Emmanuel

There are some things that aren’t even worth doing if you only do them once a year. Like taking a shower.
Or brushing your teeth.
Or changing your underwear.
Or celebrating Christmas.
Wait! Did I just casually transition from a supposedly humorous random statement to a public service announcement about  the evils of holiday consumerism and the fleeting nature of a traditional happy American Christmas? No, at least I don’t think so.

Christmas is over and nobody knows what to do. How much longer do you have to keep you tree up? Do you have to slowly wean yourself off Christmas music or can you just do a clean break and get back to real life? Is it appropriate to wear your ugly Christmas sweater a couple of days after Christmas? The answer to the last one is easy, no.
Though nobody really wants to admit it, the general consensus immediately following Christmas seems to be a big sigh and a silent “I’m glad we made it through that one” muttered under our breath. I am not saying that we all don’t enjoy Christmas but I think we can all agree it takes far too much effort to do it any more than once a year.

There is a word though, or really a name, that we associate with Christmas that should be a part of our daily vocabulary.
Emmanuel.
Or Immanuel, whichever floats your boat.
God has a bunch of names and they all mean something different which is cool because it just shows the great vastness of who God really is. Throughout Scripture, God revealed these names to His people at the exact time when they would need to know that specific characteristic of God that would deliver them from whatever was coming against them. God knew the exact name he would have to be known by for His people to trust that He had everything under control and knew what He was doing.
In the book of Isaiah chapter 7 we find yet another wicked king refusing to listen to a godly prophet. Judah is surrounded and King Ahaz is refusing to seek guidance from God. The prophet Isaiah keeps telling the king “Hey, God wants to bring victory and defeat your enemies, quit being a pansy and man up a bit. God’s got it so you can stop freaking out” (I may have paraphrased a little, that might be the Message version). 
King Ahaz still isn’t convinced so Isaiah tells him “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”₁ 
One quick glance at the footnotes in my handy dandy NIV Bible tells me that Immanuel means “God with us.” God was telling the king in this book that soon they would go through the worst times they ever thought possible as punishment for their sins but soon, He would actually be with them. Someday there would be peace, hope and a Savior from all that oppressed them. God would be with them like He was with Adam and Eve in the garden. He could walk with them in person.
And that is what we know as the Christmas story. It all boils down to the fact that God, Creator of the Universe, came down in human form and was actually with His people in a way they could see and touch. He wasn’t like the other gods that could only be reached by ritual and sacrifice to the elite. He was a living, tangible being that wanted to live life with His people. in every other belief system, members of that belief do things for and to their god. God gave His people the opportunity to do things with  Him.
I think it is amazing how many people God chose to be with the moment He entered the world. Just look at your nativity set, that is, if you haven’t already taken it down. Everybody in it got to be with God in a way that only they could understand. Joseph the carpenter found Him in a wooden stable. The shepherds were experts in livestock and found their Savior in a feeding trough. Three Wise men found their Savior in the city of Kings, where King David and a good portion of his descendants were buried.
And then there was pregnant Mary.  The Father was with His child, who was “with child” with the Father.
If it ended at Christmas then there would be no point in celebrating it at all. Sure we could acknowledge it and say “Hey remember that one time when God was with us? That was really neat,” but that would be completely missing the whole point of what God was doing in history. Emmanuel doesn’t mean “God was with us.”
God is with us now just just as He was two thousand years ago in a stable.
What would our year look like if we actually lived like we believed God was with us? We pray for His “presence” a lot like it is the catchword we have to say to start feeling good about our worship.  When we  commit ourselves to actually having a “quiet time” we want to get that nice warm feeling inside like we just talked to the Creator of the Universe and enjoyed the conversation. Praying for God’s presence is the easiest way to do that.
Sometimes we forget about the word “omnipresent.” God is already here whether or not we get that bubbly satisfaction of feeling spiritual.  He is here because He is Emmanuel.
He is with us.
When we work, when we play, when we argue, when we dream, when we feel it and when we don’t- He is with us.
The hope of Christmas then, is not that we could have one day a year when the whole family can get together and be nice to each other. It is not that we would become extra generous and catch the spirit of giving for the month of December. The hope of Christmas isn’t even that we remember to make Jesus the “Reason for the Season” by deciding to talk about Him twice as much as we talk about Santa just so that everyone knows where our priorities are.
The hope of Christmas is that we remember that God is with us. That no matter what this next year brings we can hold our head up because we know that God Himself is with us. Not only is He guiding and directing, but He is on His hands and knees digging through the trenches with us. He was with us during everything that happened last year and the year before that and the year before that.
Life would get lonely if we only recognized that once a year. So how about another round of Christmas for everybody?

