Badly Done.

“Badly done, Emma! Badly done.”

These words are the crescendo of Jane Austen’s classic novel, Emma. And while my name is not quite Emma it might as well be.

During my overnight last night I randomly choose to watch the 1996 film adaptation of Austen’s novel. This is a movie I have seen probably close to a dozen times in my growing up years as it’s one of my mom’s favorites and, I have to admit, I love it too. It had been a while since I’d seen it and since it was one of the only decent movies on hulu+, I went ahead and started it.

I’m always amazed at how God weaves things together. And last night was no different.  In Emma we see the story of young woman (in her early twenties) who is forced to do some growing up which means looking at some of her own shortcomings. Ironically, I recently have been faced with the same thing.

The above quote is said by one of Emma’s closest friends, Mr. Knightly, after she makes a rude, snobbish comment to an older lady in front of a group people. Mr. Knightly seeing how offended the old lady is confronts Emma later and basically tells her to grow up. Emma is defensive at first but the scene ends with her in tears as she realizes how uncharitable she has acted. Because of this event, Emma is able to recognize that her words have had destructive powers not only in this situation but in other ones as well and sets off to improve herself in this regard. 

This is a theme in Austin’s novels – this self- realization that is all too often unpleasant as her heroines are forced to examine some disagreeable character flaw. In a recent book I have been reading, Unseduced and Unshaken: The Place of Dignity in a Young Woman’s Choice, the author spends a chapter discussing this very thing.  The chapter entitled Longing: From Disparity to Desire, speaks of this self-discovery especially discovery of those things that may be unsavory about oneself. She uses another one of Austin’s classic heroines, Elizabeth Bennet, to depict this concept. The author chronicles the scene after Mr.Darcy proposes and delivers to Lizzy a note explaining “the charges laid at my door”. In this letter Elizabeth is forced to look at her own pride and realize she herself had been blinded by prejudice. She is faced with learning something unpleasant about herself she didn’t even realize was a struggle.

So here am I, reading this book (Unseduced and Undignified) and watching Emma on hula+ with little understanding that the Lord was about to use both of these things to teach me a very big lesson. See earlier this week an issue arose at work and God used this issue coupled with the book, the movie, and His Word to stretch me and grow me.

 Several months ago, a co-worker and myself were complaining about another co-worker who has had significant issues with performing his required duties at work. We were upset because we felt that he was a liability to us (I have a potentially dangerous job and we need to have stable people backing us up) and we often had to cover our own butts by redoing is poorly done paperwork.  While I believe our frustrations were not in any way inappropriate the way we went about expressing those frustrations were. Some very uncharitable things came out of my mouth and I realize they did not reflect Christ at all.

Now if we had just complained to each other and moved on it would’ve been one thing but unfortunately, one of our clients overheard us and decided to use this information to her advantage.  She continued to spread what she had heard me say until is reached my superiors and while I was never confronted personally we were given a stern lecture (by my otherwise very un-stern boss) in our weekly meeting about the dangers and unprofessionalism of talking about each other at work.

As we sat in this meeting and my boss went on and on I could tell everyone knew what specifically he was talking about it and knew that I was one of those involved in the issue that had prompted this lecture. It was mortifying. I realized that not only had my unkind words made their way back to the co-worker I was speaking about, I had tainted my reputation by turning myself into a gossip and a backstabber.

This was my “ah-ha” moment. The point where I was forced to realize something about myself that I had never considered myself before and I didn’t like it. As a Christian, I strive to let Christ shine through me and I never felt failure in that like I did this week. I realized that my words not only hurt someone but that they had given me an unsavory reputation with my co-workers and my supervisors. Ouch.

But the Lord was gracious to me. As I dumbfoundedly tried to come to terms with who I had become in this regard, he sent me several sources to encourage me. He lovingly showed me through Emma  and Unseduced that I was not alone in this struggle and that in fact, coming face to face with oneself was a chance for great growth and not discouragement necessarily.

