The other day I wished you a Happy Holiday and gave you a summary of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas. Today, it is my joy to wish you a Merry Christmas to all my regular readers, regardless of your faith background! As a Christian pastor, I remind you the story of Christmas is that God has come near.
I love this scripture from John 1, “Because He was full of grace and truth, from him we all received one gift after another. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth coma through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But God the only son is very close to the Father, and he has shown us what God is like.”
God became flesh and made His home among us in the baby born in Bethlehem. Let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world. For only if we let him in can he pull us out. Merry Christmas!
It’s a wonderful time of the year! It’s the holiday season! Depending on your roots, you may be celebrating one of several holidays this time of year – Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. Sometimes we don’t even know much about the holidays outside our own faith or cultural roots. Let’s learn just a little about each of them so we better understand each other.
Kwanzaa is the newest holiday celebration. It’s a week-long celebration held in the United States and Canada that honors African-American heritage and culture observed December 26 to January 1 each year. Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga as an alternative for African Americans to celebrate their unique culture and history. The name comes from a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits of the harvest.”
Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to seven principles of African heritage: Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith. Families celebrating Kwanzaa decorate their households with objects of colorful African art and fresh fruit. Candle-lighting, music, artistic performance, a feast and gift-giving of heritage symbols such as books are usually key components of the Kwanzaa celebration.
Hanukkah is the oldest holiday celebration. It is also know as the Festival of Lights, an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the second temple in Jerusalem after the time of the Maccabean Revolt and Jewish victory over the Syrian-Greeks in 165 BC. Since this celebration is based on the Hebrew calendar, it may occur at any time from late November to late December in our most commonly used Gregorian calendar. This year, Hanukkah is December 8-16.
The Festival of Lights is observed by sequentially lighting each of the nine-branched candelabrum, called a Menorah, over the eight day period. In addition to lighting the candles, the 8-day Hanukkah holiday is celebrated by telling the historical stories of how one-day’s worth of oil miraculously kept a menorah burning for 8 days, prayers of blessings, reciting of Psalms, singing songs and traditional foods like potato pancakes, there will be gift-giving for children and playing with the dreidel—a four-sided spinning top.
Christmas is undoubtedly the most popular holiday of the season. The word literally means Christ’s Mass and is an annual celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, generally on December 25. Now days, it is celebrated both as a religious and cultural holiday by billions of people around the world. The popular celebratory customs with Christmas have an eclectic mix of pre-Christian, Christian and secular themes and origins.
Christmas will be celebrated with decorated trees, elaborate light displays, nativity scenes, mistletoe, holly, Santa Claus, reindeer, Christmas music and caroling. Because gift-giving is a central part of the celebration, the heightened commercial activity among both Christians and others has become a significant event and an economic engine for retailers and businesses. Of course, like the other holiday celebrations, there will be family gatherings, lots of food, compassionate actions toward the less fortunate and for some, very deep and meaningful worship of the baby that changed the world.
The common theme in all three holiday traditions is gift-giving and taking time to connect with family and friends in an environment of celebration. Whether you are Jewish, Christian or an African-American celebrating Kwanzaa, don’t miss out on the blessings of being generous or the joy of connecting with family and friends. Use the season to celebrate every chance you get. Reach out to your neighbors. Care for the less fortunate. Understand your heritage and culture better. And, go deeper in your faith.
QUESTION: What do you love most about the holiday you celebrate at this time of year? Share your comments below.
My mother is one of the best pie-makers in the world! Not that she has ever competed in a contest to prove it, but you know, moms are the best—well almost. My wife has given mom some photo-finish, split-jury close competition over the years. In fact, my mom taught my wife the fine art of baking a pie. Spending the summer months of each of our first five years of marriage living near my parents in Oregon, created a splendid environment for pie making. With Oregon-fresh strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries, blueberries, peaches, cherries, rhubarb and apples all surrounding our farm, pie-making was a weekly event. I’m convinced, the world needs more pie!
