PIECES ON EARTH AND GOOD GRIEF TOWARD MEN

Merry Christmas,  blog-Friends! I’m hoping for a WHITE one, but with or without snow, I hope yours is safe and healthy and BIGGER than what’s under the tree!

As well-established Christmas tradition dictates, I watched It’s a Wonderful Life last Saturday. It is indeed a classic. Every time I watch it, I find something new. I’m sure the “new” I find from year to year has to do with what it is I’m dealing with from year to year, but I digress. 

Anyway, if you haven’t yet seen it, rent it!

As Clarence, the Angel was instructed: “Memorize that face, that’s George Bailey.” 

George Bailey, played by the unforgettable Jimmy Stewart, had the pieces of his life all planned out: 

• get out of Bedford Falls, 
• travel to exotic places, and 
• make his mark on the world. 

Due to circumstances beyond his control (but not beyond his good character)

• he never leaves Bedford Falls, 
• doesn’t travel to exotic places, but, in the end, 
• learns that he has definitely made his mark on the world. 

Clarence shows him what Bedford Falls would have been if George Bailey had never been. George thought that he was insignificant, or worse... he was wrong.

What would you do if you could get a peek at “the world without  (((YOU))) “? 

Would you "do life’ any differently than you are doing it now? Are you aware of your relevance? Are you aware that NO ONE can fill your shoes? Can you think RIGHT NOW of people whose lives could have taken a different turn if you had not been there? 

I’m not suggesting that you plan an exotic ego trip - it might be disappointingly short! 
I am suggesting that you assess the gift of life that is yours. George Bailey got to look at it, and so can you  - consider it a belated Thanksgiving present!

~~~

I’ve written in the past about the First Christmas. TALK about insignificant and unnoticed! 

Nobody ‘noticed’ anything - everybody was in town for the census, and all they wanted to do was fulfill their legal duty and get back home. Some invested a week’s worth of travel to get there and back, which meant a week away from employment and income. This census was very inconvenient.

The streets were bustling with out-of-towners, and the local merchants were busy taking their money. No one had time to notice an insignificant young couple looking for lodging... plus she was VERY pregnant. The innkeepers’ wives certainly knew what that meant: delivery of a baby, SOON! NOT convenient. NO, you are not welcome here.

The animals in the stable may have noticed, but only that there was a strange donkey eating their hay. The two humans were nothing more than out of place. 

You had to get way out of town to find anyone who noticed or cared, out to the fields where shepherds were doing what they always did: “Keeping watch over their flocks by night.” Shepherds themselves were extremely “unnoticed”. Not even at a societal echelon where they were permissible witnesses in a court of law, these laborers were outcasts, socially and geographically. But they noticed...

How could they help but notice?  An angel came to tell them that the Saviour of the world was going to be born that night, right down the hill in Bethlehem.  

“... uh, Eli, is that an angel?”

“Yeah, Samuel, that’s an angel.”

Then, as if one angel wasn’t enough, “suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”. And the shepherds got a light-and-sound show that the world has never seen since. You know  they noticed, and then they headed for Bethlehem to find their Saviour.

But as they walked, they may have wondered “Why us? We’re not respected, we’re not accepted, people don’t even look at us. Why should Heaven give us this information?”

Are you ever made to feel insignificant? ineligible? unworthy? less than? left out of the information? the plan? the attention? the love?

Let me tell you The Truth: 

Such exclusion and condescension are NOT  from Heaven! 

Heaven knows The Truth: that you are uniquely created and every hour of your life is valuable. As a matter of fact, you are so valuable that Someone died so that you could live forever...with Him... in Heaven... forever... as in beyond Time. 

In another Christmas Classic, The Charlie Brown Christmas Special, Charlie Brown is made to feel that his efforts - 

to direct the Christmas play, to select a proper tree - 
are failures. He ‘knows’ there’s something wrong with him, 

but he’s worried that there’s something wrong with Christmas, 
until Linus recites story of the First Christmas from the gospel of Luke in the Bible. 

There’s nothing wrong with Christmas, providing you are looking at the right Peace. 

Baby Jesus is not in the manger anymore. 

... or hadn’t you noticed?

Good Grief, pay attention!

... and Merry Christmas!

Nourishing, Chocolately Encouragement

I recently returned from the second annual New England Christian Writers' Retreat (find them on Facebook at New England Christian Writers Retreat to learn of future events) in Plainfield, NH. Surrounded by the colorful foliage, I even found myself crossing one of New Hampshire's famous covered bridges. Singing Hills Conference Center is (seemingly) in the middle of beautiful Nowhere, the perfect setting for quiet creativity, refreshing encouragement, and snack-fueled fellowship. We alums were returning for more of what we'd first tasted last year. Invited by the organizers to serve, we filled such integral capacities as taking registration, staffing the snack and book tables, and giving the morning devotional. I brought the Proverbs 31 Woman to deliver that message, and again offer my undying thanks to Nicole Johnson for her brilliant scriptwriting.

Among our teachers/facilitators/hosts were authors Tessa Afshar, Lucinda Secrest McDowell, Cecil Murphey, publisher Karen Porter, viral-blogger Lori Stanley Roeveld, and Broadway theatre critic Lauren Yarger. (Please forgive me if I've omitted your name from this list - I arrived late Friday, so missed the first day of workshops.) Each and every one of the leaders was generously helpful and willingly available throughout the weekend, at meals, in front of the fireplace, for one more cup of coffee in the dining hall. The theme that ran through all the keynote speeches and breakout sessions was "Be honest, be transparent, and you'll become the writer you're called to be."

Several of the attendees brought their own books to sell - something I aspire to! - and among others, I picked up Karen Porter's book entitled "I'll Bring the Chocolate"(Irresistible!). I'm reading it this morning, watching oak leaves and pine needles fall in my back yard, and sipping my second mug of Café Mocha. 

I'm on the chapter about Chocolate-Kiss Encouragement. This chapter opens with a quote by Lucy Van Pelt who says, "All you really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." Indeed it doesn't! To paraphrase the New Testament book of First Corinthians, chapter 13, 

"Encouragement is patient, encouragement is kind, encouragement is sometimes just quiet, sitting  beside you, and listening if you need to talk, or just being there if you don't…"

Encouragement reflects the encourager's faith and brings hope to the "encouragee" (is that a word?). Hope despite the circumstances, hope despite 'sight', hope despite public opinion offers a view of a brighter, resolved, promising future. 

Let's put it this way: Job's "comforters" should have quit at the end of Chapter Two. They are NOT in the Encouragers Hall of Fame.

Encouragement says "I care". Direct sales companies train new recruits that "Your customers don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." If they see how smart you are about your product, they may be impressed, but they won't buy. But if they see how committed you are to help them, answer a need, and provide a product that will meet that need, they will buy, and then they'll go out and tell other people to buy from you too.

Coincidentally, I recently had a rather energized discussion with a preacher friend on this very subject. I held that his audience needs to know how much he cares in order for his message to reach them. He contended that if the message was adequately compelling in itself - The Word of God, for example - it doesn't matter who delivers it. Ok, ok, I conceded, selling burpable plastic storage boxes is not the same as sharing the Gospel. 
(As I drove away from his door, my cell phone rang. "You know I care for the people I preach to, don't you?" Oh, yes, my friend, of that I am absolutely sure!)

Encouragement is difficult via social media, especially if you're bringing the chocolate. So if you can't pull up a chair, at least pull up a phone.

I've always loved it that Barnabbas' mom named him "son of encouragement". 
What a cool name! 

I'm really curious about what she named his sister… 
since, let's face it, she would have been the one bringing the chocolate...