Author: lauracrosby (Page 42 of 45)

Canceling Church, part 2

December 26, 2011 /

Merry day after Christmas!  I hope you had a lovely day, fully present to Jesus and loved ones around you.  

Friday I posted on different attitudes towards canceling church on Christmas day, including my own whine well reasoned argument against John signing our family up to lead in worship.  Well the troops rallied and it was a delightful day.  Since I’m following the advice of my blog “mentor”, Jon Acuff and taking a little break this week, I thought I’d just post what I shared in church yesterday. 

Twenty-six years ago this past week John and I were waiting for a baby to arrive.  It was Advent so we were waiting to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  But we were also expecting our first baby.

I was 8 months pregnant and like all expectant parents we were discussing names.   We couldn’t agree, but it wasn’t for lack of resources.

We had a baby book with the meanings of names.

And even a Christian version with Bible verses for each name’s meaning.

And then we had, you know… the whole BIBLE, with all those holy names to choose from.  But…we had…issues.

I had been an elementary school teacher which meant we had to nix any names that had belonged to problem kids I had had in class.  I used to love the name Jeremy until I had a third grade “Jeremy” who was worse than Dennis the Menace and Osama bin Laden.  So Jeremy was out.  And so was Alex.  And Michael.

Then we had trouble agreeing on the type of name.  I like unusual names, and would have no problem naming a child Zechariah (my cousin has kids named Cosmo and Zappa so he’d feel right at home).  But John likes the classics (and the name “John” in particular), so there was no way we could agree on a boy’s name that was acceptable.  It’s a good thing we had a girl.

When Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph didn’t have to have the “What shall we name him” conversation fraught with the potential disagreements.  I know there are a lot of downsides, to being the parents of the Messiah, but this is a perk.  They had an ANGEL show up and say, “Here’s the deal.  You’re gonna have a baby and I want you to name Him Jesus.  Got that?  Jesus.   Not Joe.”  

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What Grace Looks Like

December 23, 2011 /

This was originally posted February 17, 2011 from Florida while we were on Sabbatical.  I thought of it because so many people seem grace-less during the busy holiday season.

Yesterday a close friend flew down and will be here for the last two weeks of our stay. She is six feet tall and model–like.  Beautiful on the outside, but if possible, her spirit is even more beautiful.

She travels a lot. Because she is tall and also often has to get up on long flights she always reserves an aisle seat.

Yesterday when she got to her seat on the crowded flight there was a large man sitting there.

He looked at her.

He didn’t move.

He didn’t offer to move.

He didn’t apologize.

He was very…UNgracious.

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Canceling Church

December 21, 2011 /

Christmas lands on Sunday this year (in case you missed the memo).                              And my husband is a pastor.                                                                                                       And he scheduled Christmas morning worship.                                                          How do you feel about that?

You may think, “It’s Sunday!  Slam dunk!  That’s as it should be!  I personally can have a worshipful spirit while still in my pj’s at home on Christmas morning, but it’s good to know there will be church as usual for, you know… other people.”

Or you may think, “Absolutely!  We will have have opened gifts, enjoyed brunch, and we’re planning to get to church early just to make sure we can get a good seat.  Anyone not in church must not love Jesus.”

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The Rest of God…Oxymoron at Christmas?

December 19, 2011 /

Years ago we lent my mom a book entitled, “When I Relax I Feel Guilty” by Tim Hansel.  She returned it a year later saying she was sorry she just hadn’t found time to read it.  Love that woman!  But why do I tell you this?

Well at the end of each year, my husband, John and I spend some time looking back, re-reading our journals.  In addition to helping us notice the faithfulness of God, and helping us pay attention to the stuff He’s been trying to teach us, we are also reminded of good books we’ve read.

One of the best books we read was called The Rest of God about Sabbath by Mark Buchanan.  I thought during this busy, stressful season it might be helpful to rememeber what impacted me almost a year ago.  Here’s some of what I wrote…(can you relate?)

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Come Holy Spirit

December 16, 2011 /

I was maneuvering laboriously, with stops and starts, through the parking lot at Costco yesterday, thinking for the millionth time that the Costco parking lot is either an outer ring of hell or a brilliant opportunity for spiritual formation.  

As I dodged runaway giant shopping carts,

and waited for pedestrians absorbed in studying their shopping lists wandering blindly in the middle of the row,

and backed up for cars in front of me that slammed on their brakes upon spying the tell-tale white reverse lights of a car vacating a parking place they could nab…

I thought of a spiritual practice a friend of mine has been advocating.  The simple practice of saying “Come Holy Spirit” throughout the day in situations like this that require patience, understanding, and discipline beyond me.