He then gave me Psalm 19:14: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation on my heart be acceptable in you sight, O LORD, my rock, and my redeemer. God showed me that I wasn’t just to change the words that came out of my mouth but that I was to manage the “meditation of my heart” as well. I needed to be “transformed by the renewal of my mind”. It wasn’t just my behavior but my heart as well that needed to be changed.  

 Ironically, Emma also struggled with controlling her tongue and it was what got her into trouble as well. James, the brother of Jesus, tells us that “The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile an sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being came tame the tongue.”

  I can remember my dad making me read James as a young girl, cautioning me all the way back then that my mouth would one day get me into trouble. Since then, I have brushed off any real conviction of watching my tongue, but God in his greatness is showing me that my words are powerful and that with them I can build up or destroy. My hope and prayer is that this week’s revelation would be a new start for me one where I will be more conscious of the words I speak and where my heart is.

For me it was my words. For you it will probably be something different. The point is we all have blind spots in our lives. Things we don’t want to admit we’ve become. And while looking into the mirror and accepting these flaws in our character are extremely difficult they are necessary if we wish to grow. Awareness should (hopefully) bring about change. So let us be people that pray for awareness, especially self-awareness that we may be people who are growing more and more to look like Christ.

So although the words, “Badly done, Emily! Badly done.” are still ringing in my ears; I am thankful there is forgiveness and from this experience I can look a little bit more like Him.

Thru My Cottage Door: My Mother In Law: Kay

Thru My Cottage Door: My Mother In Law: Kay: My mother-in-law passed away a year ago today.   Oh how she loved our children, they were so blessed by her at every turn.  Her Generosity ...

Grandma Kay

Four years ago I lost someone very special to me. I wrote a two page blog about everything I felt that day and my anger surrounding her death and funeral, but it's not here. I realized that however therapeutic it was for me to write all of that out, it didn't need to end up on here. So today I just want to say I miss you Grandma Kay.

 I miss your stuffed artichokes and meatballs. I miss your practical jokes and making me laugh. I miss the way you thought everything was a conspiracy: “I swear Jewel and Dominick's get together and put the same stuff on sale each week!”  

I miss your flowers and the way you kept the house so spotless. I miss the way you pretended to hate the dogs but then would secretly feed them ice cream in private. I miss the way you always said, “oh c’mon!” every time we would tease you. 

I miss the way you would yell at the Cubs players on TV even though I’m pretty sure you knew nothing about baseball. I miss you stopping to talk to EVERYONE in the store. I miss going to Caputos with you and listening to you speak Italian with the butcher. 

I miss your giving spirit. I miss how much you cared about our family.  

I miss you.  I love you. 

Finding Myself

"You can run to the end of the highway and not find what you’re looking for

And you can search to the end of highway and come back no better than before

But to find yourself you, you've got to start right here"

So many of my posts have these deep theological bases as I explore different topics that arise in my day to day life. Theology and philosophy have always come easy to me. My parents taught me to think critically and well about the issues around me. My whole life people have always told me how impressed they are with my thoughtfulness when it comes to these types of issues. However, while I may be gifted in articulating the things of above, I often use it to hide behind my real issues. If I can speak eloquently about the doctrine of God’s love or of the best way to handle issues of poverty then I can effortlessly direct people’s attention away from my own major flaws.

A few years ago, at the start of my junior year, I was on a student leadership retreat with Trinity and on opening night our speaker talked to us about fear. He encouraged us to identify our fears and then face them so that in the upcoming year our fears would not hold us back in our ministries. I knew instantly what I was afraid of: I was afraid of letting people know that I was afraid. Afraid of failure. Afraid of not being perfect. I wrote this prayer in response to those feelings and thoughts that night:

So tonight we talked about fear. And I am afraid. Afraid of my sin. Of how people would react if they knew. Afraid of failing. Afraid of being judged. Afraid of losing my status, my leadership, my influence, my identity. 

