I would guess that at least some of us look back on a Christmas or two as being a good Christmas; one of those seasons where it all came together, nailed the gift-giving or gift-receiving, perfect Christmas meal, family all home AND fight-free.   Or perhaps it wasn’t just one Christmas, but moments from a few that we remember.

But I would guess there are many more of us, who come to the end of the holiday season, look back and wonder,

“Where did it go? I didn’t get near enough time with friends or family.  I wanted to have more of those moments where I really pondered the heart of Christmas.  I wanted this Christmas to be less about me and more about Jesus.  Well, I guess there is always next year.  We’ll get it right next year…

But what if there wasn’t a next year?  What if we only had one Christmas to get it right?  I’m not suggesting that anyone is going to do die, or that everyone is going to die.  I just think that sometimes the thought that we have forever to get it right, keeps us from seizing the moments God gives us now.

So it’s just a thinking game, an imagination moment, what would the next 30+ days look like if you knew this was your Christmas to get it right?  What would the next 30+ days look like if you wanted to create some memories that would last a lifetime?

Last year our family made Christmas gifts for each other, and then celebrated Christmas in Myanmar with a few hundred kids.  That was one year we got it right.  But you don’t have to go to Myanmar to get it right, right?  As I think about the Christmas seasons that have meant the most to me, I think of at least three constant components, a focus on Jesus, time spent with family and/or friends, and meaningful generosity.

If you have been reading my blog lately, there’s been a bit of a theme.  From posts like “The Number of Our Days” to “Choosing to Cheat” I’ve had a bit of a ponder life/death thing going on.  Partially it’s because I’ve been thinking about our Christmas teaching series coming up… One Christmas.   Partially it’s because some folks at Calvary have been going through some life-altering, tough times.  Partially it’s because I spent a few days this week with my dad, who just had quadruple by-pass heart surgery, and my mom who not long ago suffered a stroke.

So it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet, Black Friday is still days away, and none of you — hopefully — even have a Christmas tree up.  So what better time to take a few moments today and write up a list — not too long of a list — just a starting point and a description of the destination.  What do you want to be saying about this one Christmas — on January 1, 2010?

Last thing, I ran into this youtube video through my friend Paul Grabill’s blog Beside the Point.    It’s Tony Campolo, and he’s talking about the way we live life, when we know there is a number to our days.  It’s worth 8 minutes.

For the past 7 weeks at Calvary we have been on a “sorry” journey — as in an “apologizing” journey.  It’s a teaching series called UNchristian: Confessions of a Recovering Church.  We’ve been looking at six critiques that next gen people outside the church — have of the church.  The top four are…

• 1. Anti-gay
• 2. Judgmental
• 3. Hypocritical
• 4. Too Political

It’s been a challenging and rewarding series.  Challenging to take an authentic look at the places we don’t measure up as ambassadors of Jesus.  Rewarding to receive so many comments, e-mails and conversations from people who have been hurt by the church but are making their way back now.

So two things which may be of interest:  Emily — from Calvary — sent me a link to an “apology” from Shane Claiborne.  Shane is interesting to look at…and he has a heart for Jesus and the poor.  It’s a good refresher course of sorts for the series.  Click Shane’s Apology to read it.

Secondly if you didn’t get a chance to listen to one of more of the apologies, you can listen online at Calvary UNChristian.

There’s just NOT enough time.  For anything.  I mean think about work.  God made us to be productive…good work pleases God.  But how many of us actually feel that we have enough time to get everything done at work?

• – Always one more meeting…If you are typical, you will spend, on average, three years of your life just sitting in meetings.
• -Always a little more paperwork.  The Wall Street Journal cited this stat: The average executive spends 4 hours/week searching for missing information in messy desks and files. (I’m the one who ups the average for those of you who are neat and tidy!)
• – Always 1 more interruption. The average person is interrupted 73x’s per day.  (Unless you have kids who text — then take that to the power of ten.)  It’s our own fault.  We thought we were so indispensable that we created pagers, cell-phones, and text messages.  All we really did was create the ultimate in interrupted lifestyles.

Work will always ask for more time.  Then you go home and that takes time.

• – You will spend 6 months of your life sitting at traffic lights, waiting for the lights to turn green.
• – So we multi-task right?  Jon Ortberg detailed a study about the dangerous things that people do while they are driving.  The top three are talking on the phone.  Putting on make-up while driving, and reading while driving.  Some of you try to do all three!

