Category: Music

Give This Christmas Away

Here it is – the Christmas season is once again upon us. And here I am again, desperately trying to figure out how NOT to get swept away by the busy-ness and materialism that are the hallmarks of this time of year.  I want to be able to take time and read and reflect on Christ and His advent, and I try, but sometimes other things not of my choosing (like grade school Christmas programs and such) take my focus. I want to be able to give of my time and my resources to those in need but either a) I don’t have any extra time or resources or b) I don’t even really know where what I can give is needed most. I know of a church (I am sure there are lots of them) who does an event each Christmas where they really are giving to people in their community who are in need. Giving LOTS of BIG stuff. Especially considering this church isn’t a mega-church. It wouldn’t even be considered a large church. And I want to be involved in stuff like that. (I am too far away to participate in that particular church’s efforts.) So this is where my head is these days – trying to figure out what I can do to help someone else this season. What  I can do to make Christmas more real to me, my family and others. And perhaps that’s why when I saw this video last week I was drawn to the song.

Two lines, “You have the power to give hope” and “What if December looked different this year?” Are the ones that keep rolling around in my head. How could I make December look different this year? What can we do differently? How can we offer hope to someone who is just waiting for it to be offered? And as if it is not enough for me to already be thinking these things, both my reading from Rediscovering the Christmas Season on youversion.com and the reading from Today in a Manger: An Advent Devotional were asking some good questions right along those lines.

(From Rediscovering the Christmas Season)

The Gift

Exposure: Read these verses about giving. (Acts 20:35; 1 John 4:10) Go Christmas shopping for someone that is not a part of your immediate family like a patient in a nursing home or hospital, your mail carrier, your garbage collector, or a foster child.

Exploration: What is the real point of giving a gift? How is Jesus the best gift you have ever received?

Expression: How generous are you with your time, treasures, and talents? Do you live as if it truly is more blessed to give than receive? How can you live this out more fully this Christmas season?

Experience: Discuss with friends or family or journal about a time when you blessed someone with extreme generosity or a time where you were blessed by someone else’s extreme generosity. Spend time praying asking God to help you become more generous by better comprehending the gift of love He has given us.

(From Today in A Manger)

The excitement of approaching Christmas sometimes lulls us into a sense of contented spiritual inertia (italics mine). What risk, what leap of faith, does God want you to take in your life today?

So I am asking myself and God these questions today. I don’t know that I have the answers yet, but I am looking for them and looking for opportunities. And I am praying, “Make me like Mary, ready to serve You. Let it be with me just as You say.”

What are you doing differently this Christmas?

Fall Into Me

Maybe it is because I’m tired today. Or maybe it is because yesterday was a crazy one at work. Or maybe it is because life is just overwhelming sometimes. All I know is that this morning I was overtaken by a song that I really listened to for the first time. And I know it wasn’t written in the way I heard it, but what I heard was my Lord singing these words to me:

Listen to it here.

 

Fall Into Me

When the weight of the world bears down so strong you leave footprints on the street
And there’s too many miles to face without a few more hours sleep
The storm clouds overhead won’t shed any rain to quench your thirst
I wanna be the one you reach for first

When your faith is stretched so thin that you can see straight through your soul
And you can’t find a nickel to buy a smile ‘cause your pockets all got holes
You wanna shut the door and hide before the day can get much worse
I wanna be the one you reach for first

Chorus:
Fall into me
My arms are open wide
And you don’t have to say a word
‘Cause I already see
That it’s hard and you’re scared
And you’re tired and it hurts
And I wanna be the one you reach for first

I wanna be the bottle you’ve been drinking with your eyes
Or the road you run away on you’ve been running all your life
The third row pew that you last knew as a child in church
I wanna be the one you reach for first

Repeat Chorus

Before you turn the key
Before you fall asleep
Before you drift away to fight those demons waiting for you in your dreams
Before your arms are stretched wide open
Before you reach into the sky
Before you’re searching for direction and all the answers to your why’s
Fall into me

Oh, my arms are stretched wide open
You don’t have to say a word
Because I already see
That it’s hard and you’re scared
And you’re tired and I know it hurts
Yes, it’s hard and you’re scared
And you’re tired and it hurts
And I wanna be the one you reach for first

© 2008 Jennifer Nettles

As I heard these words, I just felt like I was being held in the arms of this loving God who wants to be the one we go to when life is hard, when we are scared, when we are hurting, when we are overwhelmed. Isn’t this exactly what he said to us in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”? And yet, we don’t run to Him first. All of us have that person, that attitude, that habit, or something that we run to in those times of trial. Maybe not always; maybe sometimes we remember that our Father is waiting for us, but the truth of the matter is that we still don’t always reach for Him first.