I am the perfect one. The one who has the answer. Who knows it all. The mature one. The educated one. The one who everyone thinks, “Wow! She knows her stuff – she must really love God!”

 While some of that may be true I am also something else. I am the one who messes up. But won’t admit it. The  one who sometimes doesn't understand – but knows enough to fake her way through. The one who can’t be real. The one who doesn't feel good enough. The one who can’t accept God’s grace.  

I am the one who has to be right. Who has to be on top. The one who needs to have the answers. The one who always seems confident. This is my identity. And admitting that I sometimes don’t know is what I am afraid of.

My junior year was one of enlightenment. I began to understand where my identity lay and how to change it to reflect Christ and nothing more. But as with most things, old habits die hard. And lately I have found myself once again confused about who I am.

I have been inside the “bubble” for practically my whole life. Until last January that is. For those who don’t know what the bubble is let me put it this way, I was home-schooled my whole life, spent most of time growing up either at church or at the ministry where my parents worked, in high school all my friends were friends from church, and then I went to a very small, somewhat conservative, Christian college – the bubble. In the bubble I flourished – I always knew the right thing to say, the right way to act, the perfect way to put some else down (in a “godly” way mind you), the right way to elevate myself without coming across as arrogant. In short, I knew how to play the game and I played it pretty darn well!

But then, I left the bubble. And all of sudden the game was completely changed. I tried quickly to adapt to the new game but it was so counter-cultural to the one that I grew up playing that I gave up. I figured if you can’t beat them – join them. And within a matter of weeks I became a totally different person. The way I acted at work, the things that came out my mouth were so opposite of how I was raised or how I had behaved for my whole life.

Someone at church once said to me, “What a great ministry you must have at your work!” and as I nodded my head I thought dismally, “If you only knew how I acted at work.”  Because the fact was that as soon as I set foot into my work place, I left behind everything that would show someone I was Christ follower. I even delayed adding my co-workers on Facebook because I didn't want them to have to see my “Christian” status’ in fear that maybe they wouldn't want to be friends with me anymore. But the thought of disappointing everyone who thought of me as the good little Christian girl, pushed me to continue adding thoughtful spiritual posts. 

I realize now that I am chameleon. I am a chameleon because of my insecurities. I have always been insecure in who I am. I realize that I have a powerful personality and because of that there are times when it makes me unpopular. I was a very awkward child and never felt like I fit in anywhere. Even among my best friends I always was unsure if they really liked me or not. As well, I have always been very insecure with my looks. Struggling with my weight, acne, and stick-straight hair since high school have always weighed heavily on my mind. I never liked to show it and always put an ultra-confident face on even though most of the time I wasn't.

So I am a chameleon, while in the bubble I blended in there and while in the world, I blended in there as well. The problem is I that while I was so busy being a chameleon in the Christian bubble something happened, I actually began to fall in love with God. It got to the point where I didn't do things just to impress people but because I actually wanted to serve God. Unfortunately though, I was still a chameleon so as soon as my surrounding changed so did I. but it was hard. I didn't want to change. I tried justifying my change as “I don’t want to be one of those Christians who’s so stuck up that no one wants to be around them” but really all this did was justify my sin. But I’m sick of it.

I don’t want to be a chameleon anymore.  I want to live for Christ. Not because it is the cool thing to do among my Christian friends but because I love Him. Nor do I want to be the girl who seems unapproachable to her co-workers because she is so high on her horse. But I do want them to see Christ. I want them to see Christ in how I love others and talk kindly about people. How I am there for them and will listen to there problems and never judge them yet without condoning their sin. I don’t want to be afraid for them to see my “spiritual” posts and neither do I want to make such posts just for the sake of gaining brownie points with the other bubble people.