And when you get home…how many of us feel that we have enough time to accomplish everything we should get done at home?   I can’t remember the last time one of my kids said,  OK Dad. We’ve played enough. Why don’t you go back to the office now and see if you can get some more work done?  Or the last time Lynn said, Dan, you have to stop coming home so early…why don’t you just go back to the office?  (Well okay there was one time, but that was for a whole different reason…)

There’s not enough time…so we try to find ways…to make more time.  We brew instant coffee in microwave ovens and get TiVo so that we can spend less time watching more tv.   A USA Today a writer interviewed experts in different fields like physical fitness, vocational life, relationships, sleep and so on. All of the experts listed how much time a person needs to devote in their particular area just to get by not to be a master of it, but just get by How much do you need to sleep? What do you need to devote to your career?  How much exercise do you need?  The writer totaled all of those amounts, and they came to about 40 hours a day. We need a minimum of 40 hours a day to just get by.

Andy Stanley has written a book called Choosing to Cheat. The idea is that we all have to cheat somewhere in order to make it through life. He’s not talking about unethical cheating like cheating on a test.   He’s simply saying that something or someone in your life is going to get cheated of your time.  You can’t answer every demand.  You can’t satisfy every voice.  You have limits. You are finite.

Who are you choosing to cheat?  Somebody – something is going to feel cheated.  Spending a few days with my dad in the hospital, after quadruple bypass, has me thinking about stuff like that, thinking about life, thinking about my family, big picture issues.  That’s one of the questions we all need to ask…  Who are you going to cheat out of your time? I keep this picture as the screensaver on my computer — may it remind me of one group I don’t want to cheat.

Last week Andy House was taking a drive… in his 1.7 Million Dollar Bugatti.  That’s a car, a very expensive car.   I don’t know — I’m  just wondering, if I could afford a 1.7 Million Dollar car, would I buy it?  If I bought it would I actually drive it? If I drove it, would I drive it in public or rent a private air-strip or a race track somewhere.

The stories of what happened during the drive are manifold and diverse, but the best I can put together…

He was driving, not on a private road but on I-45 outside La Marque, Texas.  He was distracted by a pelican on the road.  (Okay that part, is in question.)  In his distraction, he dropped his cell phone on the floor.  (Okay in one version, actually my preferred version, he’s texting.)  So he’s driving; he’s birdwatching; he’s on his cell phone; he’s –maybe– texting; and did I say, “he’s driving.”  A 1.7 Million Dollar car.  And he’s driving on a public road that is — did I mention this — bordered by a salt-water inlet.

So here is the video of a 1.7 Million Dollar Distraction.  The actual crash was caught on tape because some Bugatti admirers happened to be driving on a parallel road.  Don’t feel like you have to watch the whole thing, in about a minute you will get the idea.  (Warning there is a reference to poop from the people watching the crash.)

By the way, he left the engine running for 15 minutes, with engine, body, and interior damage, it’s totaled.  It’s almost too easy to get to the life-lessons.

1. 1) Don’t text and drive.
2. 2) Don’t buy and/or drive a Bugatti if you are easily distracted. But the one that hangs with me the most is…
3. 3) Distractions Can Be Very Expensive.

You might be tempted to think that you would never allow yourself to get so distracted that you would waste/damage/loose something so valuable.  But everyday we are given a gift of great value — a gift of time.  Everyone gets the same amount, 86,400 seconds.  86,400 moments to be seized or wasted.

Sometimes we wonder where the time goes.  In a recent poll by Priority Management they tried to find the answer to that question…  They found that in a lifetime, the average American will spend: Six months sitting at stoplights, eight months opening junk mail, one year looking for misplaced objects, two years unsuccessfully returning phone calls, and seven years waiting in line!   Bring a good book!

Let me pull that down into a typical day… in a typical day the top three time fillers are sleep, work and…  tv.  The average american spends 4 hours and 49 minutes watching tv.  I think the 49 most come from those who have tivo.

Let me pull that day into a very specific role.  Cornell University did a study and attached little microphones to kids and they  monitored them for weeks.  They found that in America the average father spends on a per day basis 37.7 seconds talking to his children.  Parenting magazine pointed out that children spend an average of just 17 hours a week with their parents.

