Regarding Hitchhikers and A New Pair of Shoes

Running Late

I was running late for worship practice.  Just about the story of my life, since it was a forty-minute drive from my place of abode to the church, and I always felt like I could do it in much less time.  I floored the gas pedal and wove down a winding road, taking the turns at a far faster pace than was probably safe.

It was warm outside, well, at least relatively warm for the Land of the Midnight Sun in winter.  A path ran alongside the road, and as I wound around a bend, I saw a man on a snow machine going as fast as I was-- without a coat.

"What an idiot," I thought to myself.  Sure, it was warm, but it is not smart to snow machine in the winter at any temperature without a coat.  He had gloves and snow pants, but it was obviously too warm for him to wear anything to protect his vital core.  As I was making such a critical remark on his wardrobe choice, I glanced over at him and watched as his snow machine unexpectedly sputtered and died.  He gaped at me, and I gaped at him, and I saw that he was in trouble.  His expression showed that he knew he wasn't in too much trouble, since I saw him, and I would obviously help.  Right?

Wrong.  I was running late for worship practice.  I was already on the naughty list, or so I felt, for several things, and I sure did not want to disappoint the worship leaders.  We were, after all, doing something so very highly spiritual as preparing to lead people into the presence of God, and that was the top priority.  I will never forget the look on that man's face as I drove off, leaving him in the cold without a coat.

I was about half a mile away before the Holy Spirit convicted me of my actions.  How could I be so busy doing good things for God that I didn't care for the very core of His heart-- for people?  I felt the Lord say, "Forget being on time!  I would rather your compassion, a better act of worship than leading people into the presence of God with a man's life (possibly) on your hands!"

I turned around at the first place I could, nearly driving off the road at my speed.  I may not always hit the mark the first time, but when I feel conviction like that, I try to be the first to respond.  I booked it back to the place where the snow machine died, only to find the vehicle there,  but the man was not.  I spent who knows how long driving up and down the road, poking in the trees, looking for this man or his frozen body.  But he had simply vanished, and I hope to God that someone else had given him a ride, in warmth, to his house.  And you know what?  I was late, but so were the worship leaders.  It would have been alright, if I'd stopped and helped the man in the first place.

This instance weighed heavily on my mind the next several months.  I was in a place at church where people knew my spiritual history, respected my spiritual insight, thought I was an example.  And yet, I was so busy with all the good things, serving like crazy with worship, youth, and children's ministry, I "didn't have time" to help out a man who very well could have been Jesus.  As I examined my heart, my life, and my ministry, I knew that something was not right.  But even as we draw near to God, or strive to, God draws near to us, and He set me on an uncomfortable journey outside my comfort zone regarding hitchhikers and a new pair of shoes.

Things happened at my church with the leadership, and through many circumstances, I felt as if the Lord was saying it was my choice if I decided to seek a new church.  I had never left that church so long as I lived in this town (I'd been to others in college), and I had thought one day I would be one of the little old ladies who spread her wisdom on the younger generation at church.  But the Lord led me to a new church where there was life and opportunity... and challenge.

Running Late, Again

I wasn't on worship, they didn't know me yet, but I was trying to make the Sunday 11:15 am service and, as usual, was running late.  I was so tired, as for years I attended a Saturday night service and was used to staying up to 3 am running teenagers home from youth group and such.  It was awful hard to be up on a Sunday morning, but I didn't want to be late, so I floored it through the backcountry until I hit the local university campus on the outskirts of town.

A woman in a black hoody walked along the side of the road.  I immediately could tell from the posture of her shoulders that she was having a bad day, and when she looked up at me, I saw tears on her face.  I felt suddenly as if I was to stop and ask this lady if she needed a ride somewhere... but I was running late for church and plus, I couldn't help but notice her rainbow-coloured backpack.  It was like one of the primary-colored parachutes we played with in elementary school, and there was just something about the backpack.  What did she have, a gun?  A knife?  Were her tears fake?  I've had a knife pulled on me in a bad part of Minneapolis, and I've nearly been mugged there and several other big cities while traveling alone.  I was not in the mood for being mugged.  I just really wanted to go to church.

She gave me that look, the look the man on the snow machine had given me.  But I wasn't going to get mugged.  I turned my eyes onto the road, hardened my heart, and drove on.  I saw her posture slump in my rear-view mirror.  I thought about going back, but I didn't.

