But Why? Why Do We Celebrate Christmas?

When was the last time you really thought about why you celebrate Christmas? Oh, we celebrate… buy why do we? In this season where it seems the whole world jumps on board to decorate and sing songs of cheer and give gifts, doesn’t it seem a bit odd that though many can mouth the words, “to celebrate the birth of Christ”, they have no idea what they are really saying?

Doesn’t it strike you as a bit curious that when you ask people on the street what the true meaning of Christmas is they respond: revenue to get the end of the year sales up. Or, a time to celebrate with family and friends. Or, it’s where you get a lot of stuff in one day. And if you were to push that idea and ask why we get lots of stuff in one day, you would get, “because that’s what Christmas is all about.” Yeah, but why?

When was the last time you slowed down to really reflect on the why of Christmas?

There is a one verse in scripture that puts it rather succinctly: For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

There it is. Wrapped up in a single line. For God so loved the world that He gave….

Ponder that. God loved…He gave… Not just a little love… He so loved… One version says: God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son

God was way before Hallmark…but He cared enough to send the very best!!!

That’s good news in itself. God loved us enough to send the very best. Himself. That would be enough to celebrate right there. God comes to town!

Just His coming would be reason enough to celebrate!  But that’s not the end of the verse.  God had a purpose in coming.  He was on a mission.  He loved…and that prompted action.  He saw His newest planet go awry.  He watched as His youngest creation walked away from Him, following another of His wayward children into outright rebellion.

He cried as he heard the words, “We heard your voice and we were afraid…”

He knew, as every parent of a defiant teen knows, that unless drastic action was taken, this young world would be forever lost.  And so He came…  why?

…that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Ponder that.  I know you’ve heard the words a million times, but slow down a minute and reflect on what that means. Stop your conversation with your neighbor.  Stop trying to impress her.  Stop worrying about lunch. Stop your racing mind.  Just stop. //  And ponder the words that are as familiar as Christmas commercialism.

…that whoever believes in Him, should not perish…  What?  Perish from what?  What do you mean perish?  That’s such an ugly word…perish.  According to the dictionary it means to die, for example, because of harsh conditions or accident.  To come to an end or cease to exist.  Perish.

It is both of these definitions that John was trying to encapsulate with that one word.  Without help, you and I will die because of harsh conditions.  Sin created such harsh conditions, that you and I cannot endure it.  We will perish.  Which means that we will come to an end and cease to exist.  Bottom line…there was no hope of getting out alive.

But God wanted us to live.  In the middle of that cold hard reality, stop.  Stop and listen to what God says. 

God is saying—I LOVE YOU!!!  Ponder that.  I LOVE you.  I love YOU!

Let’s look at that whole verse:  For God (the greatest good) so loved (the greatest action) the world (the greatest need) that He gave (the greatest example) His only Son (the greatest sacrifice) that whoever (the greatest invitation) believes in Him (the greatest response) should not perish (the greatest fate) but have everlasting life (the greatest gift).

That’s the reality of the Christmas season.  To find the Christmas you’ve always longed for, you have to slow down for reflection.  Stop in the middle of the madness and reflect.  Ponder the love behind the greatest gift.  Think about the meaning of God coming down to this little speck in the universe.  Reflect on His invitation to you.  Step out of the rush and do some unhurried contemplation.   Reread the story.  Put yourself there.  Look and see the baby.  Smell the smells.  Hear the sounds.  Feel God’s love surround you.  Slow down for reflection.

And celebrate. Celebrate the Christ in Christmas.

And KNOW

In my last post, Breathe, we looked at the first part of a verse in Psalm 46.  "Be Still..."  Today, I would like to finish that verse..."and know that I am God."

We come to trust things and people in our lives only after they have been shown to be reliable.  Our lawnmowers, our computers, our cars, our appliances, even the pews you are sitting on, have all shown themselves to one degree or another, to be reliable.  How does that happen? We put our trust in them and use them until they prove themselves to be unreliable.  And as soon as we find them to be unreliable, we replace them.  Our 12 year old refrigerator had to be replaced because it became unreliable.  We didn’t know from one day to the next if it would be ice cold or toasty warm when we opened the door.  Ice cold, was freezing our food and toasty warm was ruining it. Eventually, it got to where it was more on the warm side and almost never cold. Cleaning the coils, replacing the thermostat and more didn’t solve the problem, so we decided it was time for a new one.  It is keeping things reliably cold.  We trust in the new one again…and we will continue to do so until it proves itself unreliable.

