Hello World! 

Yesterday, I was full in Christmas prep mode as a week from yesterday is Dec. 25! As I cleaned my house a bit and got dressed while watching “Miracle on 34th Street,” for the first time, I quickly got in the mood for some guerrilla warfare type shopping and I even enlisted R to help me navigate my designated territory – Perimeter Mall and surrounding shops.

Since R is a man, he has no real tolerance for the art of shopping…But I must admit he was a real trooper yesterday and even helped me to knock off more than half of my Christmas list by 12 a.m., which is when we left the last store of the day or night actually…After we walked through the entirety of Perimeter Mall three times, he loudly declared that it was time to go and that’s why he did not like going shopping with women anyway. I tried to explain to him that shopping has a strategy that  must be obeyed, a strategy that he thoroughly disapproves of – if a woman sees something she likes and wants to buy it, it’s not a done deal until she has visited at least three other stores. He said it’s a waste of time because inevitably a woman will buy the first thing she saw anyway and wasted time by visiting the other stores. I explained to him that a woman has to be convinced that she has the best spoils of the war if you will, and the only way it can be done is to survey the entire landscape before capturing her prey…

Still with all of our debate, it was a productive and fun day and I’m starting to really feel ready for Christmas…But my materialistic readiness for Christmas is not the only thing I am pondering as the days before Christmas slip by…I am pondering if I am spiritually ready to welcome Jesus in my heart again this year. I’ve been a Christian for several years now, but as well as know, we must periodically ask ourselves if we are progressing in our Christian walk or are we stagnant or are we even regressing….It’s definitely something that must be considered on a regular basis, particularly at this time of the year.

One of the ways that I check myself is to consider if I am truly living my life as Jesus did while he was here on earth. About a month ago around Thanksgiving, I was touched when as I returned to my car in a parking lot after work, I noticed that several people had set up a mobile restaurant outside the back of a pickup truck and were serving hot food and drinks to some of the homeless people in the area. I am sure those people appreciated the hot food and drinks as it was very cold that day.  As all Christians know, Jesus was known for His kind works to people less fortunate than Him. If I am to be like Jesus, I must make time for people who do not have what I have – materially or otherwise….Here is a verse to consider…“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40

It is also important to consider the condition of our hearts which can be off center in spite of outward acts of kindness and other good deeds. I am no doctor obviously, but I would imagine that heart surgery is much more difficult than stitching up a gash for example. I say that because inventorying the condition of your heart has to be more difficult than determining if you are making time to serve others. I mean you are even serving others or you are not. But the heart is entirely different matter altogether…I’m no minister, but I imagine that we can give ourselves a heart check by asking ourselves if we are really seeking His will for our lives or are we making living our lives according to our own plan and designs. When I was a little girl, I was scared to get baptized for a long time because I thought God would call me to be a missionary and I would be forced to live in primitive conditions with little access to modern comforts. I greatly respect missionaries but I truly thank God, He has not called me to make that particular sacrifice…But trust and believe that since God made the ultimate sacrifice of His son for our sins, a Christian life will involve some sacrifice. Another way to inventory our innards is to determine if we have allowed sin to creep into our lives. Are we trying to explain away little white lies? Are we gossiping?  Are we twisting scripture to justify wrongdoing? Here is a verse to consider…”Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” Matthew 7:22-24

Another way to inventory our readiness for Jesus is to ask ourselves are we really telling others about Him. Now that I have become an official cheap skate, I am elated when others tell me how to get a deal on ANYTHING…I was in the dollar store a while ago to buy some paper supplies. I noticed a woman choosing some paper supplies that did not seem to be as great deal as the paper supplies that I had selected. I blurted out, “Did you see this item? It has more in there for the same price as the item that you picked up.” She laughed and said, “I was just about to tell you that even though this item has less in it, it lasts much longer than the item that has more in it.” I said, “Really? I will try it.” She was right. And that is what it’s like when you have some good news, you cannot keep it to yourself! For all practical purposes, it would seem that I share about Jesus all of the time since my faith in God is the focus of this blog. And that is true to a certain degree, but I have the hardest time actually talking about what I write about…I guess because though I have known Jesus for many years, I have never seen Him…One of my new favorite Christian authors puts it this way…

I felt as if believing in God was no more rational than having an imaginary friend. They have names for people who have imaginary friends, you know. They keep them in special hospitals. Maybe my faith in God was form of insanity. Maybe I was losing my marbles. I start out believing in Christ, and the next thing you know I am having tea with the Easter Bunny or waltzing with my toaster, shouting, “The redcoats are coming! ” This is from “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller

But the thing is, though I have never seen Jesus, I have experienced Him for years, and I have journal after journal to prove it. At this time of the year, I have to ask myself if I have shaken off my fear of looking like an idiot and shared the best news of my life – that my God loves me and He loves you too. Here is a verse to consider…“And then He told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.'” Matthew 16:15

Anywho, I guess if I were a theologian, I could come up with more tests to inventory our readiness for Jesus, but I am not so I will close now…but I will say something my father, who is a theologian, likes to point out each year…On Christmas, it always exciting to tear through the wrapping paper so that we can see the gifts that our loved ones have given us. But before long, maybe even by the end of the day, our excitement will have waned and we will be as we were before…But if we have received the gift of Jesus, we will never be like what we were before and our excitement grows as we get to know Him more and more…

Jesus is the reason for the season…Are you ready?

Any thoughts?

P.S. Watch Vanessa Williams of Richard Smallwood’s group “Vision” tear up “Oh How He Loves You and Me.”