students of jesus

I’m very big in Hungary, apparently. That’s the headline from the Students of Jesus year in review, my annual exercise in narcissism where I look back on the past year. According to Google Analytics, Hungarians are in fourth place among my readers, following the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

This year-end review benefits, um, well, me actually--and I’m usually astounded by the disparity between which post received the most page views and which ones were my personal favorites. This year, however, the blogosphere and I were much closer in our judgment than in years previous.

Since you would cripple yourself by missing even one Students of Jesus post, I present this list of top items in an effort to keep you whole:

Top Five Posts (by page views):

Sinners in the Hands of Willy Wonka 2/23/12 ~ This post was six times more popular than any other. Turns out “Willy Wonka” is a frequently searched name. Imagine the disappointment of those who clicked through to discover it was really a post about the grace of God.

Jesus, Friend of Pharisees 4/12/12 ~ This post includes a picture of Jesus driving the money-changers from the Temple. He was pretty angry, and so was I when I wrote this. So this is what I sound like when I’m P.O.’d.

Who Funds Your Imagination? 7/5/12 ~ Whenever things get slow at Students of Jesus, I quote Walter Brueggemann. Either him or someone from FoxNews. That usually stirs things up. This post is about -- well, heck -- just go read it.

Four Lessons I learned from Jefferson Bethke 1/19/12 ~ Meeting Jeff Bethke was one of the delights of this year. In my work as an editor I interviewed him via telephone for an article I wrote elsewhere. I was completely charmed by his grace and humility--even more so because his home church is frequently maligned as heavy-handed and authoritarian. If Jeff is any indication of the fruit of that ministry, then I’m a fan.

Sarah Bessey’s Parable of the Father 5/5/12 ~ Whenever things get really, really slow at Students of Jesus, I ask Sarah Bessey to guest post. She loves Jesus, is way-smart, and wears cardigans. Her post was part of an ill-fated series dedicated to exploring the parables of Jesus. I figured this series would take off, but it turns out we in the blogosphere would much rather argue about really significant stuff like--uh-oh, I should shut up here. Anyway, Sarah is a treasure, and she’ll release a book later in 2013. It’s the charming story of a woman who owns an independent bookstore on the upper east side of Manhattan, when a big evil chain bookstore opens one block away. The woman falls in love with the chain-store owner, but Amazon.com puts them both out of business. (Or something like that)

The one article I wish everyone could read:
Well, all of them, really (I told you I was a narcissist). But if you don’t have time for them all, please check out Lazarus Quenby and the Reasonable Dinner Party.

Thanks for making Students of Jesus the most popular spiritual formation blog that originates from Campbellsville, Kentucky. (Of course, it's the only spiritual formation blog that originates from Campbellsville, Kentucky.) Blessings!

Wednesday night, the evening after Christmas, our little girl laid by the fire and said, “Christmas goes too quickly.” I smiled a grown-up smile--the kind tinged with sadness--because I knew work was already calling. The world continued to turn. The business of life demanded my attention again. Our Christmas pause (happy as it was) was over. Already that night I had checked email twice, looking to get a jump on the work day ahead.

Yet in that moment by the fire the true wisdom came from our daughter’s heart. Christmas was over too soon, and only a fool would not pause to lament its passing.

Here’s an exercise: imagine the happiest ending to any story ever told. Don’t hold back. Dream of something impossibly good. Infuse “happily ever after” with every practical joy you know. Now double it. If it doesn’t feel too foolish, write down the crazy joy and keep it stored in your phone so you can see it every time it comes to mind.

It’s a righteous exercise, the discipline of a mind engaged with the goodness of God. The surprising reality is that the New Testament urges us time and again to indulge ourselves with speculations of delight. The Apostle Paul concludes his prayer for others with, “to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” Peter comforts a suffering minority with the phrase “Joy unspeakable, full of glory.” Reframing Isaiah, Paul exhorts reminds us neither can our eyes see, nor our ears hear--no, never could it enter into our hearts--all that God has planned for us.

Time and again he invites us to exercise our imagination toward his goodness and our destiny, because he cares for us. His care is complete. His goodness is without end. Love guides his immeasurable power. Our childish view of life with God does not contain too many pictures of delight, but too few--and too small.

Centuries later C.S. Lewis added his take: “You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been us for nearly a hundred years.” Wordsworth chided us: “We have given our hearts away.” His powerful poem opens with the simple observation, “The world is too much with us, late and soon/ Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.”

Better to live in the lament of Christmas gone too soon than to face grimly the “reality” of a workaday world. Better still--what if we discovered the path to unspeakable joy in the everyday business of life. What if Father Christmas has gifts to give us each and every day?

Among the gifts of the Christ Child is the tension of his birth. God becomes man--not only a man, but a child. Centuries-old promises are fulfilled before our eyes, but we do not see them. Joseph adopts a son, who will later adopt him. Perfection comes wrapped in scandal. The Lord of glory came with very little glory at all.

Two weeks ago I sat with earnest young disciples who eagerly embraced the tension of God’s Kingdom: ever close, ever appearing, yet awaiting the full light of day. Together we explored that tension in scripture, and together we reflected on that same tension in our own lives.

“In what way has God’s Kingdom appeared in your life?” asked our young leader. “And in what ways do you wait for his appearing?” I didn’t get a chance to share my answers that evening, but this Christmas Eve I share them with you now.