So I am done. Done with being camouflaged to my surroundings. I am done with being afraid. I am ready to live in the light and be secure in who Christ made me to be and who I am in him.  So I’m writing this post to the people who know me from inside the bubble and those who know me from outside. I want those inside to know that I am not perfect (which you may have already guessed) and I’m sorry that I have not always been authentic with you. I am completely flawed and broken but through Christ I am being reconciled and renewed. And for those who I know from outside the bubble – this is who I really am. A follower of Christ. I love him and I want my life to be a testament of his love and mercy to all. And to you I apologize that I haven't been a better example of Christ to you. 

I don’t want to be afraid anymore. This is who I am: an imperfect, broken, sinner being sanctified by a loving savior.  

My goal now is to live for Christ and Christ alone. 

 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

As usual if you have anything to say - say it below or email me by clicking here. 

Thou Art Worthy

I recently had a conversation with my father about a preacher (Paul Washer https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EAMuoucAEY0# ) we had heard who was cautioning the American Church on its humanistic bent. I told my dad, that I was concerned with a statement that Washer had made, “Church is not about meeting the needs of the people”. I was taken aback by this statement especially considering many of my previous entries have been all about loving and caring for people the way Christ cared for the people of his time. I mean after all didn't Christ meet the physical needs of those who followed him around, like in the story of feeding of the five thousand? (remember that story for later)

But my dad made a comment that stuck with me as I was expressing my concern, “People sometimes want the things Christ can provide and not Christ himself.” Hmm, I've definitely seen that. People who use God as “fire-insurance”, if you will.

So this topic had been in the back of my mind but I really hadn't had time to digest it when I came across John 6 in my daily devotions: Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand. Now we all know this story, in fact, I just used it to illustrate my point above about the importance of meeting the needs of the people around us. So as I’m reading the passage I’m thinking, “This is the perfect passage to prove my dad and that Washer guy wrong! Our first and foremost thought should be about meeting the needs of the people!” Aaaaaaaand then I got to verse 26, “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.’”

Whoa! That’s almost word for word what my dad had told me earlier this week (I just want to insert here how cool I find it that God always finds a way to weave my devotional passage into something relevant in my life! He’s so awesome!). So I began to really think more about the initial comment that sparked this conversation, “Church is not about meeting the needs of the people”.

So what then is Church’s primary goal? God is. God and his glory is what church is all about. And this brings me back to thesis of Washer’s sermon: the American church has made things too much about us: man. And not enough about God. After all, isn't he kind of the point of, well, everything!

Personally, I think a good litmus test of where we place our emphasis on in our churches is how many times we sing the words “I, me, us, we, our” in our worship songs. Too often our “worship” songs are not really about God but about what God has done for US, or how WE feel about God, or what WE need to do better for God. Very rarely is the song simply just about God’s greatness and who he is. (Which is why I love “How Great is Our God” by Chris Tomlin because it solely focuses on God and him independent from us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pF11qnJ8rw )

Now all this to say, I don’t think it necessarily wrong to sing songs about what God has done for us (because he has done some pretty amazing things!) or our response to him, the problem is when it becomes all about how God relates to us when we need to realize that while we are nothing without God, God is not defined by what he does for us or how we feel about him or even what we do for him. In other words, while we will always be dependent on Him, He will ALWAYS be independent from us. Kinda puts things into perspective now doesn't it.

Ok back to the “point of church” thing. Now this is tricky, because I don’t think we are called to forsake meeting the needs of people (Obviously, as we see from Jesus’ ministry it is vitally important). But it’s not the most important. The danger, as Washer points out, is that once church and Christianity becomes all about meetings one’s needs what happens when the church can’t meet all their physical and emotional needs? Does that mean God ceases to be good?

I think this is hard concept for us Americans to understand because of the endless prosperity we live in. However, most of our fellow humans do not. Many Christians around the world live in dire poverty. I had the humbling experience of witnessing this first hand while I was in India a few years ago. And you know what, while the church there did seek to meet people needs often times due to financial restraints they were not met fully and guess what? Their faith still grew rather than diminishing.