On a road near the church, where I was already five minutes late, God gave me a second chance.  It's amazing how He does that, with life and failed assignments.  There was a little Asian man in an expensive-looking suit walking determinedly down the road, toting way more luggage than himself.  He held a piece of lined paper in his hand, and glanced at it frequently, and then at his surroundings.  I knew that look, I've had it-- not having any connections in town, he was walking to his destination with all his baggage.  I've done that before, that back-breaking, excruciating walk, alone, without help, but you're too proud to be defeated and you're so stubborn, you're going to figure it out yourself.  It was as if the Lord was like, "Ok, so you won't pick up the shady lady who was crying, so maybe you'll pick up the harmless business man."  But you know what?  I was horrible.  I didn't.  I was five minutes late, and whenever I took him to wherever (the airport?  His hotel?), I'd be ever so much later.  I'd miss worship.  So I drove by, and he didn't even notice.

 I sang songs that morning with the weight of those people's problems on the back of my mind, that verse echoing through the back of my head, "Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me."  While I tried to enter in, I felt as if I'd missed the true worship the Lord wanted me to do unto Him, and I felt uncomfortable.  Then, the pastor got up to speak.  It got much worse.

His sermon was about going out of your way to help people.  He talked about how that is worship unto God, and how we can be a witness.  He charged the church with going out and being Jesus's hands and feet.  I shrank in my chair, and bowed my head.  The Lord had tested me, and I failed.  Miserably.

Almost On Time

I determined that moment that I would strive to be different.  I vowed the next hitchhiker I felt the Lord was telling me to pick up, I would pick up.  I laugh in recollection of this, because I had no idea the next person the Lord would have me pick up fit the profile of the stereotype of a murderer.  I mean, literally, imagine in your head what a white male serial killer ought to look like, and there was this young man, walking along the side of the road.

It was raining, hard.  Hard rain like that is unusual in the Land of the Midnight Sun, and I imagined anyone or anything walking out in the rain like that would drown, because the droplets were pelting sideways, like a smothering bed-comforter to the face.  

He carried two five gallon jugs, and on his back, he carried a heavy pack I could only assume was laden with water.  The tell-tale signs of a person living in a dry cabin (without running water).  He was walking up one of the steepest hills in town.  The rain was running off his face, and his eyes were shut against its stream running over his eyelids.  You had to be an absolutely horrible person to pass a creature you owned, or a serial killer, no less, and not stop and offer shelter from the elements, or a ride.  I felt the Holy Spirit stir within me, and with a prayer of, "I'll be home soon, Lord," I pulled over and stopped in front of him.

I was so concerned about being murdered, that I forgot to tell him my name.  Or ask his name.  Or ask where he was going.  He just got in, got situated, and I took off driving.  I'm surprised he didn't think he wasn't getting kidnapped or something.

For a serial-killer, he had the best manners out of anyone I've ever given a ride to.  He introduced himself as Daniel, and I tried not to stare at the tattoos that went the whole way up his neck.  He offered where he was going, and did his best to cover my seat so it didn't get water stains, as he was soaked completely through.  I asked him on a whim if he was a university student, and he said, yes, and explained that he was studying Family Studies.  I furrowed my brow.  Serial killer indeed.  

At any rate, we reached his destination, out in the middle of nowhere, me coping with the situation by prattling nonsense in a high-pitched voice.  The pastor had said you have to tell people why you're being nice to them or else they will think you're just that-- nice.  I reached this point where he was getting out, declaring my ride was the best thing that had happened to him all day.  The Holy Spirit prompted me to tell him God loved him, or God bless, or something, but I don't know why, it was just so hard.  Before I knew it, he'd gathered up his water jugs and had disappeared from sight, and I was trying to drive away as fast as I could so he couldn't get my license plate number for any future attempts at my life.  I kicked myself once away, though, as I had been obedient to the Lord, to a point, but not completely.

"Please, God, give me one more chance," I prayed.  I was going to get this right, this time.  But it wasn't a good number of months before I had the chance to nail it.  And, at last, I finally did, in a different city, with a pair of shoes.