So what does a refrigerator have to do with being still and knowing He is God?  Great question.  I’m glad you asked.  First, many have come to view God as unreliable.  He didn’t answer my prayer.  He didn’t heal my dad.  He isn’t feeding the hungry.  He doesn’t protect the innocent from being killed and stuffed into a suitcase.  And on and on we go attempting to show how unreliable God is.  But if we were able to sweep back a curtain in order to view the supernatural realm, I bet we would be amazed that in every instance, the devil would look up surprised to find us looking at him as he seeks to maim, kill and destroy and then would point at God, blaming Him for not stopping the carnage.  And I bet if we could look closer, we would see a God who is always working to protect, yet within the bounds of respecting human freedom of choice, which the devil never respects.  He continues to push and cajole and tempt and pressure and persuade and lead us ever farther away from God…sometimes against our own free will, using our natural inclinations  toward sin against us.  God has always been reliable, even when the devil tries to make Him look otherwise.  God is ever-present.  Ever watching.  Ever-loving.

To truly understand this command of God to be still and know that He is God, as well as understand how to weather life’s storms, we must see this passage in it’s complete context.  

Psa. 46:0   For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.  1   God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,  3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.  5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.  6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.  7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth.  9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.  10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

 

Do  you see it?  Do you see the main reason He wants us to learn to be still?  When life is uncertain, when everything in your world is going wrong, when we come to the end of time, when we don’t know which way to turn, when things are crumbling all around us and it seems like we are totally going down, God says…don’t panic.  Don’t freak out.  Don’t go running around spewing forth a stream of hopelessness as if all is lost and freaking everyone else out.  He says: Be still, and KNOW that I…Am…GOD.  Not you.  Me.  You don’t have to control this, He says, I’ve got it.  You  be still!  You rest in me.  You don’t lose hope and grow discouraged.  Be still.  Breathe.  Pray. Inhale. Obey Exhale.  And I will bring a renewed sense of hope, courage and peace into the chaos.  Breathe.  Pray. Inhale.  Obey. Exhale.  Don’t worry about anyone else and how they are doing with me.  Worry about you.  And if I ask you to share with someone…obey.  Be still. Pray. Obey.

We may not know what will happen, but we can be at peace because we know that no matter what happens,  God is still God and has all things under His control.  Be still and know that He is God.

Breathe!!!

Have you noticed that not being able to breathe stirs up panic feelings in us? I’m a lifelong asthmatic and I know what it feels like not to breathe.  It’s scary.  It can create a lot of anxiety.  But the worst and most frantic time I remember was the swim meet my Senior year of academy. 

I was entered in the long-distance race.  The year before, since no one else had signed up for it, I had volunteered and much to everyone’s surprise, including my own, I had won it by almost a pool length.   So this year, I was favored to win.  It was 4 laps or 8 lengths of the pool.  The whistle blew and we all dove in.  I took the lead very early, and continued to hold the lead through the first three laps.  I made the turn to start my last lap and pushed off of the wall, and was over halfway down the pool,  when suddenly my whole body seized up.  Just froze in mid-stroke.  One arm was locked above my head and the other was down at my waist and nothing would move.  I remember looking up at my classmates lining the pool and hearing them scream, “Swim.  Swim!” 

But I couldn’t move.  And then, I began to sink.  I couldn’t even breathe in or scream out.  Just quietly began to sink with my muscles rigid and locked.  I remember my feet going down, then my head just silently slipping under the water.  My eyes wouldn’t even close as the pool water stung them.  I felt myself going farther and farther down in the deep end of the pool and could do absolutely nothing to help myself. I felt both anxious and overwhelmed.  I desperately wanted to breathe, but could not get back to the surface to save my own life.

Finally, after what seem like minutes, though I’m sure it was only seconds, one of my classmates dove in, came to the bottom and pulled me up to the surface.  As I broke the surface, my lungs inhaled sharply and it broke the muscle spasm which had gripped my whole body.  They pulled me out of the pool, and I just lay there on the sidewalk and gasped for air.  Let me tell you, not breathing creates a lot of anxiety.

