your children’s chances of success in the world, your family’s health, our values as a society? Something that is inexpensive, simple to produce and within the reach of pretty much anyone?” (The Surprising Power of Family Meals, p. 1)

“You guessed it” my mom said, “the family dinner table.”

Now some of you may be wondering why I, an unmarried woman with no children, am writing a blog post on the importance of making a meal, sitting down with your family and eating together.

I can feel you giving me the stink eye.

You are thinking, dear blogging single person, you have NO IDEA.

Fair enough. So instead of telling you why your family should have dinners together where the kids recite Scripture and eat all their peas—you could rightly get really huffy at me for that—I want to share with you 7 gifts the family dinner table gave me. (And if you’re at all worried that this post will make you feel guilty, fear not. My only hope is to encourage and free you in matters of the dinner table because of the rich blessings it provides.)

1. The Gift of Belonging

I could always count on sitting down together as a family for dinner. It was a stabilizing anchor no matter the dips and swells of the day. My mom’s meals functioned as a magnet that drew us together each evening. Sometimes my dad like to get in on the action. His speciality was canned clams over spaghetti noodles so his involvement was relatively short lived.

My mom saw the dinner table as a safe haven for us. She pointed out that “Kids are buffeted all day long by things and people; they feel insecure and rejected because someone has gone after another friend. Dinnertime is a sacred time to draw your kids in, look them in the eye and let them know they belong.”

2. The Gift of Appreciation

I learned to appreciate different kinds of food even when I didn’t like everything that had been prepared— like when my mom used to put minced onions in the meatloaf. She would always say that they were so small you couldn’t even taste them. To which I replied in all my high schoolness, well if you can’t taste them why are you putting them in there? I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was learning to appreciate that we even had food on the table. Despite the minced onions ruining the whole thing.

3. The Gift of Not Always Getting What You Want

When you’re at a restaurant or shopping for yourself at the grocery store you get to choose exactly what you want to eat. But when you sit down at the dinner table you have to learn to eat what’s been prepared for you. Though I wasn’t always happy about it, this was a valuable lesson for me to learn because in life you don’t always get to choose what you want.

If we kids had grown up getting exactly what we wanted every night for dinner it wouldn’t have served us well later in life. Even if we decided not to eat what was put before us, my parents taught us to do it politely and we learned what it meant to go without. This again was an important life lesson.

4. The Gift of Simplicity

While I love a Pinterest table presentation or an involved recipe, I learned that the real beauty of the dinner table doesn’t lie in how exquisite the meal is but that everyone is together. I know several people who don’t cook because they say they’re not good at it, that they can barely boil water, or they don’t have time. But sitting down together for a meal doesn’t have to be fancy or turn into an all-day affair. This is what the crockpot is for. Or soup. A chicken breast with rice and a couple vegetables doesn’t take much time at all. Neither does chili, pasta or sandwiches.

When I think back to the meals I had with my family, I don’t remember much about what we ate but that we ate it together.

5. The Gift of Conversation and Storytelling

As a kid I liked to tell stories and hear stories. Questions from my mom like, “Did you ever hear about how your dad and I met?” or “Do you know how we chose your name?” were big hits. My siblings and I always had the chance to tell about our day and ask each other questions. Of course we went through phases where we didn’t feel like talking, or when out best attempt at communicating with one another was through eye rolling, or we were plain grumpy from the school day. Still we learned how to dialogue and enter in even when we didn’t feel like it.

6. The Gift of Cooking and Hospitality

Growing up with family dinners gave me a love for nourishing others around my own table. Even though I’m not married and don’t have children I make it a priority to cook dinner and eat with my friends and the family I have in town whenever I can. I’m not suggesting everyone has to do this, or even can, but I find it to be the part of the day I most look forward to.

7. The Gift of Learning Christ

The Lord gave the Israelites the command to love Him with all their heart, soul and strength (Deut 6:4-9). He told them to impress this on their children when they walked along the road together, lied down, got up in the mornings, and when they sat at home.