Punctual

I went to the largest city in the state to take a big deal certification test, and there, I had to check out the local mall for a pair of shoes for work.  "Ankle booties", short boots that hit the afore-mentioned anatomy, were the thing, and my boss had been lifting her eyebrow at my worn out black shoes.  I found myself in a shoe store and selected a few pairs of ankle booties to try on.  There was a buy one, get one half off deal going on, but I only wanted one pair, so I was deciding between two styles while sitting on a bench when I heard a boy crying in the row behind me.

"Why can I not get these shoes, Dad?"

The father answered, kind but truthful.  "It's because we do not have any money, son.  You need to get these shoes for your gym class, but that's all we can get."

The son, disappointed, acknowledged his father's explanation.

I was really struck by their interaction, mostly because the child was not whiny or nagging, and I could tell the father was trying his best to get by.  He also answered out of love, which you sometimes don't hear in such situations.  It wasn't quite audible, but I did hear the voice of God tell me, very loudly, "Buy the shoes."

Now, this was a season in my life where money wasn't exactly over plentiful.  I'd just forked over $3000 for my certification class and test, and I was trying to save and pay off my university student loan, which was no small sum.  I was getting shoes so I could maintain the expected appearance at work to pay for it all.  But I've learned that whatever I have, no matter how large or small, it is the Lord's.  So I went around to their isle, introduced myself, and threw myself into a hasty explanation.

I think it was something like, "Hi!  I'm Joyce.  I love God and God loves me.  God also loves you and your son.  I feel like God is telling me I'm supposed to buy your son some shoes."  Maybe it was less eloquent...

The father looked at me, mouth open.  "No... No, I can't accept that."

"I mean it," I assured him.  "I believe this is what God is telling me to do."

He was still hesitant, but I finally convinced him I was serious.

He didn't understand why I would be doing such a thing, but I told him I felt like God wanted to show him and his son that He loved them.  And so I went and bought the shoes, and mine.  

By this time, the man had found his wife, and when I presented the shoes to the family, we were laughing and crying and group-hugged there in the isle of the shoe store.  It was probably one of the happiest, craziest moments of my life.  I wish I knew of a church in town I could have directed them to, but I felt God tell me He knew the journey they were on, and that He would arrange the next step.  I trusted that, said my good-byes, and walked out to my car in very high spirits.  It may have taken me four tries, but I was finally obedient to the Lord and loving the feeling.

At any rate, through the whole test, I felt like the Lord was teaching me new things about church, worship, and His heart.  Us active church folks can become so busy doing good things and running programs that we miss His heart, and the true worship He craves.  We can miss his true intent.  Sure, church-worship is amazing, and church programs are great, too, but true worship is so much more than music that happens within the four walls of the church.  It's blessing the heart of God by also serving and loving others, and telling them about Him.  I have by no means arrived, but I am excited to see what the Lord does next on this crazy God-journey I am on.

Is God Leading You the Long Way?

Does it seem like God is leading you the long way to the Promised Land?  Have you waited and waited and not "arrived" yet at the place that God has promised? It may be taking so long because He knows you best and knows what's best for you. 

Exodus 13:17-18 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, "If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea...

The last part of verse 18 states, "The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt prepared for battle."  However, they must have not been ready to actually fight as God did not let them.  Instead, He let them avoid the Philistines (which might have made them return to captivity, the opposite direction of the freedom God wanted them to have) and let them watch Him take out the Egyptian army with a wall of water at the Red Sea (Exodus 14).

Be prepared for battle, as that is how we should be (Ephesians 6:13).  But also be prepared to see God move mightily, as the victory is ours and the battle is the Lord's (1 Samuel 17:47, 2 Chronicles 20:17).  And if you are discouraged that you have not arrived, put your eyes on God (2 Chronicles 20:12, Matthew 14:28-31), as there may be a lesson you need to learn now, such as joyfully accepting each day instead of complaining about the journey (1 Thessalonians 5:18, Philippians 4:16).  Or perhaps you need to be freed of your "captive mentality", like the Israelites, who kept thinking their slavery was better than their freedom (Exodus 14:10-12 is just one example)!  God knows what's best for us, and will work all things together for good (Romans 8:28).

