I didn’t take pictures.  It just seemed wrong.  On Christmas Day — not only did I preach to 1500 villagers, counting men, women and children — but you (Calvary) helped to feed them.  From dollars that you gave we we were able to give a meal and the rice for two more meals to everyone who attended.  (In fact that was probably the main reason they came, since my preaching is not really a huge draw in Myanmar!)

They received a box of cooked rice with 2-3 small pieces of meat — the meat was a luxury — and a small piece of bread.  They also received a bag — maybe a pound — of rice for future meals.

I watched them stand in line waiting for their free food.  (Those were the pictures I didn’t take.)

Actually I watched them push and shove and knock elderly people and small children to the ground as they were waiting for free food.

At first it disappointed me, then I remembered that they were hungry and I realized that they were afraid that the food would run out.

At first it disappointed me, then I remembered our Walmart Black Friday story.  One thousand plus people standing in line to get a good deal on a high definition flat screen tv, stampeding through the doors, trampeling and killing a temporary employee.

We push and shove and stampede for a $200 discount on a hd tv.  They push and shove and stamped for food.  I’m still disappointed…that those people are so hungry and so worried that the food will run out.  But I am so thankful that Calvary gave and continues to give.  I didn’t take pictures, it just seemed wrong, but the picture is stark in my mind.  I pray that the day will come when Americans won’t stampede for tv’s and Burmese won’t have to stampede for food.

(Been in Myanmar for a week — no internet — the next few days I’ll post a few blogs that I journaled while I was on the trip.)

It all started with a haircut. Janet came over a couple of days before we left and gave Sarah and Katy a haircut.

Let me explain. All week long as we were packing for our trip to the orphanage in Myanmar, we were worried about baggage limits. I had booked two separate tickets for our trip – Air France from Newark to Bangkok and Thai Air from Bangkok to Yangon. That was the cheapest way I could find to book our tickets. But while Air France allowed two bags per person with a weight limit of 50 pounds per bag, Thai Air only allowed one bag per person with a 44 pound weight limit.

Now I know what you’re thinking, surely 44 pounds worth of clothes Read more…

I’m sitting here in the Bangkok Airport.  We are at the 36 hour point of our trip.  (So no pictures of the family allowed!  We drove to Newark, flew from Newark to Paris, 11 hour layover in Paris, flew to Bangkok, 5 our layover in Bangkok, and then the final flight to Yangon will get us in to Yangon about 7:30pm local time or 7am Christmas Eve morning for any reader on the East Coast — about 40 hours all total.  So let me just make a few Christmas Observations on the Road.

1. Paris is expensive but not everybody is rude to Americans.
2. The Eiffel Tower is huge, but Air France has tiny seats.
3. The famous Louvre Museum is filled with priceless works of art, but it is closed on Tuesdays — which happened to be the day Read more…

Last year as I was preparing for our Christmas series, I ran across this statistic… “American Christians give less than 1/2 of 1% of their annual income to serve the poor of the world.”  Wow combine that with 29,000 children under the age of five dying every day from preventable poverty conditions, and then stir in the scenario that Christians form about 33% of the world’s population, receive about 58% of the world’s income and spend 98% of it on ourselves, then bake it with the fact that in Myanmar, 90% of the people live on less than $1 a day — and I was ripe for conviction.

So last year I sensed God saying, “Would you start by doubling it — give 1% of your annual income to serve the poor.” I brought that conviction to Calvary and together we gave well over $120,000!  The single largest offering we have ever taken.

And we are doing it this year again.  The dollars are already coming in.  In fact I receive a check for $1000 from a couple who don’t even go to Calvary, they heard about the 1% offering from our podcast!