When I think of the times I sat at home with my parents, the most consistent of those times was around the table. While not every conversation was explicitly spiritual, they were always modeling to us the love of Christ and instructing us in His ways. Ultimately they showed us His love by nourishing us at their table, a faint foreshadowing of the eternal feast we will one day share around the table of the King.

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The Greatness of America Relies on the Presence of God

“Cry out and sing, citizen of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is among you in his greatness.” Isaiah 12:6

January 20th came and went with all the commotion we’d imagined it would, regardless of one’s political preference. We are a divided nation and while this is not breaking news, the divisions are more pronounced than I’ve ever witnessed. The issues are more charged; the people attached to them more passionate; the gaps between ideologies as impassable as canyons.

Everyone wants to make America great (again), that’s not the problem; the glaring issue is that we all have a different opinion of what greatness means. And I put again in parenthesis because not only can’t we agree on what greatness is, many can’t agree on whether America was great in the first place. This leaves us with a slogan we all want—Making America Great Again—with opposing opinions of how this is achieved, and whether it has ever been so.

Dealing with the Political Landscape

When I view the political images on Instagram with varying captions, and read the posts on Facebook, and scroll the sound-byte opinions on Twitter—praise God I’m not savvy enough for any other social media platforms—I, like you, find myself unsettled by the divisions both within the church and without. Sometimes I feel defensive; other times mad; fear and confusion can rattle my sense of well-being. I even find myself hurt by people I don’t know or barely know. Suddenly an imaginary friendship is ruined because we feel so differently about really important matters. In other words, I’ve found a new way to drum up drama in case you need some—having my feelings hurt by online non-friendships.

What Really Makes Us Great

At any rate, in the middle of the heightened strife over what will make America great or really not so great, I happen to be going through the book of Isaiah in the mornings. I’m reading about powerful kings like Uzziah whose people flourished materially and militarily under his rule, as well as kings like Ahaz who ruled in not so flourishing times. Be it President Trump or President Obama, or a president of years gone by for whom we long, they hold or have held monumental positions of power and influence over our country—just like the kings in the days of Isaiah. But Isaiah reminded me anew that the greatness of our country does not rise or fall on their shoulders.

Isaiah 12:6 says, “Cry out and sing, citizen of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is among you in his greatness.”

And there it was—what greatness of a nation looks like. We often think of it in terms of material wealth, freedom of speech, military power, opportunity for all, stellar education, the president we really wanted. Yet it’s about something more meaningful and breathtaking.

Greatness is about God’s presence among us.

So I had to take a step back from the political discourse and think about how I can contribute to making the country I live in great from a Biblical worldview. How can we be great, not because of our inner-power, credentials or political banners, but because we’re a people whom God is in the midst of?

His Greatness through Obedience

In the New Testament one of the ways we experience God’s presence is by keeping in step with His Holy Spirit (Gal 5:25). We keep in step with Him when we put to death the stuff of our proud natures and follow Him in obedience according to His Word. For all the times you’ve heard that truth, don’t miss it for its familiarity. To obey Him is to walk in His presence. If we have brilliant opinions on how to make our country great but are personally in a state of disobedience toward the One whose very essence is great, then we’re just adding to the noise.

His Greatness through the Fruit of the Spirit

We know we’re keeping in step with His presence when we lead with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control (among others). I’ve been sitting under a remarkable local teacher who’s been teaching through Galatians 5:16-26. She makes me long for the “fruit you can’t fake”, as she puts it. If gorgeous soliloquies flow from our lips on how to make America great, but the fruit of the Spirit is not what’s characterizing those words or the delivery of them, we’re only out to make ourselves great.

His Greatness through Prayer

We know we’re in step with His presence when we pray. Again, for all its familiarity we can’t miss the reality that where two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ Name He is with us (Mt 18:20). There we have His presence again, and wherever He is there will His greatness be. Are we kneeling with one another and praying for our nation? Not just discussing it, but actually doing it. If all we do is bitterly dissent against the rulers of our land but haven’t poured out our hearts before the Lord, then we haven’t experienced the true Presence of greatness, only our hope for our idea of it.