How to Experience the Glory of God... Like a Woman

Matthew 28:8-10 

And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

Several weeks ago, I wrote about Experiencing the Glory of God like a Shepherd.  Shepherds were the some of the lowliest members of Jewish society at the time that Jesus was born, and yet God chose to appear to them in the fields through the presence of angels.  He didn't go to the rich, the powerful, the famous.  He went to the stinky nobodies, and brought them to His Son, who was born in a place to house animals.  With this in mind, it is really striking to realize that at the end (sort-0f) of Christ's life and the beginning of ours in Him, God chose to announce the resurrection to others who were lowly in the eyes of the society of the day: women.

You would think if Jesus was to resurrect, the first people He'd tell were His disciples.  Especially the three He was closest to: Peter, James and John.  It seems as if Peter and James were the first men to find out about the resurrection, but the first to find out were the women who went to bring spices to the tomb.  I am not an expert on Jewish customs or the political situation of the times, but I wonder why it wasn't the men who were bringing spices to what would have been believed to be the rotting, stinking corpse of Jesus.  It is kind of like how women are usually the ones washing dishes at a church gathering, I think.

I know that women in that culture and that day were socially inferior to men.  They had less rights, were less educated, and generally did not have any sort of social power.  Yet, the God of the Universe and the God of that people decided to tell them that Jesus had risen from the dead through another angel, and Jesus Himself even appeared to them.  I find it even more interesting that their first reaction was to worship and know who Jesus was while the men did not recognize him at first (such as on the Road to Emmaus) and some of them, like Thomas, doubted fiercely the news. 

In fact, in Luke 24:8-11, we find out the women were trying to tell the disciples about the resurrection of Jesus.  Verse 11 says, "But these words appeared to them [the disciples] as nonsense, and they would not believe them."  Finally, after Jesus revealed himself, it seems the disciples accepted what had happened.

I don't know that this scenario is necessarily about gender.  I don't think God favors men or women one above the other.  I think, instead, that this God-act reveals an aspect about the nature of God that we can see in his revelation to the shepherds.  God's ways aren't our ways-- He didn't go to the powerful and obvious, but He revealed Himself to those who would take joy in His presence and worship Him.  He valued the women, who in that society would have lesser value, so much that He chose to trust them with the revelation rather than the men who spent so much time with Him. God chose to reveal Himself first to the lowly and the humble, to those who were not self-sufficient, and those who would be receptive to him.  Then He opened the eyes of the rest.

In today's circumstances, this translates into purposefully seeking to have a heart that is receptive, so we can be the first that God reveals Himself to--His thoughts, and His glory.  It is also a demonstration of how we ourselves are to love and view others.  If we value those that God marks as valuable, if we have open, receptive hearts, if we pursue the right things such as going to the tomb (rather than whatever the disciples were doing, inside, away), then  we, ourselves, can experience the glory of God like the women at the tomb.

Snakes and Scorpions: Gifts from the Father

Luke 11:11-13 Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you the, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

I have always thought these verses would make the best short film.  You have this cute African American kid sitting at a counter top in a multi-million dollar home, drinking some milk.  It’s morning, and Dad is in the kitchen opening cupboards, and then the fridge.

            “What you want for breakfast, little man?” the father asks in a deep, throaty voice.

            “I would like an egg,” the kid says in the most adorable, high pitched voice.  It melts your heart like the butter the dad throws in the pan the next moment.  The kid drinks his milk, and you hear the sound of sizzling like an egg frying.  You can imagine the wonderful smell.  There is nothing more wonderful than the smell of a hot breakfast in the morning.

            You see the kid, sitting at the counter, expecting a nice, hot egg fried in butter.  Then you see the father come toward the kid with a frying pan.  You don’t see the contents of the pan, but you know it’s the egg.  What a wonderful, touching moment.  The African American kid sings a song to himself about how yummy the egg will be.

            Suddenly, the camera zooms from the kid’s perspective and the father drops something on to the kid’s plate.  It is so fast, you can’t see it at first, but all you hear is the kid screaming at the top of his lungs.  The camera cuts to a different angle, and you see a live scorpion on the plate while some sort of horror music plays. 

            Suddenly, the camera cuts to a close-up of the father laughing in an evil, mad-scientist sort of way.

            The short film ends with white words on black:

“If your kid asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?”

            New screen, white words on black:

            “How much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

            It’s evil, I know, but I cannot help but picturing this short film every time I read this verse.