 In other words, if our emphasis is just on meeting people’s needs their faith is going to die the instant we stop meeting those needs. And as Christ makes it very clear, we will have trouble in this world. Our needs will not always be met (and for many Christians they are not). But if this is our main emphasis and our selling point of God then when that trouble comes it will be like the seed that fell on shallow ground. Our faith will die, just as the seed did.

Our “selling” point to people about God is the Gospel not all the “perks” of being a Christian. Because truly living like Christ is hard work and our needs aren't always going to be met, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Or as the Message puts it: “Jesus was curt: ‘Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.’”

Ok, ok. So what’s my point? As I've written before it’s important that we are loving and caring for people the way Christ did which often means meeting their physical and emotional needs but more importantly we need to be pointing them to God and the Gospel. Having your needs met means nothing without the Gospel. Therefore, the Gospel and Christ is the point of church.  God wants people who love him not the “stuff” he can give them.

So the challenge for myself (and all of us really): is to look into my heart and discern – do I love and follow God because of who he is and because he is the Great I Am or just because I like the benefits of God having my back? 

May we all love and follow Him for simply being the God who is worthy to receive honor, glory and power (Revelation 4:11). Amen.

“Thou art worthy, thou art worthy

Thou art worthy, oh Lord

Thou art worthy to receive glory

Glory and honor and praise

For thou hast created, all things created

For thou hast created all things

And for Thy pleasure they are created

Thou art worthy, oh Lord”

As always if you have comments, questions, thoughts, complaints, or ramblings, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me here or leave me a comment! 

Everyone loves a wedding.

Everyone loves a wedding.

It seems to be engagement season! My favorite season! Everywhere I look, I see couples falling in love, getting engaged and tying the knot! And it’s all so beautiful!

On New Year ’s Eve my brother-in-law got engaged and so did a good friend! These two events sent me into wedding fever! My time is now consumed with pintrest wedding boards, wedding dress websites, stalking people on Facebook I barely know just to get a glimpse of the dress and flowers, and reminiscing as I look back on my own wedding photos. I know. Pathetic. What can I say – I LOVE weddings!

But to top it all off, I recently found The Bachelorette: Ashley and JPs Wedding on hulu+. (Yeah, you can judge me for this) I was so excited to watch the 2 hour TV special about the couple’s happy day and as watched, I started to see a theme emerge: people love weddings. People love to watch others in love. And they all wish that against all odd the couple stays in love forever.

I recently had a conversation with a dear friend about the sudden wedding/engagement fever that has been going on around us. And as we discussed marriage and relationships someone uttered the phrase: “well no one wants someone to get divorced!” But as we all know, the sad truth is that divorce is an all too common thing in our generation and culture. Which begs the question, why are so many people clinging to the idea of a lifelong marriage when they know the statistics belittle such an idea?

For those of you who are judging me for watching the bachelor/bachelorette, it’s ok. I know it’s ridiculous. But the one thing I always find interesting is how determined all the participants are on finding lasting, true love. These people aren't there for flings, they want eternal love. And they chase this idea of true love even though many are on the other side of their previous “happily ever after”.

People love wedding because they want to believe true love still exist. That lasting love exists. And why do they want to believe this? Because at their core this was what they were made for: a perfect, eternal, true love.

“I was made to love you. I was made to find you. I was made just for you, made to adore you. I was made to love and be loved by you. You were here before me. You were waiting on me. And you said you’d keep me, never would you leave me. I was made to love and be loved by you.” 

The “you” in this song refers to God. I love this song by tobyMac because I feel that it so perfectly articulates what all these people hearts are yearning for when they go into a wedding, hoping, praying, that maybe just maybe this will be an everlasting love.

