The Quiet

Quiet reigns on campus this morning as Christmas break officially started yesterday. Soft Christmas Carols are playing in my office as I sit and wonder just where this year has gone.

It has gone unbelievably fast and will soon be only a memory with its events recorded in our personal history books. And yet, we find ourselves here again. Christmas. All the lights, the commercialism, the clogged parking lots, the TV commercials calling us to buy, buy, buy. And with relatives coming, or with us traveling to see others, we long for it to be a Hallmark Christmas and hope that our family can stay away from any hot button topics. And all of that simply adds stress to the season. And as if that weren't enough, we still have 4 more gifts to buy and a few more holiday parties to attend.

We have certainly learned how to celebrate haven't we? We take a good thing and add others expectations along with our own expectations, and pile them high and deep...and then collapse under the weight of them.

But perhaps this year, maybe just for a short while, we should ponder that it just might be possible that the Christmas season should actually be more about the Quiet. Perhaps we should say, "Be still my soul and ponder the richness of life." Ponder the things that have happened this year that have brought joy, or perhaps the things that have brought pain, yet pain that was beneficial for your own growth.


Perhaps you and I should make it a point to rediscover the Quiet. Take a few moments to sit quietly outside on a clear night and just drink in the view of the stars. Or get up early and make a cup of your favorite hot beverage and sit staring out the window and just be quiet. And ponder. And along with all of your other ponderings, ponder this: There is a God who loves you beyond words. He loved you so much that He chose to come in the form of a Baby. To the quiet of a barn stall. With animals as the only observers.

It is almost unimaginable. Almost. But try. In the Quiet.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ponderings on Priorities, Projects and People

Lately life has been coming fast and furious at me.  A meeting here, a seminar there, and my 35th alumni homecoming (THAT was fun...but exhausting) Then there are mission trips to be planned, baptisms to conduct and board meetings to chair.  Not to mention all of the people who need a listening ear.  And last week we had a slew of tornadoes that took down quite a few church members trees and that resulted in a few days of chainsaw ministry.  Not to mention the regular everyday stuff of life--oh--and let's not forget TAXES!  (Yes I did procrastinate, thank-you, because of all of this other stuff.)

Point being, it seems as if there is always something to do or someone wanting a piece of my time or energy.  And that's all good.  But it is also wearisome.  Most days I'm up to the task, but some days I just want to hide and do nothing.  I want to simply pull the covers over my head and wish the world to go away.  But I don't because I know I would be further behind.


So yesterday, I'm in my truck driving back from an action-packed, fast-moving seminar up in the Scenic City on how to manage multiple priorities, projects and deadlines, and I'm thinking about how I have a lot of work to do to be up to the incredible efficiency levels of many others in the class, and then it hits me:  Maybe I'm not supposed to manage multiple priorities, projects and deadlines all the time.  Maybe not even much of the time.  As a matter of fact, maybe it isn't God's intent that I manage them at all, especially if it means I devalue people.

Yet I do it too often.  I get so intent on priorities, projects and deadlines that sometimes I push people right out of my picture.  I begin to see them as annoying interruptions to my day or something that simply sidetracks or delays me from being "really productive". 

And so I pondered what it means to be "productive", especially in my line of work as a pastor--but really, for any child of God.  And my pondering brought me to this:  Anytime I begin to see people as nothing more than interruptions to my productivity, I have already begun to be less than Christ-like, which is actually counterproductive to sharing the gospel.  Jesus came to die for people.  Not multiple priorities, projects or deadlines.

The work will always be there.  The projects never cease.  As soon as I finish one, another stands in line waiting for attention.  But Jesus said that His work was "to do the will of the One who sent me." If I'm a Christian...or Christ-follower, then isn't that my true work as well?  How is it that I've fallen for anything less than doing the will of the One who sent me?  But here I am trying to struggle against the many competing priorities, projects and deadlines that seem to always loom large on the horizon of my life.

So maybe I have to deal with them.  But maybe, in God's economy, I need to make sure that they never surpass people in their importance to me.  Jesus came to seek and to save people.  I must do no less. 

What about you?