The Cost of Freedom
While visiting my daughter in Boston, we dropped into a ballet class to get a little workout in. Since my normal workouts are cardio & strength, I wasn’t used to some of the specific ballet techniques of foot, hip, and leg alignment. The teacher told us that when she was a little girl in ballet class, she would get frustrated because at times she felt that she would never master the technique. Her mother told her that through the discipline of the tedious technical exercises, she would gain the freedom to truly DANCE!
It made me think about our lives in Christ. Even though our salvation is a free gift that cannot be earned, the freedom to live the full and abundant life that Jesus promised requires us to live a life that exhibits discipline. When we daily discipline ourselves to set aside time to pray, study Scripture, attend corporate worship, and serve others in love, we gain a freedom that cannot be described. In Galatians 5, Paul talks about using our freedom to serve one another instead of using our freedom to indulge the sinful nature. As we exercise the discipline of the daily spiritual practices, we have the freedom to truly DANCE – with God taking the lead!
It Will Change Your Life
On Black Friday, my 27-year-old daughter decided to purchase an iPad2, since her Mac desktop was so outdated that the operating system just wasn’t cooperating anymore. And since she’s beginning her Ph.D. in the fall she needed something portable for research. However, when the box came, she was too busy to open it. Between work at the Boston Ballet, her social obligations, and a post-graduate program in Archival Administration, the new iPad sat in the box, unopened. I just arrived at her apartment in Cambridge, MA last night for a quick visit and an opportunity for great seats at the Nutcracker. So we sat down and I helped her set up her gadget. As we were working, Adrienne said to her roommate, “It’s going to take a lot of getting used to.” And her roommate called back, “It’s going to change your life!”
Well, an iPad2 will change your life to some extent, but nothing really changes your life like the gift of Jesus. Too often, we allow that incredible gift of a relationship with the Son of God to sit unopened on the shelf, too busy with life to even “turn it on” through prayer. This Christmas Season, don’t allow Christmas to crowd out Jesus – the greatest gift. Come, Let Us Adore Him!
Leave Room for Longing
It’s Advent again. And whether or not you attend a church that celebrates the season of Advent, we can all relate to it’s meaning. More simply put, Advent is about waiting…about longing…about yearning for God to move in our world once again. Longing and waiting are a lost art in our society, but St Augustine knew the importance of longing for God. He said, “Yearning makes the heart grow deep…Give me one who yearns….who is thirsty and sighs for the spring of the Eternal country. Give me that sort of man; he knows what I mean.” The writer of Psalm 42 understood. He said “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants after you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” The secret of living during Advent is to leave some room for longing. If we constantly fill every possibly whim and desire here on earth, we leave no appetite for God. Push away from the plate…say no to the sales… turn off the phone, and take some time to practice the art of longing. God will meet you in that place.