Luke 2:10-11: But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."
You’ll hear me say a lot about REJOICING on this blog...because the Bible says tells me so...over and over. Surprisingly, I think I miss it way too often. “Good news of great joy for all people”...starting at Christmas but continuing for always.
Do not ask me why I have to pray every year to believe this simple truth and command. I do. Thanksgiving rounds the corner and the ‘world’ says I should be thinking about Christmas by ‘making my list and checking it twice’. I do think there can be a good thing in making my ‘list’ (and checking it twice). At Thanksgiving I’m usually consumed with this ‘jumpstart’ to the season. This year I was prompted to make a conscious choice to just be in the moment of the long weekend. It was a really good weekend...sweet. I would say I was glad, but then I entered “the season” discombobulated and feeling like holding off with the rejoicing. Why? I wanted to have my ‘lists checked’ before I rejoiced! Sad but true.
So I’m really glad this year I didn’t (and still don’t) have my lists checked. The truth is still true, and I can REJOICE! because of Jesus’ love and God’s gift. But, here’s how that even looks in my life sometimes. I’m still before the Lord more but find my motivation waning and overwhelmed. So, I lay this down before him and ask for the ‘drive’. My waiting yet asking would probably sound like this: “‘C’mon Jesus...you know I’m enjoying my time with you, you know I really sense your Spirit and am in dialogue with you throughout the day, would it be asking too much to HELP ME GET THESE THINGS DONE???!!”
Sounds pitiful as I write, but really here’s the pity....HE is not asking me to get all these things done. I feel the tension because HE is not moving me there. If I’m in Christ and the motivation is lacking, maybe, just maybe some things need to slide off ‘the list’.
So, even as I take the time to put this nugget He’s teaching me on paper, something else is sliding off my list. It’s OK. Why? It’s where HE has me. Reflecting on HIS faithfulness and work in my heart and seeing more of Jesus. That helps me REJOICE! The list really doesn’t ...for long. So friends, that’s my JOY in the journey today. I’m really glad for those of you who can do both. Today I don’t want to have to work through the list (or fill in whatever it is) to get to JOY, but I’ll even need the Lord to show me that. REJOICE...list or not...God is with us!!
I should have figured it wouldn’t be long before I was prompted to write about what life is like when you add an 18 year old to your home with out prior “experience”. If it’s important to you to know the “hows” of Whitney ending up in our home, then ask me sometime! We are praying BIG for reconciliation and renewal in her and with her parents. Whitney is a special gift we’ve received lately. I know there have been many “gifts” in parenting my own kids, but this one continues to uniquely bless me. Whitney if you’re reading this...WE LOVE YOU!
How do you set out to love someone in your home, in your life and part of your family who has not been there all along, and for the long haul? I really can’t answer that (yet?), but it didn’t take long for the Lord to show us more of our own sin. Really not in dealing with Whitney, but with our own children!
There really is nothing in me (or my family) that is experienced or can ‘muster’ loving Whitney the way she deserves to be loved. So, it has been a great time to learn to abide in Jesus or should I say frankly it catapults me onto the lap of the Lord. I find it almost comical that in this leaning, the Lord has not only guided us for the steps of the moment (b/c that’s really all we can grasp), but He has given us such delight in Whitney. I wonder if this is how Jesus felt about his disciples...I mean they couldn’t give him anything. Yet he treasured their company and brought them alongside what he was doing. Why? I’m sure it’s multi-fold, but I bet a piece of it was this sense that He was just walking along with his Father and it’s just what He had for him. His Father was enough. I mean he didn’t need them! Since Jesus was delighting in God, He could minister and love these broken sinners intimately!!
God does that with us...still. That’s good news. But how does that fit into my delighting in Whitney, often differently than with my own children? I really think it’s the simplicity of leaning on Jesus and delighting in him as we love her. This frees me to love her with much less ‘schizophrenic’ ways than my kids. OK...so maybe you got this down early on in your parenting. There are only 2 ways I have: 1) in theory or 2) total weakness and frustration the Lord has blessed me with. Maybe on some days we do run on experience and smoothness of well executed plans we put in place. But you know what...for the most part it really doesn’t bring me DELIGHT! Why? Because it’s only as good as the next ‘unexpected bump’. The delight is fleeting because my hope gets placed on ‘doing’ parenting (or my list) well. Really life with my own children is as ‘unknown and unique’ as it is with Whitney. We just think we know the days ahead or will mold them as we wish. This is one of the gifts the Lord has used Whitney to give me (again); the same gift of suffering and weakness: the gift of listening and believing the heart of Jesus. It’s not really as crazy as my own heart or as calculated as I’d like it to be. The heart of Jesus is lived out through me (and my family) in the Spirit. It’s REAL-TIME, it’s ENOUGH grace for the moment, and ENOUGH wisdom from the Spirit that I need for the moment. The heart of Jesus says, I AM ENOUGH.
I think it’s ironic that the Lord takes the ‘noise’ of family and adding an 18 year old sweetie to our home to quiet my soul this Christmas. Friends, HE DRAWS NEAR to us...and DEAR to us, at Christmas AND always...HE IS ENOUGH...all on his own:-)
