Good morning!
I wrote this blog several years ago before I retired and want to share it again today. It speaks to what can happen to us when we let worldly things, activities of the season to deflect us (just as satan would like us to be distracted) from the real focus of this season - celebrating the birth of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Here it is:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Warning – today’s blog may seem to you to have lost the Advent focus. But, this sharing today seems to be the Holy Spirit moving within me (and maybe more for me than for you). Let me explain.
Yesterday was a really good day. Until I forgot who I am in Christ…. I was getting all wrapped up at the office about 4:30 pm knowing I was taking a vacation day today. Cleaning up my in-box and just wrapping up lose ends. And then it started to happen – my neat organization of my late afternoon and evening started to come unraveled…a phone call with a to-do attached, last minute emails detailing with follow-ups needed. I started to feel tension build…. I finally got out of the office around 5:30 pm. Not bad but feeling my plans for the evening start to fray. Anxiety is starting to grow. Even this email is weighing on me – I do not have anything to share at this point, with nothing in sight to inspire me…
I get home as it is nearing 6 pm knowing that Kathy and I are going to see each other this evening for maybe 15 minutes in a week that has had us missing each other a lot. I grab the mail, a huge pile, a package on the front porch, feeling the pressure of having to sort through all of this to get it off our plate. My anxiety starts to irrationally build. Feeling overwhelmed going into a vacation day, how is that even possible, right?
Then Kathy arrived home for our quick 15 minutes together awake and with each other - for the entire day. She is so good and thoughtful, yet she had something for me to add to my list for my day off – maybe I could think about how we go about remodeling the laundry room…along with thinking about the 2nd full bathroom project. Not intending me to feel the need to think about these at all…but if I wanted something to do…I could choose to think about those projects…
Now, satan has me on overload, as I add to the list all the Christmas activity that has not happened- cards for family…and of course wife…gifts, concerts, volunteering…now I am truly breaking under the mental strain of thinking about all of this…
Have you ever had this happen to you?
I literally apologized to Kathy for being overwhelmed as she left for her commitment and then cried out to God, to Jesus, literally Yeshua…
At this point, I need to have you read the story of the prodigal son (click Luke 15:11-32). A few of you know, I see my past self (prior to Christ crashing into my life) as the young son, so wayward.
Not all that long ago, in my car through the Holy Spirit I had an encounter with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was at a point of hopelessness, where addictions and other sins dominated my life – a life gone amok. I was ready to collapse and give up.
I still have a complete memory of those moments in the car. Vivid, able to feel remember the thoughts and smells and location and awe and amazement. The Holy Presence of God. My personal miracle involved forgiveness beyond my imagination, removal of addictions and a new birth in Christ…a peace washing over me leaving me with a peace that is beyond understanding…God did this. God alone.
In that experience, I knew the depth and breadth of God’s love – John 3:16 kind of love (I recommend you read further beyond just 3:16 because the following verses are almost as amazing.). God, as the Father in the prodigal son is running to welcome me home, embracing me – this experience still leaves me without the true words to describe how that changed my life.
Even as I write this I become aware that God, through the Holy Spirit, is using this writing, to bring back to me that experience of His love from that moment in the car, for me to remember who I am in Christ, a child of God, a son that he will always run to, and embrace, if I turn to back to Him. And God does not wait for me or you to get all the way back – he races out to meet us.
How does that relate to last night? In my cry to God through His Son and the Holy Spirit, God chose that moment of overwhelming to help me overcome Satan’s piling on, to refresh my memory, to know the truth of His love for me and the peace we will find in Him.
In the minutes after that crying out, peace washed over me, as I remembered, I belong to God through Jesus Christ. Last night before bed I continued reading a short book by Henri Nouwen called the “Return of the Prodigal Son, A Story of Homecoming”. In a section titled Searching Where It Cannot Be Found, Henri poses the questions – “To whom do I belong? To God or the world?” God reminded me, I belong to Him, not the world.
In what experience have you had God open your eyes and heart to know the fullness of His love?
So, maybe this blog indeed is about Christmas? For the hope that has saved me came incarnate as a baby human name Yeshua, our Christ Jesus. I have that hope and salvation every day, in every circumstance because of Lord Jesus.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My prayer for each of us as we enter this weekend is that as we continue in this Advent season, preparing ourselves, our hearts for celebrating the birth of Jesus, that in the stress our culture puts into our daily lives, that we remember the love God so richly blesses and shares with us with at Christmas! Amen!
