Some reflections on Christmas after my trip to Israel

As I write this I am just coming out of the fog of jet lag and an Israeli cold that I got on my first ever trip to Israel. This was a trip that I am sure I will be unpacking for quite some time, but I thought I would take a stab at some reflections on Christmas since we traveled so close to the holiday.

The location of our hotel on the trip was very close to Bethlehem. Out of our window you could see the wall that separated Jerusalem from the Palestinian area of Bethlehem. The bus stop outside of our hotel was called, “Bethlehem Check Point.” It was a constant reminder of the traumatic experiences that region has experienced for centuries. I imagine Mary and Joseph had similar thoughts as they saw Roman soldiers on their way to Bethlehem. Your Christmas this year may feel raw and messy, but that is okay. The first Christmas would not have felt anymore like a Hallmark movie than yours does.

Before we left we watched a kids Christmas movie called the Star. It really highlighted the messiness of the first Christmas. Talking animals trying to figure out what is going on when things felt chaotic and dangerous. Most nights of the trip my wife, daughter and I each tried to come up with two take aways from the day. On one night my daughters had one of her take aways was that we as a family needed to learn to trust God more in the day to day experiences of life. She was so right. The same would have been true of the story on that first Christmas. It was a journey of trust in a world that did not make sense.

Traveling on this trip with my wife and daughter makes me appreciate in a small way what Joseph may have felt on his journey to Bethlehem. As we travelled I was aware of the needs of my little family and the challenges of being in a new surrounding. I read someone talk about how it was interesting that the angel did not speak to Joseph about Mary’s situation until after Mary had talked to him. We like nice and neat where as God is okay with our journey as we learn to trust Him.

So as I look to Christmas this year, I will try and walk with God in a new level of trust. I still like five year plans, but I will try to trust God when He simply says take the next step with me. I will try and remember those rolling hills of Bethlehem and know that it is not always about nice and neat, but about the presence of God coming to our messy and chaotic world.

A lesson you can use from my “almost a month” in northern MN

For most of this month I have been staying in a house about four-five hours from my home. It was an interesting experience for me. I had scheduled all of my speaking up that direction so I was still spending time preaching. I had a few goals for my time up there. First, I am working on my third book so this was some time for writing. Second I am working on what I am calling the “Clear the bookshelf challenge.” For about a year now I have been working through the books on my bookshelf with the idea that I wanted to read each book completely, or just get something out of it, or give it away. This time in northern MN was some extra reading time. The third goal was an experiment in solitude.

Now it wasn’t exactly solitude, but it had some elements that I wanted to test. First, my time online would be limited since the house did not have Wi-Fi. I had internet through my phone but needed to watch my data use. Other than my preaching I only had one appointment while I was up there. The first week I would spend by myself. The second week my daughter would join me, and the last week and half my wife and mother in law would be there.

There were various lessons learned, but one of the most important ones is that solitude helps us learn to trust God. Before I went up there I was reminded of the quote by Richard Foster: “Solitude helps us resign as CEO of the universe.” I have a matching challenge fundraiser going on for the ministry for the summer, but I have to trust that God will do in two months what I am not sure can be done in three. Allowing a space for silence is letting God speak for you.

Solitude helps us resign as CEO of the Universe.-Richard Foster

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Not that I am never to speak again, I am writing this post after all. But stepping back gave me time to let God take the lead. It is easy as a “follower” of Jesus to guess where He is going and try to get there before He does.

Many of you wouldn’t need to get away for three and a half weeks to be reminded of this important lesson. Maybe an hour of silence would be a challenge. How about a short walk without your cell phone? As I gave him space not only did He teach me trust, but He filled that space with an awareness of His love and presence. Will you experiment with solitude in your life?

One of the Biggest Temptations for People of Prayer

It might be not be what you think, but slip ups in this area can mess up your effectiveness very quickly. It falls in the area of not being trusted. As people of prayer we are often entrusted with information that is confidential in nature. In my work of ministering to pastors it happens all the time. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. People will trust you with things if they know you will pray for it.

People who know that you are a person of prayer will give you information about their needs. They are looking for someone they know will not just say they will pray about it, but who will actually pray about the need. But if word gets out that you can’t be trusted with that information, because you are going to blab it to everyone, you may miss some prayer assignments that God wanted you to pray.

2. God will trust you with things He knows you will talk to Him about.

God will bring into His confidence people who He is confident that He can share His heart. He told Abraham, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Gen 18:17) A prayer that I pray often is, “God reveal your secrets to me.” But God is looking to see if I can handle the information that He shares in an appropriate manner. We need to practice in being trusted.

A pastor that had a great prayer team around him had one main qualification to be on the team. Anyone on his personal prayer team must not, “be given to sins of the tongue.” Is this an area that you need to strengthen to go to the next exciting level that God would have for you in your ministry of prayer?