I think our kids are worth more than a Bugatti.  Kids are not a distraction they are a treasure.  Not just our own kids, although that is where we should start.  But from college students at PSU to orphans around the world, to our own children, kids are the Bugatti, not the distraction.  Where are we putting our time?

We have to understand how much the love of Jesus shaped the life of Jesus.  In Jesus day, perhaps no one was more untouchable than the lepers.  Some have compared the lepers of Jesus day to the AIDS patients of today.  The law was clear.

The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, “Unclean, Unclean.  He shall live alone.  His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

In other words…DON’T TOUCH!

Can you imagine the thought of never again being touched?  Never again to hug your son or daughter.  Never again to walk hand in hand with your wife or play play basketball with the guys.   When I was growing up…I used to think that the more holy…the more spiritual someone was the less approachable they became…But if you have been reading the gospels…as you make your way through the lifejournal, I hope you have seen that the more we live like Jesus, the more approachable we will become.

John Ortberg writes,

It is worth reflecting on this:  Jesus was the most approachable human being that ever lived.

It wasn’t just the lepers.  The religious leaders of  Jesus day had a long list of untouchables.   Lepers, gentiles, tax collectors, women, the uncircumcised, sinners of every size and shape.  Judged and seperated. I have to say I understand the appeal.  I have four kids.  My eyes are not blind to what goes on in the schools, what is listened to on the radio, and spoken in the bathrooms.  There is a protective part of me that wants to judge and separate.  Quarantine and isolate.   But there is also a passionate part of  me, that has been touched, at least in part by a Jesus that wants to see people touched by God.

Read John 3:16-17  I love how Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message:

This is how much God loved the world:  He gave his Son, his one and only Son.  And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.  God didn’t go to the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was.  He came to help, to put the world right again.

In other words Jesus said that he didn’t come into the world to point a finger, he came to extend a hand.  Think about this in your own life; those you have judged…deemed untouchable.  Do you often find yourself praying for them?  Do you sincerely want what’s best for them?  Do you find yourself looking for ways to serve them?  Are you motivated by the example of Christ’s compassion?   Have you shed tears for them?  Because of them doesn’t count..  :)

This weekend we are talking about the fact that too often Christians are judgmental. We are looking at a story found in John 8. Here is the point I guess, or at least here is something to ponder.  Judgmentalism — at least the kind that Jesus told us not to do — creates untouchables.  But greater compassion makes it so difficult to be judgmental. Will we be known for our love… or our judgments?

Psalm 90 records a prayer from Moses, one of the world’s greatest leaders.  It includes these words,

Teach us to number our days aright that we might gain a heart of wisdom.

Teach us to number our days. What does it mean to number our days?  There is a number.  It is not an unlimited number, it is a specific number.  In fact I decided to check out my number at DeathClock.com.  You plug in your birth-date, whether or not you are an optimistic or pessimistic person, and your bmi — ouch — and it spits out your “personal day of death.”  According to that website, the number days I have left is 14,422.

It sounds kind of morbid, right?  But this Psalm suggests that there is a wisdom of heart that grows in the life of the person who lives life with a number in mind.  This is tremendous insight that we need to reflect on more… the Bible says that we should live our lives with the end in mind…that we should spend our time as though death is knocking at the door.

Some of the ancient practitioners of our faith used to practice the discipline of numbering their days by keeping an actual human skull on their desk.  Daily they would hold the skull and reflect upon the fact that today might be their last.   How would that change your day’s activities, your attitude, your sense of urgency to fill your day with meaningful activities.  What would you be doing today if today was your last day?

What is the number of our days?  I don’t know, but I’ve been contemplating that today.  My father was in the this morning for quadruple heart bypass surgery.  All day long my prayer was, “God don’t let today be the end of his number.”  Here’s what I think…

1)  I think that numbering our days means that we live with our sights set on eternity.  That doesn’t mean that we write off today and mark our time till heaven comes.  It simply means that we will invest our today’s in activities that will matter forever.   So let me ask you, “What involvements, what projects, what goals, passions, hopes and dreams are you investing in today that have any chance of lasting beyond the number of our days.

2)  I think when it comes to numbering our days…the best number to focus on is one.  Even if deathclock.com gives me 14,000+ days, all I know I have is one.  I don’t even know if I have two, but I know that I have one.  I think wisdom of heart grows when we live our ONE day with eternity in our sights.

3) This Christmas, our teaching series will be called, ONE Christmas.  The idea that I am pondering is what kind of Christmas would I want to experience if I knew that this Christmas was my only Christmas.