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Patrick
I wrote this blog several years ago before I retired and want to share it again today. It speaks to what can happen to us when we let worldly things, activities of the season to deflect us (just as satan would like us to be distracted) from the real focus of this season - celebrating the birth of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Here it is:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Warning – today’s blog may seem to you to have lost the Advent focus. But, this sharing today seems to be the Holy Spirit moving within me (and maybe more for me than for you). Let me explain.
Yesterday was a really good day. Until I forgot who I am in Christ…. I was getting all wrapped up at the office about 4:30 pm knowing I was taking a vacation day today. Cleaning up my in-box and just wrapping up lose ends. And then it started to happen – my neat organization of my late afternoon and evening started to come unraveled…a phone call with a to-do attached, last minute emails detailing with follow-ups needed. I started to feel tension build…. I finally got out of the office around 5:30 pm. Not bad but feeling my plans for the evening start to fray. Anxiety is starting to grow. Even this email is weighing on me – I do not have anything to share at this point, with nothing in sight to inspire me…
I get home as it is nearing 6 pm knowing that Kathy and I are going to see each other this evening for maybe 15 minutes in a week that has had us missing each other a lot. I grab the mail, a huge pile, a package on the front porch, feeling the pressure of having to sort through all of this to get it off our plate. My anxiety starts to irrationally build. Feeling overwhelmed going into a vacation day, how is that even possible, right?
Then Kathy arrived home for our quick 15 minutes together awake and with each other - for the entire day. She is so good and thoughtful, yet she had something for me to add to my list for my day off – maybe I could think about how we go about remodeling the laundry room…along with thinking about the 2nd full bathroom project. Not intending me to feel the need to think about these at all…but if I wanted something to do…I could choose to think about those projects…
Now, satan has me on overload, as I add to the list all the Christmas activity that has not happened- cards for family…and of course wife…gifts, concerts, volunteering…now I am truly breaking under the mental strain of thinking about all of this…
Have you ever had this happen to you?
I literally apologized to Kathy for being overwhelmed as she left for her commitment and then cried out to God, to Jesus, literally Yeshua…
At this point, I need to have you read the story of the prodigal son (click Luke 15:11-32). A few of you know, I see my past self (prior to Christ crashing into my life) as the young son, so wayward.
Not all that long ago, in my car through the Holy Spirit I had an encounter with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was at a point of hopelessness, where addictions and other sins dominated my life – a life gone amok. I was ready to collapse and give up.
I still have a complete memory of those moments in the car. Vivid, able to feel remember the thoughts and smells and location and awe and amazement. The Holy Presence of God. My personal miracle involved forgiveness beyond my imagination, removal of addictions and a new birth in Christ…a peace washing over me leaving me with a peace that is beyond understanding…God did this. God alone.
In that experience, I knew the depth and breadth of God’s love – John 3:16 kind of love (I recommend you read further beyond just 3:16 because the following verses are almost as amazing.). God, as the Father in the prodigal son is running to welcome me home, embracing me – this experience still leaves me without the true words to describe how that changed my life.
Even as I write this I become aware that God, through the Holy Spirit, is using this writing, to bring back to me that experience of His love from that moment in the car, for me to remember who I am in Christ, a child of God, a son that he will always run to, and embrace, if I turn to back to Him. And God does not wait for me or you to get all the way back – he races out to meet us.
How does that relate to last night? In my cry to God through His Son and the Holy Spirit, God chose that moment of overwhelming to help me overcome Satan’s piling on, to refresh my memory, to know the truth of His love for me and the peace we will find in Him.
In the minutes after that crying out, peace washed over me, as I remembered, I belong to God through Jesus Christ. Last night before bed I continued reading a short book by Henri Nouwen called the “Return of the Prodigal Son, A Story of Homecoming”. In a section titled Searching Where It Cannot Be Found, Henri poses the questions – “To whom do I belong? To God or the world?” God reminded me, I belong to Him, not the world.
In what experience have you had God open your eyes and heart to know the fullness of His love?
So, maybe this blog indeed is about Christmas? For the hope that has saved me came incarnate as a baby human name Yeshua, our Christ Jesus. I have that hope and salvation every day, in every circumstance because of Lord Jesus.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My prayer for each of us as we enter this weekend is that as we continue in this Advent season, preparing ourselves, our hearts for celebrating the birth of Jesus, that in the stress our culture puts into our daily lives, that we remember the love God so richly blesses and shares with us with at Christmas! Amen!
Have a weekend filled with the Peace that comes from knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Patrick
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