the intersection of life and grace

With apologies to the ever-classic Pink Floyd, think the tune to Another Brick in the Wall:

We don’t need no resolutions
We just need a list of goals
No pangs of guilt in bleak mid-winter
No list to hate when changes come
Hey! People! Leave that guilt behind!
All in all, it’s just a waste of our time
All in all, guilt is a waste of our lives!

Yes, readers would surmise correctly that I don’t make New Year resolutions. I spent far too much time and energy feeling guilty about resolutions – promises to myself – abandoned when life is in an ever-constant state of change and often requires adjustments.  For that reason, I much prefer goals that can be set, worked toward and achieved in due time.

Things resolved, in my life anyhow, are done out of day-to-day conviction, and tend to be on the spot sorts of changes or short-term habit shifts that aren’t easily lost in the mix.

I’m also not a huge fan of the New Year hoopla.  Tomorrow is, indeed, the start of a new calendar year, and I do understand why people find it helpful to set goals and start planned-for changes.  What I don’t get is the partying and the various social expectations that culturally aren’t placed on any other day.  It feels superstitious, and a lot like the high school prom to me!  (laughing, really)   But, I do believe we should live each day to the fullest, celebrate each new day as the gift that it is, and live in all our moments fully, have goals and honest, realistic expectations about ourselves and others.

I hope and pray you’ll have a wonderful 2008, full of good and peace and blessing.

First Cup is Ugly Mug‘s breakfast recommendation, a roast they describe as “easy” (whereas Saving Grace was described as smooth). First Cup is a good, strong cup of coffee that is not over-powering and has a good caffeine kick as well. I found it to be a full-flavored, definitely designer-quality brew. Tom, in his straight-forward way said, “I like it better than the other one.” I don’t know, I think I’d like to drink Saving Grace more often, but I like this one too. So, I’ll give First Cup 2.5 empty mugs.

Ugly Mug Tour 1: Saving Grace

There will be enough sour grapes around to make some rather dry wine to toast to the 2007 New England Patriots going undefeated in the regular season with a 16-0 record. It was a hard fought game, but they stuck with their game and won in the end. Their perfect season was not made up of perfect football, but one win after another. I’m still more than a little ashamed of the whole video-tape cheating scandal, but the Pats dominance and record-after-record-setting performances should put that to rest.

On to the playoffs!

From the Associated Press story here:

REEVES, La. — After decades of living with what Mayor Scott Walker calls a stigma, residents of this southwest Louisiana village are getting a new telephone exchange, one without the biblical connotations attached to their current 666.

Beginning this month, residents and businesses can change the first three digits of their phone numbers from 666 to 749. Walker said he’s made the change on his phone; it’s set to be official for City Hall Jan. 2, and Walker said he’d had “20″ people contact him Friday morning — before 10 a.m. — about changing, as well.

“This boils down to, this is a very, very religious community,” Walker said.

For the record, there is nothing wrong in having a choice to change your phone prefix, especially in this age of number portability. However, to change it because of a number that is clearly not related to the telephone when the Bible refers to it as the “mark of the beast” is, at best, silly.

The Scriptures, in Revelation 13, say:

¹¹Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. ¹²He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. ¹⁴Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. ¹⁶He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, ¹⁷so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

¹⁸This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666.

There is plenty to unpack there, but the point is this – the number 666 is powerless in and of itself. It is especially powerless as a phone number, unless of course, you want to call someone.

Shane Clainborne, founding member of The Simple Way and author, leads a powerful litany of prayer (click here for written form, you’ll have to click “more” under about this video) at the Catalyst conference in Atlanta.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akc_7O9A9-I]

HT gavin.

Apparently, my template doesn’t like having only photos. The top picture was taken on Christmas Eve, when Conner was 3 days old. The lower photo is from last night, and our first glimpse of Amy’s “little peanut,” as she calls him.

The NICU staff caring for Conner and helping his mom and dad are calling the tiny boy’s progress remarkable and unexpected today.  His breathing has improved dramatically and today he was removed from the ventilator, the sedating medication, and given a bit of caffeine to wake him up and get him breathing deeply on his own.  His trouble with low blood volume and jaundice are resolved as well.  He remains on a low level of supplemental oxygen.

His mom, Amy, says his eyes are open and they are very deep blue.  Tonight, she and Kris will get to see their son’s whole face without tubes or tape for the very first time.  Tomorrow the plan is to remove the umbilical line (like an IV) which will allow him to be held by his eager mom and dad.  Keep praying!  God is answering!

I am always astounded that our not-part-of-time-and-space Almighty Creator God took it upon himself to enter our time and space – he came from kairos (eternal time) to chronos (measured time). Never mind the incredible reality that he entered it in the most vulnerable form that is human possibility, an infant. For a season, God was vulnerable human flesh, dependent upon his faithful God-fearing human parents for everything he needed to grow, to learn, to thrive. For a time the Divine infant learned about divine love through Mary and Joseph. It boggles my mind, every single time that Mary could cradle God in her arms, doing all the things new moms do with their babies – nibbling his fingers, kissing his head, gazing into his eyes. It gives me shivers.

