The List

Standing in my grandmother’s dining room on Christmas Eve, 1981 was a monumental moment in my life.  We had spent a wonderful evening of magic with Grandma, our cousins, aunts and uncles, Christmas gifts and unending resources of cookies and treats.  Our family of six was packing up our newly acquired loot when Grandmother said, you kids better get right to bed before Santa comes tonight!

I was already excited and I could feel my heart rate increase all the more at her words.  “I will Grandma!” I said, though I doubted that I would be able to calm myself down enough to sleep.

My dad had a sadistic way of spinning angst into a perfectly joyful moment. “I don’t know…Santa might not come to our house…I heard, you might be on the naughty list.”

GREAT SCOTT!  Why would he say that??  Sure I had done some bad things through the year.  Did I lie about how much wood I hauled into the house? Well…Yes.  Did I secretly slide my mashed potatoes under my plate…more than once…to “pretend,” that I had finished my supper?  Again…yes.  Did I smack the dog because he slurped up my ice cream cone when I wasn’t looking last summer?  Yep…that too.  But is that enough to put me on the naughty list?

“I am not sure your room is clean either, is it?  Santa won’t come if your room is not clean.”

Egads!  He was right!  My room was likely NOT clean.  My excitement for the arrival of the mystical Red Suited Stranger suddenly turned to fret, anxiety and uncertainty.  All I could think of now was that this man who knew both when I was sleeping and when I was awake, had committed me to the naughty list.

My grandmother in all of her grace attempted to diffuse my sick minded father, “Oh stop Ross…I am sure Ryan is on the Nice List…he’s a good boy! Aren’t you Ryan?”

“Yeah!” I nervously rebutted.

Evidence suggests, that Santa did come that night.  My room must have been warranted to be clean enough and my niceness must have somehow overcome my misdeeds.  Or…perhaps some forces other than Santa were at work.  I spent many Christmas seasons trying to appease Santa. 

Likewise, I have spent many years of my life trying to appease God. 

Does God want us to obey him? Yes!

Does God want us to “do” certain things in this life? Absolutely!

Does God want us to resist temptation and stay away from acts of evil and idolatry? Certainly!

But what does God “really” want1? You…and a relationship “with” you.

There is ONLY one way into that relationship with God and that is through His Son Jesus. 

Christmas isn’t about appeasing Santa.  Christmas isn’t appeasing God.  Christmas is about God coming because he wants to restore the relationship “with” each of us. 

When the angels appeared to the shepherds and made their incredible announcement in Luke 2 and drawing their attention back to the prophecy of Isaiah 9, God has fulfilled his promise to be WITH US!!!  

Life with God transforms us.  In fact, if God is “with” us…then our transformed lives filled with transformed love should begin to reflect His love.

May your life AFTER Christmas reflect the LIFE he has offered to us BECAUSE of Christmas.

 Blood Stained

My daughter’s van broke this morning…again.  This has happened twice prior…and always on days that hit double digits below zero.  Each time it is the same thing…the power steering line that runs to the power steering cooler explodes and leaves a red hydraulic fluid blood stain in the driveway. 

This did not fill me with joy.

I recently replaced our dishwasher.  I have lost count on the number of dishwashers that I have installed in this home.  Each prior unit was lackluster at best.  In fact, our most recent “dishwasher” actually made the dishes dirtier than when they went into the machine.  How is that even possible?

Dishwashers rarely fill me with joy.

The battery on one of our other vehicles went bad today. 

This also, did not fill me with joy.

Joy is a difficult thing to describe.  Far too often we…I…associate joy with the occurrence of events in my life whether the events happen to be deemed as good…or bad.

I am learning about what God means when he speaks of joy in the scriptures. 

I am finding joy is often best expressed in the realm of relationships.  As a parent I want to be “with” my children.  I want to be with them when they are sad, or when they are excited, or when they are lonely.  I want to be with them when they live out of state. 

When I find times when I can be “with” them, I think I get a foretaste of the joy that God speaks of in the scriptures.  When my son comes home for a brief day and a half of the Minnesota firearm deer season and I get to be “with” him…there is something that stirs in my soul that feels joyful.  When our daughter comes home from Georgia and we get to see her and hug her for the first time in months; that same foretaste of joy flickers as I am “with” her.