Obedience to Christ, the fruit of the Spirit and fervent prayer aren’t exhaustive in their scope when it comes to making our country great. But perhaps they’re a start for us personally. I have more pondering to do, but in the midst of all the conflicting opinions one thing I know: greatness is not defined by a president or a government or even the collective solidarity of the people. Greatness is God’s presence in our midst.

I don’t want to add to the commotion or unrest, or even be offended by it. I’d rather spend the time seeking His presence with you by seeking it in our own lives and in our corporate fellowship. Perhaps then our beloved country will experience true greatness, because God can come no other way but in His greatness.

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Three Ways to Measure the Love in our Truth

“Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5

During the day of Paul’s and Timothy’s friendship there were some odd teachings floating around, and people were getting off on all manner of empty and endless speculations about all kinds of musings that ultimately didn’t matter. (I know—how will you and I, in our modern age of social media, ever relate?) Paul instructed Timothy to go to these wayward teachers with the truth of the Gospel, but he included a simple point that’s lassoed itself around my attention in recent days: “Now the goal of our instruction is love…”

In other words Paul says to Timothy, when you’re out there correcting some harmful doctrine, make sure that the whole aim of your teaching is love.

There’s a lot of battling out there in the name of truth but I’m not sure how often love is the aim. Paul helps us measure this in three ways.

1. A Pure Heart

The first place from which loving instruction comes is a pure heart. Don’t just think of full-time ministry teachers here. Rather everyone who is a believer is called to impart the knowledge of God and His Word to others—and love must be the ultimate reason we do so. When it comes to communicating the Gospel we should often ask ourselves: is my heart pure or am I peddling truth for my own gain, wielding it to wound, or commandeering it to be right? Even when we have to speak a hard truth to someone, we should do so with a gentle spirit for the sake of restoration (Gal 6:1). A go-to passage for me in determining where my heart is in these areas, since it often deceives me, is Psalm 139:23-24.

“Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

2. A Good Conscience

When it comes to instructing others out of a pure conscience, accountability is essential. I thank God for my friends who’ve taken it upon themselves—sometimes eagerly I might add—to tell me me when they think I’m getting proud or petty or moving into dangerous territory in any area. The Holy Spirit also convicts me of sin when my frustrations are out of control or my desires and passions are focused in the wrong direction. Or when I’ve gone a couple sentences too far about whatever is making its juicy way through the rumor mill. I can tell you from experience that it’s just plain awful trying to teach the truths of Scripture in any capacity when you’re also trying to fend off a troubled conscience. I’ve found time and again confession and repentance to be the ultimate remedies for such unrest. If anything’s pricking at the soft skin of your conscience, confess it while that skin is still tender.

3. A Sincere faith

A sincere faith is a faith without hypocrisy. Or as the King James words it so beautifully, a faith unfeigned. When our actions match the faith we speak of, the people around us are drawn to what we have to say. When the faith we share publicly is actually the faith we live by privately, we earn their trust. Even on social media it’s wise to consider—does the world I paint online reflect the world I actually live in? There are times when we’re guilty of crafting an embellished online image of our faith when we’d do much better to pull up a chair along someone in real life and share where our faith is faltering. A sincere faith is not a perfect faith, but it’s an honest one.

As we head into this third week of the New Year, let’s ask ourselves if love for God and others is the ultimate goal of the truths we’re imparting. Then let’s measure that love through the sieve of a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. We can’t get to real love without them.

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Redden Away the January Blues with Tomato Soup

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25

January is a bleak month for us humans. The festivities of Christmas and New Years have passed and we’re back to all things real-life. For many of us it’s freezing outside and the sun sets at what feels like 2:30 in the afternoon. Whatever worries or tasks we were able to shelve during our time off work and sleeping in and over-eating are now back without December’s buffers. If you overspent at Christmas, credit card bills are coming; If you began a diet or an exercise program, you’re sore and ravenously desiring chips.

We don’t even have Downton Abby this year.

I was reminded yesterday at church of our January plight when I spotted an acquaintance on the other side of the aisle. I wished her a Happy New Year with heartfelt enthusiasm and asked her how she was doing. “I’m in a serious New Year’s rut” she said. “This is just a hard time of year.” First, let’s just thank the Lord for an honest reply at church. I was so happy for her vulnerability because I’d been battling a little of that myself.