The point is—everyone can make a difference—especially pie-bakers! Beth Howard, author, pie baker and TV producer, had a thought while she watched the earth-rattling, gut-wrenching grief that rippled across our nation from its epicenter in Newtown, Connecticut last week. Beth Howard drove her RV from Iowa to Connecticut loaded with supplies to bake hundreds of pies to hand out slices to first responders and residents and to gift pies to funeral receptions and grieving families.
The world needs more pies! Even pies can ease the grief of a devastated community. Beth’s actions unleashed an avalanche of generosity. A simple post on Facebook about her idea generated $2,000 in donations for gas and supplies within a two hour period. By the time she made the 1,100 mile trip, sixty volunteers had gathered in the New York area to help “the pie lady” make pies. Over 235 were made. One family made 60 pies in one day. Beth says, “Pie is meant to be shared. Pie connects people.”
The reality is, Beth knows about grief. Her husband of only six years, died three years ago at the age of 43 from a ruptured aorta. She poured her grief into baking pies. She wrote a book, “Making Piece: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Pie.” She has a website – The World Needs More Pie. She is developing a TV show, “This American Pie.” In the summer time, she runs the Pitchfork Pie Stand at the American Gothic home where the artist Grant Wood got his inspiration for his most famous painting—the farmer couple with a pitchfork.
I’ve never tasted Beth Howard’s pies. My mom and my wife might both be able to beat her in a pie-baking competition. But I love her philosophy of life. She believes that pie can change the world. And she is proving it in Newtown, one slice at a time. The world needs more pie.
QUESTION: What is the best kind of pie you’ve ever eaten? And where did you eat it? Share it in the comment section below.
With non-stop news coverage of the horrific massacre of children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, what is there to add? Words are inadequate. I could give my opinion on gun control laws, cops in schools, mental illness, video game violence or a myriad of other societal ills. There will be plenty of those discussions this week on the airwaves, over the internet and around water coolers. Words are inadequate.
As a pastor and a police chaplain for many decades, I’ve spent countless hours with people who are struggling and wrestling with the biggest question—the WHY question—in the face of relentless tragedies and injustices. And like spiritual leaders of any sort, I scramble to try to say something in response and I always come away feeling inadequate. It will not be any different this time. But we can’t shrink from the task of responding to that question.
It seems to me, the very best way to honor the memories of the ones we’ve lost and love is to live confident, productive lives. And the only way to do that is to actually be able to face the “why” question. We need the strength to face a world filled with constant devastation and loss.
First, we must recognize the problem of tragedy, injustice and suffering is a problem for everyone no matter what their beliefs are. The problem of injustice and suffering is a problem for those who believe in God and for those who don’t—or for any set of beliefs. So abandoning belief in God does not really help in the face of it. Okay, then what will?
Every faith offers resources for dealing with suffering and injustice in the world. But as a Christian pastor I know my own faith’s resources the best, so let me simply share with you what I’ve got. When people ask the big question, “Why would God allow this or that to happen?” There are usually two answers. One answer is: “Don’t question God! He has reasons beyond my finite little mind. Just accept everything. Don’t question.” The other answer is: “I don’t know what God’s up to – I have no idea at all about why these things are happening. There’s no way to make any sense of it at all.” Neither answer is fully adequate.
Tim Keller, pastor and author wrote these words on Facebook this weekend: “One of the great themes of the Hebrew Scriptures is that God identifies with the suffering. There are all these great texts that say things like this: If you oppress the poor, you oppress me. I am a husband to the widow. I am father to the fatherless. I think the texts are saying God binds up his heart so closely with suffering people that He interprets any move against them as a move against Him. This is powerful stuff! But Christianity says God goes even beyond that. Christians believe that in Jesus, God’s son, divinity became vulnerable to and involved in – suffering and death! He didn’t come as a general or emperor. He came as a carpenter. He was born in a manger, no room in the inn.” I completely agree.
