New Math for a New Year

 

Near the end of 2018, my favorite author left this earth for his heavenly home just shy of his 86^th birthday.  Eugene Peterson’s writings have walked alongside God’s Word in my life for many years, helping me to better understand how to navigate my life of faith.  He was a humble man who was trained theologically but never lost sight of the importance of practical Christianity lived out in community with other believers. 

As we begin a New Year, I want to elaborate on some of Peterson’s wisdom from an unlikely source – a poem he published in 2013 entitled The New Math.  Poems were not his usual mode of writing, but this one stands out as I look forward to a new year of living the kingdom life here on earth.  It is based on Psalm 90:12: “Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  At the beginning of a new year, we all need wisdom and a proper perspective on how to number our days.

Construct a calendar of grace,

Genesis days and moon-marked months.

Make a Christian year: add

Blessings, subtract sins, divide

Sorrow, multiply love –

An arithmetic to confound the devil.

I am not sure whether Peterson meant this poem as a request to God or as a call to action for each of us, but either way is appropriate.  We need to seek to build grace into our year’s calendar, but we cannot accomplish this without the grace of God and his work in our lives.  Imagine what your year could be like if every day on the 2019 calendar was bathed first and foremost in grace – God’s grace for you as well as your grace for yourself and those you come in contact with.

It is also a joint effort between God and us to create a “Christian year”.  As God brings blessings into our lives, it is our responsibility to recognize them and give him glory.  Sounds easy, but I know from experience that not all of God’s blessings always match our definition of “blessing” – this is where faith comes in and replaces our natural responses.  Secondly, as God forgives (“subtracts”) our sins on a daily basis, we have the responsibility of forgiving those around us whose sins we would rather hold them accountable for.

Third, God often uses those closest to us to divide sorrow in our lives, and we are responsible to join him in doing this in the lives of others we come in contact with.  Sorrow can be overwhelming all by yourself, but it becomes a shared burden when we hold each other up with our tears and with truth from God’s Word in difficult situations.  Lastly, God’s love is never-ending and always being poured out on his children.  It is our job to spread that love to everyone we meet with actions that model our heavenly Father’s unconditional love. 

The longer I walk with God, the more determined I am to look for ways to “confound the devil”.  His days are truly numbered – because the victory has already been won by Christ’s death and resurrection.  But God continues to allow Satan to have his way for a while longer in this world, and I want to do everything I can to thwart his purposes.  Let’s resolve to make 2019 a Christian year that is full of grace – blessing others and glorifying God for his blessings, forgiving others, lifting the burden of sorrow in another’s life, and loving freely as God has loved us.  This is the kind of new math I can get excited about.

Jesus is the Reason

The holiday season has started unusually for me this year.  This is my favorite time of year, but I’ve had trouble getting fully focused.  For health reasons, for the first time in my life Thanksgiving came and went without me eating a bite.  Fortunately, my son was already working that day, and our celebration was already planned for the following Sunday.  But it didn’t exactly feel like Thanksgiving! 

Recovering from a surgery that was postponed by the doctor for two weeks also hasn’t helped me to focus solely on the holidays.  I’m still doing exercises and icing when I’d rather be up decorating until I drop.  Being restricted in my activity and out of control of my own schedule isn’t exactly my strong suit!

But I have had more time to think about what should really matter about the holidays – and that is always a good thing.  I’m afraid that what we tend to make Christmas about has very little to do with what God intended us to be celebrating each year.  I’m aware of this every year, and I’ve written about it before.  In fact, I’m not sure I have anything new to add – just things that I need to be reminded of. 

So here is an excerpt from a previous blogpost that still rings true for me, and I hope it also will ring true for you today.  Consider it a free preview of my soon-to-be-published new book that is a collection of several years’ posts!

“Christmas is a busy time of year; but that busyness can have purpose if we allow it to.  Here are some suggestions:

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).  Each time we look at the beautiful Christmas lights, we can remind ourselves about the true light and the difference his light makes in the world.

As we decorate our homes with beautiful Christmas things, we can remember the importance of decorating our own lives on a daily basis with the things that God considers beautiful:  

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  (Colossians 3:12-14)

And the Christmas tree should remind us of another tree – the one God willingly created and nourished in order to provide a means for the sacrifice of his own Son for our redemption.  Imagine how our focus would change if we saw the cross every time we looked at our Christmas trees!