            It’s kind of random, but while I was on a Bible-reading schedule, I could not help but notice that on the same day, I read several other verses about scorpions that seemed to fit right into the idea of God’s good gifts to us.  Not too much earlier, in Luke 10:19, Jesus says:

“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”

            Imagine if the father in the short film was able to empower the son to trample on snakes and scorpions the way that Jesus empowered us and His disciples.  I think the film would have quite a different ending.

            You would see the dad come toward the kid with the frying pan, and you would be thinking it was an egg.  You’d still get the surprise of seeing the live scorpion drop onto the plate, but then you would get a further shock of (director’s choice), the kid laughing just as evilly, like it was a good joke, and leaping onto the counter to trample on the scorpion, OR, the child could pick up the scorpion, lick his lips, and eat it with the sound of a crunching exoskeleton (your choice).  The ending screens would read:

“If your kid asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?”

            “How much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

            “In fact, He has ‘given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.’”

            I couldn’t help but wonder at the fact that I came across an earlier assurance of God towards his servant Ezekial in regards to scorpions.  In Ezekial 2:6, God tells this prophet, “And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words.  Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions.  Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people.”

            I could not imagine “living among scorpions”.  That is probably one of the more terrifying things I can think of.  I remember a woman I met whose husband was in the military.  She had just moved to a southern state with scorpions from a northern one without them.  One day, she said she opened the front door and there was a scorpion on her porch.  She screamed, shut and bolted the door and cancelled all her plans for the day until her husband came home and removed the scorpion from her porch.

            I don’t know if I would be that afraid of them, but they are a frightening prospect.  I remember hearing one time of a man who was stung by a scorpion that had climbed on a plane.  I think he had to be hospitalized.  And to have live among them?  That is scary.

            But imagine if you had to live among them, and you were the child empowered by his father to trample on them (or even eat them).  I imagine the short video could end with both the father and son laughing evilly, and then doing battle on the scorpions that lived outside, like some science fiction movie (which would make this short film project pretty high budget, I think, so if I ever made it, I would probably stick to the first two ideas).

            Anyway, the point is that one of the gifts God has given to us is that we don’t need to be afraid when we walk in His authority.  In a sense, God has given us the snakes and scorpions and we own them.  He told his prophet not to fear hundreds of years before he empowered his people to trample on them.  Throughout the ages, His will for us and intent towards us remains the same.

            Maybe we won’t face scorpions on our front porches or for the breakfast entre, but there are many things in life that can be akin to scorpions.  There are many challenges in this world and hard times that might come.  The great thing as that with God, who loves us like a loving father who would give his child an egg if they asked for it for breakfast, we are empowered to face the figurative snakes and scorpions that come our way. And the best gift of all is that we have His presence, which goes with us throughout each day, which is much better than any ol' fried egg.

             

How to Be An Awesome Minor Character, Part 2

Luke Chapter 2 tells about the amazing birth of Christ and how God reached out to lowly shepherds to be the first to announce the coming of the savior.  It also details a second story of Jesus being presented at the temple, and how Joseph and Mary received encouragement and confirmation regarding the identity of Jesus.  Being that Luke, the writer of the book, was a doctor, it is very likely that he included this part to show how outside sources, independently acting people, confirmed the identity of Christ, making the entire story more plausible. 

The first person Luke uses to confirm Christ’s identity is a minor character named Simeon, a devout man who was told by God that he would live to see the Messiah.  Luke also details the story of another minor character with an equally amazing story.  This character was a prophet named Anna, a woman.

I like that God used Anna, merely for the fact that the culture of the time was a male-dominated culture.  I personally think this reflects on an aspect of how God wanted His people.  There is an importance in male leadership, even if this topic might have been distorted over the years by our flesh, and it very well could have been misused by the Jewish people.  Whatever the case may be, God chose a woman prophet as a minor character in the story of Jesus.

In Part 1 of How to Be An Awesome Minor Character, I proposed that while a personal relationship with Jesus is important, it might be more accurate to view the story of our lives as being about Jesus, as the main character, like this chapter, and not with us being the heroes, as our self-centered, fleshliness might like.  With this perspective, it is easier to cast away the sins of pride and fear.  Anna is another example to us as to how we could become awesome minor characters in God’s story.

