12/14/2018 0 Comments There is room at the innI heard a Casting Crowns Christmas song last night - Make Room by Casting Crowns. (http://bit.ly/2SSvDvt)
It reminded me of a crucial part of the Christmas story that lives on. Jesus is still looking for a place to be born. And, like then, none of it has to do with the kind of home HE wants, but more the kind of home he wants for US. I know for me, every day, and maybe more so this time of the year, Jesus does not find room where he most wants to live -in my heart. I have to tell him I'm busy shopping or decorating or attending office parties or hanging with Santa or drinking eggnog - just enough to help me forget how little room I really do have left in my inn. But after the holidays Jesus.... Really? No, after the holidays comes new year's resolutions. A time for fresh starts. New beginnings. Bigger and better stories in our lives. You want to know something? I'm not sure I've ever started a new year saying - this year I want to let Jesus write more of my goals. I want him to write the new stories. I simply plow into the new year filling out MY new planner with MY new goals - how far I want to run, how much I want to write, how much I want to earn, how much of the world I want to travel. And always there is this knocking. There's this Jesus in the background knocking and asking: is there room in your heart. While I'm being honest, when I'm writing these new goals, planning new adventures, I'll often say I'm chasing God's story. And in fairness, I believe often I am. But what if at Christmas time, this crazy busy time that really isn't much different from every other crazy busy day of my life except for more lights and trees and wrapping paper - but what if Jesus is saying - I don't need you chasing my story, I just need you to sit still long enough for me to write it on your heart. What if Jesus is saying, you know, I come knocking at your door a lot, but too often you say there's no room at the inn. Here's what I know. We all write our goals and dream our dreams and envision our visions because we want better lives. Better lives for ourselves and for our families and for the people around us. And here's what Jesus wants. He wants that too. He just knows we are never going to get that if we don't give him a little room to write his story on our hearts. We will always be chasing if we don't stop long enough for Him to do some writing. I think my phrase for 2019 will be - There is room at the inn.
0 Comments
12/12/2018 0 Comments I believe my season will comeI heard the song "Seasons" by Hillsong Worship last night for the first time. The lyrics really spoke to me.
This week, the world around me is covered in snow. Lots of it. I have a lot of childhood snow memories. None stronger than how a fresh snow instantly transformed the miles and miles of fields around our home into seas of white. The blankets of snow were good for those fields. They provided the moisture and nutrients they'd need for a bountiful harvest the following year. I watched this happen, year after year. I came to know it as truth. As a cycle for life. I think we all get to a season of winter in our lives. I do. In fact, there are times I feel like I'm in a constant state of winter, covered in snow, little happening, nothing is growing, wondering if the harvest will ever come. But it does. It always does. Just like those fields of snow would always turn back to fields of green, I've seen the harvest come enough in my life to know God is always working. This relationship with God is one that relies a lot on patience. Living a life that I often feel would go much better moving along at MY pace requires patience - and wisdom - to fully trust in God's timing. It requires faith. The seasons, the snow, it's a reminder that God has an order about things. When we reach a point in our life when it looks like the green pastures are gone, they come back greener than ever. Christmas is a reminder that there is beauty in the growing. God took great joy bringing us hope in a baby. In letting us see the story of that baby - a story of hope that doesn't come in an instant, but unfolds and grows. Maybe it's God's way of saying there is beauty in OUR stories. That he believes in them. That even though at times, to us, it feels like we are stuck, God fully sees our promise. Even in winter. |
Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
November 2024
CategoriesAll Faith Fatherhood Life Mental Health Perserverance Running |