The top of the year can be difficult for many reasons, not the least of which is that the parties are over and we’ve got another 12 months of routine ahead—some of which are monotonous or overwhelming or just plain lonely. This is precisely where the tomatoes come in.

Just what I needed last week at my friend Bethany’s house.
Make Tomato Soup and Invite Your Friends Over

The tendency at this time of year is to isolate. And this is exactly what you and I cannot afford to do. As the author of Hebrews puts forth, we can’t stop gathering together. We need to be encouraged and spurred onto love and good works, and if ever there was a month in need of extra spurring, it’s January.

I know what you’re thinking—you can’t add another dinner party to this already crazy month, you’re over your grocery budget from Christmas, your house isn’t put back together and you’re finding pine needles in the bathroom. I have a challenge for you…

Grab 1 (28 oz.) can of whole tomatoes and invite some friends over for tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, anyhow. I’m not even sort of kidding. (See recipe below). If you’re not a cook—it’s tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, loved ones. (If your friends are gluten free or dairy free or don’t like tomatoes, I don’t know what to tell you about those friendships.) You wouldn’t believe what a simple meal around a table will do for your souls. It doesn’t have to be Pinterest-board fancy or expensive. I’ll say it again: tomato soup.

Gather for the Purpose of Encouragement

When speaking of the early church, Reuben Welch put it so beautifully in his book We Really Do Need Each Other: “They were being together as Christians, not just Christians being together.” So when you make your soup and gather together with other believers, do it with the intent of encouraging one another in matters of the faith. This doesn’t mean you have to go around the table and have each person recite her favorite Ten-Commandment. Just be intentional about sharing honestly and praying for each other. Remind one another to live with an eternal perspective . Cheer one another on in her God-given giftings. Speak about the things of Jesus. You’ll leave the table knowing you hadn’t only been believers who got together, but you will have been together as believers.

Let’s not let this month get away from us without pushing through the chill of winter with fellowship around the table. We can’t neglect gathering together. Especially not in January as that Great Day is approaching and there’s soup to be had.

Tomato Soup Recipe
Directions

In a saucepan melt butter and saute onion over medium heat. After onions become translucent saute garlic for 2 more min. Add tomatoes and chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Add pinch of red pepper flakes and heavy cream. Stir. If you have a handheld mixer puree whole tomatoes in soup to the desired consistency (chunky or smooth). If you don’t have a handheld mixer let cool and puree in food processor, then return to saucepan. Or, use a potato masher.

(optional) In another pan heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and saute for 3 minutes or until tender. Then add zucchini to soup once pureed. I like to add the zucchini for flavor and texture.

Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Ingredients 

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1  yellow onion, diced

2 medium garlic cloves, minced

Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes (save juices)

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 zucchini, roughly diced (optional)

Salt and Pepper, to taste

optional garnishes: sliced basil leaves, Parmesan cheese

 

 

 

 

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What Gifts are you Refining in the New Year?

So also you—since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in building up the church. 1 Corinthians 13:12 CSB

Yesterday I spent the afternoon cleaning out my refrigerator, which was primarily full of bad-for-you comfort foods in casserole dishes. I emptied tins of half-eaten assorted cookies. I wound up a hundred strands of Christmas lights, half of which will not work next year—what do they do all year in storage that’s so rowdy? I heaved the tree onto the top of my car and dumped it at the local park. I swept, I vacuumed, I made the first healthy meal I’ve had since Thanksgiving. It was simultaneously a little sad and super fantabulous.

My sister in-law places trimmings in pieces like these–the only decoration I’m hanging onto a few more days.

As ornaments were placed back into their box and red candles and Christmas sugars and creamers were stowed away, my mind turned to the New Year. As I’m sure it’s turned for you.

What will I accomplish this year?

What will I commit to doing?

What will I refrain from?

Who will I invest in?

How will I do and not do all these things?