Anna was incredible as she devoted her entire life to God.  Verse 37 says “She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying.”  That’s dedication for you.  Like Simeon, she devoted much of her time to the Lord.

Anna was very old, so she had lived a long time before we meet her.  What happened in those years, we do not know.  What we do know is that she was married for seven years only and then she was a widow until she was eighty-four.  We do not know at what point in her life she was married, if it was recently or very early on.  We do not know if she had a happy marriage.  We do know that somehow, sometime, she experienced a very deep loss and then she never married again.  What did Anna do with her pain?  She sought the Lord with her whole being.

When Mary and Joseph came to the temple with the Savior of the Universe, Anna was no stranger to the ways of God.  She had saturated herself in His presence.  She could sense the presence of God and told everyone around that he would redeem Jerusalem.  She confirmed the identity of the Savior, she who had lost love and some kind of respectability in her culture, for married women had status and security in those times.
While perhaps not all of us are like Anna or are called to live lives like her, I think we can take from her life the lesson that if we want to be awesome minor characters in God’s story, we need to take what has been given to us, accept what has been taken, and still glorify God for it.  We may not understand pain or things that happen, and life may not go our way, but ultimately if we seek God and keep our hearts soft toward him, we will fulfill our purpose, even if that is to speak one word of truth.  We may not see our purpose at the moment, and perhaps our days may be dark and dreary in the eyes of society, and maybe our days may not be what we would have wished, but ultimately, in the end, the story will be the most beautiful if we surrender our days to God.

How to Be An Awesome Minor Character, Part 1

It’s all about the hero’s journey.  A call to adventure, discovery, an epic battle, transformation, return to normal life.  We are all warriors, and God is writing our epic story.  We are the heroes, and the center of the universe… oh wait.  Maybe not the center of the universe, but pretty central, anyway.  At least, for me, everything I am involved in, I am there (unless I have fallen asleep or am daydreaming).

            When we read the Bible, we look for ourselves in it, how God has predestined us or chosen us before the foundations of the universe, and how we are to become all that we can be.  It’s typically on an individual level, this looking for ourselves in the Bible.  Our individual promises.  Our individual call to destiny.

            Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we don’t have an awesome, amazing identity in Christ.  I am not saying we don’t have an individual relationship with the Creator of the Universe.  A personal relationship and understanding and experience of God’s love are central to the Christian experience.  But not many people take a moment to think that perhaps the story that we are involved in doesn’t center around us.  Perhaps we are not the main characters.  Perhaps we are the supporting characters.  The important minor character in someone else’s story, set there to change the course of their lives.

            I am not undermining each person’s individual life.  I am not saying God isn’t writing a story in each of us and that each person doesn’t have a purpose.  But I am challenging the “all about me” perspective that I have too.  What if it is not about you or I.  What if the main character is supposed to be Jesus?

            I’ve recently read Luke Chapter 2.  The first part is the very familiar Christmas story about the angels appearing to shepherds keeping their flocks in the fields at night, Mary is treasuring things in her heart.  It’s a long chapter, and my Bible at least breaks it up at verse 22 into another story about Jesus being presented in the temple.

            I don’t know about you, but there is not one, but there are two incredible minor characters in this story about Jesus that absolutely blow my mind.

            Luke 2:25- 28 (with 28 abbreviated) says:

25And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, 28then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God…

           

            All Simeon does in this story is tell Joseph and Mary a few things that amaze them, perhaps to encourage them in the difficult path they are walking.  Joseph, maybe, might have struggled inwardly at the public humiliation of marrying a wife who was pregnant out-of-wedlock, and Mary at this point might have wondered if she really saw an angel of the Lord (at least, I might have started doubting after changing Jesus’s nappies for so long).  Who really knows what was going on in their minds.  All we know is that Luke, a believing physician, thought to record a few words spoken by a man named Simeon, and we never hear about Simeon again (at least not to my knowledge).

            There are a few cool things about Simeon as a minor character that strike me as a writer.  Simeon was known to be righteous and devout—a lifestyle that takes more than just attending a few meetings at the synagogue or local church, or thinking in your head occasionally that you think God is real.  This minor character Simeon lived a life that was purposefully seeking after the Lord, which takes time and commitment and sometimes many years of it.  The other thing that strikes me about Simeon is that he is one of the first people in Jesus’s life to be described as having the Holy Spirit.

