Zero and The Journey

Right now I’m staring at a blank screen. 

The empty, white rectangle hovering in its Microsoft Word window seems to taunt me, daring me to fill it.

You see, after writing for almost a year, I’ve finally hit a writer’s block. 

I’ve got nothing. 

Zero.

It’s not that God isn’t doing anything in my life. 

He is. 

And it isn’t that I don’t have anything to share. 

I do. 

The problem is that I feel the pressure to take what God has been teaching me and make it humorous and entertaining to read. 

So, in the spirit of honesty, and since I don’t have a funny story for this week, I’ll just share how God has been challenging me. 

It’s no secret for most of you that my season with Osterville Baptist Church is coming to an end. 

This is bitter, sweet, exciting, and scary. 

It’s sweet because the amount of time that I’ve had to spend apart from my wife and kids has been totally inconsistent with what I believe about family. 

It’s bitter because I truly do love and care about the people I’ve been serving for the last year and half. 

It’s exciting because I know that God has something in store. 

It’s scary because I haven’t the foggiest idea where I’ll serve in ministry next. 

We’ve also been wrestling with our preconceived notions of what God’s plans for us might be.

I think that we always assumed that God’s plan would involve better health, more money, a bigger house in a safer neighborhood, and nicer clothes. 

No part of that assumption is Biblical. 

If God chooses to bless us with those things, then we’ll be grateful.  The challenge to us has been to remove that presumption from our minds so we can clearly hear God as we seek him for our next step. 

For anyone who has wrestled with these things, you know how hard that is to do.

And so, in the midst of this season of transition, Laura and I have been praying for peace.

A lot.

Not “peace”, as in, “everything is smooth sailing”, but true, Biblical peace…even in the middle of hard times. 

Even this morning, as Laura called to tell me that our youngest was throwing up, we found ourselves asking God for peace.  And as much as I’d like to tell you that this story has a nice happy ending, as you can tell by the tone of this post, I still feel unsettled and afraid. 

And I think that that’s an OK place to leave it for now. 

I don’t think it’s OK to stay here but I don’t think we should be afraid to visit.

Especially during Advent.

Because the whole idea behind this season is anticipation, longing, and tension. 

The fearful, difficult, but expectant journey to Bethlehem.

 

 

Apples, Chocolate, and Advent

I love apples.

In fact, it’s not uncommon for me to be seen munching away on a tasty Gala or Honeycrisp. 

This is not, as you might suspect, due to the fact that apples keep doctors away (though with my current co-pay and three kids, I wish that were true). 

No. 

I just love apples.  But, my favorite incarnation of the apple is my wife’s amazing apple pie. 

No one makes a pie like this one. 

Even though I’m more than handy in the kitchen, I tried to make the filling this Thanksgiving and botched it pretty bad. 

She even makes the crust from scratch with butter and lard. 

Yes, lard! 

There’s enough animal fat in that crust to stop your heart, but it’s flakey and tasty and I would eat two of them in one sitting if I let myself. 

And the filling…oh the filling! 

An exotic blend of cinnamon, clove, and allspice, vanilla, and rum…truly I don’t think a better pie exists. 

My love of apples might have a deeper root though. 

My name IS Adam and, in the same way I could eat my wife’s apple pie until my stomach exploded, I do recall a distant relative, with my same name, who had a problem with apples. 

Also, I grew up Jewish, and apples are pretty significant symbols in the Jewish culinary tradition. 

On Rosh Hashana, I used to eat apples dipped in honey to symbolize the hopes of a sweet new year.  But, since it’s so much like apple pie filling, the use of apples on Passover is my favorite. 

It’s a blend of apples, cinnamon, honey, walnuts and wine. 

Strangely, because of its consistency, it’s a symbol of the mortar used while “my people” were in slavery. 

Sweetness and slavery are a funny combination. 

This is what I was always told about that: The apples and honey remind us of how sweet freedom is, and how sweet the promises of God are. 

Which leads me to Trader Joes. 

For anyone unlucky enough to have never experienced this shopping phenomenon, let me explain. 

Trader Joes is everything you like about Wild Oats, Whole Foods and Fresh Market but priced for normal people. 

“Healthy food for real people” is the slogan I came up with. 

Joe, you’re welcome.

I’ll let you know where to send the check. 

So anyway, they finally came to their senses, and built one here in Nashville. 

Laura and I went to check it out, and came home with more than we planned. 

This included two advent calendars for the boys. 

Inside are all-natural chocolates for each day until Christmas. 

The boys were very excited when we explained it this morning.

If we use the words “Christmas” and “chocolate” in the same sentence, they’re on board.

So as I sliced apples for their lunches today, I started thinking about the connection between Passover and Advent. 

Both remember our bondage.

Both involve longing for deliverance.

Both find their ultimate, redemptive, fulfillment in sacrifice and a miracle of God.

Even more than that, there is the sense of hope that permeates both celebrations. 

We allow the remembrance of what God HAS done to give us hope for what He WILL do.

So, if you’re like my family, and will be eating a daily dose of chocolate to celebrate the season, let it be a reminder of the bondage we were in (or in the case of chocolate….the bondage we are still in) and let us thank God for the hope that we have because of Jesus. Chocolate and apples ain’t got nothing on that.  

Happy Blended Holiday

When I was a child (or young’n, as they say down here in Tennessee) we had distinct seasons. 

I’m not talking about winter, spring, summer, and fall. 

I’m talking about holiday seasons.

For whatever reason, it seemed like there was actually a marketing pause between holidays. 

But now….now there is a distinct climate change. 

Blame my carbon footprint if you must, but there is a noticeable “global warming” of holiday merchandising. 

And by “global” I mean “American”. 

It started slowly. 

Halloween decorations started showing up in stores around, say, late September.  Thanksgiving had a nice long run from November 1^st until we all woke up from our turkey-induced comas. 

Christmas always enjoyed a pleasantly festive hoorah.  Or, if you were Jewish, like my family, you had eight whole days of gifts, dreidels and fried foods. 

New Years was next with the appropriate revelry. 

Then, a pause for a dignified remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. 

Valentines, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, April Fools, and The Fourth of July were all checkpoints along the way.  But, like the proverbial frog in a stockpot, the heat is being turned up and no one seems to notice. 

Nowadays, Halloween is blended with “back-to-school”, Thanksgiving has gone the way of the dodo, and, if my predictions are correct, we will soon see a line of Easter themed, candy hearts in stores for Valentine’s day or people dressing as Santa Claus for Halloween. 

Even worse, we may see the blending of holiday names into unholy, inbred marketing unions:

Hanukwanzamas.

St. Eastentine’s Day.

The Fools of July.

Oh The Madness! 

When will it end?

This year, however, there is an overlap that I feel is most appropriate. 

Thanksgiving blends with Advent.

The first Sunday of Advent falls on the weekend of Thanksgiving.

Isn’t that perfect?

Doesn’t a holiday dedicated to thanking God for His amazing provision flow seamlessly into a season of praising God for sending His Son?

After all, THAT is an expression of God’s ultimate provision. 

In fact, of the four Sundays of Advent (Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy), has anyone noticed the conspicuous absence of “Thanks”? 

Why?  

I believe that it’s because thankfulness is assumed.  If God has given you hope, peace, love, and joy, you would think that one would be thankful. 

So that’s my “Thanksgidvent” hope for me, and for you.

That as we sit and enjoy our turkey and football (you can’t forget football!), no matter how humble or princely the meal, that we would remember the pinnacle of God’s provision, Jesus Christ. 

And we’d give thanks.