Light and Dark

The light shines. The sun rises and the sun sets. Life is full of light and shadow, to borrow from my boy Crowder. There are times of life. Times of death. Joy and happiness. Darkness and grief. Can we only have one side of the coin? Wouldn't you agree, both are needed? When the shadow's and darkness comes, we have a place to look to, a place to remember. I have been thinking lately about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is here, not a distant event that we are looking toward. However, all to often my philosophy of life doesn’t resemble this radical truth. Life isn't about getting by and being good in order to get into Heaven or pay for the deeds of your life in Hell. When we think about our life in these terms, it has devastating effects. Your life matters. My life matters. Our lives matters today. The Christmas season is right around the corner. I hope we remember that the Christmas season is less about family and gifts and time away from school but signals a much bigger meaning. The this meaning is all to often overlooked, even here in the Bible belt. Christmas is when the Kingdom of God showed up, the word became flesh. All the claims of the Old Testament were fulfilled in this coming king, the chosen one. This changes things, right? Let that sink into your soul. Christ came as a baby, walked among us, used women prostitutes, the Samarian’s, the poor, the outcast, the homeless, the worst citizen’s and challenged the church leaders and the people that had it together. Christmas signals this new world order. A new way to look at things. Get the picture of your childhood church out of your head, we weren't taught this in Sunday school (at least I wasn't). If Christmas signals this change, Easter has new and dynamic meaning and ramifications as well. Easter calls us to remember Christmas night. The Christ came, and then died. But death couldn’t hold the kingdom down. It is this that gives us hope. This hope points us to this new world order. We are called to repent and remember. But please realize that our repentance doesn't precede our right action or faith. Your faith isn't yours, it was given to you. God loves us, not when we are at our best, but at our worst. Give up trying to change yourself. In giving up, finding yourself in the shadows will lead you to the light. Realize that all people have good and bad, in all of us. There isn’t good and bad people, we are both. Two sides to the same coin. God help us to live in this kingdom. God help us keep from living for our death. God help us realize our faith isn't our own. God help us realize we are not in this alone. God help us.