At the Lewis household, we are eager to get our Christmas decorations out and just as eager to put them up.  Normally this takes place “the morning after”, but this year they were packed up “the night of”.  After our kids left, Kathy and I went to work.  Before bedtime, all signs of the holidays were gone with the exception of one poinsettia that was hanging on and a few leftover candy canes.  Now before you start casting me in the role of the Grinch, let me explain the sense of urgency.  Ever since our kids were small, we have been making our way to some Christmas tree farm to cut a tree.  We love the process and we love the smell of a fresh cut pine.  After the kids left home, we continued the tradition.  This certainly involves getting the tree in water soon after it has been cut.  If that is not possible, then Plan B involves making a second cut on the evergreen prior to putting it in the stand.  The key to a good looking and good smelling tree is water, water, water.  This year ours was in water almost immediately and we thought all was good.  But after a few days, we noticed a distributing trend – it was not drinking.  By Christmas Day, it was way beyond dry.  I felt like the only thing holding it together was Kathy’s expert decorating job.  So that is why we ended up taking the tree and all the trimmings down on Christmas night.  When I finally hauled the tree outside, most of the needles had fallen off somewhere during the short journey from the dining room to the driveway.  It looked like a Charlie Brown tree or for those of you who have seen the movie, it looked exactly like the tree Luther Krank brought home in the movie adaptation of John Grisham’s book Skipping Christmas.   It was so bad I refused to place it on the street for pickup and just hid it in the back yard.   For some of you, the moral of this story is stick with an artificial tree, but that is not really my point.  The problem is that from the time it is cut, a real tree is going to die.  You can keep the appearance of life through water, but eventually even that fails.  If you want to keep a real tree alive, DON’T separate it from the source of life.  Likewise if you want to stay fresh and green spiritually in 2010, then heed the words of the Master Gardener in John 14:5

“I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Learning to lean,
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In his classic tale “A Christmas Carol”, Charles Dickens focuses on the life of a man who is so self-absorbed and self-righteous that he totally ignores the poverty all around him.  He doesn’t just dismiss the needs; he actually has disdain for the needy.  At one point in the story he is confronted by two men who ask him to give to a fund to support the poor during the holidays.  They chose this time of year to collect because “need is keenly felt and generosity abounds.”  His response is “bah humbug.”   Watching this wonderful story has become one of my Christmas traditions.  I particularly enjoy the musical adaptation starring Albert Finney.  Although it is not very doctrinally sound, it is a story of hope that people can change and make the world around them a better place.  I suppose if we were honest, there is a bit of Scrooge in all of us.  We can at times become disinterested and even show a bit of disdain for the needy.  If you drive through or around our sister city to the North, you probably know what I mean.   There seems to be certain spots where the needy congregate with homemade signs pleading their case for help.  One such spot is the corner of I-240 and Getwell, while another popular place is I-240 and Union Avenue.  Most of the signs have scribbled messages like “hungry” or “will work for food”, but while on our way to hospital the other day, Bro. Grant and I saw a sign that beats them all.  It simply said, “I’ll be honest with you, I need a beer.”  While I do not advocate drinking and would certainly not want to support someone’s bad habit, I was tempted to turn around and give the guy some money just because he was being so honest.   The truth is, there are needs all around us that we pass by all year long.  We have all kinds of reasons why-we are busy, we are broke, and of course, we are suspicious.  But perhaps in our piety, we are actually encouraging people not to be truthful.  They are afraid if they are honest, we will give them an ear full instead of trying to help fill their cup.

A lesson from up north,
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The words of the psalmist “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord” took on a whole new meaning for me last Sunday night as I struggled through the worship service.  The song selection was excellent, the setting was beautiful, the praise band was gelling, the crowd was pretty good for a rainy Sunday night, but I was having difficulty singing.  The problem was not spiritual, but physical.  I literally did not have breath, or more precisely, the voice to sing.  My sinuses had been in a mess all weekend and what little voice I had was used up doing a funeral on Saturday and preaching twice on Sunday morning.  I had anticipated this problem, so I had already given Bro. Grant a heads up on Saturday that he might be preaching Sunday night.  I wanted to be at church, but I knew that I really couldn’t do church that night like I normally do.  That’s how I ended up sitting on the front row on a Sunday evening with no responsibilities other than a desire to worship.  As most of you know, what I lack in quality I make up for in quantity.  I love to sing, and I sing loudly.  But this particular night, I had nothing.  A whisper resembling something like a squawk was all I could muster.  It was so frustrating.  I had a night free from the stress of preaching.  I could praise the Lord but had no voice to do it.  In hindsight, two important lessons emerged out of my “silent night”. First, use all you have.  Don’t hold back when given the opportunity to worship.  Use all you have today because who knows what you may have tomorrow.  The second lesson is to use what you have.  Before the night was over, I realized that the lack of voice should not keep me from worshiping Him.  I might not have my usual avenue for worship, but I could still have an attitude for worship.  So I ended up mouthing the words and using what little breath I did have to worship the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Silence can be golden,