Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (1.30.14)

I hope you've stayed warm and safe this week!  What a crazy week in the ATL.  Glad the weather is warming up and excited about our upcoming series starting this Sunday.  We'll be talking about God's plan for marriage and what it means to 'live out' our wedding vows with "The Vows."  This is a great time to invite friends and neighbors.  I think it's going to be a fun series, and I believe God will change the direction of lives, marriages and families this month.

Also, don't forget to bring "Hot Hands" this week to share with our Random Kindness on Feb. 8.

Thought for the Week
"What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider's web."  Job 8:14

This week I couldn't help but think about how fragile we are.  Our lives, they're so fragile.  Have you ever seen a snow flake?  It's nothing.  Millions upon millions of them together wreak havoc.  You've got ice in your freezer, but when it is somewhere we don't want it to be, we're in trouble.  A drop of water is nothing, but we've all stood on the shore at the beach and marveled at the ocean's power.  We are fragile, and we we rely upon is so fleeting.  This is the testimony of God's presence most important to me.  I need something thicker on which to hang.  I need something more substantial to set my life on.  This week was a reminder that the things we take for granted are so weak.  The power of our mighty cars are really nothing.  But there is another power.  On a week like this, I'm more mindful than ever that I want my life to be aligned with the one who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.  On Him alone will I lay the foundation of my life.  What we think is strong, secure and sure is nothing in the face of Almighty God.  What we think is so important now is so fleeting and fragile.  Careers can be derailed by one employee tearing down the company.  Athletic endeavors can be derailed by one injury.  Our finances can go under with one disease or surgery.  The things that we spend most of our time worrying about and working on are not what make up reality in eternity.  There is a more firm foundation.  That doesn't mean that we can live in this world where things like careers and money and other endeavors preoccupy our minds.  It means we hold them loosely and hold tightly that which matters most.

In Christ,

Carter 

Irreplaceable

The casualty

So, this was the damage done.  We recently had a hot dog roasting at church.  It was a chilly day and my seven-year old was wearing his best big coat -- a red and black jacket with logos from his favorite team, the Georgia Bulldogs.  Somewhere in the process of roasting a hot dog, he brushed  up against the metal fire pit.  Thus, the melting began.  It burned this whole in the jacket.  As some of the men gathered around and I found out from my wife about the incident, one of them said, "At least it was just a Georgia jacket."  I said, "What do you mean?" thinking that was a knock on our team.  He responded, "And not a kid."  And that's right.  Jackets can be replaced.  Kids can't.  Jackets can be patched up.  Kids can't.

As parents, it's so easy to fall prey to the materialism of our culture without realizing it.  We ascribe value to things that essentially have no value.  1,000 years ago if you burned a hole in the cloth covering you wore as a coat, that was a good reason to make you another one.  People have value.  Things really don't.  Every parent knows this, but we forget it -- easily.

This Christmas, some child is going to break something that was very expensive.  They're going to drop the iPad or iPhone.  They're going to step on the new train set.  He's going to rip a hole in those new jeans playing touch football at Grandma's.  She's going to get glitter-glue all over that new sweater.  They're going to throw a baseball through the new 3D HDTV.  Some kid is going to lose a toy they just got.  It's going to happen in the next three days somewhere.  It might happen to you.  Our temptation is going to be to get furious.  "Don't you know how much that costs?!"  But it can be replaced.  We live in a culture that decided those things are expensive.  But they're not.  You can go right down to the store and buy another one just like it.