What about the special foods and the baking?  My ability to enjoy these once-a-year delicacies should lead me to praise God, “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17), for his constant provision for me.  Too often we overlook God’s role in providing for all of our needs, but Christmas can be a time to shift our focus in this area.

Since my children have not always lived in close proximity to me, spending time with family is an especially important part of this time of the year for me.  But I don’t want to glorify my earthly family over my heavenly Father.  We can choose to enjoy our families in the way God intended – by remembering that they are an earthly picture of the heavenly principle of God’s church and the broader family of believers that we belong to.

It is easy for gift-giving to get out of hand and fail to be God-honoring.  There are probably many different practical approaches to avoiding this (limiting our spending, choosing gifts that are edifying, focusing on giving rather than receiving, etc.).  But the most important thing we can do is to use the giving and receiving of presents as a tool to remember God’s lavish giving of blessings to us – and to cultivate hearts that are truly thankful beyond this season.

I enjoy receiving Christmas cards and letters from those I don’t otherwise see or hear from often.  This year, as the cards arrive, I want to try and focus on the gift of God’s constant messages to me – through his Word as well as the Spirit’s promptings in my life.  Whether we keep in touch with those we know here on earth, our God is always “keeping in touch” with us if we will just listen.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:19, we are told not to “put out the Spirit’s fire”.  Every time we light a fire in the fireplace this Christmas season, we can remind ourselves of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the flames that he fans in our lives to do what he calls us to do for the kingdom of God.  I am so thankful for his work in my life as comforter, counselor, and guide (see John 16); and I want to remember that when I’m enjoying a fire in my fireplace.

When I think about the warm, cozy feeling I get this time of year, it reminds me of an Old Testament verse that Handel celebrated in his work, The Messiah.  Isaiah 40:11 tells us that God “gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart”.  What could be more warm and cozy than having the ability, whenever we choose, to climb up into God Almighty’s lap because he is our “Abba”, our Father (Galatians 4:6-7)?”

I hope these suggestions help you to be more purposeful during this holiday season, and I hope your Christmas is Christ-centered and joy-filled – even as you enjoy the trappings and traditions of Christmas that don’t necessarily represent our Lord.  Let’s not forget that He alone is worthy of our praise!

Redeeming the Time

Over the weekend, most of us living in the United States gained an extra hour to use as we like.  Some remembered and chose how to use the extra time on Saturday night; others forgot and got their extra hour on Sunday morning instead.  But everyone had the opportunity to choose what to do with the additional time on their hands.  One of my friends suggested on social media that this was a good opportunity to spend more time thanking God for all of the blessings we have.

As I’ve said before, I am hopelessly purpose-driven and also a night owl.  So this day of turning back my clocks is a favorite of mine – because I get an extra hour to get something else done before going to bed on my usually earliest night of the week.  But I have to admit that one of my least favorite days of the year is the opposite day in the spring when clocks are set ahead – because I have one less hour to accomplish what I need to and have to try to go to bed earlier than usual!

I bought a new alarm clock a few years ago that made this dreaded spring day even worse.  Not realizing that it had an automatic Daylight Savings Time setting, I moved my clock ahead before going to bed – only to discover when I got up the next morning that the clock had moved itself ahead as well in the middle of the night, and I was now running an hour behind in my attempt to get to church on time!

I’m currently in the middle of three different “waiting-room” experiences that God is walking me through, and I have to admit that I get impatient when other people control the timeframe of my life.  All of these thoughts have me thinking today about my relationship with time and how I choose to spend my time every day.  How much time do I actually waste?  I’m not talking about success at finishing a project I’m working on or accomplishing a list I’ve made.  I’m pretty good at those things.  But no human has ever been as purpose-driven as Jesus was (he only had 3 years to fulfill God’s purpose for him on earth and had to wait 30 years before starting that purpose); yet he took the time to be distracted by people who followed him and stopped along the way to smell the roses. 

What about me?  Does my time allocation reflect my love for God and include regular activities that build his Kingdom instead of just accomplishing my own purposes?  When I have extra time on my hands (and we all do), how am I choosing to spend it?  When I think about Jesus’ example, I know that he never sinned – so he spent every minute of every day of his life perfectly attending to his Father’s will.  We all have a long way to go, but this is a good time of year to start thinking about how to improve our use of time in the future.  Holidays often bring out the best in us; but God wants us to redeem the time he’s given us every single day (Ephesians 5:16).