              I haven’t really done a study on this, perhaps it’s just merely a way that Luke chose to describe the fact that Simeon had communion with the spirit of God, as I know Jesus says later on in his life that he has to leave so his disciples would receive the Holy Spirit.  All I know is that he “came in the Spirit” to the temple, he was willing to be led by God’s promptings in his comings and goings and then he spoke a prophetic word over God-in-the-flesh that came true! 

Not only that, but he had incredible faith to believe that he would see the Messiah before he died, even before he had any concrete reason to believe so.  This man, who probably took only a few moments of Jesus’s physical time on earth, had such an incredible backstory that were captured in a few sentences in the story of the main man, Jesus.  One could use their imagination to think of how many less-amazing versions of the story we could have had.
              Each one of us can take pointers from Simeon’s example to be the best minor character in God’s story that we can be.

Experiencing the Glory of God... Like A Shepherd

1 Corinthians 1:27

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Isaiah 55:8

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

Luke Chapter 2.  I’ve read it what feels like a thousand times.  Glory to God in the Highest, peace on earth and good will to men.  Heavenly hosts singing to shepherds.  Blah blah blah.  When I get to this part of the Bible, I start to tune the words out.  At Christmas pageants, my mind wanders while cardboard stars shimmer and people dressed in bath robes pretend to herd sheep.  Or they use real sheep, which leave messes behind in the auditorium.

                  My daily Bible reading took me to this passage way before the Christmas season, actually right after Halloween.  I read the passage and started to tune it out, until God gave me fresh eyes to His character, revealed in a message so familiar to Western Christians.

                  The chapter starts off with Mary journeying with Joseph to Bethlehem.  Verse 5 states he was pledged to be married to her, and she was expecting a child.

                  I know it is fairly common knowledge that Mary was probably a young teenager.  I have heard many times, too, that to be pregnant out of wedlock was a great source of shame in their culture, especially since her betrothed was not the father.  God wanted his Son to come to the earth and the first thing he does is chooses a young woman, who has no authority in that culture, to carry Him.

                  Not only did God choose a lowly member of society through which to work, He also orchestrated the birth to come at a time when everyone was going to Bethlehem so that they had to stay in a stable and place their sleeping newborn, the Son of God, in a manger.  There was no room for them in the inn; Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were not wanted nor pre-anticipated, and their lodgings had to be an afterthought-place normally used to house animals.  God not only chose to work in a woman, but he chose for Jesus's first hours a dirty, stinky place when He could have had the palace, if He wanted.

                  This chapter doesn’t stop there, either.  While God could have sent his heavenly hosts and glory to the priests in the temple, to the government officials in their houses, or the rich as they sat reclined on couches after an abundant dinner, God sent his angels in the night to the lowliest members of society—dirty, stinky shepherds living in fields.  Having experienced moments of God’s glory, it is amazing to me that God revealed himself in this way, to these people.  Having experienced sheep first hand, too, I can vouch for their stinkiness.  And yet, these stinking shepherds blessed the heart of God as they, in verse 20, returned to their fields “glorying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.”

                  While the reading of this passage has long put me to sleep in Christmas services, the reading of this passage at home with the Holy Spirit has given me new eyes again for the incredible God that I serve.  As a Christian who has spent a long time in the church, it is easy to sometimes feel like God will choose you if you’re the most important, most visible person.  Or the most obviously humble.  Yes, He does choose us, proud or humble, but sometimes it is so easy to loose sight of the heart of God in the search for appearance and acceptance and visibility.  God loves the lowly and chooses to work through them—not those perfectly poised, established, reputable people that you would necessarily think of as God-material.  God likes to take the foolish things of the world and use them to shame the wise.  He likes to take the last and make them first.

                  I find this so encouraging in my own personal walk, as I am not the most popular person, nor am I the most devout, nor the most humble, nor the greatest.  Sometimes, I fall and have to repent, and many times, I just don't feel like God-material.  But God can use someone like me for His incredible plan—He has chosen you and I to carry His Son in our hearts and to experience the glory of God like the shepherds.  And that, to me, is incredible, this chance to experience the glory of God like a lowly shepherd.