4)  Today was not my dad’s last day.  I’m glad.  He came through the surgery.  As of 10pm tonight he still was on a ventilator, and still somewhat sedated.  So I haven’t talked to him, but Mom said that the doctors have given a good report.  His heartbeat and blood pressure is still out of kilter, but the doctors are encouraged.  Thank you to all of you who prayed.  It means a lot to me.

Today I was thinking about the number of my days.  Each day I get one.  You get one.  My prayer is that we will live it with a wisdom of heart.

If you didn’t read the post yesterday, I’m defining Potluck Generosity as what happens when a team of people decides that together they will do what they can, with what they have, in the moment they find the need.  Potluck Generosity is what is taking place when MANY people each give a LITTLE and together make a BIG difference.  MANY LITTLES = BIG.

I believe there are times when God will call an individual to make an extraordinary sacrifice.  When a person responds to that call, we celebrate.  Sometimes we even experience generosity awe.  In fact — forgive my theologically suspect statement, but — I even think great sacrifice even gives God a bit of generosity awe.  It is what He asked of His Son Jesus and when Jesus responded to the call that single act of life-giving generosity changed the world.  Something inside of us thrills to stories about sacrificial generosity.

But I’m pretty certain that — day in and day out — God’s preferred means of changing the world is through potluck generosity.  Everybody a part of the generosity team, everybody bringing something to put in the pot, many littles making a big difference.  You see this modeled throughout the stories of the Bible.  In Exodus 36, the people are challenged to give to build the tabernacle (house of God).  Each one was called to give as they were able.  Here is what verse 36:6-7 records,

⁶ Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, ⁷ because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

The people were restrained from bringing more.  Moses had to say, “STOP giving!” Why because they already had more than enough to do all the work.  MANY LITTLES = BIG.

Or fast forward to the early church in the book of Acts.  Acts 4:32-35

³²All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. ³³With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. ³⁴There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ³⁵and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

They shared and there were no needy people among them.  MANY LITTLES = BIG.  Here is what I think.  I think the tithe (giving 10% of your annual income) was meant to be potluck generosity — the power of team giving.

Consider this information from the Empty Tomb website.  

– As of today, Friday the 13th of November 2009, over 8 million children under the age of 5 have died this year, the vast majority of them from preventable poverty conditions.

– If Americans who identify with the historically Christian church increased their giving to an average of 10% of income, there could be an additional $170 billion given to the church.

– One source estimates that $70-$80 billion would impact the worst of world poverty. $5 billion could end most of the 9.7 million under-5, global, annual child deaths. $7 billion would be sufficient for global primary education for all children.

If we tithed we would have too much money for the needs of global poverty. Somebody in the world would have to tell us “Stop Giving!” Problem is that we have come to think of something like a tithe as heroic sacrifice, when God intended it to be potluck generosity. MANY LITTLES = BIG.

This weekend those of you who show up at a Calvary gathering will receive a ONE% booklet. For the last two years we have responded to a challenge to give 1% of our annual income in a year end offering to serve kids around the world. It’s our form of potluck generosity. Read the booklet and start to pray about what God wants you to put in the pot.

Last week at Calvary we gave out a booklet entitled, “Real Religion — 50 Stories of Hope.”  If you didn’t get one, you should pick one up.  In fact, give me an address and we will mail you one.  The term “real religion” comes from James 1:27 where James says that real religion involves caring for orphans and widows and keeping yourself unpolluted by the world.  So the booklet is focused on orphans, one story for every day from now till Christmas.

They are convicting, thought-provoking, smile-causing, inspiring.  As an example here is Friday’s story:

Godance’s Caretaker

“From July 11th to July 30th of this year, I traveled to Rwanda on a missions trip.  At a home for street children, I met a sister of one of the boys at a (orphanage) home.  Her name was Godance.  When I first met this girl, she spent most of her time joyfully singing songs.  The first English words I heard her speak, “I love you.” She spoken them in a sweet sing-song melody.  Later I learned that Godance was the daughter of a prostitute and that her mother had abandoned her.  She was adopted by a man that lived in the village and served the orphanage by caring for the home’s cattle.  Through this delightful three year old girl, God showed me the type of love that He has for His children.  Later I discovered that at one time this girl had been fearful of people, filled with worms, covered with dirt, and had bugs throughout her body and all over her.  It was amazing to see the transformation she had undergone because of the work of Christians showing their love for her.  This child revealed an innocent love to me that will forever remain a source of strength that I can draw from as I undergo trials and persecutions that will occur as I serve Christ… “

Grab a book, read a story, pray and act.