I’m almost giddy thinking about what our family is going to give.  It’s one of the high points Read more…

At a small groups conference at Willowcreek, Jon Ortberg told the story of a life-saving organization in Massachusetts.  If you ever go to Nantucket Island, there is a online canadian pharmacy little museum devoted to this volunteer organization that was formed over 300 years ago.   In those days, travel by sea was extremely dangerous.  Atlantic storms combined w/the rocky coasts of Massachusetts led to many lives lost…often within a mile or less of the land.  A group of people who lived on Nantucket couldn’t bear the thought of all these people lost at sea so close to land.  So they went into the life-saving business.  They banded together to form what was originally called the Humane Society.  It wasn’t for animals…it was a rescue mission for people.

They built little huts all along Read more…

10.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, I still love my wife’s cinnamon rolls, but they won’t quite fill the hole in my soul!

9.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, better hang those stockings with extra care…it might be all we get!

8. If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, the naughty or nice list doesn’t really matter anymore, now does it.

7.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, it’s not a wonderful life.

6.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, Scrooge might have been more wise than we think.

5.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, Happy Holidays.

4.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, get me a red suit and a beard and we’ll do the best we can.

3.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, let’s just go shopping.

2.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, I’m in the wrong job.

1.  If Christmas is true, it changes everything — if not, no Easter, no Immanuel, no God with us, no joy, no peace, no good news, still no room, no hope, no reason to wait, no wonder.  If Christmas is true life is yes — if not life at best is a maybe waiting for the no.

I’m so glad that Christmas is true.

Do you realize that Christmas started as a conspiracy?  Read the story.  It was a subversive underground movement to change the world and establish a new Kingdom. So the question is… what happened?  The story of Christ’s birth is a story of wonder, courage, relational giving and revolutionary love.  How could the celebration of this story turn into a season of shopping lists, stress, traffic jams and bad office parties?  Then when it’s over we are left with Christmas debt and the heart-whisper that somehow we missed something of great significance.  The first Christmas changed the world.  What if Christmas became a world-changing, heart-shaping event once again?

How do we join the conspiracy?  Seek Jesus.  Risk More.  Give Presence.  Love All.  Those four calls will form the foundation of our conspiracy.

How do we join the conspiracy?  Join together in our Operation Christmas Connect 1% Offering to serve kids all around the world.  This weekend at Calvary we’ll hear about how we can serve the children at the Rose of Sharon orphanage in the Dominican Republic.  Think about what a difference we could make in the lives of a few hundred children if we were to give 1% of our annual income to serve them?  It would be like Christmas all year around — for them and us.

How do we join the conspiracy?  Ponder the information you can find at the following websites.

Empty Tombs — Let your heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.  29,000 children a day under the age of 5…die from preventable poverty conditions.  We can make a difference.

Global Rich List — Don’t think you’re rich?  Find your place amongst the world’s rich elite and thank God for blessing us so that we can be a blessing.

I Am Second — A very cool website which shares dozens of stories about how people have made Jesus first in their lives.  Isn’t that what Christmas is all about?  Seek Jesus.

Advent Conspiracy — Churches joining together in the conspiracy.  Lots of good information.

Rethinking Christmas — A great website for those who want to buy less and give more meaningful gifts.  Good ideas for the non-crafty or creative.  Like me!  :)

Did you ever have one of those days?  One where it seems like no matter what you do, it’s always wrong?  Watch this video…maybe you can relate!  :)

I’m sitting here late at night listening to Bebo Norman’s song, I Will Lift My Eyes. Have you heard it?  The heart of the song is found in the words, “I will lift my eyes to the maker of the mountains I can’t climb.  I will lift my eyes to the calmer of the oceans raging wild.  I will lift my eyes to the healer of the hurt I hold inside.  I will lift my eyes to You.”

Estes Park

The song brings to mind a psalm.  Psalm 121:  I will lift my eyes to the hills.  Where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. Now I think it is natural for us to read that psalm and hear it through the ears of someone who is caught in a moment of awe while looking at the creative glory of God seen in the mountains.  Like times when I have been in the Rocky Mountains in Estes park.  I look up at these mountains and I just want to shout out, God you do good work! I look to the mountains and the mountains remind me of God.