We talk a lot about our need for prayer, about how good prayer is, about how necessary it is to our spiritual walk, yet we seldom seem to take the time to pray.  It has been said that prayer is the breath of the soul.  If this is so, then perhaps the reason we so often feel anxious or overwhelmed in life is because we are not breathing! 

In order to do away with the anxiety and panic in our lives, we must allow our souls to breathe deeply.  And one of the primary reasons we are not breathing deeply enough is because we are not still long enough to do so.  “Be still”, God says.  Being still is the first requisite to breathing well. 

When difficulties come; breathe.  When it feels like life is going to run you over; breathe.  When you feel uncertain or scared or anxious; breathe.

Ellen White, in her book Desire of Ages, page 667, says,  “The path of sincerity and integrity is not a path free from obstruction, but in every difficulty we are to see a call to prayer. There is no one living who has any power that he has not received from God, and the source whence it comes is open to the weakest human being. {DA 667.4}

Thankfulness as a way of Life

When bad things happen, we rarely challenge our own thoughts as to their rightness or wrongness.  We simply assume that if we thought them, they must be right.  We have the arrogance to believe that we are the final authority on what we see and we have little room for a change in perspective. We hold to our own opinions so tightly that we refuse to see any possibility that we just might be wrong.

A life of ingratitude is the result.  Nothing that happens around us can then be good enough to suit us.  Nothing is worthy of our lofty heights, and it is easy to dismiss it all with a sweep of the hand as being beneath us.  Then, when trouble comes, it is also very easy to fall into a victim’s role rather than a student’s role.

We complain and cry that life isn’t fair and that we don’t deserve all of this pain and often conclude that if there is a God, He must hate us to put us through all of this misery.  In short, our perspective has become our god.  And our perspective is what causes us to either make thankfulness a way of life or miss out on it.

Either we see things from a perspective of being grateful, or from a perspective that leaves us wanting more and feeling like we not only deserve it, but that we are getting ripped off it we don’t get it.

Many of us are growing past the material side of things.  That is, we’ve seen that more material possessions won’t make us any happier, but we still want more.  We never seem to be satisfied.  A new computer. A new car.  A new sofa. A new job.  A new house.  You may say, “Nope…I’m satisfied.  Don’t want any of that.”

What about more power?  More influence?  More skill?  More money for the job you are being asked to do?  Nope…not me.  I’m happy.  Well…maybe a little more money.  But really, I’m good.

More intimacy in my marriage.  More time for doing what I want.  More respect.  More love.  More appreciation from others.  Are we getting closer to home?

We spend our lives thinking if only we had more of something then we’d be happy.  And while we know that’s not necessarily true, the fact is, we are right.  We do need more of something.  The catch is having more… of the right stuff.

If we only had more of Jesus in our lives, we would be.  If we had more trust in Divine power and less trust in ourselves, we would be more settled.  If we had more belief that God really did love us and has our best interest in mind and less doubt, we could learn to relax in His care.  Again, it’s a matter of perspective.  And where do we get that perspective?  Let’s go to the Word.

Phil 4:6-7 NIV  6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Phil. 4:6-7 NLT    Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I like the way that reads, don’t you?  It makes it readily understandable. Look at verse 6 again.   Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. This is the part we looked at a few weeks ago when we were talking about worry.  Don’t worry, instead pray.  Now let’s look a little more closely at this last part of verse 6.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 

It is not wrong to have needs.  God knows what you need—but He wants to hear from you.  He wants you to articulate what you need.  Not just what you want, but what your needs are.  See—we so often tell God what we want that we’ve often confused the two.  And there is nothing wrong with telling God what you want—but remember that He has only promised to supply what you need, though often He will go far beyond that to supply some of the wants as well.

Tell God what you need.  Do you really know what you need?  Is it truly more money?  Or is it a more trusting heart in God and a willingness to watch His provision?

Is it for your loved one to be healed?  Or is it for you to learn to yield yourself to the will of God?  Which do you want and which do you really need?

Is it for your kids to be kept safe physically or spiritually?  Sure we want our kids to be kept safe physically—but we need our kids to be kept safe spiritually.

