Joy at Christmas

I begin this Christmas season by proclaiming, "Joy To The World" as in Jesus, our Savior, has come to the world. Believing in Jesus as the only true and pure Joy, and knowing the Holy Spirit resides in each believer, it is inexcusable for a believer to whine, "I can't catch the Christmas spirit." 

Here's how to find the Joy at Christmas; here's how the believer can catch the Christmas Spirit today and every single day.

I was so happy on that Christmas morning when I received the green bicycle. It had high handle bars and a banana seat. It was dark green with a black center bar. I was happy because it meant freedom on a lot of levels. I now had wheels. I could get to my grandparents’ house, Herschel Harrison’s country store, and the pond in half the time. I could also explore. We could load the bike in our station wagon, and now I could ride it to see all of my friends when I went to town, where my mother worked.

If I made a list of the top five Christmas presents presented on the top five Christmases of my past – the green bicycle would be at the top of all lists. That bike made me so happy I’m not even sure I could list a No. 2 all-time without a space between it and bicycle.

And, yet, that bicycle was in the trash heap in about five years – replaced with a larger 10-speed that I never quite loved as much. The treasures of today will surely be the dust of tomorrow. That bike was incapable of bring me Joy; it could only bring me temporary happiness.

You have no idea how much my mama wanted a daughter. She and my dad had three boys, 15, 13 and 10. A run at adoption of a little girl had failed. Attempting a fourth pregnancy had ended in miscarriage. All of my mama’s best friends had a daughter. My grandmother, my mom’s mama, had six grandsons and no granddaughters.

And, in late 1973, my mama found out she was pregnant. We all began praying for a healthy baby, but one that would also be female. Everyone was watching this pregnancy – boy or girl? Would my mama be able to contain her disappointment? It would surely be yet another Vaughan boy.

On March 7, 1974, my dad came by the high school and got me out. He went around to the other schools and got all my brothers. He called my grandmother and told her – it’s time – the baby is coming.

At the hospital, there were about 30 people in the waiting room. Boy or girl? Boy or girl? Probably a boy. The doctor came out and said, “It’s a girl.” It was like winning the lottery – people cheering and nurses crying. It was a community event. I worked at a local pizza restaurant and that night at work - the manager gave me a free dessert by way of celebration. When my grandmother came into the hospital, I shouted down the hallway, “Mema! It’s a girl.” And, she passed out.

People described it as a joyous day, but for those without a faith in Jesus, that was not true. For those, it was only heightened happiness and Earthly celebration. For those of us who were believers, having prayed and heard those prayers answered, it was a Joyful day. Joy only exists when Jesus exists. Joy, for me, and in my opinion, is that sweet spot of worship when my life and its events are in concert with Almighty God, through faith in Jesus.

Read the words of Psalm 98 and reflect on the Joy mentioned in it.

• Joy is a reflection of a deep and personal relationship with God through Jesus. It is impossible for people to now Joy apart from a faith in Jesus. What the unsaved will know is a heightened measure of happiness. The reason we sing “Joy To The World” each Christmas is because apart from the gift of Jesus, there is no joy.
•  Joy is found in authentic worship, pouring out the pain and sorrow of life to an Almighty God – praising and thanking God for all his blessings even in the midst of pain.
• And, while Joy is provided by God, we must pursue Joy, too. It’s an inward disposition. You can be a believer and not be joyful, and that’s a sad and pitiful way to live. It’s like being given a wonderful gift and never opening it.

How can we experience Joy? How can we experience the fullness of faith in Jesus? And, in experiencing that sweet spot with God, how can we fully celebrate His son's birth each December? How, then, can we capture the Christmas Spirit?

First, and foremost, the individual must be a confessing follower of Jesus Christ - not with head, but with heart; not with the right words or the right cadence before each meal, but with disposition and attitude and decorum. And, then, these considerations:

