End of the Line(s)

Dear Friends,

This post marks the end of the Life's Mirror blog. On January 2, 2010 I stepped down as Senior Pastor of NewSong Community Church. While I retain my ordination through NewSong and will miss the people terribly, the time has come for a change in pastoral leadership there. I leave the church in extremely capable hands and look forward to all the great things God is going to do through this amazing congregation and its wonderful, gifted people.

I do intend to continue blogging - probably sporadically at first - and I have set up a new blog under my new moniker with gmail: doctorstevej. My new blog is called "All the Good" and is located here: http://allthegooducan.blogspot.com/

God bless you as you continue the journey!

- Doctor Steve

Christmas Movies

Christmas would not be complete at the Jackson manse without a few “Christmas movie nights” where we change into our most comfortable clothes and settle down to watch Christmas movies together. Our three favorites are White Christmas, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. Like all good movies, these films evoke laughter as well as tears as we watch them. They also do something else – they remind us of deeper truths.

White Christmas was mainly written as a vehicle to accommodate Irving Berlin’s song by the same title. And yet, as we watch the story unfold with its forgotten General, broken dreams, and balmy temperatures in Pine Tree, Vermont at Christmas – we are reminded that while things have been, and currently are rough – better days are coming. It won’t always be like this. One day by the grace of God what has been lost will be restored. In fact, before God is finished, “we will be changed,” the Bible says. What we’re experiencing now is not how it will always be. Alzheimer’s will not have the last word. Cancer cannot win in the end. Brokenness will be restored, and sin defeated. The good guy will get the girl, the old General will be remembered, and the snow will come. In the memorable finale to this movie, General Waverly is again honored by his troops, Bob and Betty declare their love, and the background of the set is removed to show the falling snow. Everyone raises a glass, toasting as they sing, "May your days be merry and bright; and may all your Christmases be white."

The star of Christmas Vacation, of course, is none other than Clark W. Griswold. All Griswold wants is to give his family “the most fun-filled old-fashioned family Christmas ever." But everything goes wrong. First Clark can’t get the Christmas lights to come on; then Cousin Eddie shows up. Next the turkey explodes and Uncle Louis burns down the tree. To cap things off, Clark discovers that his Christmas bonus consists of an enrollment into the Jelly of the Month club. The classic line in this movie, for me anyway, is when Clark’s wife Ellen tells her daughter to stop complaining: “It’s Christmas Audrey…we’re all miserable.” In the end the Griswolds survive a holiday season that would try Job's patience, but it’s one that many of us can relate to. And yet Clark's faith never falters through it all. This avowed family man continues to count his blessings and in the end, all is well. This movie reminds us that even though our families often drive us nuts, there are few things in life that are more important than those whom God has put us together with. After all, the first Christmas was about a family too: Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. This Christmas as you gather with your family, lighten up; laugh a little. Be present in the moment.

Home Alone is about an 8 year-old boy named Kevin McCallister who gets accidentally left at home when his family forgets him on a Christmas vacation they take. At first Kevin is thrilled to have full run of the house. He eats forbidden junk food, watches forbidden movies, sleeps wherever he wants for as long as he wants to, and even raids his older brother’s room. But after a conversation with an elderly neighbor who is estranged from his family, Kevin realizes how lonely he really is. Being alone isn’t nearly as wonderful as he thought it would be. This movie reminds us how we often think we’d be happier if we didn’t have to answer to God – if we could do whatever we want to do. For a while we would probably revel in our newfound freedom. But in time we would begin to feel the emptiness and loneliness that comes from being isolated and at odds with God. Like Kevin, we’d eventually get homesick, even though we were still at home. Christmas is about Immanuel – “God with us.” We might think we’d like it better without his watchful eye upon us, but we really wouldn’t. The wonderful news of Christmas is that we haven’t been forgotten. We are not abandoned. We will never be “home alone” because God is with us forever.