We were made to love and be loved by God. Throughout the Bible, but especially in the book of Revelation, we are given a beautiful picture of a wedding. We are given a picture of a bridegroom preparing a place for his bride and how he will come redeem her and together they will live happily ever after. Seriously.

For all of you who thought the Bible was a boring, old book full of dos and don’ts – you’re wrong! It’s really the most beautiful love story ever written! See the bridegroom is Christ, who is God. And his bride is his church. And by church I mean all that love him (unfortunately there are many people in the “church” who don’t love him and there are some who love him but have been pushed out of the church - but that’s another topic).

 Ok, so back to the bridegroom/bride thing. First off, don’t be weirded by the terminology, when people think marriage they think sex but don’t worry God doesn't want to have sex with you but he does want intimacy with you (the whole reason he created sex in the first place). But again. Focus! Think about that couple you know who just has the best marriage. What does it look like? The key characteristic is probably love. but not the ooey goey love (though that might be there to) but true love. unconditional love. This is the kind of love God has for you. Yet, so much better because it’s true unconditional love. we humans have yet to master complete unconditional love. but God has. and that’s how he feels about you.

But like in all good marriages there needs to mutuality of love. If some dude falls helplessly in love with you but you could care less, you two probably aren't going to have a great marriage (if you get married at all). That’s how it is with God. We are his bride or at least he wants us to be. But we have to accept his proposal. Now let me be clear, even if you throw the ring back in his face, call him a liar and cheater, he will always, always, always continue to love you! But are you going to be married? Nope. Which means you are going to miss out on all that great stuff being married brings, like that great house (aka heaven) he is preparing for you.

So what’s the point of this now seemingly endless blog. God loves you and he wants you to accept his proposal so that he can be your perfect groom. And what is this proposal you may ask. Belief. This is the only thing God asks of us.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

When you accept what Christ did on the cross for you, you will experience the love of God. And this makes you his bride. This is what you were created for. To be his bride. To love God and to be loved by him.

This is why people love weddings. Weddings are a beautiful illustration of the love between God and his people and deep down everyone longs for that eternal love only God can give.

So next time you’re at a wedding, rejoice with the happy couple. But let their love and happiness remind you of a much greater, stronger love.

For some of you this may be old news. others it may be old news but with a new face. but for still others, this may be new, confusing, or just plain weird. Either way, you have questions, comments,  or nasty remarks email me by clicking here. Or you can leave a comment. ~ EJ

"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"

Tonight, on my overnight, I was looking for a good Christmas movie to watch online. There wasn’t much to choose from but I found a poor quality copy of one of my childhood favorites: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. For those who don’t know the story it’s about this family of six children (the Herdmans) whose father left them and their mother works all the time and are out of control. At attempt to get some free snacks they show up at the local church one Sunday where they hear about the Christmas pageant for the kids of the church. The Herdmans take an interest in the play and decide they want to be all the main parts (and since they are known for being bullies in school, none of the church kids argue). The woman running the pageant naively lets them play the main roles while the rest of church gossips about how awful the pageant is going to be because of these dreadful kids.

           

Growing up I loved this movie. It has lots of funny parts but I think the reason I always loved it was that in the end the Herdman kids learn what the Christmas story is really about: Jesus. However, since I haven’t seen the movie since I was a kid, it brought up a few different emotions and thoughts.

The Herdmans kids are awful, “They lie, steal, cuss, and smoke cigars -- even the girls.” We even see one of Herdmans bullying another kid to get his lunch. But as I was watching this movie I found myself getting angry. Anger. That’s a strange emotions for a child’s movie about Christmas? But yes, anger. I found myself angry at the way these poor kids were portrayed. As wild children whose parents didn’t want to be around them because they were so awful, “Mr.Herdman left when Gladys was 3 and nobody blamed him. And Mrs.Herdman works 2 shifts at the shoe factory so she isn’t home much, nobody blamed her either.”