Another pastor, John Stott wrote: “I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the Cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” Do you catch what this means? Yes, we don’t know the reason God allows evil and suffering to continue, but we know what the reason isn’t, what it can’t be. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us! It can’t be that he doesn’t care. God so loved us and hates suffering that he was willing to come down and get involved in it. And therefore the Cross is an incredibly empowering hint. Ok, it’s only a hint, but if you grasp it, it can transform you. It can give you strength.
QUESTION: What gives you hope in the face of evil and injustice? Share your comments below.
A certain amount of water has to have gone under the bridge of life before we can effectively begin to develop a personal mission statement. A lot of us come out of college with very little real world experience and we make choices about our careers, despite our lack of experience. One of the things I love about being past halftime is that I have years and years of hindsight and experience. I know what I’m good at and not so good at. I know what I’m passionate about and what I could care less about. These things are a huge plus when it comes to developing a mission statement.
According to the management guru, the late Peter Drucker, a mission statement is designed to say, “Why we do what we do. What we want to be remembered for.” Your mission statement doesn’t need to describe how you will go about it. How you accomplish it will change as your environment and technology changes.
Lloyd Reeb, author of Success to Signficance, reminds us there are three elements to developing a personal mission statement:
What kind of people or what cause do you care about the most?
What difference do you dream that you could make for those people or that cause?
What is your greatest skill or area of competence that you can bring to bear?
As for myself, I’ve discovered that I care deeply about people who are in mid-life and beyond and seem to be unclear about their mission. I hate the thought of mature people just coasting toward the grave. I also know that every spiritual gift inventory I’ve ever taken over the past several decades always scores me very high in encouragement or exhortation. And, I know I’m also a fairly skilled communicator. I know I have coaching skills too.
Therefore, my personal written mission is “to inspire transformissional living in adults over 50.” Every word is aligned with my gifts, my passions and the impact I want to make. I’m dedicated to using my gifts of encouragement and exhortation to inspire. I’m passionate about seeing change happen in the lives of people I influence. I’m fervent about helping people live intentionally and purposefully. And my target audience is adults over 50. It’s all wrapped up in my personal mission statement.
So, if you don’t have a mission statement or need to write a second-half mission statement, why don’t you start developing one today by writing your answers to the three questions above. And, maybe just jot down a few words or phrases that summarize those answers. And then stay tuned, I’ll have more to suggest in my next post that will help you to write your personal mission statement. And in the meantime, go to the Mission Statements website for some ideas that might stimulate you toward developing your own statement.
QUESTION: Would you share what you are learning about yourself through these exercises? Use the comment section below.
Imagine it’s your 80th birthday and your spouse or a friend planned a quiet evening at your favorite restaurant. When you arrive, you are surprised to see the whole restaurant is reserved for you. Your closest family, friends, and colleagues are all there. After dinner, one-by-one, each attendee comes up to the microphone in front of the room and speaks. They have been asked to speak about three things.
The three things your surprise birthday guests speak about are:
Here’s what I admire most about you…
Here’s the difference you made in my life…
Your #1 lifetime achievement of significance is…
So what would you want to hear from your family, friends and peers on these three issues?
You can’t build an intentional plan for the future if you don’t have a vision of what you want it to look like. This exercise will help you envision a second half or a third third of life that you consider meaningful and satisfying. I know because I’ve done it.
QUESTION: Would you share an answer to at least one of the three questions above? Use the Comment section below.
Ever since he turned 50, my father Thurlowe (pictured below), has said on his birthday, “I’m not going to complain about how old I am. Having another birthday is better than the alternative.” My dad has had a challenging year since having major back surgery before he turned 83 back in June. He’s making slow progress but still isn’t back to walking. Yet, I think he would say that birthdays are better than the alternative. Today is my birthday. It’s better than the alternative.