• Make God’s words personal – Jeremiah 15:16 – "Your words are what sustain me. They bring me great joy and are my heart’s delight. For I hear your name, O Lord God Almighty." Would you believe that an estimated 80 percent of all believers are Biblically illiterate; more than 60 percent of believers never even read the Bible. What does that say about the state of Joy in today's believers and then collectively within the church? Go to Scripture.
•  Whole-hearted service – 1 Chronicles 29:9 – "Then the people rejoiced for that they offered willingly because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord." Service without disclaimer; service without expectation – not even with the expectation of a thank you. Understand that your money is not yours; your time is borrowed – give it all away to bless the lives of others.
• Faithful service – Matthew 25:23 – Recognizing the source of all things in our lives, and plowing those things into service. It's not just about time and money. It's about the greatest gift many of us have - our children. 3 John 1:4 reads, "I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth." I look at the trophy shelves containing all the trophies and awards that my boys have gathered, and yet Joy comes to me when I know Andrew is driving college students to worship services on Sunday mornings. See the difference between the Earthly and the Eternal? Happiness is in the Earthly; Joy is in the Eternal.
•  Knowing your heart is right with God – Psalm 3:22 – "Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice all who are upright in heart." My heart is not always right with God. I get frustrated, I lose my temper, I slink into negativity and cynicism, I say and do things that I regret, and I then I feel ashamed in front of Almighty God. But, what Joy comes when I recognize the sinfulness of my heart, cry out to the Lord, and feel Him wash through me. There is no Joy like the sweet spot of being right with God.
• Winning souls – Psalm 126:5 – "Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy." Have you ever watched as someone came to know Jesus – broken and then redeemed? Can you remember that feeling in yourself? Only in the last five years have I introduced anyone to Jesus, and I can tell you that there’s nothing like it. Once you have experienced the joy of seeing someone come to Jesus, you will want to live the rest of your days – you will cry out for those days – for that pure joy found in soul-winning.
• Answered prayers – John 16:24 – Jesus says, “Ask, in my name, and you will receive and you will have abundant joy.” Are you praying? Are you thinking about prayer? Have you experienced the abundant joy of answered prayers. There is Joy in the knowledge and affirmation of a loving, Almighty God through answered prayer.

Joy, to the world!

When Jesus was born, Joy entered our bleak and empty world. When the Holy Spirit comes alive in each believer, the opportunity for Joy enters that human life. Christmas should be a season of worship; Christmas should be a season of the focused pursuit of Joy. Don’t let it slip away from you – Serve, Pray, Dive into Scripture, Confess Sinful Attitudes, and look for the opportunity to hit your sweet spot with Almighty God.

Finding God On The Apache Trail

"Honor the Lord for the glory of His name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare. In his temple, everyone shouts, 'Glory!' the Lord rules over the floodwaters. The Lord reigns as king forever. The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace." ~ Psalm 29:1-11

Sometimes – many times – God sneaks up on us. I think it's because:

1. We aren't God. God exists without a watch or a calendar; God has a different view from ours. He can see our tomorrow, our today and our yesterday; and God can be everywhere at the same time, and He is the King – the Lord – over everything. We are just a wisp of air.
2. We are so distracted and so busy that we often aren’t looking for God or expecting to see Him. We are over-worried about what’s for dinner, or the next thing on the calendar, or how much money is in the bank account. We are so focused on the temporary that we can't see the eternal. We have a limited brain capacity and often reserve none of that for God.

This past week I was in Phoenix, serving churches there. I was speaking all day Thursday for a group of city-wide church leaders. Back in the late 1980s, my brother Tim was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, and I made a handful of trips out there to visit him. I fell in love with the Arizona desert, borrowing Tim’s Trans Am and driving out into the desert. I drove off the main roads and into places where they have signs warning you to have plenty of food and water.

So, going to Phoenix this week, I scheduled the trip so I could be there as early as possible on Wednesday, providing all afternoon to drive in the desert, windows down, and classic rock and roll blaring. And, I specifically wanted to drive the 33-mile Apache Trail, which is actually State Highway 88 from the small town of Apache Junction to Roosevelt Dam.

But, let me back up just a minute. My flight on Wednesday morning began in Charlotte. I am on a quest this year to read 25 books and to read 200 over the next eight years. On this flight, I was finishing up former Yankee Bobby Richardson’s book, Impact Player, and so – at the Charlotte airport – I stepped into a bookstore to find something to start reading. I have been trying, rarely successful, to rotate my reading among biographies, fiction and books to improve my faith journey. In the Charlotte airport book store, I was looking through the fiction books when I noticed a section of inspirational books. It was there that I picked up Paul Stutzman’s true story – Hiking Through. Stutzman, a restaurant manager, lost his wife, Mary, to breast cancer, and overcome with grief, quit his job to hike through the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Having hiked most of the trial in Georgia, during my younger days, I bought the book.

On the flight to Phoenix, I finished Richardson’s great baseball biography, and began Stutzman’s book, which I quickly realized was a fantastic story of being out in the wilderness, grieving over life’s greatest setback, and asking questions of Almighty God. I won’t give the book away, but Stutzman’s book is as good a book about an everyday man's faith journey as I have ever read. It is a great adventure story of  man v. wilderness, but it's also fascinating to be with Stutzman as the trail journey mirrors his faith journey. In the middle of nature, he becomes broken before Almighty God and responds to God's calling. Why did I enjoy Stutzman's story so much? Because he could be me and most everyone I know.