The very act of determining our wants from our real needs can help change our perspective. Tell God what you NEED.  Not worrying—praying.  Tell Him what you need, and then look at the last statement of the verse: and thank Him for all He has done.  Go back and recount what God has already done for you.  Not just a blanket, generic, “Thank you for all your many blessings”, but where you begin to realize that He has provided for so many of your needs and wants, starting with your greatest need—salvation, and working from there.  The perspective of gratitude gives you purpose.

 You and I can live our days with that purpose because there was One who took our diseases upon Himself, and our worst disease, sin, was enough to do Him in—not because He had to die.  He was perfectly healthy in every way.  It was we who were sick and doomed to die.  But when He began to do a character transplant, our sickness required so much of Him that it cost His very life.   With that realization should come gratitude that changes the way we live our lives.

Phil. 4:6-7 NLT    Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  (Then notice the by-product.) 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Those four statements can change your world. Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need.  And thank Him for all He has done.

That’s how you develop thankfulness as a way of life.  And the thing you are looking for becomes reality.  Peace.  You can have God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  And it is His peace that will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Don’t worry.   Pray. Tell God what you need.  Thank him for what He has done.  That will change your perspective.  And that will bring you peace in your life.

Look Again, For the Very First Time

I wish you had never heard the story of Jesus.  I wish you were hearing it for the first time.   I really wish that you hadn’t heard the story before,  simply because many of us have heard it so many times before that we have lost the wonder of the story.   We have grown so familiar with the details of the story, that we have lost our sense of awe.  It has grown to be common place, and we end up thinking, “Oh, yeah…I’ve heard this all before!”  And in so doing, we lose a chance at being amazed once again by the incredible story of Jesus.   I want you to be amazed again.  I want you to have that sense of awe and wonder.  I want you to stand with eyes wide and mouth open as you hear the story of Jesus and salvation.  So today, let’s play that old game of pretend.  Let’s pretend that you have never heard the story before.  Let’s put ourselves into parts of the story.   Let’s look again, for the very first time at the story of Jesus.  Are you ready to pretend?  Here we go…

Your name is Peter.  You’re a sanguine.  You enter a room mouth first.  You’re big, strong and foul-mouthed.  You can cuss any sailor under the table, because you are a sailor.  A fishing sailor.  Everyone knows who you are because at the tavern, you can tell the crustiest jokes.  At the docks, as you sort fish, you can make most other fishermen blush with your language.  Your wife is forever getting mad at you for being so crude, but she can’t help but love you since you are so big-hearted and caring. Honest too.  Perhaps it is these last characteristics that were the ones Jesus was looking at when He called you to follow Him, but unlikely, with all of your other character flaws.   Certainly everyone else is shocked.  A wharfman and a rabbi hanging out together?   Definitely not a rabbi from around here.  He wouldn’t want someone like you making his class of pupils look bad.  You stick out like a bad apple.  But, look again.   There He is motioning to you saying, Follow me.

Your name is Mary.  You’re a hooker.  A street-walker.  A prostitute.  Nobody at the church wants you hanging out in front of the entrance, and you assume that if the church people don’t want you, their God doesn’t want you either.  You watch from your corner as the people leave the evening service, giving you cold glares as they walk by or drive off.  Not a problem for you.  You’re not wanting what they have to give anyway.  You’re waiting for a certain someone to come out of the church.  Here he comes now.  One of the Pastoral staff.   He shakes hands with the last of the parishioners and watches as they disappear around the corner.  He locks the building and then looks your way.  You’ve seen that look hundreds of times before.  The look of a man hungry with lust.   He looks around to make sure that no one is watching and then gives you the signal.   You leave your corner and head for your previously arranged meeting place a few blocks away.  By the time you get there, he is already inside and waiting.  You are barely undressed when the door comes smashing in.  It’s the rest of the pastoral team.  Grabbing you, dragging you from the bed as you clutch at sheets and try to cover yourself, they half-lift, half-drag you out into the streets.

Your mind is swirling.  This is it. This time you lose. Set up by the pastors. You know the rules.  You mess around and get caught, you die. You’ve played the odds and this time you lose.  You’ve been in and out of a hundred beds, and so you figure it must be your time to go.