Today, I turn 59. Being in my 50’s has been great. A lot of fantabulous things have happened. But as I stop and think about it, today I am beginning my 60th year. Now that sounds a little uncomfortable. A whole new decade—my sixth decade. It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve already lived 707 months or 3,078 weeks, 21,546 days, 517,107 hours, or over 31 million minutes.
The World Life Expectancy website says the average Floridian lives until 79.7 years of age. In my birth state, Oregon, it’s 79.04. I must come from pretty good “long liver” stock because my four grandparents lived until 73, 90, 90 and 97. That’s an average of 87.5 years. My dad is now 83 and my mother turns 80 in a couple weeks. So, statistically, maybe I have another 20-30 years left. Maybe I’m starting my third third as Walter C. Wright suggests in his book “The Third Third of Life: Preparing for your Future.”
These four things I know well because I’ve shared them at hundreds of funerals over the last 33 years:
- We all die.
- Life is short at it’s longest.
- Some things are more important than other things.
- God cares about our lives here on earth and for eternity.
Therefore, knowing what I know, I will never forget, in whatever time I have left, we all die. None of us are guaranteed another minute, another hour, another day, another year or another decade. Therefore I will live my remaining time with intentionality and purpose—living out my mission.
As quickly as 59 years seems to have gone, I know another 20-30 potential years will go by fast. I will make sure I don’t waste my time, talent and treasure on things that don’t contribute to the mission and purpose that God has designed me for.
Aware that some things are more important than others, I will gladly say “yes” to the things that matter most and boldly say “no” to the things that are of low priority. My relationship with God, my wife, my children and their spouses, my grandchildren, my friends and my calling to inspire transformisisonal living in adults over 50 will be at the very top.
Assured that God cares about the here and now and the hereafter, I will invest in my own intimacy with God and always look for ways to point others to an intimate relationship that God eagerly offers with Himself.
How will you live your life today—with intentionality and purpose or haphazardly and unplanned?
QUESTION: What is at the top of your priority list today? I’d love to have you share it in the comment section below.
The Hebrew Scriptures include these incredible lines from a psalm written by King David: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14). You are fearfully and wonderfully made by the hands of a loving Creator. That creative process didn’t stop at birth. God has continued to mold and shape you over the years with a care that exceeds the most meticulous craftsman. He gave you a unique personality. He has given you unique abilities. You have unique passions. God made you absolutely unique for a purpose.
Bob Buford addresses the issue of purpose in his book, Halftime. He states, “Most of us spend the first half of our lives becoming adults, getting an education and seeking our own version of ‘success.’” However, the truth is, most of us don’t pursue significance and purposeful living. That’s why my personal mission statement is to “inspire transformissional living in adults over 50.”
If you are going to write a personal mission statement, it is important to know your passion, your greatest God-given abilities and spiritual gifts. I’m quite sure you have a pretty good idea what your top strengths are. If not, there are many excellent assessment tools to assist you. Strengths Finder 2.0 is one I suggest. If you are committed to seeking after God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, you have at least one spiritual gift that is an extraordinary ability intended by God to be used to serve others. There are also many good spiritual gift assessment tools you can us such as Uniquely You.
The bottom line, if you are going to be clear about your mission, you should able to identify your abilities and unique gifts. For example, I know the natural strengths and abilities I’ve developed include writing, speaking, coaching, influencing others and leading teams. I also know my number one spiritual gift is exhortation – encouraging others. That’s why my mission statement includes “inspiring transformissional living” in it. I love to use a variety of my skills to encourage and exhort others to transformational and purposeful use of their time, talent and treasure.
What steps will you take this week to make sure you are getting more clarity regarding your gifts and abilities? You were made to be a uniquely created, awe-inspiring individual. Have you taken the time to discover those strengths and gifts that will help you to be clear about your mission? If not, maybe it’s time to get started.
QUESTION: What are your top two natural abilities? Share them in the comment section below so we can celebrate who God has made you to be.
Several years ago when I first read John Elderedge’s book “Wild at Heart,” a couple sentences really grabbed my attention. “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” What makes you come alive? In other words, what is your passion? Knowing the answer is necessary to write your personal mission statement.