As I was thinking about these questions, as we often do this time of year, I was reading through 1 Corinthians 12-14. In these chapters Paul talks a lot about the unique spiritual gifts God’s given each of us. (We know from other parts of the New Testament we can also add in our resources and natural talents and expertise when considering what we’ve been uniquely given.) In these chapters I found my swirling resolutions for the New Year slowly draw into focus: What if I purposed to refine the gifts and talents God has already given me?

What spiritual gifts has God given you?

Take some time to consider the gifts God has given you. Read the list Paul gives regarding certain areas of service in the church in 1 Cor 12:27-30. Or ponder the different spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12:4-11. Or consider what you uniquely bring to the body of Christ in 1 Cor 12:12-26. Journal what you’re good at, what expertise you have, what you’re passionate about. And in case you’re one of those people who thinks you don’t have a gift or somehow the Holy Spirit is like Santa and skipped your chimney because you’ve had an off year, Paul writes that He has given gifts to each person (1 Cor. 12:7). This means you, with your unique background, dynamic personality, essential skill set, have been given a spiritual gift(s) from the Holy Spirit.

How will your gifts build up others?

Here’s what inspired me the most and helped me simplify what I want to focus on in the New Year: Paul writes that our unique gifts are for building up the church (1 Cor 12:12). Put another way, for the common good (1 Cor 12:7). After I considered what gifts and talents the Lord has given me, I was motivated by how I could bless the church this year. Now if a picture of a big building pops into your mind when I write the word church, think more specifically.

Think the young girls and boys who are friends with your children who love being in your home because you’re warm and inviting and have ridiculous sugar-cookie making skills due to your gift of hospitality (1 Pet 4:9-10). Think those who don’t have the money to legally fight for their own justice, but you have the gift of helping and you also happen to be a lawyer. Think the new believers in your church who need your prophecy gift, the way you see things clearly, as they make sense of what it looks like to follow Christ. Actual people need the gifts the Holy Spirit has given you.

How will you refine your gifts this year?

As I thought about all the things I want to accomplish this year, I was motivated to particularly focus on bettering what I’m already gifted at, because what I’m gifted at is what will most bless those around me. As someone who likes to teach the Bible through writing and speaking and songwriting, I’ve been thinking of specific ways I can better my craft. Will it be a seminary course? Piano lessons? Specific books that will help me refine my gifts? A cooking class, because I love having people over? I mention a few of these musings to stimulate ways you might refine your own unique gifts.

As we take our brush to the fresh canvas of 2017, the Holy Spirit has given you indispensable gifts. Those gifts are desperately needed by real people in Christ’s church. And those gifts need to be nurtured this year. Would love to hear your thoughts on what gifts you’d like to strengthen and how you plan to do it. For the common good.

Happy New Year to each of you! I’m so grateful for you.

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Letting Go of the Christmas Ideal for Christ Himself

The Christmas season is upon us, often meaning our joys and sorrows are increasingly magnified. If our lives are brimming with joy and loved ones near, well, the strings of bulb lights and wintery wreaths energize that happiness like cinnamon to steaming cider. But if we’re treading a path of loss or suffering or unmet longings, our pain is only increased by the continual reminder of what could be, or should be—A soul mate to call your own, a home of bustling children and grandchildren, vibrant health, full stockings and bank accounts, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Longing for the Christmas Ideal

The Christmas ideal that accompanies our passage through December is a companion that reflects what we deeply hope to be our reality while exposing the parts of our lives that fall quite shy of the image it upholds. As a single woman with no children, Christmastime is both exceptionally sweet and a reminder of what is not. I will not be arm in arm with a husband through the malls, nor will I be buying my own children matching pajamas. I’ll be torn between deeply enjoying my parents and family in Virginia on Christmas day while simultaneously missing my community in Tennessee, the friends who make-up my daily life.

To be absolutely certain these are trifle voids compared to some of the unspeakable upheaval and tragedies some of the people I know are currently in the throes of. Regardless of how we’re walking through this Christmas season, every point at which life does not measure up to loved ones around crackling fires and picturesque table settings will be exposed.

So what do we do with a Christmas ideal that shows us what we all long to be true but is perpetually out of reach?

We do what Elizabeth did when Mary came to visit. We rejoice in our Savior instead of dwelling on who’s got it better or where our lives aren’t living up to our Christmas expectations.