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Christmas Card Fail

December 14, 2011 /

One of the casualties of the Holiday Ham meltdown ’11 was our family Christmas card and letter.  We’re not going to do one this year to save some money.  As the Christmas Queen who wants to do everything Christmas, and who’s dream is to be a snowflake in the Holidazzle parade, you can bet this wasn’t my vote.  I’m really into tradition.  We even have a book where we keep all our family Christmas cards through the years.

But maybe it’s better this way.  I received a link to The Best of the Worst Holiday Cards yesterday and I’m thinking some of ours might make the cut.  We were really into holiday sweaters.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking…What if Mary and Joseph wrote a Christmas letter a couple of years after Jesus was born?  It might have begun like ours did in 1987, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”?

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Hormones and Ham, Messes and Mis-understanding

December 12, 2011 /

One of us in our family had a meltdown Friday night.  It might have included an ugly cry and talk about budgets, Christmas cards, ham, and insensitive comments.

My husband and I both worked really hard to understand each other, but OK, honestly John worked at it a lot harder than I did because, well, not to be sexist, but I’m a girl.  And he feels really bad when I cry.

On this night our discussion was kind of like a Christmas movie marathon that seems to go on forever and eventually the stories seem to start blurring together and you get really tired.  But John persisted and kept asking questions and listening until he finally said something and I grabbed him and yelled with great joy, “YOU SAID IT RIGHT THAT TIME!”

I felt like he finally got it.  He understood.  And he felt like he had vanquished the Abominable Snow Monster, guided Santa’s sleigh through the blizzard, and saved Christmas in that moment.  He was my hero again.

It made me think of what Joseph must have gone through with Mary.  I mean really.  Jesus was fully human AND fully God, but Mary was just human!  She was hormonal, and still in her teens, and unmarried and poor.  And an angel had beamed down to have a chat with and her fiance.

Think of the conversations Mary and Joseph must have had as they navigated this crazy journey of morning sickness, and gossipy friends, and a long “road” trip without McDonald’s bathrooms!  There must have been tears and confusion.  Trying to understand what each other was feeling.  Trying to support each other.

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Breathe

December 9, 2011 /

I really wish I liked Yoga more. It’s healthy.  And it’s so in.  But I’m not crazy about it.

Here are the only things I like about Yoga:

  • the comfy pants that are like legal pajamas,
  • the fact that you do it in a group with great people, and not, for example on a stationary bike in your basement (like a crazy introvert),
  • the corpse pose (where you lay still with soft music playing)…

And one more thing…

They remind you to breathe.  In fact, I think that’s the only part I consistently get right when I go.  I mess up all the poses.  And I can’t make myself pretzelize (is that a word?) like my friend Brooke.

But then they say, “Don’t forget to breathe.” and I think “Yes!  I’ve got that down!  Score!” (Can you tell I’m better at competitive sports than contemplative ones?)

Sometimes the best I can do at Yoga is to just keep breathing.  Sometimes in the Christmas season it seems that way also.  You too?

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Christmas Covet

December 7, 2011 /

Recently I heard someone say that they like Thanksgiving much better than Christmas because at Thanksgiving the focus is on being grateful for what we have, and at Christmas the focus is on getting what we want (or maybe more accurately, on what is lacking in our lives).  I hope it’s more than that, but I get what they mean.  There’s a lot at Christmas that threatens our contentment by tempting us to compare and covet, not just the things others have, but their life.

It used to be at this time of year our mailbox was filled with the “Christmas Letter” from friends around the country.                                                                                               The Christmas letter with glowing accounts of our friends’ “best life”…the highlight reel, the “brand”…the image we want to project…

But now with Facebook and Twitter it’s possible to read a perpetual “Christmas Letter” from friends all year long.  Facebook and Twitter can be  awesome tools to connect us in community.  But they can also be places where I covet a life that’s not mine.

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Labor of Love?

December 5, 2011 /

I’ve never heard either of my parents swear, but I have many memories of my mom, frustrated with a task, saying “I’m gonna swear.  I’m gonna swear! Close your ears kids!”                                                                                                                                                She never did, but she threatened to.  A lot.

There are some things that tempt a person to swear more than others. For me, the job of untangling Christmas lights brings out the worst in me.  I spent hours doing it this weekend, growling under my breath:

1.  “I’m sure this must be a job people have to do in Hell.”

2.  “If God really loved me I’d be rich enough to buy new lights every year.”

I was muttering, and resenting my husband who was off doing “spiritual” things, having “spiritual” conversations with colleagues, while I was relegated to “unspiritual” homey decorating chores.

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