Happy Saturday-before-Christmas, friends!
I woke up this morning with a sense of pressure, knowing that this would be my last Saturday Pondering of the year.
I know there’s still one more Saturday left, but I’m starting tomorrow on my annual year-end writing sabbatical.
So my next post will be on Saturday, January 4.
That’s why I woke up thinking I really have to deliver today. It should be a home run! It should be creative and deep! It should be impressive! There should be alliteration and rhyming!
And then I actually got out of bed, had my cup of coffee, sang my morning hymn and read my morning chapter of the Bible, and remembered why I do this in the first place.
That’s why I’m such a proponent and practitioner of pondering. (Alliteration: ✅)
In my pondering, I remembered that my whole reason for starting this writing journey was to bring a few words of encouragement into your day—to remind you that your life matters to God and that you discover your amazing by being amazed by Him and joining Him in what He’s doing in your world.
Your world is the place where you live, work, and play.
It’s the real places you go and the real faces you see.
It’s the frozen Tuesday in February and the roasting Thursday in August just as much as it is the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at church or the Disney vacation.
It’s holding a loved one’s hand as they take their final breath as much as it is cuddling the new grand baby.
It’s congratulations and apologies.
It’s sick days and holidays, successes and failures, paycheck and bills.
This is the real life that where Jesus wants to be seen and worshipped as the Source, the Center, and the Goal.
These words from my morning hymn challenged me today:
“Jesus is all the world to me, and true to Him I’ll be; Oh, how could I this friend deny when He’s so true to me?”
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Is He really all the world to me? Is He really the Center of my life? Is following Him—no matter what it costs—my highest aim?
And then I read those words of Jesus (as rendered by Eugene Peterson in The Message):
“Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple.”
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It’s so easy to focus on Jesus as the baby in the manger—as the special guest added onto our holiday festivities; the quiet comfort in the background.
It’s not so easy when He asks us to walk away from all other allegiances and affections and follow Him into the hard and lonely places—to love those we don’t like and seek their flourishing.
To pick up our crosses and lay down our lives for those who wouldn’t even think of doing the same for us.
To lift up those who have no capacity to benefit us.
Is this not the message of Christmas?
And every other day of the year?
I can’t remember how many years I’ve been writing these words of encouragement, but it’s been a journey that I’ve been honored to share with you.
And I look forward to what 2025 holds as we continue traveling together.
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
Grace, peace, and amazingness to you!
Be amazing today, my friend.