A Tale of Two Relatives

Consider Elizabeth’s story leading up to the encounter with Mary who came to visit her newly pregnant with Jesus. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah had pleaded with the Lord for children but with nothing but seeming silence in return. For a woman of Jewish culture to be barren was the ultimate social shame, a devastating loss of legacy and meaning in one’s society. After years of what Elizabeth would refer to as her “disgrace among the people”, the angel Gabriel visited her husband in the temple proclaiming that Elizabeth would soon become pregnant with a son. And while any son would have done just perfectly for Elizabeth, this child would be the forerunner of the Messiah. After all her suffering, Elizabeth would bring into the world one of the most important figures in Christendom.

Mere months before the very first Christmas, we find Elizabeth’s life shaping up more divinely than she could have ever imagined. Her disgrace has been removed, her womb is inhabited with child, her status in society has been exalted. Soon she will place in her husband’s arms what she’d always longed to give him but never could. Elizabeth, well along in years and having been faithful to the Lord through decades of unanswered prayer has finally reached her moment. The shaft of God’s favor is finally beaming down upon this most faithful and deserving woman.

Nothing like six short months for someone to threaten a Christmas ideal; Enter, teenage relative Mary.

In those days Mary set out and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. (Luke 1:39)

Essentially the only woman in all of space, time and history who could have possibly outdone Elizabeth, shown her up, beat her out, crashed her party, would have been Mary the mother of Jesus (of course this was not Mary’s heart or intent). At the peak of Elizabeth’s glory a much younger and arguably less deserving woman steps through the front door bearing a child greater than her own. And if we’re looking at all of this strictly from a human perspective, Elizabeth’s Christmas ideal fractures before Christmas has even come.

But Elizabeth was not caught up in comparisons or jealousy. Instead, Elizabeth stuns with her gracious response.

How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? (Luke 1:43.)

Her words reveal a secret we desperately need at this time of year: Elizabeth’s hope was not in an ideal but in a person, the person of Jesus Christ. When the blessed mother of her Lord entered her home, the farthest thoughts from Elizabeth’s mind were the ways in which her esteem, happiness or place in society would be threatened. All that mattered to her was the Lord, and because this was foremost true she could delight in Mary’s blessing as well.

Resist the Christmas Comparison Game

As I venture into this Christmas season I will be deeply disappointed if I compare myself to those whose lives are living up to the Christmas ideal in ways I wish were true of my own. I will ache unnecessarily if I set my hopes on Christmas-y images of magical settings that inspire a longing they are powerless to fulfill. If my focus is solely on the movies and malls and mulling spices, I will miss out on intimacy with my Savior, the only one able to commune with me in the deepest places of my heart. I will look to Him to do what only He can do in me, what no idealistic fantasy can.

As unmet longings and desires are awakened this season, I will spend quiet hours in God’s Word being reminded of the ways that the Desire of Nations meets our longings. When I feel alone, I will meditate on Immanuel, God with us. Like Elizabeth, I want to look beyond my own wants while delighting in and helping others in the context of Christ and community—that the mother of my Lord, should come unto me?

While I intend to hold nieces and nephews on the couch and watch Frosty and Rudolph, decorate a bang-up tree, make gingerbread houses, stroll leisurely through shops, sing with Amy Grant in the kitchen, splurge on Christmas-y cups of coffee, read by the fire, dine with friends at special gatherings, and perhaps let myself dream of the unlikely if not impossibly serendipitous love story through a Hallmark movie or two, my hope will not be in these trappings.

The Christmas ideal will not be mistaken for my Savior.

 

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A Disney Trip and 3 Reasons I’m Choosing Aunthood

I just got back from Disney World with my parents, siblings, in-laws and five nieces and nephews, twelve of us in all. I’m not really an amusement park person by nature—something about suffocating crowds and lines that serpentine in numbing rows and $14 turkey legs that I don’t really get. I realize I’m in the minority here though, so I pushed through my aversions and punched my ticket. (Actually I scanned my fingerprint, which linked to my magic band, which linked to my credit card. Basically, Disney owns me.)

