I drove last night and thought to myself that there are more Christmas lights around where I’m from than in years past.  They look beautiful and they display brightly that the holiday season is upon us once again.  Yes, the Christmas spirit has come again and hope is rising.  Not hope in politics or vague change that never really shows up, but hope based on the idea that God will make all things right.   I like to think that this is the reason people put up all those bright and shiny crystals of the yuletide season – to demonstrate the hope that Christmas brought into the world (okay, maybe not the exact date) those many years ago.  This is what I love about the Christian faith too.  Not that someday I will get to go to heaven away from all the bad people.  I feel strongly at this point that this outlook is flawed in many ways, not the least of which being opposite of what Jesus exemplified.

But the thing that I love the most about faith in Christ is that God will eventually (and only He knows how and when) make all things in heaven and on earth right. This is what we can rightly place our hope in as we work to restore the world to how He created it by being the hands and the feet of Christ. And this makes me want to put up Christmas lights this year.

Who’s with me?

We tend to look at how successful something is or isn’t in the context of time.  How was your summer?  Your semester?  Your school year?  Your year?

One month of 2009 is now finished and we are into month number 2, typically known as February.  So I’ve begun to think of the first month of my 2009, and asked myself how my year is going?

Am I reaching my goals?  Building relationships?  Forming new ones?

I don’t want to waste a year of my life, and wonder what happened to it.  I want to live the way I’m called to live.  With a calling from God to connect and point people to God through Jesus!  I want to make the most of my time.  I want to fall more in love with Carie.    I want to love you as myself. I want to see the beauty of God’s creation, and see things through His eyes.  And…

I want to say “GO STEELERS!  World Champions baby!

2,000 years ago, a young carpenter from a po-dunk town of Israel rose to the ranks of the known and stirred up the established religions of the day by claiming to be God and throwing out ideals like many of the ancient prophets did – Justice, hope, and peace (amongst other universal ideas).  Jesus is risen!

700 years ago, A guy by the name of William Wallace (if you believe the movie) cried out for the ideals of freedom for every individual against an established feudalistic order of the day that was hell bent on keeping the land owners, land owners, and the peasants, peasants.

100 years ago, two men were born, one in the north and one in the south, who believed that things were not right, but they could be.  So these men fought for equality, hope, and the American dream, both rising to national prominence, and both were shot for these ideals they were propogating.  Martin Luther King, Jr. died at a hotel on March 29, 1968 and Ronald Reagan survived an assasination attempt on March 30, 1981 (coincidentally hours before my sister, Brooke, was born).  Reagan went on to finish out 8 more years as the president of the United States.

I use these examples, not to call our new president (as of this January) any type of savior or freedom fighter or even a uniter – He’s not a savior and hasn’t been around long enough to fight for freedom or unite anyone.  But I want to continue to propagate a different message that I believe every politician, pastor, and leader should hold on to beyond this election week.

When given the choice between cynicism and hope – we will ultimately choose hope.

When given the choice between hate and love – we will ultimately choose love.

When given the choice between injustice and justice – we will ultimately choose justice.

When things aren’t going well, the temptation is to start playing the cynic and attack the opposition, but the irony is that time and after time after time the person or people who accentuate their ideals ultimately win, over those who attack the opposition.  Could it be that God created the world this way?

I know there are a lot of arguments (even good ones) against this thought process.  But the examples for ideals far outweigh the examples of playing the cynic.  Just look at the opposites of the aforementioned examples.  They are famous too:  The Pharisees, King “Longshanks”, George Wallace, and Walter Mondale.

My case is now rested.

I spent some time chatting last night with a relative of mine who makes a part of his living in the world of finance.  She’s also a mobster.  I was informed of all the mess taking place right now with the banks and the economy and reminded of my own selfishness.  It’s possible that our country will be going through some real hardship for the next 10-15 years if the bailout bill doesn’t take place, and if it does take place, it’s simply a band-aid on a really scarred situation.  A cover-up in the name of keeping our way of life as-is.  Though financially Carie and I certainly have our stuff in order, I’m convicted by the unwise spending I have done at times, in the name of financial certainty.  And so my hope is two-fold:

1.  That during these times the church will step up and become “the church” we’re called to be.
2.  That I would make wiser decisions with my finances, in good times and bad.

People are always more important than money.