Inwardly  you cry for a God to save you.  But why would He?  His people know you’re scum.  His Word says that an unfaithful woman should be stoned.  No.  No use crying out to Him.  Take the punishment with as much dignity as you can muster.   Suddenly you are flung in front of the Teacher, your sheet being ripped away as you hit the dusty street.  Curling up you try to cover yourself from all of the laughter and leering eyes as the pastors say, “Teacher, Moses and the law say that we should stone this woman.  What do you say?”

You know what any holy man will be forced to say and you brace yourself for the rocks.  Abruptly, you realize that all has grown quiet and then you hear the question.  “Woman, where are your accusers?”  Looking up slowly from your curled up position, you realize no one else is around. It is just you and Jesus.  He is taking His outer cloak and covering you.  You respond, “I don’t see anyone, Lord.”   And then His response takes you totally by surprise, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go and leave your life of sin.”  You look again.  And you see for the very first time that He is smiling.

Your name is Jairus.  You’ve come a long way to find Jesus.  Your only daughter is dying.  The doctors have all given up and you’ve taken her home to die.  But somehow, you just can’t give up without trying everything.  One of your servants has seen Jesus heal and suggests that if you could just find Jesus and have him come, your daughter might not die.  You search frantically, from one town to the next.  The reports are all the same.  “You just missed Him.  He was here about 2 days ago and healed most of the people in the town.”  Hope grows stronger, while on the other side of the emotional roller coaster, you become frantic as you realize that you are a few days behind him.  You redouble your efforts, trying to reach Him and get Him home before it is too late.   Finally, you come racing in to a town and discover a large crowd of people gathered around.  This must be Jesus.    Pushing your way through the crowd, you come face to face with Him.   “Master, you must come now!”  The urgency is in your voice as you try to get Jesus to follow you back through the crowd.   He motions for you to lead and begins to follow.  You look back and realize that He has stopped and is asking who touched Him.  You turn back to urge Him to hurry when one of your servants rides up to the edge of the crowd on horseback and motions for you.

You can tell by the look on his face that it’s too late.   “Don’t trouble the Master any further,” he says,  “She’s dead.”   Grief wrenches your soul and you slump to the ground. The If only’s come. If only you had found Him quicker.  If only He had been closer to your home.  If only she had held on for a little while longer.  If only there were no crowds to slow Him down.”

A hand on your shoulder jars you  back to reality.  “Don’t worry, just believe.”   Jesus helps you to your feet and begins walking towards your town, He and his disciples helping you as you stumble along in a haze of grief.  You sleep little that night, and the next day is a blur as you head home.  As you come near your house, the mourner’s are there in full force.  It really hits home.  She’s dead.  Jesus simpy quiets them and says, “Don’t mourn.  She’s sleeping.”  Laughter meets His statement.   How can Jesus mock your pain with such a statement.   You enter to find  your wife weeping and lying across the bed holding the lifeless form of your daughter.   Jesus gently lifts her and you rush to hold her, to hold each other, as Jesus now looks at the little body on the bed.

Gently, yet with authority he says, “Little girl, I say to you arise!”  Her eyes flutter open as you heart beats wildly.  Your wife screams with joy and leaps toward the bed as your beloved daughter sits up.  Suddenly the three of you are laughing, crying, talking, hugging, kissing, and marveling at what just happened.  You look again…and He is gone.

Do any of these stories get your attention?  Do any of them make you say, “Wow, so that’s what God is like?”  Do they amaze you?  Do they warm your heart? Time and time again in scripture, we see Him healing the sick, opening blind eyes, giving legs to the lame, and raising the dead.  Stuff that would knock our socks off if we saw it today, but we have grown so used to the stories that we can barely muster a “ho-hum” as we stifle a yawn.  Look again, for the very first time.  Jesus is simply amazing.

Where’s the wonder?  Where’s the awe?  He chose a loud, foul-mouthed fisherman to be one of His main mouthpiece to share the good news of the Gospel.  He had no back up plan.  If Peter and the others failed, the story would not be shared.  Doesn’t that blow you away?  Look again and remember; if He can use Peter, He will use you.

He restored a broken-down woman, caught in the middle of her sin.  A sin worthy of stoning, and turned back her accusers with a line, “he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”  And then wrote their sins in the dirt to remind them that there is not one righteous.  Doesn’t that bring you hope?  If He can forgive Mary, he can forgive you.