Besides a generous amount of family laughter about stuff that is probably only funny to us, here’s how things went down: My oldest niece begged me to take her on Soarin’ for a second time, meaning we cumulatively waited in line for the length of a football game for a ride that lasts approximately as long as a lightening bolt. On the last night our family finally sat down at a decent restaurant when my baby niece started crying because she’d become constipated while eating an Olaf cake pop. At the end of dinner my youngest nephew thought he’d flushed his magic band down the toilet, which in a child’s world is equivalent to your house burning down.

But we joyfully enter this craziness because we’re aunts.

We embark on the turf of our nieces and nephews because we have a unique role in their lives that’s different from being their mom or dad.

So here are three reasons I’m choosing to invest as an aunt, besides the fact that I just love them so much and want to be in their lives:

Investing As An Aunt Means Stewarding The Family Relationships God’s Given Us

When I read through Scripture, especially the Old Testament, I see a strong thread of the importance of family and one’s heritage. Because I’m not married and don’t have children of my own, the children of my siblings are especially dear to me. (This is also true for my married siblings.) As a single woman, or any woman who has a void in her life, we can focus solely on what we’re missing, or we can claim the place God has given us with our nieces and nephews, a place no one else has.

If We Don’t Own Our Place In Our Nieces’ And Nephews’ Lives, Someone Else Will

I don’t want to abdicate the role I have with my little ones, because all manner of voices and opinions are, right now, competing for their attention and affections. I want the opportunity to demonstrate the grace of Jesus when they fail, reveal His love when they know they don’t deserve it, unfold the truths of Scripture as they grow, and offer wisdom in a confusing world that’s spilling over with ideas leading far from the heart of God. Of course my little group is still young, so a lot of what’s going on right now has to do with peeling tangerines and breaking up scuffles and buying bearded dragons as Christmas gifts. But still, I’m filling a space in their lives I pray is an extension of Christ’s love for them.

If We Invest Now We’ll Have A Voice Later

While we can’t strong arm our nieces and nephews to love the Lord their God with their whole hearts and minds, if we build a relationship with them today we’ll have a trusted place with them tomorrow. Even if they veer off that narrow path, they’ll know deep in their hearts who is praying and aching for them to come home. “Teach [God’s Words] to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deut 11:19.

Let’s own our places in the lives of these little ones. We have a place no one else does.

 

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Competent In Real Life Ministry

Hey Friends! In celebrating the upcoming release of All Things New: A Study On 2 Corinthians (November 1), I thought I’d write a short devotional on a verse that meant a lot to me while writing this study. Especially as it relates to how I often feel about my competency in ministry.

“It is not that we are competent in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence is from God. He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant…” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6)

We’re All Called To Ministry As Believers

This verse has come to my mind many times in the past year in various settings. And before you think I’m talking about being competent in ministry settings, like teaching the Bible in front of people or writing a Bible study, I’m talking more often about the daily settings that all of us encounter and are called to be “ministers” in. I’m talking about being competent in the middle of a difficult conversation you know you need to have but are dreading. Competency in relating to a family member you’re at a loss to reach. Competency in explaining your faith to a friend with authenticity and clarity when those conversations have often felt forced or packaged. I’m talking about being competent in leading your home or business because you desire to bring God His much do glory.

I could go on because these past few days in particular I feel I’ve blundered and bumbled my way forward. I’m realizing just how incompetent I am apart from the Holy Spirit, and this is not flimsy Christian talk—this is just the truth. I find myself praying these silent prayers to the Lord, “Please make me competent for _________, because I know this is beyond me.”

In Christ, We’re More Competent Than We’ve Ever Imagined

In my earlier years I’d hoped a passage like 2 Cor 3:5-6 meant that God would make me competent as a great singer or writer, competent in business, all-around put together. Oh, but He promises so much more here. He will make us competent as ministers. And being a minister does not mean being a professional church person. It means how we daily interact with those around us: blessing, encouraging, offering wisdom, extending forgiveness, bringing healing, interceding in prayer, sharing our faith, strengthening the weak, raising the kids God’s entrusted to us. You know, being a minister in real life.