God’s Kingdom has come! He has broken into my life: I'm grateful for his daily appearing in my family: where I am loved and forgiven, where I am known yet still embraced. This family is large and growing, beyond my wildest expectation. I'm grateful for the miracles I’ve seen: he has partnered with me in prayer for the sick, who are healed. I've witnessed the deaf receiving again their hearing; the barren conceiving children, and degenerative diseases rolled away. Eternal life, the with-God kind of life, does not begin some future day. I live in that eternal life here and now.

God’s Kingdom is yet to come! Together, with all who long for his appearing, I confess: I long to see his coming in me--when I will no longer be driven by the lash of fear or suspicion or the desire to put myself above others. I long to see his coming in the lives of my neighbors, so many of whom are captive to Xanax, OxyContin, alcohol, or weed, self-medicating their disillusioned lives. I long to see his coming when injustice is exposed for what it is, and the both the oppressed and the oppressors are set free from their bondage. I long to see the earth unfold in its glory, the glory reflected in God’s deep words over creation, “Behold it was all very good.”

God came to earth and lived incognito among us for 30 years. When at last he revealed himself we could not bear the glory: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:10-12)

My Christmas wish is the same for you and me. It lives in the tension as well: that we would all receive our birthright, and discover more of his Kingdom, and of its increase there would be no end.

When really important people come to town, everyone one knows it. NBA stadiums sell out months before LeBron or Kobe show up for game time. When Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson do a personal appearance, hundreds of screaming fans will show up hours ahead of time. When the President visits your city, you can be sure the mayor will meet him at the airport and school children will be there to give the first lady flowers.

But the Christmas story shows us God does things differently. You might even call his way sneaky. The most important person in the history of the world snuck into town late one night and definitely did not stay in a five-star hotel. Jesus was smuggled into Bethlehem through the womb of a teenage girl, who gave birth in a barn. That’s different.

We all know the story of Christmas: the baby, the barn, the shepherds and magi. Hidden inside that familiar story is the surprising revelation that God’s way is to ignore the bigshots and use nobodies instead. Just count the nobodies:

Mary was a teenage girl from a small town. In Bible times women were not important people, and teenagers were even lower on the scale. Mix in her pre-martial pregnancy, and you’ve got a real nobody on your hands. But Mary was God’s choice. She conceived the baby Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. God considered her somebody important and gave her a pretty tough assignment!

Joseph was a nobody, too. He was just a working man across town from Mary’s family. He was faced with a choice between trusting God or protecting his small-town reputation. But reputations belong to important people, and most of the important people were in Jerusalem. Joseph said “yes” to shame, yes to love, and yes to God, so God chose Joseph to act as a foster-father to the Savior of the world.

Shepherds are not important people. Just the opposite: second-shift schmucks who work outdoors. Back in that day watching sheep was not exactly a rock-star kind of gig. Yet they were the first guests invited to the celebration.

The Magi? Nothing more than rich pagan astrologers. It didn’t matter if they had money, they were foreigners. Foreigners have the wrong religion, the wrong clothes, and the wrong sacred books. Elizabeth &

Zechariah & Elizabeth: a kindly old couple engaged in harmless religious activity. They are the kind of people society ignores—unless they are driving too slow on a the highway. Anna & Simeon: Alone and elderly, they were two people almost completely invisible to everyone. Everyone except the Holy Spirit.

One and all, God used people on the outside of society.

The secret message inside the Christmas story? God invites the nobodies. And when God invites you to the table, he provides everything you need. The powerful people, the beautiful people, and the cool kids might not make it to the celebration. They’re welcome, but they might be too busy building their own kingdoms. Meanwhile God’s kingdom is filling up with the people no one notices.

This season, if you are a nobody—rejoice! You are not far from the Kingdom of God.

This is the introduction from my Christmas devotional, 25 Days of Christmas. It's probably a little late for this year, but mark it down for next: 25 one-minute devotions to prepare you for Christmas.

Some time back--never mind how long ago--I said casually to a young woman, “the surest description of God is that of Father.” She recoiled in horror. Fear and grief passed across her face. Later I learned her father had been a man filled with violence and abuse toward to his daughters. Father meant betrayal, brutality, and perversion. Her experience and definition kept her from knowing the True Father: his tender care, his understanding, and deep love. Yet who could blame her?

Another occasion I watched a boy imitate the father he loved. A poor imitation it was. Filled with blustering pride the man-child bossed and ordered others about. He thought he was doing what fathers did--commanding, directing, and leading. To him, Father meant authority and power to lead. He was a child playing the back-yard version of war, brimming over with glory and bluster.

What if our definitions keep us from seeing the truth? What if our twisted experience has taught us the opposite of the deep meanings whispered by the Spirit? Deliver us from the things we think we know, because certainty is the enemy of discovery. We could embrace a deception, or in fear we could run away from the truth. God save us from the words we think we know. What if they keep us from the truth? Since those encounters I’ve wondered time and again how many words I have misunderstood, simply because I have one meaning planted firmly in my head, rooted in my heart.

Since those experiences I have kept a list of Bible words--words filled with promise, joy, deliverance, and hope--yet also capable of frightening me to the core, or leading me completely astray. My list of wonderful-yet-dangerous words? Here is but a sample of the words I think I know:
Family
Sister
Brother
Love
Church
Community
Mission
Calling

I’ve determined never to reject these words, because the Spirit has spoken them. I will not run from them. I’ve also determined to hold them loosely in order that I might return to them again and again, and be instructed by their multi-faceted wisdom.

The revealed wisdom of God sends us this sure warning: we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears . . . For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.