Hold on a minute! I blame them! Maybe if they were around more these kids would have some supervision and someone to take care of them and they wouldn’t need to bully other kids for their lunches just so they could have something to eat that day.

Ok so all this to say, I feel for the Herdman kids. They’ve been abandoned by their parents and left to their own destructive devices and then on top of it they’ve been marginalized by a school that doesn’t want to deal with them and a church who doesn’t want their “holy” image to be spoiled by some dirty nasty kids. And this is what makes me angry most of all.

It makes me angry because I see this so much in the American church and I am ashamed to admit, in myself, in my earlier years. Unfortunately, the church in American has gone two directions: the “lets be super seeker friendly, water-down the gospel, and never preach anything that will make anyone uncomfortable” and the “we don’t want ‘those’ people in our perfect little church and lets ostracize anyone who might have tattoos, smoke, drinks, has sex, and (here’s the big one) might be gay”.

Let me tell you neither one is Biblical and if you would look at the life of Jesus you would see how wrong both of these perspective are. Do you know who Jesus hung out with? Fisherman, tax collectors, and prostitutes. Do you know who these people are in our society? Jesus hung out with dirty, gross construction workers who hung out in sketchy bars after their shifts. He hung out with people who worked at McDonalds, truck drivers, strippers, prostitutes, “illegal” immigrants, and probably some drug dealers. These are our society’s equivalent. These are the people who have been marginalized in our society. These are the people Jesus hung out with. How many good church do you know who hang out with these types of people? Oh he also hung out with children. Dirty, homeless children who didn’t know how to behave properly. Children like the Herdmans.

Now it’s important to note that Jesus didn’t turn a blind eye to these people sins. He didn’t tell the drug dealers, “yeah go ahead selling harmful substances to people and cheating them in the process.” No, he did call them to repent and live a life of obedience to him but he did this AFTER he built a relationship with them. Once he knew he really knew them, knew their fears and hurts and dreams. And once he had that relationship he asked them to live the life he had created for them.

This is what the church should look like. We should be a place that calls people to live according to plan God has given us in the Bible (which does include abstaining from certain behavior and practicing other behaviors). But we should be a safe place for those who have been marginalized in our society. Unfortunately, these people feel as if church is the last place they would be welcome, but really, it should be the first. Our churches should be crammed full of people of all walks of life no matter what their socio-economic status, race, sexual orientation, occupation, immigration status, political party, or life style.

So what does this have to do with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever? The Herdmans were not welcome in their local church because they were seen as dirty and ill behaved children. And yet, these children needed to understand who God was and what Christmas was all about more than anyone else and they were denied that chance because of the so called “Christians” in this particular church (In the end, the kids do start to understand who Jesus was and the true meaning of Christmas, no thanks to the congregation but rather because of the one woman who choose to take a chance on these wild, neglected kids in the attempts to share the real Christmas spirit with them).

So who are the “dirty, ill-behaved children” in your life? Who are the people who need Christ and his redeeming love in your life? Who are the people who have been marginalized in our society and thus cast from our churches? And how are you going to change that?

This Christmas, may we all remember the true story of Christmas. The story of Jesus. Yes, his birth is important but let us remember the story of his life. How he cared for those around us, how set the perfect example for us on how to love people and bring them into reconciliation with him, how he died on the Cross to redeem us and so that we could have open communication with God the Father, and above all how he gently and lovingly brought ALL people to him. “For God so loved the world he gave his one and only son that WHOSOEVER believes in him, shall have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to SAVE it!” May we be agents of Christ who help save people rather than condemn people this Christmas season!

God Bless!

*** Disclaimer: This is generalization of what I have seen of the American church as a whole. I know many wonderful believers who truly love ALL people the way Jesus did. Zack and I have also been blessed to be a part of body of Christians who have clung to these concepts and live them out on a daily basis. But unfortunately, I find these people to be the exception instead of the rule.***