So often in the Christmas story, we focus on the main characters: Mary, Joseph, and, of course, Jesus. But through the short account in Luke 2:8–20, we can learn from the shepherds four things that should make the top of our to-do list this Christmas.
Message One Believe The angels announced in spectacular fashion that the Messiah had been born. As soon as the angels left, the shepherds looked at each other and said: What are we waiting for?...
Message Two Obey The shepherds did exactly as they were told. We sometimes think of Christmas as a tame holiday. We think of sweet little baby Jesus asleep on a bed of hay...
Message Three Tell When the shepherds arrived in Bethlehem and saw the child lying in the feed trough, “they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.”...
Message Four Experience The shepherds were overwhelmed at the angel’s announcement. They experienced holy wonder...
Thanks to: Mark Mitchell with JoHannah Reardon
Steve Jobs and his search for the “iDad”
A few years ago, I was on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show called “The Secret Thoughts of Fathers.” The show featured about 10 dads, most of whom had wives that were concerned about their fathering. In typical Oprah fashion, camera crews were sent to the family homes.
As we watched the video segments at the beginning of the show, there was one father who stood out from the rest because his family was in a real crisis. His wife was clearly frustrated with his lack of engagement with the family, and his young son, who clearly idolized his dad, was hurting badly from his dad’s rejection. It was evident that this dad's passion was elsewhere.
When the video clip ended, Oprah turned to me and said, “So, Roland, what do you have to say to this father?” Well, this was live TV and I was on the spot. But, fortunately, the right words came to me and I said, “Your son doesn’t want to know about you. He wants to know you.” Before I could say more, Oprah repeated what I said, and then said, “That’s good…I’m going to be quoting you on that one.” The father nodded in agreement.
He had a moment of clarity.
I was reminded of that moment recently when I read the below excerpt from a soon-to-be released book titled “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson.
“A few weeks ago, I visited Jobs for the last time in his Palo Alto, Calif., home…We talked about his childhood, and he gave me some pictures of his father and family to use in my biography. As a writer, I was used to being detached, but I was hit by a wave of sadness as I tried to say goodbye. In order to mask my emotion, I asked the one question that was still puzzling me: Why had he been so eager, during close to 50 interviews and conversations over the course of two years, to open up so much for a book when he was usually so private? “I wanted my kids to know me,” he said. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”
As I read these words, I was stuck by the irony of two things. First, I am typing these words on a MacBook Pro, which I love, and plugged into it is my iPad, which I love even more.
Second, and sadly, it is clear that Jobs, who poured his heart, soul, and passion into these and other wonderful devices, regretted his failure to bring to “market” something of more importance…the iDad. Alas, there is a common saying that people close to death generally do not wish that they had spent more time at the office. What matters most at that crucial time is not what you were working on, but rather whom you were working for. Steve Jobs, exceptional in many ways, was no exception.
I don’t say these things to be disrespectful towards a dad who has died, but rather, as a warning for the dads who are still here. As fathers, we are all susceptible to creating false dichotomies when it comes to balancing work and family. For example, there are some who would assert that in order for Jobs to become a transformational business leader, he had to sacrifice his children at the altar of success. Jobs could not be a legendary innovator and an involved father. That’s just the way it is, they would say.
But ironically, Jobs’ life and management style did nothing if not dispel the notion of false dichotomies. He was raised by working class parents, dropped out of college, and went on to become a master of complex technologies. In fact, he challenged Apple’s engineers to develop a phone that both a 50-year-old businessman and a 14-year-old girl would covet. And, he topped this feat by tasking them to develop a laptop that was as powerful as the best on the market, yet as light as air.
Alas, Jobs was never an “either/or” kind of guy. He was a “both/and” man who thrived on making the seemingly impossible possible. Yet, the excerpt above suggests that he may not have brought this characteristic to his role as a father. And in the end, he hoped to make things right with his children.
The problem is that his children didn’t want to know about him, they wanted to know him. And despite all of our wonderful technology, knowing someone is less high tech and more “high touch.”
Several years after I did the Oprah Show, a woman approached me after I finished a speech. She looked me straight in eyes and said, “You don’t remember me, do you?” And, I had to admit that I didn’t. Well, it turns out that she was the wife of the man on the Oprah show whose family was in crisis. She told me that the show was a turning point for her husband. In fact, he changed almost immediately, and became an incredibly engaged father. He had discovered his iDad.