A number of years ago Stephen Curtis Chapman recorded a song that captures the unique nature of the baby who was God – it’s called “This Baby” and I’m posting this video and the lyrics as my Christmas reflection and my wish for a blessed Christmas.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCsud5X3A54]

Well, He cried when He was hungry,
Did all the things that babies do;
He rocked and He napped on His mother’s lap,
And He wiggled and giggled and cooed.
There were the cheers when He took His first step,
And the tears when He got His first teeth;
Almost everything about this little baby
Seemed as natural as it could be.

But this baby made the angels sing,
And this baby made a new star shine in the sky.
This baby had come to change the world.
This baby was God’s own son, this baby was like no other one.
This baby was God with us, this baby was Jesus.

And this baby grew into a young boy,
Who learned to read and write and wrestle with dad;
There was the climbin’ of trees and the scrapin’ of knees,
And all the fun that a boy’s born to have.
He grew taller and some things started changing,
Like His complexion and the sound of His voice;
There was work to be done as a carpenter’s son
And all the neighbors said He’s such a fine boy.

But this boy made the angels sing,
And this boy made a new star shine in the sky.
This boy had come to change the world.
This boy was God’s own son, this boy was like no other one.
This boy was God with us. This boy became a man,

And love made Him laugh and death made Him cry.
With the life that He lived and the death that He died,
He showed us heaven with His hands and His heart,
‘Cause this man was God’s own son.
This man was like no other one,
Holy and human right from the start.

This baby was God with us, this baby, this baby was Jesus; this baby was Jesus, this baby was Jesus.

It’s just after 11 am, the gifts are open and family members are scattered about paying attention to other people or activities.  I just poured myself another cup of Saving Grace (which is almost gone!) and the muffin bread is cooling. Deep breath…

I don’t believe in jinxes, but I certainly see the attraction of them as I said how much I enjoyed being with the young adults from Christ Church who are home for Christmas and promptly got some sort of stomach virus that kept me home from Christmas Eve service last night.  I wrapped the remaining gifts, arranged them under the tree and went to bed before the fam even got home.  I didn’t sleep well at all with the discomfort of the “bug” going on.  Morning came earlier than it might otherwise have (we actually used alarm clocks on Christmas morning!) because we had a 9:30 am appointment, of sorts, at which point Tom would arrive in his patrol car with our nephew, Eric, and we would open presents.  Tom nearly made it through opening gifts before he got a call about an 11-year-old runaway spotted on a city street nearby; that situation turned out ok.  Today is a day whereupon there will be a number of domestic situations like runaways and battery…  it’s a sad day to work.

So, Tom is back on patrol; Tim and Eric are playing Guitar Hero II, but will likely switch to their real electric guitars, a strat and Eric’s new Ibenez, soon enough; Cathie has gone to see our neighbors (really, their 8-year-old daughter, Abby) and will be back wanting to play with her brand new Dance Dance Revolution game, Supernova 2.

Me?  I’ll do some more baking and then get to cooking our dinner – brown sugar-glazed ham, baked white potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, and homemade macaroni and cheese.  We’re having cookies for dessert, too.  And, yes, my tummy is less angry today, so maybe I’ll even get to eat some of that!

That’s what yesterday felt like, seasonal chaos. Too much to do to meet too many expectations that I’m not sure from where they originate. Something I’m definitely thinking about today.

We went to church in the morning and it was the first time in a long time we felt like we belonged there. It only took me a little while to figure out why… the young people with whom I’d spent the most time – with whom there was considerable reciprocal investment in relationships, in community – were there. The happiness at seeing each of the members of their community, their group, was palpable, and we were part of that. It was warm, it was home, and I miss it deeply. I can ‘keep in touch’ with many of them through various means, but being together was priceless. Their joy and concern for Amy and her son, their love for one another, their excitement to hear news from each others’ lives, their intentional connecting with those they haven’t seen or whom they know have had hard times… it was beautiful… it was community.

Then it was on to my brother’s house (after he and a neighbor rescued us from a tree down across the road in the strong gusty winds) for a combination early-Christmas and niece’s 17th actual-birthday celebratory feast. Because of some odd and difficult dynamics brought on by one person’s choices and grudges, the best part of the evening was late as I and my brother and sister-in-law and our teenage kids we sat around the living room talking about all kinds of things – from future careers to silly stories and family history. We stayed way too late for someplace that is a dark and hour-long drive, but it was an enjoyable way to end the family day.

Today is slow getting started, but has a long list I feel like rebelling against. I need to go to the grocery store, there is house preparation and gift wrapping still to do. There is church at 7 pm.

All this makes me wonder if Jesus would want us to celebrate his incarnation this way at all, with pressure and expectations about things so foreign to him… with packed schedules… with exhausting paces…

Probably not.