Life

You hung the sun and the moon like ornaments across the sky
Injected pine trees with Christmas
Candy caned peppermint sticks leaving a coolness in time that can never be taken away

By fear
By work
By stress
By growing up
By adulting

Remember when Merry Christmas wasn’t so offensive
When everyone seemed to have Christmas trees
When Christmas lights were more rainbow colored than white LEDs
When Christmas morning smelled fresh

Peaceful
Silent
Calm
Filled with joy

More presence than presents
More food and family over credit card debts and consumption
More getting lost in wonder over wondering about making sense
More…
It’s ok to make mistakes than mistaking success for trying to live up to unrealistic expectations

When shooting your eye out and double dog daring your friends were the only forms of extreme terrorism we knew about

I remember when Christmas was simple
When the first Christmas was simple
When religion was simple
Your love
Simple

I never got it
Couldn’t quite comprehend it
Confused like the English language
I would always scratch my head at the concept of
The King becoming a servant.

You became a servant

And speaking of which, isn’t it true
That we want the Kingdom without the King
Progress with no patience
Benevolence from a distance
Strings attached to our sentiment

We’re still erecting
Selfish Towers of Babel
Wondr’ing where God is

God is simple

Playing parachute with the oceans causing the waves to high five humanity
Chiseling the galaxies with connect the dot worksheets that we magnet onto our refrigerators
Whittling stories of flying reindeer and a generous jolly old man just so we can breathe out child-like curiosity

We lost our curiosity

We lost our willingness to look out of place just to discover a compelling story
We were ok that our backyard booby traps never caught anything
Our rolled up dirt bombs that we’d throw at one another until the street lights came on
Our cardboard boxed houses that kept falling down, only to be remedied by duct tape

Because there was never a problem that duct tape couldn’t fix

And like the overpowering adhesive that saved our innocent playtime

You swaddled Yourself child-like
Wrapped us under the wings of your astronomical arms and became us
Moved into the neighborhood and dwelt with us
Told us You loved us
Gave up royalty for obscurity, You adjusted, and became position-less
Traded in Your riches for rags
You vacated Your palace for a pacifier
And You turned to the heavenly’s and said, “I’ll be right back.”

“I’ve got work to do.”

“I’ve got love to do.”

And maybe

Just maybe

This time around

We can keep Your love simple, too

The search for our church’s new youth pastor took nearly 6 months. Our team did its due diligence in searching for the right candidate for the job. We interviewed four people, we prayed, we conducted background checks, and we weighed out our options. Our church believes in the next generation and our church leadership wanted to ensure that the right person for the job was in place.

In other words, we wanted to cover all of our basis for the betterment of our future generations.

Any kind of new hire or appointed individual for any business or organization, both for profit and non-profit, would go through the same rigors of vetting potential candidates. Given these realities, there shouldn’t be any complaints about the further investigation into the allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh committed sexually inappropriate actions toward Christine Blasey Ford.

In fact, we shouldn’t expect anything less.

If Kavanaugh truly is innocent, then the investigation will only solidify his nomination and we can proceed toward his confirmation. But we can not take lightly Ford’s cry. We can not simply write her off just because the timing of her accusations are decades late. We can not silence her claims just because she seems like a leftist loud mouth, as many right wing conservatives are claiming.

And, to throw the Christian perspective into the equation, those who follow Jesus should desire the truth to come out. We shouldn’t relent until justice is found. As followers of Jesus, we shouldn’t simply call foul against Ford just because the SCOTUS nominee is a “conservative”.

The majority of my fellow Evangelical Christians have raised their voices against the process, claiming a feminist/liberal agenda. It’s ironic because those same brothers and sisters have also rallied against Hollywood programming because of the likes of Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, and Harvey Weinstein. Yet, because Kavanaugh was nominated by Number 45, many of my fellow conservative Republicans are outraged by the call for due diligence.

Jesus wasn’t liberal or conservative nor was He a Republican or a Democratic. Jesus was for the innocent. He was for the poor and the rejected. Jesus was a voice for the unheard.

And, as followers of Jesus, we should follow in His footsteps toward releasing folks into freedom. Jesus was for people and so should we.

Category: Life

Simple

Due Diligence