Roland Warren National Fatherhood Initiative
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Thoughts of waiting from Henri Nouwen
"Waiting is not a very popular attitude. In fact, most people consider waiting a waste of time. For many people, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go.
It impresses me, therefore, that all the figures who appear on the first pages of Luke's Gospel are waiting. Zechariah and Elizabeth are waiting. Mary is waiting. Simeon and Anna are waiting. The whole opening scene of the good news is filled with waiting people.
But what is the nature of waiting? What is the practice of waiting? How are they waiting, and how are we called to wait with them?
Waiting, as we see it in the people on the first pages of the Gospel, is waiting with a sense of promise. This is very important. We can only really wait if what we are waiting for has already begun for us. So waiting is never a movement from nothing to something. It is always a movement from something to something more.
Second, waiting is active. Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands. But there is none of this passivity in scripture. Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it.
But there is more. Waiting is open-ended. Open-ended waiting is hard for us because we tend to wait for something very concrete, for something we wish to have. "I wish that I would have a job. I wish that the weather could be better. I wish that the pain would go."
For this reason, a lot of our waiting is not open-ended. Instead, our waiting is a way of controlling the future. We want the future to go in a very specific direction, and if this does not happen we are disappointed and can even slip into despair.
But Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary were not filled with wishes. They were filled with hope. Hope is something very different. Hope is trusting that something will be fulfilled, but fulfilled according to the promises and not just according to our wishes.
Just imagine what Mary was actually saying in the words, 'I am the handmaid of the Lord...let what you have said be done to me.' She was saying, 'I don't know what this all means, but I trust that good things will happen.'
She trusted so deeply that her waiting was open to all possibilities. And she did not want to control them. She believed that when she listened carefully, she could trust what was going to happen.
The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control."
Christmas Can Still Change The World
The story of Christ's birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love.
So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.
And when it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?
What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?
Welcome to Advent Conspiracy.
Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All
www.AdventConspiracy.org
"In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years' War, German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried 5,000 of his parishioners in one year, an average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children: 'Now thank we all our God With heart and hands and voices; Who wondrous things hath done, In whom his world rejoices. Who, from our mother's arms, Hath led us on our way With countless gifts of love And still is ours today.' Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from love of God, not from outward circumstances.
To share with Family & Friends this Thanksgiving. A gift that you are thankful for that you have received this year. Things you have learned about God this year that have changed your life. Things you are thankful for about your family's faith. Things you are thankful for about your family. An experience your family had this year that made you happy. People outside your family who have blessed you in some way May this week of Thanksgiving...lead us to live a life of ThanksLiving!
I am reading in 2 Timothy.....always have been challenged and empowered by 2 Tim 2:2..." and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."It is all about Reproducing...it was God's first and ONLY plan...so how am I or you "teaching others"?...
End of chapter 3...verse 17 "that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
Paul goes on in Chapter 4..."I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."....and then comes the promise...given to those who have reproduced-were equipped-have finished the race...through God's grace I am rewarded...because of what He has done for me....my works are because of His love.........thanks be to God.
Jesus purposefully pursued quiet time with His Father--a sacred space worthy of sacrifice, where the urgent bows to the eternal; a gift--not a waste--of time for God.
Carving out moments to be alone with God is an exercise in stillness where we elevate the Creator above creation, "being" above "doing". Where we listen to the One who is always listening to us.
Resting in God's presence, our soul enjoys a banquet from God's Word. Our minds forge an alliance with truth, and dreams are born. Alicia Britt Chole
He who loves me will be loved by My Father, And I will love him. John 14:21
He who loves me will be loved by My Father, And I will love him. John 14:21
In Acts Jesus speaks of us being His witnesses in Judea & Samaria and Palm Beach County, Florida...yep that is how my version reads!
September 23 The Gathering will host TWO outreach events....please join me in prayer for:
* Table Hosts who will invite non-Christian men & those who need encouragement in their faith. May the table host be bold & courageous in seeking men he will invite.
* That men will be receptive to the breakfast invitation extended to them.
* For Michael Franzese as he prepares God's message for the men.
* For sponsors whose partnership will provide financial support for this breakfast.
* For breakfast logistics to go smoothly.
* For those who serve at the breakfast to hear and see God's love.
* For the men who will be involved in our discipleship process following the breakfast.
