Faith Venture

Common greeting during December in America. Instead of “Hi” or “Bye”, we might say “Merry Christmas.” In some cultures the phrase is Happy Christmas, which may mean about the same thing.

I was thinking of “merry” and “happy” and what does that mean. Maybe it means something like an often-heard parting “Have a good day.” Just a simple wish.

Paul, the Apostle, wrote about a way of life once to his friends in Galatia. He tried to describe how you could tell if you or someone you met was living in the spirit. He said that their life would exhibit, “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Could happiness, eudaimonia, also have fit?

I’m thinking about bringing the phrase we utter as a greeting into our self. That maybe we exhibit “having a merry Christmas” with a smile and an acknowledgement of the other person. That people can observe us and think, even if just briefly, “there is someone at peace and enjoying the season.”

So, I wish all of you a merry Christmas season. And if once or twice you exhibit the other meaning of merry, as in perhaps one wee nip of whiskey or whisky too much, well, so be it.

Beg our Lord to grant you perfect love for your neighbor, and leave the rest to Him. He will give you far more than you know how to desire…

Teresa of Ávila

Teresa is one of my favorite mystics. She has much to teach us.

Jesus taught us that we must love our neighbor. He didn’t qualify it. We are to just do it.

We may seek to escape the work by asking how will we know when to act or how to act.

Teresa answers. We can ask God for openness to his leading. And trust that he will lead us to someone who needs assistance and he will also give us the tools we need to show the love, be it words or money or presence.

We have sayings and proverbs, such as “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” or “that gift is really a white elephant”.

Seth Godin recently talked about gifts explaining the origin of the white elephant idea and how it has come to mean a gift that you don’t need or want. He suggests that if it is a gift, you can always decline it if it is something you can’t get rid of and is expensive to keep—like a white elephant.

Sometimes a gift is not a benefit.

Seneca wrote about 3,000 words (in English translation, of course, I don’t know how many Latin words) about balancing the ledger if someone gives you a benefit and later injures you. How do you figure out if you are indebted for the benefit or need retribution for the injury? He suggests ignoring the injury and acknowledging the benefit.

This may be Advent, but it is also the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. You may be contemplating the appropriate gift for family and friends. You may also be anticipating a nice gift from someone special.

Practice giving thoughtful experiences as gifts and graciously accepting what is given to you—unless, of course, you find a large stock truck parked in front of the house on Christmas.

We are traveling. The journey seems longer than we anticipated. We ask perhaps the oldest question, “Are we there, yet?”

I am not a student of the liturgical calendar, but I hear that we are in the season of Advent. Even though we know that Jesus appeared in the flesh 2,000 years ago, we set aside time each year to recreate in our hearts that journey toward his coming.

Because of his invitation—the invitation to enter the kingdom of God. We journey again from where we are to where that kingdom is. Geographically, the distance is nearby. Spiritually, maybe not so close.

Some have arrived. Perhaps we know one. They have the power of living with God—not political or social power. Power of life. It’s reflected in the peace, joy, calm assurance of their life.

Maybe we are at the door of the kingdom. The journey got us that far. Maybe this season of preparation will help us open the door—for the handle is on our side of the door. It is for us to open it. The journey completes when we open our door and feel the power of God infuse us.

At the journey’s end, life begins.

We have put Thanksgiving weekend behind us in America. It can be four days of feasting at the beginning of five more weeks of feasting. Or at least eating more than usual the amount of sugary treats.

The gyms will be full of people at the beginning of January perhaps continuing into the beginning of February. They have struggled into clothes that fit perfectly only a few weeks before and have decided it’s time to get fit and lose weight.

How many men train their bodies and how few train their minds! How feather-brained are the athletes whose muscles and shoulders we admire!

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Yes, the gyms will be full. The libraries and bookstores not so. And even less those small groups where people can study and train their minds and spirits.

And after reading a few news clips about inane things some of our professional football and basketball stars have uttered recently, I see that 2,000 years have had little impact on the athlete community.

Physical training doesn’t fall into the traditional list of spiritual disciplines. I believe it should be. Movement, flexibility, strength, nutrition—these are part of being as healthy as possible. These give the stamina for study, meditation, service, prayer. Just as I have believed from an early age that education includes the arts and the sciences, the rest of us require both physical and spiritual strength.

For although the body needs many things in order to be strong, yet the mind grows from within, giving to itself nourishment and exercise. Yonder athletes must have copious food, copious drink, copious quantities of oil, and long training besides; but you can acquire virtue without equipment and without expense.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Actually, to modify Seneca, we can begin a physical fitness routine just by walking (barring infirmity, of course). And that is free. Books can be found also for free in a library or for the price of an Internet connection. And you can begin now.

Jesus commissioned his followers to a task. No, more than a task. It’s really a way of life.

Make disciples…

He didn’t say the end goal was how many people attend your church. Or even how many baptisms last week. How many people do you know who were baptized with great joy and then within a year had drifted away?

No, a disciple is someone who:

• Takes great joy in learning
• Makes the effort to emulate the teacher
• Absorbs certain disciplines into the everyday fabric of life
• Eventually looks for the next generation to lead
• Exhibits the fruit of the spirit most of the time

He didn’t say extract a statement of agreement and then move on to the next conquest.

After totally upending the Roman culture of power in favor of a God-centered culture of love, he didn’t instruct us to seek political power to force others to agree with us. Or at least behave in public like we wish.

Did you pause this morning to orient your life toward God before beginning your day? It’s not too late.