Who Teaches You Your Faith?

We Christians need to get over ourselves and stop groaning and moaning about all the hits our faith is taking lately - that largely seem to be paranoid conspiracy theory.  Complaining, whining news articles seem to be everywhere in the course of the last month, and frankly, I'm tired of it.

Gripe #1 - People are trying to take Christ out of Christmas and retailers are wishing us Christian shoppers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."  Whahn, whahn, whahn.  Why is it the responsibility of those very people who profit off the commercialness of Advent to affirm our beliefs?  Um, it's not.  In fact, if Christians really want to embrace the true meaning of Christmas, they'll avoid the malls altogether and concentrate on spending time together, not on purchasing cheaply made, overpriced imports.  And for those people who think the "X" in "Xmas" is marking out Christ, you couldn't be more wrong.  The Greek letter chi looks like our "X," and chi is the first letter in the word Christos, Christ.

You want to spread your belief in Christmas?  Then wish everyone you see a "Merry Christmas."  It's hardly rocket science.  In fact, after earning my stripes in the Christmas retail battle zone, I know for a fact that it's good hearing customers say "Merry Christmas," and I encourage all retail employees to exercise their first amendment right to freedom of speech and toss that "Happy Holidays" crap to the side and wish customers "Merry Christmas" if that's what you believe.  If someone doesn't follow your faith, then they'll gently correct you.  If your customer Mrs. Cohen informs you she's Jewish, then smile and wish her Happy Hanukkah.  It won't diminish your Christianity one bit.

Reality check...  Jesus, like all faithful Jews, celebrated Hanukkah, not Christmas as we know it.  Did he observe Christmas?  Well, technically, yeah.  Christmas comes from "Christ mass," meaning the birthday of Christ.  So, in whatever way first century Jews celebrated birthdays, Jesus, of course, would've celebrated his with whatever the first century Jewish equivalent would've been to cake, ice cream and giant inflatable bouncy toys.

Gripe #2 - Disney's newest movie The Princess and the Frog has a song in it that extols the values of believing in yourself and hard work as the way to achieve your dreams, but nowhere does it mention faith in God.  So, what???  Is it the calling of the Walt Disney Company, a megabillion dollar entity, to support your faith or to preach to it?  I went on Tuesday with my mom and daughter to see The Princess and the Frog and found it to be a delightful rags-to-riches movie, and though much of Tiana's success comes from hard work, a large part of it also results from loving support from her friends and family.  We laughed, I got choked up (yeah, I'm sappy like that) and I caught my daughter sighing once or twice over the love story.  I went to the movie expecting to be entertained with humor, suspense and romance, and I wasn't disappointed.  I did not go to the movie expecting to receive a sermon.  I have a perfectly good pastor who preaches extremely well and I can hear his sermons once a week.  My faith is strong enough that it can't be swayed by a cartoon.

Gripe #3 - This one came to my attention earlier this week after reading this blog article.  I'll admit, I missed the NCIS episode mentioned here, though I did get to see the NCIS:LA episode that came after.  I'll have to catch NCIS on fancast.com.  The blog author states that both episodes bashed Christians, especially right before Christmas.  Again, I say "So?"  Is this really something to get irate about?  Let's face facts here:  These shows are dramas, made up, make believe, NOT REAL.  The statements attributed to Gibbs are a far cry from views posited by Ph.D. level historians on The History Channel.  Additionally, the writers are obviously seguing to a more liberal stance than had been a hallmark of Bellisaurius Productions in the past.

So Christians were bashed on two popular primetime network shows.  As one commenter pointed out, NCIS has bashed everyone at some point or another.  And now that we Christians have been victims of liberal Hollywood bullcrap, NOW we want to fuss?  Come on!  When the media is blowing up a story about gay bashing, how many Christians have been there to declare it's wrong?  That's not a  couvert comment about homosexuality; it's an overt comment about Christians - little Christs - condoning the stone-throwing Pharisees as opposed to quietly challenging those without sin to cast the first stone (or throw the first fist).  When millions of Jews were being systematically destroyed, how many Christians stood up to declare that this "Jew bashing" was wrong?  Granted, some did, and for their efforts, they were beaten, tortured and executed by the Nazis.  A sad end to noble deeds, but it's the way of the cross.  When racists are committing hate crimes against non-Whites, how many mouthy White Christians are declaring that such behavior is not the way of our black-eyed, olive-skinned Lord and Savior?  (Just not that many blue-eyed, blond guys running around Palestine... ya know?)  In all these instances, we stay silent, but let US be the ones to get bashed on TV, and suddenly we're up in arms.

