Christmas Values

I’ve been thinking about Christmas lately. Our church's Advent Planning Team just met. I found the perfect quote for my Christmas cards (from our Sunday school curriculum!). And I’ve started to think about gifts.

So I’ve pulled out my favorite book about Christmas, Unplug the Christmas Machine, by Jo Robinson & Jean Coppock Staeheli. They talk about rethinking how we celebrate Christmas, taking some of the stress and materialism out and putting love and joy back in.

The authors have gone around the country doing workshops. In the workshops, they ask people to imagine what their perfect Christmas would be like.

What would the celebration be like if [you] could throw out all [your] old ideas and habits and start anew with only [your] personal tastes and preferences to take into account. The only requirement is that [you] imagine the Christmas that makes [you] feel most fulfilled.

I did the exercise a few years ago. I imagined being in a log cabin in the woods, with snow falling outside and a fire crackling inside, being with a few close family members, and enjoying a relaxing Christmas. What would your perfect Christmas look like?

Another exercise is to read through ten value statements. Cross off the ones that don’t mean anything to you. Add others that are important to you that aren’t included. Then rank the remaining items.

• Christmas is a time to be a peacemaker, within my family and the world at large.
• Christmas is a time to enjoy being with my immediate family.
• Christmas is a time to create a beautiful home environment.
• Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ.
• Christmas is a time to exchange gifts with my family and friends.
• Christmas is a time for parties, entertaining, and visits with friends.
• Christmas is a time to help those who are less fortunate.
• Christmas is a time to strengthen bonds with my relatives.
• Christmas is a time to strengthen my church community.
• Christmas is a time to be relaxed and renewed.

What are your top values for Christmas? There are no right or wrong answers. There are only the right answers for you.

I pray that this Christmas will be all that you want it to be.

Staying in Touch

Several years ago I did a funeral for a woman who had died of breast cancer. It made me really sad. Not because she died of breast cancer, or because she was so young (in her 40s), although that was tragic.

She was very good at staying in touch with her friends, even a friend from kindergarten. At her funeral, all those friends and family members gathered to honor her and support one another. What made me sad is that I am not very good at staying in touch with people.

How many people have I lost track of because I didn't write?

My elementary school friend Barb. She doesn't live very far from me. We connected again after years of not seeing one another, but I've let that slip away once again.

My college friends Kara and Zoe, and Andrew and Marjorie, Julia and Todd. Luckily Facebook has helped me re-connect with them.

My friend Sirkka, from Finland. She was my best friend when I spent my junior year abroad in Athens, Greece.

My birth mom. I'm adopted, and I met my birth mom for the first time eight years ago. But I don't write very often.

My friend Victoria, from Malawi, Africa. After her husband died, I even bought a sympathy card. But it never got mailed.

I always wanted to be better at staying in touch with people. Facebook has helped. But I've also found another way to stay in touch. Now I can send out a paper greeting card in about five minutes.

I'm hoping this will help me stay connected to the people who matter to me. Who knows? Perhaps I'll even start sending out Christmas cards every year!

The WOW Factor

Ah, stewardship season. My favorite time of the year. Not most people's because we've been taught that stewardship is about guilt and deprivation. It's not. It's about extravagance and generosity.

In last Sunday's sermon I talked about the fulfillment curve, a concept from the book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. I also wanted to talk about the WOW factor, from The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyzcyn, but I didn't have time. So I'll share it with you.

Amy and her husband Jim had six children. They also had a goal of buying an old farm house on Jim's salary while Amy stayed home with the kids. They learned some excellent money-saving strategies, hence Amy's Tightwad Gazette newsletter, which is now a book (actually three of them). One principal they practiced with their kids was the WOW factor.

Amy often bought her kid's clothes at garage sales. One year she asked her daughter Jamie if she needed new boots. She didn't. But later on the in the season she wanted green L.L. Bean style boots like her classmates. Before hitting the stores, they went to their church's thrift shop. Miracle upon miracle, she found the exact boots she wanted, only they were plum colored instead of green. Amy bought them anyway, and then at home talked to her daughter about them.

"These boots are almost exactly what you want. Do you think we should spend $25 to buy new boots for you?"

"Mmmmoooommm! I didn't say 'new,' I said 'green'!"

"Okay, plum-colored boots cost .25 cents and green boots cost $25. Are green boots a hundred times better than plum-colored ones?"

She admitted they weren't and quite contentedly wore the plum-colored boots for the rest of the winter.

That would never work with my child, you say. Perhaps not, but maybe because we haven't learned how to use that principal with ourselves. When we go to buy something, we can ask ourselves will the more expensive version give us that much more satisfaction?

Say you were deciding between a $500 camping trip and a $5000 cruise. The camping trip, on a scale of 1 to 10, would be a five. So that's $100/wow. The cruise would be a 10, which is $500/wow. Would you enjoy the cruise five times more than the camping trip? And what if you spent that $4500 you didn't spend on the cruise on other things that had a higher wow factor? You might end up with 40, 50, or more wows for the same 10 wows you spent on the cruise.

