Posers and Competitors

"Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews
MT 2:3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed and when he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
Curious, isn’t it, that when the magi came looking for the one who was born king of the Jews, everyone knew the king wasn’t Herod, including Herod, the sitting king! It would have been just as easy for Herod to say, “Well, open your eyes. You’re looking at him!” (after all, he had been born, just not born a king. He was a made king). Herod knew he was a poser and not the real thing. It showed in his insecure, devious, destructive, jealous nature.

A “poser” driven insecurity feeds a desire to eliminate the competition. If the other person wins, they might take over, and you would lose your position, power, or possessions. If Herod were the genuine article, the true leader, he would have acted like it by opening the door to the next king, by pointing people toward God’s provision. True leadership develops and promotes others more than self. Herod wasn’t a true king. The true king was in the manger in Bethlehem, while the false king was in the palace, counting out his money. Herod’s posing was revealed by his jealous, competitive, insecure nature. Jealousy and posing go together with competition and insecurity.

The first step to making way for the true king in our lives is to recognize I’m not the king and to stop acting like I am, to stop pretending. True greatness is to recognize I am designed to develop others, and to lift them up to where they belong and grow smaller myself. A competitive, I-want-to-win spirit is indicative of insecurity, indicative of a self-centered focus. It betrays me as a poser, not a true leader. Developing and helping others to win, even take over, is the way to greatness, to true leadership.

When I was 14, my little brother J was making a valiant effort to capture my king in chess. This time it was more than a valiant effort, he had maneuvered into a winning position. But, before he could make the final move, the chess board got bumped and all the pieces fell over. I was off the hook. To this day I still don’t know whether that chess board got bumped by my brother’s excitement at an impending win, or by my Herod-like posing as the superior big brother (or was it big “bother”).

I’m still fiercely competitive in games. Maybe it’s time I grew up and became less competitive in games and more of a developer rather than just posing as a winner.

A Christmas Sign for 2009

12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:12

We make much of the miracles of Jesus…signs that point us to His Deity, to His power, to His capacity to manage to forgive us and change our lives. But, this was the first sign of Jesus. Luke uses the same word John uses in 2:11 for his first miracle. Yes, the first sign of Jesus was not an obvious miracle of power…but it was a miracle.

The first sign of Jesus was a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The Messiah, The Son of God…Weakness, poverty, and residing in a barn because no one had room for Him.

This didn’t seem like a miracle. This seemed like an everyday occurrence. Yet, it was a miracle that everyone missed except the shepherds. How can God be weak? How can the King of Kings be poor? And how can He be found in a barn? This is the first sign of Jesus, one which most people overlook as a sign: that God can appear in the most unlikely places in our lives; that God can show up in our weakest and smelliest problems; that God can show up when we aren’t wanted and no one moves over and makes a space for us. That’s a miracle.

And, once we recognize the miracle that God can show up in weakness, in poverty, and in the smelly, dirty places of our lives, we will never be the same. Luke 2:20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Yes, people return to their everyday tasks from Christmas, but a distinct note of praise and joy is mixed into the everyday after that experience with God. Like the shepherds, when we discover God in the weak, smelly, dirty places of our lives, we forever have a tinge of joy in our everyday lives.

My Prayer for you this Christmas Day: that you will mix joy and praise into your everyday because you’ve made room in your schedule for seeing Jesus.

Lights And Carols

It’s easy to see the connection between Christmas and light…if you live in the northern hemisphere! Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year. Daylight is shortened. It’s cold, bleak, dreary…in the northern hemisphere. We yearn for the light of spring and summer. Christmas is about light shining in dark places. When God looked down on earth 2000 years ago, He saw darkness, described by Paul in 2 Corinthians…

2 Cor. 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

God did something about our darkness…He shined Christ Jesus into our lives. In Philippians 2, Paul records one of the first Christmas carols about God shining light into our hearts. We don’t know the tune, but we do know the message…it goes like this…
Jesus… PHP 2:6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, :7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! :9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Paul goes on to show us how this light doesn’t just shine into our hearts, but through our hearts to others…
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out the word of life…

Christmas is all about the light that shines in us and through us to light up the people-scape around us. Jesus is both God’s Christmas carol and also His Christmas light. When we let Jesus loose in our lives, we become His delivery system for that Christmas light.

First Flight

“The Hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” As I watched the 787 roll down the runway on the computer, and then jumped to the window to watch it and the chase planes head north, I was struck with how much of our hopes are focused on that delivery system like it was the provider rather than on the real Provider behind it all. Too easily we sink into dependence on our company, on the economy, on our offerings and fuzz up our focus on the Real. After all, we can see the company, we can see the airplane, we can see the people in the church. But, we can’t see the Provider.

We can count the money in our paycheck; we can see the ripple effect of a new plane in our stores and restaurants; we can count the money in the offering. But, we can’t count on any of them. Companies move. Customers cancel orders. People get disgusted, disappointed, and disillusioned. They leave churches. Offerings evaporate. Our real Provider is always there.

When we fix our hopes on an airplane, a pastor, or even a parent, we will ultimately be disappointed. That’s because God is the real Provider. He is behind every harvest, every paycheck, every provider with a little “p”. He is our source, our real Provider.

So, when we are fearing economic instability or corporate shakiness, when those on whom we’ve depended for years make disappearing noises, look above them all. They are not now and never have been our Provider. They may have been answers to prayer, but they were never the Answerer of prayer.

Speaking of the birds of the air, Jesus said,
your heavenly Father feeds

Speaking of the flowers of the field, Jesus said,
God clothes

Speaking of our needs, Jesus said,
your heavenly Father knows that you need

The hopes and fears of all the years are not met on a first flight of a new generation of airplanes. They are met in the Person of the Provider who was in that little town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago.