Goodness, I could go on about how this ministry is a new covenant ministry, but that might be better explored in the study, or for its own devotional on another day. In the meantime, be encouraged that in your inadequacies and fears, the complex situations that cause you to feel overwhelmed—He has made you competent.

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My Moldova Adventure

Hello friends!

I hope you’re enjoying summer as much as I am. I’m loving the slower and more relaxed pace. I’m realizing I’ve needed it. For this July edition of our newsletter, I thought I’d tell you about a trip to Moldova I just took with Justice and Mercy International. Some of you who are familiar with me know I work with JMI in the Amazon (I wrote a little book about it called Wherever The River Runs), but I’ve also made three trips to Moldova with JMI. In case you’re wondering, Moldova is a small country that sits between Romania and Ukraine, roughly the size of Maryland. I only mention this geographical tidbit because before I had friends who regularly went there, I’m pretty sure I’d never heard of it.

I was a very small part of helping put on vacation bible school in a village that managed to turn out 150 of the cutest clamoring kids nipping at your heels for crayons and more plăcintăs (a Moldovan pastry), chirping in Romanian and occasionally a phrase or two in Russian. Yes, chaos is the word you’re rummaging for.

So, why VBS in Moldova, you ask?

Gosh, I’m so glad you brought this up.

Moldova has a grossly high percentage of girls who are sex trafficked out of the country, a high suicide rate for boys, and an enormously alarming orphan population. To combat this terrifying reality, JMI helps orphans and vulnerable children through its child sponsorship program. Many of these children we’re able to identify through our yearly camps. One of my greatest privileges of the year is sharing the Gospel with these children through Scripture and through all the ways a game, a skit, and a plastic cup of orange Fanta says “I love you.” But summer camps are just the beginning.

When these children turn 16, whether in or out of the orphanages, many have nowhere to go. And if they do have a place to go, the scenario is usually horrifying. I’ve heard these kids’ stories firsthand and they’re too gruesome for me to write about here. But here’s the hope. Here’s why I love VBS in Moldova. Because JMI has two homes—one for girls called Grace House and one for boys called Boys to Leaders—that house 15 teenagers respectively for anywhere from two to three years. This isn’t just about shelter, this is about a home. These girls and boys are welcomed into a family where they learn life skills, flourish in school, receive counseling, go to church, get discipled, and learn about the love of Jesus through His Word. The transformation of these kids is nothing short of miraculous. As my friend Steve likes to say, I’d put these kids up against any kids in the world.

Now, for the moment of my trip that impacted me the most. The little girl on the right in the picture above was in my bible study group. Her name is Nastea (I changed her name). My friend Brittany and I asked her the question, if she could go anywhere in the world where would she go? Without hesitation she said, “Moscow”.

“Why Moscow”?  I asked.

“Because that’s where my mom lives.”

Nastea hadn’t seen her mother in almost a year and she doesn’t know who her father is. This would be a pretty bleak story except for the girl on the left. Her name is Alla (you can watch her story here). Alla grew up in an orphanage. She intimately knows Nastea’s plight, her void, her aching loneliness. Alla also spent several weeks at vacation bible school during the summer, which is how JMI connected with her. When she was just sixteen and being thrust out of the orphanage, JMI reached out to her and she entered the Grace House. And all of life changed. She met Christ, received love, and is blooming like the cutest red headed bud you ever saw. For the past three years she’s been serving with us at the very camps she grew up in.

When Nastea told Alla and me how much she missed her mom, how she didn’t know when she was coming back, and how all the others kids have moms and dads, I turned to Alla and whispered, “this one is yours”.

I don’t know exactly what Alla said to Nastea because it was all in Romanian. But when I took two steps back to snap this picture, I realized I understood everything I needed to know. This is how the good news of the Gospel spreads. When Jesus rescues our life and we go and tell about it, and someone like Alla hears the news, she then in turn finds another little one on whose shoulders she places both her hands, and in a language I can’t begin to speak to a child whose story I can’t begin to understand, she says, “God loves you.”

And that’s why I do VBS in Moldova.

For more information about Justice and Mercy International, you can visit www.justiceandmercy.org.

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