Micah's Gift

One of the clearest prophecies of the Messiah’s birth is given to us in Micah, one of the Minor Prophets. Micah’s contribution to the Christmas story is often overlooked in favor of the more familiar New Testament passages we love to hear this time of year. The prophet writes, "But you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, although you are small, out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” Micah 5:2

It was Micah’s prophecy that the chief priests and teachers of the law turned to when Herod asked them where the Messiah was to be born (Matt. 2:3-8). But aside from being referred to then, and in the beautiful Christmas Carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” which is based on this passage, Micah’s words barely come up at Christmas. And yet what he said raises several questions.

For instance, why was Bethlehem chosen to be Jesus’ birthplace? Why not the much larger, significant capital city of Jerusalem, only six miles away? Why did God choose to honor Bethlehem in spite of its insignificant size and lack of importance?

And why did God choose Mary and Joseph to be Jesus’ parents? They certainly were not chosen because of their great achievements or because of the opportunities they could afford Jesus.

And why were the shepherds chosen to receive the angelic announcement of Jesus’ birth? Was it because they were super-spiritual, or men of unquestionable moral fiber? No. Shepherds in Jesus’ day had the reputation of being a little “rough around the edges.”

So why did God choose these insignificant people and places as key players in the Christmas story? One possibility could be that since he was a rural man from a tiny village himself, Micah knew what it was like to be overlooked in favor of more spectacular, significant people and places. Perhaps because of this his prophecies tend to point to a different reality, one that stresses that with God, hope can often be found in unexpected places. Micah reminds us that with God, it is common to encounter the unexpected and the paradoxical – often in unexpected reversals of circumstances. Hope arises from devastation; suffering embodies salvation; life emerges from death. Thus, when it comes to the nativity – the birth of the Messiah – Micah sees a coming ruler who, in keeping with a sense of divine irony, will arise from one of the least of the clans of Judah.

Micah’s contribution to the Christmas story is a reminder with God, hope and salvation will come from places and people that are seen as insignificant in the eyes of the world. Paul agrees in 1 Cor. 1:28 where he writes, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are.” Part of the paradox of God’s action in the world is that what is of no account in the eyes of most people is often held closest to the heart of God.

This Christmas let’s direct our attention to the amazing Christmas star, the majestic angel choirs singing in the skies, and the three kings who came to honor the newborn king. But let's also notice the lowly, the least, and the unexpected and their contribution to the story. Those to whom a Savior born in a cattle trough seems most predisposed to relate to. This year let’s make part of our Christmas preparation be to remind ourselves to look for the divine where we would least expect Him to be. That’s Micah’s gift to us this Christmas.

Failure? Accident?

Each year as Christmas rolls around you start hearing about the “must have” Christmas gift for that year. Best sellers of Christmases past include toys like Tickle Me Elmo, Razor scooters, Pokemon, Furbies, Nintendo Wii, Beanie Babies, X Box 360, Rubik’s Cube and Cabbage Patch dolls. Remember those? This year’s top-sellers are expected to be Zhu Zhu Pets, which are essentially mechanical hamsters, and Mattel’s MindFlex game. Getting one of the season’s most popular toys often becomes a mania bordering on the absurd. It also creates a secondary market for the toys where the elusive, often inexpensive toys can become, well, expensive toys. Zhu Zhu pets cost $8 at Wal-Mart, but can run as high as $60 or more on sites like eBay. Getting these toys also becomes a huge time consumer for parents, grand-parents, aunts and uncles in their single-minded quest which won’t be satisfied until they have one of the coveted toys wrapped and under the tree.

Toys weren’t nearly as complicated or as difficult to find when I was a kid. The most popular toys when I was a kid (back in the dark ages) were toys like the Slinky, Silly Putty and Play-Doh. Like today’s top sellers, many of them have interesting stories behind them.