And this one absolutely blows my mind.  He took a lifeless form and gave it life.  How many funerals have you seen that one happen at?  One minute you have a corpse, the next minute a dancing little girl. One minute you have parents mourning the loss of their only child, and the next minute they are weeping for joy and laughing all at the same time.  Which really pumps me.  If He can raise Jairus’s daughter, He can raise my dad!  And He can raise your loved ones that have fallen asleep in Jesus.  

But those are only three stories.  Jesus always does the amazing thing.  He puts aside Divinity to take on the form of a baby.  He works for 30 years as a carpenter.  God. A carpenter.  He feeds 20,000 with a few loaves and fish.  He walks on water.  He calms storms with a word.  He meets demon-possessed people and leaves them demon-free, sending the demons into pigs.  He called the most unlikely people to do the most unbelievable.  He loves. He forgives.  He laughs with people.  That’s amazing.  A God that not only loves us, but one that likes us and is willing to sit down to supper with the worst of us.  And enjoy our company.  Look again.  When was the last time you saw this Jesus?  When was the last time you were amazed?

The Overflow of the Heart

A friend will treat you with respect. 

M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum , tells an interesting story that illustrates this point.

There was once an old monastery that had fallen upon hard times. Centuries earlier, it had been a thriving center where many dedicated monks lived and worked and had great influence on the realm. But now only five monks lived there, and they were all over seventy years old. This was clearly a dying order.

A few miles from the monastery lived an old hermit who many thought was a prophet. One day as the monks agonized over the impending demise of their order, they decided to visit the hermit to see if he might have some advice for them. Perhaps he would be able to see the future and show them what they could do to save the monastery.

The hermit welcomed the five monks to his hut, but when they explained the purpose of their visit, the hermit could only commiserate with them. “Yes, I understand how it is,” said the hermit. “The spirit has gone out of the people. Hardly anyone cares much for the old things anymore.”

“Is there anything you can tell us,” the abbot inquired of the hermit, “that would help us save the monastery?”

“No, I’m sorry,” said the hermit. “I don’t know how your monastery can be saved. The only thing that I can tell you is that one of you is an apostle of God.”

The monks were both disappointed and confused by the hermit’s cryptic statement. They returned to the monastery, wondering what the hermit could have meant by the statement, “One of you is an apostle of God.” For months after their visit, the monks pondered the significance of the hermit’s words.

“One of us is an apostle of God,” they mused. “Did he actually mean one of us monks here at the monastery? That’s impossible. We are all too old. We are too insignificant. On the other hand, what if it’s true? And if it is true, then which one of us is it?”

One monks’s contemplation was similar to the four others’: “Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant the abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation. On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man—a man of wisdom and light. He couldn’t have meant Brother Elred. Elred gets crotchety at times and is difficult to reason with. On the other hand, he is almost always right. Maybe the hermit did mean Brother Elred. But surely he could not have meant Brother Phillip. Phillip is so passive, so shy—a real nobody. Still, he’s always there when you need him. He’s loyal and trustworthy. Yes, he could have meant Phillip. Of course, the hermit didn’t mean me. He couldn’t possibly have meant me. I’m just an ordinary person. Yet, suppose he did? Suppose I am an apostle of God? Oh God, not me. I couldn’t be that much for you. Or could I?”

As they continued to mull the hermit’s words, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one of them might actually be an apostle of God. And on the off-off chance that he himself might be the apostle spoken of by the hermit, each monk began to treat himself with extraordinary respect.

Because the monastery was situated in a beautiful forest, many people came there to picnic on its tiny lawn and to walk on its paths, and even now and then to go into the tiny chapel to meditate. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out of them, permeating the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, people began to come back to the monastery more frequently to picnic, to play, to pray. They began to bring their friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends.

As more and more visitors came, some of the younger men started to talk with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them. Then another. And another. Within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and, thanks to the hermit’s gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality throughout the realm.

Sometimes, just like the old monks, we ask, “How can we train kids to become people of character? Or perhaps you’re just asking,  "How can we get some new life in our marriage and grow, both emotionally and spiritually?” Perhaps the answer has to do with how we regard each other. How do we treat each other? Are we always putting each other down and creating an atmosphere of criticism and negativism? Or are we treating each other with extraordinary dignity and respect?

Jesus said in Matt. 12:33-35     “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 

What is your mouth telling others about what is in your heart?