1-Isaiah 7:14 NIV

Elevator Music

Have you ever found yourself in an elevator waiting to reach your floor when all of the sudden, your favorite song comes on over the tiny speaker and you decide to hit a few more floors before you leave so you can finish the song?

No? Me either.

The truth is, nobody really cares abut elevator music. Its’ sole purpose is to fill dead silence. It never sounds like anything anybody would really listen to. When I think of elevator music, I usually think of somebody who got fired from their job as a Ringtone composer and was now pretending to be Kenny G.

It kind of makes me wonder about the people who make elevator music. I mean, did they intentionally set out to make music for people to only hear for the few seconds they were in transit? Or did they set out to make truly great music that just ended up in an elevator? I don’t know much about the elevator music business, but I am sure it definitely has its ups and downs. Get it? “Ups and Downs”? Like in an elevator? Never mind.

I wonder if whoever composed these elevator masterpieces was in reality a very passionate musician. What if they were the kind of musician who dedicates their whole life to their craft and practices for hours upon hours a day? What if this tune that almost went unnoticed while I was traveling in an elevator came to this musician in a dream? What if he was up all night composing what he knew would be a masterpiece? What if he poured his heart and soul into his work and the only place that would accept him was an elevator?

It all leads to the question that I have had scribbled to a Post-It note stuck to my wall and running through my brain for the past couple weeks: “What happens when your passion amounts to nothing?”

I have a confession to make. I usually begin my blogs with no idea of how I will end them. I just start writing and eventually my thoughts organize themselves into something logical and I figure out the answer to whatever I was asking before I hit publish.  That is how I began this one; hoping that by writing I would be able to finally figure out the question that I have read every morning posted on my wall.

I am already 405 words into this post and I still have no idea what the answer to this question is.

What does happen when my passion amounts to nothing?

What if nobody ever read a single thing I wrote? What if I never saw one person come to know God through anything I did? What if I get into full-time ministry and realize I can’t do it and everything I have done my whole life amounts to nothing?

I thought I was asking God this question, but I think He is asking me.

If my passions amount to nothing, does that change who God is?

If my passions amount to nothing, does that change who I am?

Is my whole perception of who God is and who I am wrapped up completely in seeing physical results?

Really I have to ask myself, “Am I passionate about God himself, or am I passionate about being recognized for being passionate about God?”

If I am passionate about God then it shouldn’t matter if what I pour my life into becomes nothing in the eyes of the world.

I am here in life doing what I do because I want it to amount to something. Everything we do is for that very hope. That is why people go to college and start families and go after the best jobs. That is why we are supposed to do well in school and make good decisions, we want it to amount to something. Nobody intentionally plans to be underappreciated and over looked. Everyone aims for Billboard Top 20, not the tiny speaker in an elevator.

I want to live a life that doesn’t revolve around me trying to find approval and self worth. I want to live a life that isn’t all about impressing people. I want to be OK knowing my greatest efforts may end up in a an elevator. I don’t pretend to know what I am doing or how I am going to get there, I just know that I want to live for more than an early retirement. I am living for  a heavenly retirement, because that is where my citizenship lies.

It is a good thing we are not waiting to stand before God and hear him say, “Well done my good and successful servant;” we wait to hear Him call us faithful.