Passion is the fuel of life. It’s the great source of energy and drive. It’s what makes us explore new places, new relationships and seek solutions to perplexing problems. Unfortunately many people – especially men – possess very little awareness of their deepest inner drives and motivations. (from Halftime workshop handout).
I’ve met a lot of people who don’t have a clue what really makes them tick. They’ve spent so much time just trying to live up to the demands and responsibilities they’ve been handed, there has been little to no effort given to discover their real passions.
What causes, issues and groups of people are you most concerned for? What change do you most want to help bring to the world? Halftime leaders like Lloyd Reeb speak of the Passion Spectrum. There are four points of reference:
- Needs – Recognize thousands
- Concerns – Sensitive to many
- Burdens – Impressed by a few
- Passions – Moved deeply by one or two
While you may recognize hundreds of needs and be sensitive to many concerns, you are only impressed by a few burdens. And if you are like most people I know, you are only moved deeply by one or two passions.
I’ve noticed that my passions have shifted slightly over the years and I think that is fairly normal. My early years of ministry were intently focused on launching Cape Christian —a contemporary church which reaches young unchurched families. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m still very passionate about that same goal. But I’ve inspired and mentored a whole generation of young leaders to carry out that passion. Now, my greatest mission is to inspire transformissional living in adults over 50. I just can’t stand to see older adults in coasting mode, not growing and not knowing their purpose and mission. There are many needs, concerns and burdens, but this is one of my top passions.
Would you write your top one or two areas of passion? It’s an important first step in writing a personal mission statement.
QUESTION: If you know your top passion, would you please share it with us in the comment section?
What is your mission in life? Do you have a mission statement? Do you know your reason for existing? At Mission Statements website, the home page states, “A mission statement defines in a paragraph or so any entity’s reason for existence. It embodies its philosophies, goals, ambitions and mores.” It is common for companies and organizations to write mission statements. Nike has a one-sentence mission – “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” Now, think about it, how many individuals do you know who write personal mission statements? Why do you think there are so few?
If it’s true that an entity attempting to operate without a mission statement runs the risk of wandering through the world without having the ability to verify that it is on its intended course, is it not also true of individuals? If you don’t know what your mission is, how will you know if you are accomplishing it? In other words, how will you know you’ve arrived if you don’t know where you are headed?
A personal mission statement provides clarity and gives you a sense of purpose. It defines you and how you will live. For years, I didn’t have a written mission statement. Fortunately, I did have a fairly clear sense of my call and mission in my head. Having a sense of purpose kept me from wasting a lot of years wandering without direction.
About ten years ago, I wrote a life purpose statement that I’ve carried on a laminated card in my wallet: “To be an authentic connection between God and people through exercising my leadership gifts and unique personality.” That written mission frequently was a filter for choosing between offers and opportunities that came my way.
With the help of a mentor, Lloyd Reeb (author of Success to Significance), I recently revised my mission statement to reflect what I had already written before launching this blog: “Inspiring transformissional living in adults over 50.” My newly updated statement is a more precise and appropriate focus for me at this stage of my life and career.
Just this week, my mission statement helped in my decison to decline an invitation to serve on the board of a ministry I admire. I’ve worked along side this organization for nearly two decades. This board only meets a couple times a year for a several hour meeting. It really wasn’t the time commitment. When I looked at this opportunity through the lens of my newly focused mission statement, it was perfectly clear to me that I should say, “No.” Serving on this ministry board would not help me to “inspire transformissional living in adults over 50.”
Over the next several posts, I want to inspire you to write a mission statement if you don’t have one. If you have one, I hope to help you make sure it is clear to you and to others. I hope to assist you in exploring what make you tick? And, I plan to help you think about your gifts and abilities and how these fit into your mission. Let’s go on this journey together, okay?
QUESTION: If you have a mission statement, would you share it with us in the comment section below?