Righteous anger can be good in that it often leads to positive, world-changing actions, but let's get past the hypocrisy of making it just about us.  Jesus Christ promoted loving ALL people, and the Christian faith calls its followers to love one another as Christ loves us.  Don't stop watching the NCISs; use them.  Note the offensive lines and let them guide you in dialogue with people about what's truth.  Allah and Yahweh are NOT the same, but instead of turning the TV off, use such fallacies to create opportunities to teach people how much greater Yahweh God is.

If you want to learn about the Christian faith, open your Bible and get reading.  Or are you one of those who doesn't take their Bible to church and instead trusts the very human pastor always to get it right?  Is your Bible dusty from lack of use or getting worn out?  Go to church and listen to the pastor.  Get up that hour earlier on Sundays and attend morning Bible study (Sunday School in most Southern traditions).  It takes work, sacrifice and discipline to learn our faith; don't rely on Hollywood to make it happen for you.

Motherhood as an Extension of God's Grace

I have two beautiful girls, ages 6 years and 4 months, and recently, I've noticed that being their mom and loving them gives me the opportunity to embody for them the love and grace of God.

I was tucking my older daughter in to bed one night a few weeks ago, and I commented that we'd had a good day together.  She said, "But I didn't take that good of a nap."  I replied, "Yes you did.  Did you give us drama today or act tired after nap?"  She replied "No" to both.  I told her, "You may not have taken that long of a nap, but apparently it was a good one."  In that moment, I got the joy of giving her grace.

With my baby, I tried to breastfeed.  I learned only too late that a procedure I'd had when I was in college limited the amount of milk-making tissue I have, so it was probably more of a struggle than it needed to be.  I tried every trick in the book to get her to breastfeed more, knowing that breast milk is best and wanting her to have this superior product.  Yet, she preferred the quicker and easier formula she got from a bottle.  I wanted her to have THE best; she wanted easier and inferior.  Aren't we often like that, though?  I wonder how many people reading this have chosen easy and second-best over the challenging call to follow Christ, the best?  Yet, though God wants us to have the superior product - salvation through his Son, Jesus - he gives us the free will to choose the lesser idols of power, money, prestige, good works.

Just as God grants us free will, I allowed my baby to have it in this case and completed weaning her.  In this, I sacrificed for the good of my family.  My baby kept fussing during feedings - 10 minutes of trying to get her to breastfeed and to the point that she couldn't stand to even lay down with her head on my left arm.  My husband watched the frustration and sadness as something that once was so easy suddenly became a real challenge.  Too many times, my older daughter had to hear "Wait.  I'm feeding your sister," when our plans included baking together, or when she needed help with her homework.  Ten minutes of trying to get my baby to nurse, followed by about 30 minutes with a bottle and another 30 minutes of pumping.  That's an hour and ten minutes that she'd have to do without my time and attention.  It just didn't seem so terribly fair to me.  When I sacrificed my desires to the good of my family, we were all so much happier!  It's like I told a friend earlier today, "Boobies don't make bonds."

And finally, yesterday at church, our pastor taught, "God dances joyful song upon you!"  Don't you just love that image?  It brought to mind this mother, holding her baby up high while she does a slow spin in the center of the room.  It also made me think of all the times I've held my girls as babies and sang to them, slowly dancing to get them to relax and settle into sleep, or a faster song, just because it's fun.  It's such a sweetly sublime image - a mother's tender smile as she dances with her baby, and the baby either laughing with joy or contentedly falling asleep on her mother's shoulder, snug and safe in her mommy's arms.  Out of God's grace, God dances with joy with us!  Laugh!  Dance!  Sing!  And know you are safe in God's arms.

Christmas Songs I Turn Off

I promise, I'm really not Scroogy.  Nor Grinchy.  In fact, I'm the anti-Grinch.  With all due respect to Dr. Seuss,

I LOVE Christmas,
The whole Christmas season!
Now please don't ask why,
There're just too many reasons.

And yet, each year my excitement over the non-stop Christmas music on the radio is tempered each time I have to hear two particular songs.  I mean, these are the songs that make me either turn the radio off or slip a CD in.  The first of these is "The Christmas Shoes."