Back in 1943 a naval engineer was trying to develop springs that could support and stabilize sensitive instruments aboard ships in rough seas. The engineer accidentally knocked one of the springs from a shelf, and watched as it stepped in a series of arcs from the shelf, to a stack of books, to a tabletop, to the floor, where it re-coiled itself and stood upright. He told his wife he thought he could make a toy of it, took out a $500 loan and had 400 Slinky units made by a local machine shop, and in no time the toy became a huge seller. In fact it became so famous that in 1999, the United States Postal Service even issued a Slinky postage stamp.

Silly Putty was also created by accident. Scientists were doing research into potential rubber substitutes for use by the United States in World War II. Rubber was vital for the production of war material and with no artificial substitute, rubber products were rationed in the US. Meanwhile, the government funded research into synthetic rubber compounds to attempt to solve this shortage. One of the many “failures” in this research was Silly Putty, originally called "Nutty Putty," which toy makers recognized would be a hit with kids.

Play-Doh was actually first manufactured as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s. When a classroom of children began using the wallpaper cleaner as a modeling compound, someone got the idea to rework the product and market it to schools and the rest, as they say, is history. Before long the non-toxic, mess-free compound became a best-selling Christmas gift and is currently ranked number 4 on the “Toys of the Century” list for the twentieth century.

As Christmas approaches this year, perhaps someone reading this feels like they are an accident or a failure, but as the story of the best-selling Christmas gifts above show us, it could simply be that your highest and best use may not have been discovered yet. One thing I do know – God never makes a mistake, and so you can be confident he created you for something spectacular – something great. So let me encourage you this Christmas to hang in there; to persevere. Who knows, one day you may topple off a shelf right into the history books – just like a Slinky…

A Great Life

What constitutes a great life? This question has been asked by humankind since the very beginning. Ancient Greek philosophers asked the question and sought to work out the answer. These wise men of old decided a great life is built upon such things as pleasure and freedom from pain, freedom from poverty, education and leading an “examined life,” freedom from fear, the contemplation of God, honorable behavior (virtue), doing things in the right proportion, fulfilling your political and social obligations, friendship and security. Over the years others have tried to enlighten us about what makes a life great. Politicians have offered their two cents worth; poets, artists and musicians have offered up their ideas, and of course prophets and priests have chimed in as well.

The question is an important one. Having been around a few deathbeds in my days as a pastor, I am convinced that whether we admit it or not, one of the greatest fears many of us have, is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the very end that we have wasted our life. No one wants to squander their life; life is too precious. And that begs the question, “How then, shall we live?”

The easy answer for us as Christians, of course, would be to simply say, “Look in the Bible, for there you will see how to live.” But honestly, it’s not that simple because of the unfortunate tendency we have of finding exactly what we’re looking for in the Bible. We read things into it that were never intended. Apartheid in South Africa was supported by the Dutch Boers because their theologians found exactly what they were looking for in the Bible. The same goes for slavery in America – we excused it by calling it “Ham’s curse” and thus made it "biblical." For centuries Jewish people were persecuted, oppressed and even murdered, on the pretext of truth sought and found in the Bible – New Testament texts that were interpreted to blame the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus. Everyone finds in the Bible exactly what he/she seeks.

So what can we do? What makes up a great life? I am still working on a more complete answer, but my short answer to the question would be that a great life consists of the accumulation of grace-filled days, one day at a time. It has to do with living our lives in what author Spencer Johnson in his delightful parable calls the “precious present.” We can’t do much about our yesterdays, and worry over tomorrow is a waste of time. Today is what matters. The recovering alcoholic knows this – he or she makes a daily commitment to be sober for the day ahead – one day at a time. The same is true for all of us. The new person we want to be – the life we want to live, the things we want to start doing and the things we want to stop doing can only be accomplished today, and they only be accomplished by God’s grace.

I believe that’s what Joshua meant when he said, “Choose THIS DAY whom you will serve…” in Joshua 24:15. Living a great life is a daily choice, and since we are not God it definitely involves serving someone or something. Joshua says it is literally the choice between life and death.