It’s natural to think this is what was happening for the psalmist.  But it wasn’t.  In fact it was exactly the opposite.  In the days when this psalm was written, people who looked to gods other than God for thier support would go up into the hills to build their altars.  In fact they called their sacred areas, “High Places.”  So the psalmist is looking up at these high places that people go to rather than going to God and he exclaims… I will lift my eyes to the hills and ask myself where does my help come from?  My help does not come from the high places, my help comes from the God who created the high places.

So here’s my question…what high places are we looking to rather than God?  I will lift my eyes up to Malls at Christmas.  Where does my joy come from?  Not from stuff, my joy comes from the Lord.  I will lift my eyes up to the stock market.  Where does my security come from?  Not from my savings, my security comes from the Lord.  I will lift my eyes up to the government.  Where does my peace come from?  Not from politics, my peace comes from the Lord.

Where are you lifting your eyes?  Where does your help come from?

I hesitate to even blog about this.  Because he’s not an illustration of what’s wrong with Christmas.  He’s a person.  He’s a person who had joys and disappointments, family and friends, perhaps even hopes and dreams.  He died the morning of Black Friday.  He was a  Walmart employee in Long Island NY, who had an early morning job to do — open the doors so that the crowd of people could come in and get their bargains.  Problem was everyone was in such a hurry to get to the big screen high definition tv’s that they knocked him down and trampled him.  Hundreds of people stepped on him.  He was pronounced dead a couple of hours later.

Fast forward across the country to a Toys-R-Us store in California.  Two women get into a fist fight, the two men pull out a gun and shoot each other dead.  Store employees assure us that the fight was not over toys. Then back to a different Walmart, where a man and a woman are fighting over a large screen tv.  He’s taking the last one — at least I hope it was the last one — and she jumps up on his back and starts beating her fists against his head, face and back.  She’s yelling something like, “It’s my tv!  You aren’t going to take my tv.”

Then stop and think about the fact that last year the American people spent 450 billion dollars on Christmas.  Check out the website Empty Tomb and you will find that 29,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable poverty conditions…like no water, food or basic medical care.  Empty Tomb estimates that 5 billion dollars a year would end most of those deaths.  Skip Christmas shopping one year and save ~29,000 kids every day for about 90 years.  I know it’s just numbers and you are probably right in thinking that the needs of the world cannot be so simplified as to say, let’s just skip Christmas shopping one year. But I guess the question I’m left asking myself is…  If it could, would we?

Okay…so I’m sitting here thinking:  a) guilt is a poor long-term motivator, b) this is a really down-er blog post after having a really great day with my family, and c) I have no desire to bah humbug Christmas, in fact I think Christmas is a wonder-filled time.

But when I think about Christmas — the moments that have connected with me, enriched my soul, and filled me with wonder.  They have little to do with what Christmas can so easily become.  They are moments from my youth, like sharing Christmas with all my cousins from California.  We stuffed over 30 people in a 900 square foot house and got snowed in to boot.  It was a glorious Christmas!  I think of my first Christmas with Lynn and the first Christmas with each of our kids.  I think of gifts that I put myself into and I remember enjoying giving them as much as I enjoyed getting anything.  I remember sitting with a friend who was dying of cancer and listening to Christmas carolers outside the hospital window.  It was the day before Christmas Eve and He was home — with Father God — for Christmas.   I think of helping Lynn bake hundreds of cinnamon rolls and helping her give them out on Christmas Eve.  I think of our Operation Christmas Connect offering last year.  I think of being in Myanmar this Christmas with my family.

I think those types of moments are what the birth of Christ was all about.  I look at the world around me and the thought that comes to mind is this…  We have an urgent need for an ancient Christmas. What would that look like?  The kind of Christmas season that like the birth of Jesus has the potential to change the world?  Let me leave you with four two word descriptions of the kind of ancient Christmas we need.  Seek Jesus.  Risk More.  Give Presence.  Love All.

Take a moment and pray for the family and friends of that Walmart employee.  It’s going to be a hard Christmas for them.  Then ponder what our Christmas might look like if we seek Jesus, risk more, give presence and love all.