 

I know that I am so guilty of that sometimes. When the day has been truly hard or stressful I may run to my TV for a little “veg” time, or grab my book for some “escape” time, or pick up the phone or plop down next to Mike for some “vent” time. But this isn’t the best I could do. Perhaps if I/we were reaching for comfort in the arms of our Father, we wouldn’t be so quick to look for escape, or we wouldn’t allow ourselves to get so worked up that we feel like we have to vent.

 

So here’s my challenge (and yours) for today. Let’s take Jesus at His word and come to Him when we are weary and burdened. Let’s accept His yoke and His rest. Let’s reach for Him first.

A Baby Changes Everything

(Written for the Greenville Free Methodist Church’s December newsletter)

If you know me at all, you know that music is a very important aspect of my  life. I love to hear something musically that grabs my attention, but most of the time, my initial reaction of liking a song is confirmed only when the lyrics grab me and that combination of powerful music and meaningful lyrics combine to form a piece that gets into my soul.

This phenomenon is especially true with Christmas music. I love Christmas music and listen to it every possible minute during the holiday season. My iPod boasts over 30 Christmas albums for a total of more than 375 songs. According to  iTunes, it would take me 21.4 hours to listen to my holiday playlist all the way through. And that doesn’t count the tapes and records at home that I don’t have digitized.

In all of this music, I hear different versions of the same song over and over and I love those songs, but the ones that stand out to me are the ones that are different, original, and really capture an aspect of Christmas that I hadn’t thought of in that way before.

Recently, as I was listening to the latest addition to my Christmas music collection, I found yet another one of those songs. It is sung by Faith Hill and is called, “A Baby Changes Everything.” The song tells about an unmarried teenage girl and how her life is changed by a baby. It goes on to talk of shepherds who gather around and angels who sing of this baby who has changed everything. The music is great, the lyrics fantastic, but it was the last verse of the song that gave me pause: “My whole life has turned around, I was lost but now I’m found. A baby changes everything. A baby changes everything.” I was speechless, breathless, with the gravity of that truth. A baby changed everything. The birth of Christ brought God to us in a way that wasn’t possible before. The birth of Christ made possible for us a relationship with God that we couldn’t have had before. The birth of Christ and my belief in and love for Him changes me in ways that wouldn’t be possible any other way.

Have we allowed this baby to really change us? As we walk through this season of Advent, perhaps we need to pray about and open ourselves up to the work of the Lord and really allow His spirit to penetrate our hearts and change us. Pastor Doug has been talking to us throughout the fall about harnessing the power to change. How will you harness that power and allow the birth of a baby to change everything for you?

More on the subject of Authenticity

Monday, April 16, 2007

More on the Subject of Authenticity
Current mood: contemplative

So, I am singing on Sunday in church and the song that I have chosen (at this point) is “The Real Me” by Natalie Grant. Here are the words:

Foolish heart, looks like we’re here again.
Same old game of plastic smile,
Don’t let anybody in.
Hiding my heartache,
Will this glass house break?
How much will it take before I’m empty?
Do I let it show?
Does anybody know?

But You see the real me.
Hiding in my skin, broken from within.
Unveil me completely.
I’m loosening my grasp,
There’s no need to mask my frailty
Cause You see the real me.

Painted on, life is behind a mask,
Self-inflicted circus clown.
I’m tired of the song and dance,
Living a charade, always on parade.
What a mess I’ve made of my existence.
But You love me even now
And still I see somehow…

That You see the real me.
Hiding in my skin, broken from within.
Unveil me completely.
I’m loosening my grasp,
There’s no need to mask my frailty
Cause You see the real me.

Wonderful, beautiful is what you see
When You look at me.
You’re turning the tattered fabric of my life
Into a perfect tapestry.
Oh, I just wanna be me,
I wanna be me.

 

But You see the real me.
Hiding in my skin, broken from within.
Unveil me completely.
I’m loosening my grasp,
There’s no need to mask my frailty
Cause You see the real me.

And you love me just as I am.
Wonderful, beautiful is what You see
When You look at me

Wow – what powerful words! We (especially moms) do such a good job of putting on our masks that show everything is right and good in our lives. We don’t want anyone else to know that we struggle, that we yell at our kids, that we lose our tempers, that we fight with our husbands, that sometimes we just want to run away. But if we constantly hide our true selves, then what help can we be to others and how can we find help for ourselves?

Yet, God sees us as we are and loves us anyway. Shouldn’t we love others for who they ARE rather than who they want us to see? Wouldn’t it make life so much easier if we could just be REAL with one another? I remember a scene from Desperate Housewives a year or so ago – Lynette is crying at the park and Bree and Susan are trying to comfort her. Lynette is down on herself because she is struggling as a mom. When Bree and Susan share that they have had major struggles, too, Lynette asks them why they never told her that before. I think this is how many of us feel – like we are all alone. But we are not – we just have to be willing to share a little bit more of ourselves with one another.

Currently listening :
Awaken
By Natalie Grant
Release date: 22 March, 2005