As we move into the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, keep this in mind. Each morning as your feet hit the floor commit your life anew to Christ and ask Him to help you be grace-filled that day and to be a grace-bearer to others. Then, no matter what happens, or where you find yourself, you will be living a great life.

Tanenbaum 2009

This is the 2009 Jackson Family Christmas Tree. We think it is our best tree ever! Of course - we say that every year. - We hope your Thanksgiving went well and you are as excited as we are about Christmas this year. If you are in the Cumming area over the holidays, be sure to join us for a service at NewSong Church.

Surprised By Joy

This Sunday is November 22nd. Ask almost anyone you meet who died on that day and they’ll correctly answer John F. Kennedy (on November 22, 1963). But someone else died that same exact day; someone who I believe was greater in God’s eyes than the “Prince of Camelot.” His name was Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis, or simply “Jack” to his family and closest friends. In a scenario eerily similar to Farah Fawcett’s death earlier this year, which was totally overshadowed Michael Jackson’s passing on the same day, Lewis’ death went virtually unnoticed as the world was stunned by the assassination of our thirty-fifth president.

Even though his death went largely unnoticed by the public, death has been no hindrance to C. S. Lewis' career. His fame continues to grow as new generations of skeptics and believers alike are introduced to his clear and convincing arguments for Christianity (Mere Christianity), his humorous but insightful narratives (Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, A Grief Observed), and, most recently, moviegoers have been introduced to Lewis’ work through the Chronicles of Narnia movies. I recently reread all seven of the short Narnia books and was again thrilled by the ways Lewis reveals deep spiritual truths in engaging stories reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work.

The similarities with Tolkien’s work are not coincidental. Lewis was a contemporary of Tolkien and the two were actually close friends. In fact, it was a conversation with Tolkien that helped Lewis move a little further along the way in his journey from atheism to faith.

Lewis was raised an Anglican, but was only nine years old when his mother died of cancer. Shortly after her death, Lewis' father sent him and his brother Warren off to boarding school. It was during this time that Lewis decided he wanted nothing to do with a God who could be so cruel as to take his “mum.” Lewis, an extremely intelligent man, became an atheist and eventually an Oxford Don (professor) teaching English literature.

So how did this philosopher-cum-intellectual, this man who wrote over fifty books, some of which were penned as a youthful atheist, become a Christian? Lewis describes his journey of conversion in his spiritual autobiography Surprised by Joy. Lewis claims that at the time of his conversion he was "the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." He describes his passage from atheist to Christian in words and images that are familiar to many of us: The joy of childhood which gave way to the harsh realities of the adult world, followed by a rigorous and intense investigation of competing truth claims, followed by being Surprised by Joy with a child-like faith again.

There’s a lesson for those of us who are too educated or too modern to accept the claims of Christianity. As an atheist, Lewis was unafraid to ask the difficult questions. Lewis’ conversion process was a long road that involved lots of reading and thinking (and eventually praying), meeting and talking with mentors, and gathering data from a variety of sources. Finally, on September 28, 1931, at age thirty-two, Lewis was… “riding to the Whipsnade Zoo in the sidecar of Warren’s motorcycle. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did." Like John Wesley's heart which was "strangely warmed," something happened on that 40 mile motorcycle ride, and Lewis simply knew he now believed.

Today God is still using this reluctant convert’s legacy to populate the Kingdom of God. Lewis’ faith journey and conversion are certainly unusual, but it also contains echoes that I’m guessing are familiar to some of us. What happened on that motorcycle ride to the Whipsnade Zoo? I’m not sure, but my guess is it has something to do with a conversation Jesus had with another smart man one night when he said, “Just as you can hear the wind and can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit (John 3:8). Where are you on your spiritual journey? Can you feel the gentle winds of the Spirit blowing? Don’t be afraid of the questions. Don’t be afraid of the journey. Just know that the destination is sure; and enjoy the ride…