And, so it was while reading Stutzman's book that I drove from Phoenix to Apache Junction to drive the Apache Trail. The Apache Trail is a 33-mile road – State Highway 88. It was first a trail used by the Apache tribe to cross the Superstition Mountains, and then it was a stagecoach road for the same purpose. The first 11 miles of the trail are paved though not very well maintained. These miles pass by some pull-outs for tourist views of the desert, the mountains and a few reservoirs. The paved section of the trail ends at a roadhouse / restaurant / gift shop called Tortilla Flat. You can see Tortilla Flat as you approach it because there’s a mannequin hung by a noose from a gallows built on the top of the building. (It's pretty cool).

Many travelers get to Tortilla Flat, buy a souvenir, have a drink, and then go back to Apache Junction. But, you can go further on a 22-mile drive to Roosevelt Dam, which at the time of its construction was the largest block dam in the country (so sayeth a sign there). That 22-mile leg of the Apache Trail is all dirt road. The roads are narrow with one-lane bridges, no cell service, and extreme mountain driving with no or limited guard rails. Along the trail you cross many areas with warning signs of flash flooding as in "don't drive through here if you see water." As a note, many RV rental companies do not permit their vehicles to use the Apache Trail. There’s also the customary warning to have plenty of water.

And, so, off I went in my small rental SUV.

Words can’t describe that drive. I drove until there were no power lines and my iPhone lost all of its service. My sophisticated telephone even stopped searching for service. Deeper and deeper I drove into the desert, thinking about Paul Stutzman on the Appalachian Trail and searching for God there. At one point on his walk through the wildnerness, Stutzman had one of his many God moments. He asked himself, "Why am I hurrying to finish this long walk? Shouldn't I stop occasionally and marvel at awesome God?"

Shouldn't we ask that of ourselves? Why are we rushing through this life of ours? Why aren't we spending more time with the ones we love? Why aren't we spending more time doing for others? Why aren't we stopping to be still and reflect on the glory of Almighty God all around us?

And, as I drove the Apache Trail, I thought the same thing: Why I am hurrying to finish this scenic drive? Why don't I stop along the way and just experience God?

My GPS wasn’t working, but I estimated by the odometer that I was about 20 miles into the Apache Trail. As I came up and around a cliff, I pulled up to the top of a mountain and there was a pullout. So, I eased the SUV into the pullout, turned off the ignition (praying it would restart) and then got out and climbed on the hood of the vehicle to sit.

It was the great expanse of the desert that first got to me – it just caused me to exhale. As David wrote of God's glory in Psalm 29, all I could think to say was, "Glory, Glory."

But, it was the quiet that really got to me. There was no sound except what little the wind made. With no trees to stir, the wind was more felt than heard and I felt as though it were the hands of God reaching out to me. No birds. No cars. No noise or racket. Just the deafening quiet. And, I got the feeling that the only two living things at the moment were me and God. I came to the realization that God was using Stutzman's book to prepare me for this time of worship. And, I pulled out a pen and paper to make a few notes, seeing it as opportunity for a tune-up of my life.

1. I will take time to get away, by myself, and be still before the Lord – away from people, away from the noise and the clatter, even if for just a few hours – I will get away by myself, leave the cell phone at home, tell no one where I am going, and simply rest in the arms of the Lord. He wants it and I need it. And, I need it more often.
2. I will invest more time with my Vicki – just with her – even if it’s just watching television with her. I won’t let the boys and all their business get between me and the one whom God chose for me - the one God chose for a relationship set apart from all others. I will put off all other relationships and ministry to them in order to have more time to spend with my Vicki. There will be a day when one of us will go on without the other. I want to cherish these days more often.
3. I will make sure the boys know that I love them – not by spending time with them, not by spending money on them, not by ensuring they are happy – but by listening to them, hearing them and encouraging them even if what they say makes no sense to me. I will be their champion; not the uninvited “fixer” of their problems.
4. I will be a better friend. I will work harder to stay close to my friends who are hurting; I know I’m not qualified to provide all the answers they need, but I can ensure they know that I will be on life's journey with them.
5. I will be unashamed of the Gospel – willing to talk about Jesus at any time to any person regardless of the circumstance. I was reminded that I can’t save anyone, I can’t make anyone accept Jesus as their Savior, but I have a responsibility to make the introduction – to say to people, “Here is my friend, Jesus, and I would like for you to meet Him, and I would like to tell you why He is my friend.”

There’s a feeling of accomplishment when you drive out of the desert and see Roosvelt Dam. It’s not the same as completing the Appalachian Trail, but you are glad you made it without need of a search and rescue.

God snuck up on me last week, introducing me to a book that slowed me down to hear from God in the Arizona desert.