How many truly happy people do you know? Does anybody even know what happiness is? We confuse it with pleasure and convenience. But surely there's more. What's life about? What's worth the pursuit?
When you were born you got one life to live. One physical body. One mind. One set of relationships. Financial resources. One chance at doing something. Impossibly marvelous things may happen. So how do you keep from wasting it?
Queen Elizabeth traveled with 4000 pounds of luggage, 40 pints of plasma, and her own royal toilet seats. When Jesus came to us, they swaddled him in rags and laid him in the straw. Its unfathomable, what he left to be with us, the price he paid to save you.
The carol about the little town says "the hopes and fears of all the years" collide in Bethlehem, and it's true. Public celebration of Christmas is canceled this year in the very birthplace of Jesus. Bethlehem is in Palestinian territory, and conflict with Israel rages. Have mercy.
We'll never know who first sang the words or hummed the tune. It was a slave song. First it was called " Christmas Plantation Song." Now we call it, "Go, Tell It On The Mountain." So next time you sing it in church, think of the ones who sang it in chains.
The angels sang of peace the night Jesus was born. That was 2000 years ago, years full of war, sin, and strife. This is the tension we face, singing, "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear." What happens, when faith meets disappointment?
Nehemiah prays 4 months, preparing to build a wall that gets built in 52 days. Why does the praying take longer than the work? It doesn't. The praying is the work. Praying is not the least you can do. It's the most you can do.
The devil thinks you'll turn away if he can make you feel ridiculous for following Jesus. He makes the world laugh at you. You feel stupid, on the wrong side, uncool. This is how the devil fights. Are you going to follow Jesus? Prepare to be mocked. And worse.
Most people skip Nehemiah Chapter 3. It's a lot of names, regular people doing regular things on regular days. We don't know or care about them. But God knows and cares about them. Just like he knows and cares about you.
Praying requires waiting. God doesn't jump when you say jump. To pray is to surrender to God's will and God's timing. But be honest, in your life with God, he spends a lot more time waiting on you than you spend waiting on him.