Now, responsibility and accountability are important life lessons.  Kids need to be taught to value things and take care of stuff.  Money does not grow on trees, and being responsible for the things that are ours is an important part of growing up.  However, understanding the things on which you cannot put a price tag is a more important lesson.  Technology is a wonderful thing.  Advances in engineering and media have made our lives better, simpler and faster.  But they are just things.  Things that will break. Things that will be repaired.   Things that will be replaced.  I struggle with this at Christmas, when it seems like a competition between parents as to who can get their kids the most valuable toys.  I struggle with the expectations of my children because at a young age they already have an appetite for things the world says are valuable.  I want them to have nice things.  I want them to go crazy when they open a present.  I want them to be proud of and responsible with their things.  But more than anything else, I want them to know that they are valuable.  People are valuable.  People -- not iPads, not HDTVs, not the latest lego set, not designer clothes, not Kindle Fires, not cars, not houses, not even red & black UGA jackets -- are made in the image of God.  We don't believe Jesus died for things.  Jesus died for people because people matter.

The Pressure of Christmas

I love Christmas.  Love it.  My parents did (and still do) Christmas big.  It was magical at my house growing up, and looking back, I got a ridiculous amount of stuff.  I love getting Christmas presents for my family.  I love when you think of the perfect thing or get a great buy on something you shouldn't be able to afford for them, but somehow found it 70% off.  Or you think of something really creative.  It's a great feeling to do something heartfelt for someone you love.  It's better to see them open it.  I love it.

But there is also pressure at Christmas, and I'm not sure where it comes from.  You know, it's the feeling of knowing you've gotten most people in the family something really awesome and you bought their presents in, like, July.  But you're driving around the whole week before Christmas trying to find those last one or two people something.  And you're not satisfied because you got them something made by the Totes company that was in the center aisle display with the wallets, earmuffs, and piggy banks.  But it's all you could find.  And you couldn't show up with nothing.  And you're embarrassed when they open it.

Then there's the feeling like you wish you could do more, but you just can't.  You want to spend more on presents for loved ones, but you can't.  And you feel guilty.  Then, you look under the Christmas tree and want there to be more presents for your children there.  You're not sure there are enough under there, but you're not sure what enough is.  You know they have more than most children in the world, and you also know they will have friends who have the latest technological gadgets that they don't.  So, you find yourself strolling through the store to buy one more thing for them to make sure it's 'enough', even though they have rooms full of toys that they don't play with now.

And it makes you hate Christmas.  I hate what it does to me.  This year, underneath our tree is a little more bare than usual.  I'm going to back to school and that's a huge expense.  We're remodeling our kitchen.  Don't ever do that.  Listen to me:  don't ever remodel your kitchen. It is a black hole of expenses.  We've got two kids in preschool, and four growing boys, and it's just a little tighter this year.

Don't feel sorry for us.  My children have more toys than they could ever play with.  They have nice rooms decorated for them.  They eat good and go to great schools.  We are able to travel as a family together a lot.  We tithe to our church and see our money make an impact for the Kingdom.  And we have enough money to do things like (slowly) remodel our kitchen.  And still, I'm wondering if I should buy them one more thing to make sure it's enough.  Or worrying if I need to get one more family member one more thing so that it'll be enough, when they, like us, have more than enough.

This is what Christmas has done to us.  I'm a pastor.  I want to say that I know what Christmas is all about.  It's Jesus' birthday.  Of course I know that.  We celebrate that in my house and with our church.  We know He's the reason for the season.  But why do I feel this way every year at the Holidays?  Why does the over-commercialization get to me every season, telling me that I should get more and buy more for people who don't need any more?  How do I figure out what 'enough' is?

I think the answer is Jesus is enough.  He's enough so I don't need more.  Having Him is enough.  And my children and family won't remember what I got them for Christmas.  They won't be able to recall if they had 'enough' each Christmas.  (They might remember the year I got them those electric socks -- they seemed like something useful at the time.)  If I am Jesus for them, that will be enough.  If I serve them, love them, care for them, love them as Jesus does, that'll be enough.  If I die to myself for them as Jesus has, that'll be enough.  I can't wrap that and put it under a tree.  I can afford it because it's totally free, yet it will cost me everything.  That's what I want to give others all year.  That's how we get out of this crazy mindset we've let takeover Christmas.  And that's enough.  If we are Jesus for others, the gifts we buy will have little impact on their lives.  Being Christ for the world is enough.