I usually fight an annual holiday hangover of sorts just after Christmas and New Year’s Eve are through.  Once the gifts are unwrapped and the lights and trees and other decorations are due to be packed away for another year, I’m ready for the snow and the cold to go with them.  I feel the let-down of the energy and excitement and enthusiasm that is such a gift and blessing during the holidays and it doesn’t take much for the “winter blahs” and the “cabin fever” and the “holiday hangover” to creep up on me.

It’s like what I know happens to many new parents after the birth of a child, come to think of it.  Once those initial days, weeks and maybe even months of life with a newborn are over, the reality of it all sinks in.  Those newborn coos which were such soft, small whimpers before, turn into louder, increasingly demanding, cries for more than just something to eat.  And when they do eat, they require more than just mother’s milk or a bottle of formula.  Actual food has to be more thoughtfully prepared to their liking.  And then come the days when they no longer stay where you left them.  They begin to crawl and walk and interrupt the order – and organization – of things all around them, demanding ever-increasing amounts of time, energy and vigilance.

Which gets to my point when it comes to all we’ve just celebrated as Christians at Christmas.  A baby has been born for us.  A gift has been given to us.  Yes, the celebration of it all often comes surrounded by vacation days and grand gatherings and all sorts of time for reflection, worship and special celebrations.  So it can be sad to see it end.

But every year, I remind myself that the gift of it all means to send us going and growing into the world to bear the news of what has been received.  Check out the rest of this site to see the ways we’re up to that at Cross of Grace, and dive into some aspect of it with the rest of us.  There really is no time – or need – for a holiday hangover here.

God has come.  Jesus has been born.  We’ve celebrated and shared that good news in some holy and righteous ways.  Now we are blessed to get on with life, letting this child grow in, through and among us as we worship, learn and serve in the light of God’s grace, which is ours to nourish for the sake of the world.

Happy New Year,

+Mark

In preparation for our Australian vacation, compliments of Oprah, Christa and I have begun receiving some clues about what we’re in for and about how we might prepare for our trip.  For starters, we’ve been given a list of words and phrases common to Aussies down under, but entirely new to me.

Apparently, Australians abbreviate and combine words whenever possible.  For example, “footy” refers to any variety of European football, like rugby or soccer.  “Journo” means journalist, “mozzies” are mosquitoes, and a “middy” is a medium-sized glass of beer.  “Back of beyond,” “way out in the bush,” and “in the never never” are all euphemisms for telling someone you’re out in the middle of nowhere.  While I don’t expect to come back from my vacation with a convincing Aussie accent, among so many other things, I imagine it will be fun to learn some of these new words and phrases.

Of course, words are as powerful as they are fun, and that’s really what I’m getting at.

At Christmas, we are invited to ready ourselves for a new Word to enter, not just our vocabulary and our vernacular, but to enter into the very heart of who we are as believers.  John’s gospel says, about the coming of Jesus, that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  …And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

The message of Christmas is that God didn’t know any better way to say that we are loved and cherished, forgiven and redeemed, than to be born in the person of Jesus Christ.  Humanity needed to see our salvation.  We needed to welcome eternity into our daily lives.  We needed to have this Word of grace and truth spoken into the world by one of us so that we could believe it really was for our sake.

One great hope for the Church every time Christmas rolls around, of course, is that this time we’ll hear it; that this time we’ll believe it; that this time we’ll be changed by grace and truth to such a degree that the beauty and gift of it all will transform us and change the world, as God intended from the beginning.  Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

+Mark

[In many ways, the story of my good fortune with Oprah and our pending vacation to Australia, is old news already.  I’m wary of belaboring it, and hope you’ll indulge me by reading what follows.]

After the big “reveal,” when the confetti fell, the banners dropped, John Travolta stepped out of the Qantas plane onstage and the crowd went wild, Oprah cut to commercial.  As the audience collected itself, Oprah talked about some of what was to come, about how much she had been looking forward to this and about some of the details we could expect in the days ahead.

And even though she told us we wouldn’t be leaving for our trip until December, she said our vacation really started at that moment because, according to someone whose name I missed, “happiness is having something to look forward to.”

And I like that idea.  It seems like Truth to me.  Think about planning a party, or having one on your calendar to attend.  Consider the anticipation that comes when a young couple realizes a baby is in their future.  Think about a child’s impatience waiting for Christmas morning or the way they long for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa.

Happiness is having something to look forward to.  And, as relevant as it may be to my time “Down Under” with Oprah, I think it’s a gift of the gospel for Christian people, just the same.

Every one of us has the promise of eternity in our future.  It’s not something scheduled on our calendar.  It’s not something we can pack or plan or prepare for entirely.  It’s not something or some place we know everything about.

But it’s a promise from God, through Jesus Christ, about “the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting,” which means to fill us with joy and give us hope – not just somewhere down the road at the end of our days, but that means to bring joy to our daily lives, here and now, because of the freedom we’re offered in the promise.

Happiness is, indeed, having something to look forward to.  Part of what’s making me happy these days is looking ahead to Australia, in December.  I can’t deny that.  But faith’s perspective promises joy for my life long after this vacation is over, or the next party comes and goes, and throughout whatever else God has in store for me all along the way.

G’day,

+Mark

My wife and I read to our sons every night before we put them to bed.  And, of course, the boys have their favorite books and stories they prefer.  Jackson, at six years old, is obsessed with the Magic Tree House, a series of 40 or more chapter books that we make our way through one at a time.  Each book takes us through adventures of all kinds, from the volcanic destruction of Pompei to the Civil War, and Jackson can’t wait to finish each book so we can move onto the next.

Max, the three year old, is a different story.  With a library full of a variety of books, his repertoire is surprisingly limited.  If it’s up to him, he’ll choose the same Toy Story or Peter Pan book every night of the week.  He’s seen the movies enough to already know how the stories end.  Even though he can’t read, you might not know that by the way he finishes my sentences as I yawn my way through those picture books night after night after night.  In spite of all of that, Max still smiles, giggles and pays attention as though these stories hold as much adventure and suspense as they did the first time around.

I can only guess that it’s because he’s still watching and learning and caring about what he sees and hears on the page.  He still notices something new every time.  He still thinks the jokes are as funny as they were the first time he heard them.  He still likes to remind me about what’s going to happen next and he still likes to point out his favorite part, no matter how many times he’s told me about it.

I wish each of us approached the Bible like my boys engage their books.

We’re beginning a new year of Christian education at Cross of Grace.  On Sunday, September 12^th, we’ll begin another year of Grace Quest and Sunday school and Adult Forums.  Throughout September, there will be new opportunities for Women’s Bible Study, Men’s Bible Study, the Bethel Bible Series, CrossRoads classes for new members, Faith Formation for Teens and Soup, Salad and Scripture studies, too.  These opportunities call us to engage Holy Scripture with all the interest, enthusiasm, joy and humility that is meant to be ours as children of God.

Like Max and Jackson, I hope we realize there is so much more to learn.  I hope we’re able to notice something new about God’s grace in our lives.  I pray we’ll learn to point out our favorite parts of the story for the world around us.  And I trust the grace of God we share through our learning together, will make us smile again and again – or for the first time, even – no matter how often we’re bless to hear about it.

Please pray about how, where and when God is calling you to open the Bible and be changed by the grace that unfolds within its pages.

See you in class,

+Mark