Ruts

Things always change this time of the year. Earlier this week I moved chairs, tables, plants, couches, and lamps in our house. Moving these things in one room changed the configuration in other rooms because all that stuff had to go somewhere. There is a domino effect that happens. It is all because we have brought a new piece of decoration into our home. Monday (yes, on one of the coldest days of the year) we cut down a Noble Fir and it now resides in our living room along with the two pianos and couch. The tree is decorated with…
• 39 years of decorations
• numerous musical ornaments (tiny pianos, bells, treble cleffs, and musical notes) Carol has received from her students
• Ornaments reminding us of various vacations and friends
• Multiple angels and stars
• Pictures of our 5 grandchildren and 3 children at various ages.
• An angel at the top that Amy made in kindergarten.

Yes, things change in the Grant household in December! And, it’s not all inside, either. The exterior has more lights (waiting for the cold to moderate to complete this project). December changes things. It blasts us out of our decorative ruts and routines. When the tree invades, things change!

Christmas also celebrates Christ’s invasion of earth. When Jesus began his ministry at the synagogue in Nazareth, recorded in Luke 4:14-30, He announced the changes that His invasion were going to make. He read these words from Isaiah 61:
LK 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Jesus came to do more than move our furniture. He came to blow us out of the ruts and routines of business-as-usual, make-a-buck-at-others’ expense, climb-on-others-to-get-to-the-top. His invasion was God stepping into our lives to change things. Jesus came to change the lives of the poor, and this would domino over into the changes in the lives of the rich—they would have to detach themselves from a bit of their wealth. Jesus came to release people from bondage and imprisonment whether physical, spiritual, or emotional. He came to open blind eyes to the light of God’s glory. He came to lift up those who are stepped on and to let them know that God’s grace will make things different in the new year.

More than at any other time of the year, Christmas is when people open their hearts to the poor. But, Jesus’ invasion promised more than a new path for the poor. When Jesus invades, things move and routines and ruts are changed. Instead of rushing through our lives, struggling to make ends meet, Jesus will open our hearts to those who are bound in prisons physical and emotional. Too often our ruts and routines blind our eyes to those on God’s heart. His invasion will open our blind eyes so that we see the weak and helpless, the children and the mentally ill.

The Christmas tree and decorations will all come down in three weeks, but the changes Jesus’ invasion will make in our lives won’t stop at December 25th. They will go on all year long.

Diesel in My Day

MT 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The diesel truck goes by and I quickly roll up the window, turn off the air conditioner, and wait out the stink in the atmosphere left from its exhaust. Worse than an Italian on garlic, the left-over smell from a diesel truck must not be good for me any more than second-hand smoke. But, when does my desire for pure air impact people’s freedom to drive diesel?

Does purity become legalism? Does my desire for purity of heart drive me to legislate my standards upon others’ lives? Let’s face it, in my desire for a pure heart, I avoid certain TV programs, movies, books, and music. I’m considered a prude, a goody-two-shoes.

Why is my desire for purity seen as legalism? Is it that I demand others to follow my standards…or does purity of heart convict the impure and they try to extinguish the light with ridicule?

If I hold my purity as a way to keep me from loving, from engaging, as a standard that I demand for others, it can become legalism. That is, it is legalism for them…something they are doing because I’ve laid down the law. For me, it is purity of heart, a desire to be uncluttered in my devotion to the Lord. Unfortunately, what is purity of heart for me can too easily be just legalism for the next person who isn’t concerned about an uncluttered heart and unfettered love for Jesus.

For, bottom line—purity of heart is all about a desire for Jesus and a distaste for anything that gets in the way of seeing Him.

And, my next question…are purity of heart and a cluttered desk inconsistent?

Pseudo Lover

“Good morning. How are you?” I asked Jane as I walked into the church foyer.

“Terrible!” she answered.

I was five steps further along when it registered that she hadn’t given me the expected answer. Now I had a choice to make. Would I turn around and care (and interrupt my busy morning for what could be a 15 minute recitation of the current problems)? Or would I go on with business as usual? Would I love or just pseudo love?

How often our cliché greetings are pseudo love. They are ways that we appear to express polite concern without inviting real heart interaction. The normal answer to “How are you?” is “fine!” We have recognized their existence, but not advanced very far into love. We’ve gone far enough to show we care without investing too much to alter our agenda.

Perhaps it helps us to be on the receiving end. “Hey, Buddy,” my fellow worker would say. There was affection in that “Buddy” until I realized that it was a substitute for my name, which he didn’t remember even though he had worked with me for months. It felt like pseudo love. His “how are you? How’s the family?” seemed like real love, until in my mid-update of a huge stress in my life, he turned and began talking to someone else. That’s when I recognized pseudo love in action…because I was looking in a mirror and seeing myself!

How easily I can act interested in a person to show them I care, and in mid-story get distracted by something or someone else. How easily I can ask questions, even make listening noises, while all the time wanting to get on with my agenda, anxious that my nonverbals belie my listening attitude and reveal that I’m really a pseudo-lover! I’d rarely be so crass or as obvious as my friend. I’d rarely “Hey Buddy” someone and then drop them for a more interesting person. But, too often my eyes flit to the football game on TV, to the headline on the newspaper, and tell my wife that I’m really just a pseudo-lover.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.” I John 3:18.

So, I position myself to be a lover. I turn my back to the TV, put down the newspaper, turn away from the computer monitor, and give full attention to the speaker. I turn my back on the lobby and focus my attention on the speaker, recognizing that God brought them into my day so I could be Jesus to them and listen to Jesus in them. I open myself to His Spirit to transform me from a pseudo lover into a genuine lover. And, sometimes I make it. Other times I’m just a……pseudo lover!