I was never really sure where the term “potluck” was birthed.  I just knew — growing up in a small, rural baptist church that we had a lot of them.  In our church there was often a rush for the front of the line, trying to make sure we got to the good pots — Ella’s beans, Nancy’s chili, Mom’s corn souffle AND chocolate bars.  Of course everyone by-passed Ethel’s green potluck surprise dish, nobody ever felt that lucky.

So I always figured the term potluck, meant good luck if you’re last in line.  And in fact, wikipedia suggests that the word has English origins (late 1500’s) and probably meant whatever food one is lucky enough to find in the pot.  The term was frequently used in Inns and Taverns to refer to whatever food was available at a particular time or in a particular circumstance.

In time the term was adopted by small rural baptist churches all over the world, but when they adopted it, they added a very important component — sharing.  Now instead of potluck referring to what one poor traveler might find left to eat at the end of the day in a run-down English tavern, it referred to those wonderful meals where many people brought whatever they had — to share with others who brought whatever they had.

I’ve been thinking lately about the concept of potluck generosity.  I think potluck generosity pleases God.  Potluck generosity is when MANY people share a LITTLE of what they have to make a BIG difference.  MANY sharing a LITTLE makes a BIG difference.  MANY LITTLES = BIG.

There are examples of this all over the place.  This last month America’s Giving Challenge teamed up with Facebook’s Causes to encourage MANY people to give LITTLE gifts to make a BIG difference.  In our church about 100 people potlucked their $10 gifts — to give $6700.  That will feed, clothe, educate and love on 25 kids in Myanmar for a whole year.  MANY LITTLES = BIG.

Last week Jon Acuff — writer of the satirical blog Stuff Christians Like — raised $30,000 in 18 hours to build a school in Vietnam.  It started when his 6 year old daughter saw a picture of a starving child and with a plaintiff cry said, “Daddy that’s not real is it?” (Read the article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution)  With that he decided to ask his blog readers to do something to help him make a difference.  He has about 70,000 monthly readers and with a bunch of $5 and $10 gifts, they raised $30,000 in 18 hours.  It came in so quick he decided to go for $60,000 and build two schools.  MANY LITTLES = BIG.

This weekend, if you are a part of the Calvary family you will get our ONE% offering booklet.  For the last two years, we have challenged people to give 1% of their annual income — in a single year-end offering — to make a big difference in the lives of children in Myanmar, Rwanda, and the Dominican Republic.  Last year we gave over $150,000.  MANY LITTLES = BIG.

Potluck Generosity — when a team of people decides that together they will do what they can, with what they have, in the moment they find the need.  Be in prayer about bringing your pot…(you know what I mean…) to God.

I was re-convicted of this, this week, and I felt that I it would be good to share some of my conviction with you.  Maybe this is only my stuff…but I don’t think so.  I think it is one of our great unspoken areas of heart-impurity.  It’s an area of heart-impurity that we pass on to our kids…in some ways even push our kids into.  It’s an area of heart-impurity that’s difficult for us to assess, but I think we have to try.

I ran across this story in the life of the early church.  It’s in the book of Corinthians. (I Cor. 5) Paul is challenging the church.  Actually it’s more of a rebuke.  Apparently there was a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife…and for some reason the church was embracing this situation.  Almost celebrating it.

Paul writes this…
How terrible that you should boast about your spirituality and yet you let this sort of thing go on.  Don’t you realize that if even one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected?  When I wrote to     you before I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin…but I wasn’t talking about unbelievers, you would have to leave the world to do that.  What I meant was that you are not to associate    with anyone who claims to be a christian yet indulges in sexual sin… or is greedy.

Don’t associate out with Christians who champion sexual sin.  Hard to argue with that one.  It’s a purity issue.  But Paul says that greed is also a purity issue.  Today he might say, “Never have coffee with a greedy Christian.”   The word Paul uses is the Greek word  pleonexia means an unquenchable desire for more.  Sometimes in the Bible it’s translated as covetousness, because it involves a willingness to get more even at the expense of others.

Here’s a definition.  Greed is wanting more for myself, even to the detriment of others.

Two boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother Read more…