Even in times when we ache with our children, the love that permeates our bond expresses a joy in the togetherness despite the shedding of tears.

When we read Luke 2, and find that the angels have promised the shepherds of the arrival of a child that will bring great joy for all the people, I think the fulfillment of that joy is in relationship. I believe that the joy that arrives that night is in the truth that God has come in the form of a man so that the relationship between God and man can be reconciled through the blood stained cross!

We get to be WITH God!

That is a joyous reunion in a joyous restored relationship.

 The General Lee

I don’t like confrontation.  This is true whether I am the confronter or the confronted.  Therefore, it is no small wonder that when my boss, Jerry, called me into his Pizza Hut office, puddles of sweat began to form in the pits of my arms.

I had been brought into the boss’ office on several occasions prior. These meetings usually consisted of Jerry asking rhetorical questions and pointing out areas of “growth” that he is expecting to see in me moving forward. 

“Ryan, you need to shave…you know the policy…clean shaven is like heaven.”

“What about the beard I am trying to grow?”

“Give it up.  Three hairs does not constitute a beard.  Go shave.”

“Yes Sir.”

Other confronted growth areas have included, proper floor washing procedures as well as the wearing  inappropriate work attire…Jerry expressed his concern of my using duct tape as a belt.    

“Mr. Wikre, it is not a belt.  The duct tape is actually keeping the backside of my pants closed.  You see I ripped them wide open on my last delivery run, so you could say that the duct tape is really much more appropriate than say, NOT having the duct tape…if you see what I mean.  Which would you rather have…duct tape? or…the effects of what it would mean if there was no duct tape?  Surely, I am making my point and you see my dilemma?”

“Neither, I expect you to have new pants before your next shift.”

“Yes sir.”

As I stepped into his office on this particular occasion, I was mentally processing what the subject of the visit could entail.  I wondered if he had heard about the tail light incident or the stuck in the ditch incident or perhaps it was the dog incident…I barely made it out of that one with the remainder of my pants in tact.

“Ryan, I would like to talk to you about your job performance.”

“Drat!” I thought, “it’s everything!” 

“What about it sir?” I asked.

“Well, I have noticed how you get in and out of your vehicle through the window. Would you like to explain that to me?”

“Would you believe that I was a childhood fan of the Dukes of Hazard? I often fanaticized about the General Lee!”

“Are you sure it the orange car that you fancied?”

“No comment.”

“In either case this does not explain why you are not using your door.”

“Well sir, if I open the door, the only way to get the door to close again is if I lay on the ground from the outside and kick the door up and in with my feet…and well…I don’t have time for that.”

“Ryan, I don’t approve of the car door, however, I want to tell you something.  The way you work is exceptional.  In fact, I don’t have another driver you can get in and out of his car faster than you do through your window.  I don’t usually do this…as I don’t usually give drivers a raise because of the tips that they can earn…but I am going to give you a raise and say thank you for your diligent work.”

“Thank you sir!”

“You are welcome.  Now…go deliver some pizzas…and get your car fixed.”

I did deliver more pizzas…but I did not get the car fixed. Instead, I purchased another piece of junk.

The point of the story isn’t the car, rather the relational experience that I had with Jerry.

Over the years Jerry and I actually became friends even finding time to fish together and hanging out together. 

Early on in the relationship, I would have described it as respectful but fearful.  Later, I came to see it as respectful and peaceful. My respect for Jerry never diminished, in fact, it increased over the years.  However, my fear diminished and was replaced with peace.  I came to trust him as my boss and see that though he was interested in my growth and change, he wanted to see me flourish.

Peace is one of strongest themes we find at Christmas.  Luke 2:10-14 and Isaiah 9:2-7 both emphasize it vigorously.  The truth of Christmas is that God sent his Son to restore peace in the relationship between God and mankind.  This isn’t a ceasefire or superficial feel good kind of peace…rather it is all about an abundant peace found in the regenerated relationship that we can have with God!

May you come to find the true “Peace of God,” found only in Jesus this Christmas.