I know, I know.  Aw, how sweet.  The boy buys his dying mother shoes and the song mentions Jesus.  What a great way to exploit the name of the Savior to sell a Christmas album!  Sort of reminds me of this "Pinkie and the Brain" cartoon from the 90s when Brain, in yet another effort to take over the world, infiltrates the Country Music Awards.  He gets an award and says, "I love my momma and apple pie," and you see all these people in the audience melting because he says he loves his mom.  "Aw, he loves his momma," they say with this deep country twang.  (Just gotta love Spielburg's great satirical genius!)  Besides the song getting waaaay too much air time in past years, I don't like it because it's just bad theology and makes me cringe as both a mom and a chaplain who's walked with many people through the valley of the shadow of death. 

The little boy's out shopping during the holiday season while his mom is terminally ill.  Shoe shopping, at that, because "[he] want(s) her to look beautiful if Momma meets Jesus tonight."  So what's the problem?  The theologian in me cringes over the bad theology.  Momma can't take the shoes with her.  So, bad enough that the boy's wasting his money, but he's also wasting what little time he and his mom have left.  As a mom, I'd rather go out barefoot with a cute pedicure provided by my husband (or one of my daughters) so I can skip barefoot among the clouds.  Besides, when I'm kneeling before the throne, my feet won't be showing anyway.  If I were in that mom's shoes (no pun intended), I'd want the time.  I'd want my child to stay close so we can work together to make some beautiful memories that she can pull out when she's lonely and missing me.

The other "Turn it off!" song that's a constant this time of year is "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid.  Chances are, you know the song.  If not, look it up on You Tube.  The song's inane and dated, in addition to placing American values on non-Americans.

"Do they know it's Christmas time?"  Um, probably not, and further, they probably don't even care.  If they do care, then it's because of the great efforts of missionaries.  Chances are, they're part of a tribe that doesn't observe Christmas.

"And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time." - Yeah, so?  Africa's in the southern hemisphere where it's warm this time of year.  Likely there won't be snow at Christmas time in the southeastern part of North Carolina, either, but no one's writing a song about it.  Maybe a bunch of singers can get together, write a song about our lack of Christmas snow in this part of the state, make bunches of money then send it to us to make up for our lack of snow.  Uh huh...  Riiiiiiiiiight.

"The greatest gift they'll get this year is life." - In a region plagued by civil unrest, dictatorial leaders, a history of genocides, famine, malnutrition (at best), starvation (at worst), drought and the growing AIDS epidemic, life sounds pretty darn good to me.  In those areas where they have life, where bellies don't go empty most of the time and they're unnoticed by the government, life is something to be embraced and celebrated.  Do we embrace and celebrate our lives, or do we take them for granted?

I'll continue to turn the radio off when these songs come on, and I'll turn it up for my favorites, including - ironically - the Grinch song, but also "O Holy Night" by Josh Groban and "A Baby Changes Everything" by Faith Hill.

What are your likes or dislikes when it comes to Christmas music on the radio this time of year?  Post them below.

Taking Tears

Last Friday I was sitting holding my baby as I fed her.  She'd been so hungry - partly my fault, I'll admit.  As it was getting later in the day and the time was approaching to pick her sister up from school, I'd put her off just long enough to throw some lunch together for myself.  She'd cried in her hunger and in her frustration at not being fed right away.  As I held her in my arms, I took a finger and gently wiped the tears from her eyes before wiping them on my sweater.  Would it have mattered if the sweater were cashmere from Macy's instead of some man-made fuzzy material that was from Kohl's?  Nah, not really.  The point is, my child was crying and I was taking her tears away.

God does that for us, too.  Despite what the "health, wealth and prosperity" bullspit coming out of Texas mega-churches declares, God never promises us happiness for all time.  God doesn't promise us health, wealth or prosperity, either.  In fact, what Jesus promises us are eternal rewards if we deny ourselves and live our lives sacrificially.  It's impossible to read the Gospels - or any other part of the Bible for that matter - and believe such lies as Osteen preaches.  (Joel Osteen is the worst for proclaiming this heresy, though he's certainly not the only one.)  Jesus was healthy, but certainly not wealthy.  The Apostle Paul speaks of having "a thorn in [his] side" that some interpret to be a physical ailment.  And he also wasn't wealthy, faithfully supplementing whatever the churches gave him with money made from making tents.

God takes our tears, wiping them on his divine garments.  I once heard a woman in a missionary Baptist church state, "God sees the tears we cry in the night."  That's a powerful word there.  If Jesus cried, what makes us think we're exempt?  And although our existence in this sinful world ensures that we'll face temporal sadness and tears, we have the peace that comes from knowing that God sees our tears and wipes them away for us, much like a loving mother wipes her child's tears.