cre·a·tive 

the ability or power to create

plus

ten·sion

 either of two balancing forces causing or tending to cause extension

equals

cre·a·tive  ten·sion

the ability of either of two balancing or extending forces to create

The ECC staff is gearing up for our yearly staff retreat.  And I can honestly tell you, it’s a blast.  What a great time of laughing together and getting past the daily routine.  It’s also a good time to plan and strategize together about ministry and how better to serve the kingdom as a team.  I am going with a wonderful sense of possibility for us and for the kingdom.  It’s going to be a great year of ministry together.

As I sit here now, the phrase that comes to mind is “creative tension”.  And that is a good thing!  I think we have great creative tension at ECC.  We have different people with different gifts and personalities and that enables us to excel in our area of ministry.  I don’t do what Bob Bruce does well.  And Bob Bruce doesn’t do what I am gifted to do.  Think about it, if everything and everyone was exactly the same, we wouldn’t grow.  But through creatively working through differences and giving up some of our personal desires we find something better.  Proverbs says it this way, “

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.(27:17)

This is worship in everyday life.  The way that we creatively find solutions to our differences honors God and creates something greater than when we started.  I can find a solution by myself, but if we work together as brothers and sisters in Christ to find an even better solution we create new possibilities through the power of the spirit.  David, the man after God’s heart, even wrote about creative tension.  “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)  This isn’t something that just happens…unity is when different people work together to overcome and leverage those differences.

I’m still learning to live in creative tension, but am confident that God will continue to use us if we are open to our differences and his creative possibilities.

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But they went on with the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven” and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s often vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust.

I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour.

MLK, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

MLK, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

So what do we learn from snow?

1.  Snow is symbol of the sinner’s brief time here on earth and what comes afterwards.

As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.
Job 24:18-20

2.  Snow is picture of God’s control over creation.

Psalm 147:16
He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes…and again in the next chapter…

Psalm 148:8
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding

3.  Snow shows us how much we don’t know and can’t control.

God asks Job, “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail…?”
Job 38:21-23 Job has to admit that he hasn’t and the truth is that we haven’t either…

4.  Snow is a symbol of our purity from God.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51:6-8  And later in Isaiah…“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Isaiah 1:17-19

5.  Snow can be refreshing and reminds us of trustworthy co-workers.

Like the coolness of snow at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the spirit of his masters. -Proverbs 25:12-14 (I’m not totally sure about this one…maybe it’s a Hebrew OT thing, but I’m not sure I get it!)

6.  Snow that comes too early or too late reminds us of the fools we know.

Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool.
Proverbs 26:1-3

7.  Snow that comes to melt and water the earth is a symbol of God’s Word.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty -Isaiah 55:9-11

8.  Snow is a symbol of Jesus’ purity and power when he comes again.

His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
Revelation 1:13-15

So as the snow falls today…remember that the world is more spiritual than we think and God is speaking to you right now through the snow.  He is not silent.  The problem is that too many times, we are not listening.

P.S.  One more thing…and this isn’t purely biblical, but it’s good advice.  Don’t eat the yellow snow.  ;-)

We were talking about how each of us is called to live our lives (the joy and the pain) by following Christ the best we know how.  All our stories are different, but we are all called to follow.  So this year I am going to begin again with this poem from a little under 400 years after Christ.  I hope it helps focus your new year as it has mine.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me;
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who desires me ill,
Afar and a near,
Alone or in a multitude.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

• Lorica, St. Patrick (ca. 377)

This Christmas, consider helping orphans worldwide.  There are so many ways to help…adoption, foster-care, prayer and/or year-end-giving.  Because orphans don’t need stuff, orphans need families.

Too many times I define Christmas as a “winter wonderland” or a time of joy and fun.  But for many, it’s a hard time.  It’s the first Christmas without someone.  It’s another Christmas without someone.  It’s a time to be reminded of broken relationships or what we don’t have.  For many, all they get for Christmas is blue and they feel as if they are left out in the cold looking through windows at the rest of the happy, blissful world.  But as I’ve written before, even if it’s hard there is always hope.

This Christmas I’ve been humming this song by Over the Rhine because it encapsulates my feelings of pain and hope.  It’s called “Darl’in Christmas is Coming” and I’d like to share it with you.

So it’s been a long year
Every new day brings one more tear
Till there’s nothing left to cry

My, my how time flies
Like little children hiding their eyes
We’ll make it disappear
Let’s start a brand new year

Darlin’ Christmas is coming
Salvation army bells are ringing
Darlin’ Christmas is coming
Do you believe in angels singing
Darlin’ the snow is falling
Falling like forgiveness from the sky

If I could have anything
What would I want this new year to bring
Well, I’d want you here with me

Tear these thorns from my heart
Help the healing to start
Let’s set this old world free
Let’s start with you and me

So if you’re having a “blue Christmas”, I hope you are able to see the healing start in his love and forgiveness that does fall from the sky like fresh, white snow.  And from the Ward family to yours…Merry Christmas.

Verse 1

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Verse 3

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.