Stewardship is about using the resources that God has given us to the best of our ability. One way I do that is to give each purchase the wow test.

Passing the Peace

Deanna, JeNel, Bill and I led worship at the Golden Age Nursing Home today. Later today, Nancy, Jim and I are going to take communion to two of our members who live in Assisted Living. I don't do a very good job scheduling those things, but once I'm there, I love it.

My favorite part of the service is "passing the peace." When we do that in a regular worship service, it's often kind of a surface thing, a casual greeting, a handshake. But when I do it at the nursing home, I touch someone, lightly on the shoulder or the hand, I look into their eyes, and I say, "The peace of Christ be with you." I go to every person there, whether they're asleep or not, whether they understand or not.

Maybe it's like Jesus blessing the children.

Something happens when we lay a hand on someone, and ask God to bless them. Something happens when we say, "The peace of Christ be with you," and mean it.

Not only are they blessed, but I am, too.

Are You Content?

Last night our small group met to discuss the third week of Adam Hamilton's study, Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity. We talked about "cultivating contentment." We were asked "What things in your life are you discontent with? What things in your life are you content with?"

I'm very content with parts of my life. I love my husband and we have a wonderful marriage. I'm very close with my family and friends. My congregation and I are a great match, and I'm nourished and challenged by my job. And my two cats are starting to get along with each other.

Of course there are parts of my life I'm not satisfied with:  eating habits, exercise, getting things done, and my prayer life.

But during the discussion, I realized that even though I am content, I don't feel content much of the time. Two weeks ago we had an incredible worship service. We had five children in Sunday school and seven who came down for the children's sermon (for our small church those are fantastic numbers). The music was powerful and moving. The children's sermon was lively and fun, and nailed the point I was trying to make (to both the kids and the adults). The sermon was good. It was one of those worship services where you feel the Spirit moving.

I enjoyed it, yes. But shortly afterward I started focusing on how frazzled I was. Trying to do too many things and some of them not working right. Not enough time between Sunday school and worship. Not able to be fully present with the people in front of me. And then I jumped into the new week without so much as a backward glance.

The reason I don't feel more content is because I don't pause long enough to think about the good things that just happened. What if I spent even five minutes on Sunday afternoon reflecting with God about the service? What if I journaled for a few minutes, painting a picture of the gifts I had received that morning? What if I called my mom or emailed my friend Linda and shared with them what had happened?

I'd like to start doing the examen. Every night, or every week, or whenever you choose, light a candle to acknowledge God's presence, and ask yourself two questions:  1) For what moment today am I most grateful? 2) For what moment today am I least grateful? The book Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life explains the examen in more detail.

So here I go. For what moment today am I most grateful? Thinking about my sermon for Sunday enough that I have the kernel of what it will be about. And since I want to feel contentment, I'm not going to do the second half.

Now for five minutes, I'm going to feel content by thinking about all the things I'm most grateful for.

Preparing for Worship

How do I prepare for worship? If I'm not leading it, I show up. If I'm there a few minutes ahead, I'll read through the bulletin.

If I am leading worship, I usually don't have everything ready before my weekend. I spend the weekend with my husband, either in Centerville or Omaha, and during my "time off" I'm usually worrying about the sermon or the worship service. Sunday morning I get up early, 5 or 6am depending on how much I still have to do. I finish up the sermon, the children's sermon, the pastoral prayer, and any technology I might be using. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to practice the sermon once. I'm teaching children's Sunday school this year, so a couple of weeks ago I've added preparing for class and getting to church even earlier to my Sunday morning routine. Doesn't make for a very worshipful time for me. The prayer of confession I pray most often is, "I'm sorry for not being better prepared."

As I was sharing this with my spiritual director, she said, "What would it look like if you really prepared spiritually for worship?" I got a smile on my face and said, "Wow! If my sermon and everything else were already prepared, I could get up a little early, have a cup of coffee, and spend time in prayer."

I want my Sunday mornings to look like that. So my goal is to get everything ready at that beginning of the week so that my Saturdays and Sundays can be rest and preparation for worship.

It's Friday at 1:30pm. Sunday school is almost ready (I just have to glue a shepherd and sheep onto sticks). The pastoral prayer is ready. The children's sermon is ready. The video for the Peacemaking offering is ready. The sermon is not quite ready, but I have a couple of hours before Frank gets here. (Finishing the sermon earlier in the week is my dream, and I'm making progress. It's a bit like turning the Titanic. It takes a while.)

Perhaps this Sunday I'll be able to wake up a little early, get a cup of coffee, and pray before worship.

How do you prepare for worship?

Learn to Fly

Learn To Fly from Christian Letruria on Vimeo.

Are you learning to fly?