It’s official!

Today, December 19, we are just seven days away from…the start of the gift return line! Consider:

• Around 1 in 6 Christmas gifts will be taken back to stores.
• Approximately 1 in 3 three U.S. adults will make a return or exchange this Christmas season.
• 18-24 year-olds are five times more likely to return a gift than those 55 and up.
• Every year, Amazon returns cost the company more than $800 billion!

We have a friend who is famous—or maybe infamous—for all her shopping returns. At least one store has placed her on a No-Fly list. She now sends her husband to make her returns!

When you think about it, we all have stuff we wish we could "send back." I'm not talking about tools or, ties or toys. I'm thinking of:

• The hateful thing you wished you’d never said.
• The divorce you never wanted.
• The choices you regret every day of your life.

Where’s the line you stand in to take back those things?

What if I told you there is such a line? It begins at a manger in Bethlehem and tracks all the way to a cross in Jerusalem.

The fact is, the baby born at Christmas grew up to be the Savior of the world. He died on the cross to take away your failures, sins, and selfish living.

Jesus is the only One who can take the broken pieces of your world—your heart—and put them back together. Notice, I’m not talking about religion. I’m talking about a relationship with Jesus Christ. He said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

If you’re tired of living under the crushing weight of regrets that never leave—receive the ultimate gift this Christmas: salvation through faith in Jesus. The Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).

Come to Jesus now. Admit your failures. Claim His forgiveness. Make Him the leader of your life—your Savior. If you ask Him, He will change your life and help you turn away from self-focused living.

And if you already know Christ but still find yourself laboring under regrets of all kinds, go back to Bethlehem and be reminded of the angel’s message to Joseph: “You shall name him Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” That includes yours. All of them!

Merry Christmas!

It's our day-after-Thanksgiving tradition. I ascend the dusty heights of our garage door overhead storage, retrieving the interlocking plywood pieces that make up a nativity scene. The crèche is then assembled on the front lawn and illuminated with an LED spotlight (which sometimes actually works).

One night, as we pulled out of our driveway, Diana noticed a curious visual playing out on our home siding. It was an enormous shadow bearing a striking resemblance to the Joseph figure in our manger scene! The spotlight seems positioned at just the right angle and spacing to make Joseph look huge.

Ironically, his part in the Christmas story—and that of Jesus Himself—is comparatively small. It's so small you might label Joseph a background character. Once the Christmas drama unfolds, we hear no more from or about Joseph. He disappears off the page. Yet he casts a large shadow.

Seeing Joseph's image projected on our house siding made me think about the wide range of people in the body of Christ. Most of us are not in highly visible roles. There are few pastors and even fewer media personalities. We're background folks. We serve in out-of-the-way places doing mundane things often unseen or unknown by others.

There's no glamour, no glitz, no glory. Understandably, background people might wonder, "Am I making a difference? Does my life really count?

But consider.

• Someone had to follow the angel's instruction and name the baby Jesus.
• Someone had to work through the logistics of how the family would make their way to Egypt to escape Herod.
• Someone had to find a way to house and feed a struggling young refugee family in a foreign land.
• Someone had to raise Jesus and teach Him a trade.

That someone was Joseph—a background person. Because of his faithfulness and simple obedience, he casts a large shadow on the life of Christ and our lives to this day.

Do you see yourself as a background person? If so, your deeds are not unseen by your Heavenly Father. Your service matters. Your kindness matters—and may well cast a large shadow.

Recall that in heaven's economy, "the first will be last and the last will be first" (Matthew 19:30). There, we will see your "small" faithfulness for the largeness that it is. So don't give up! Your shadow is showing!

Let’s not become discouraged in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not become weary.

-Galatians 6:9

Do you have the virus?

I’m not talking about the flu or this year’s strain of Coronavirus. I’m talking about the malady called “Must Be Right.”

Christians have a biblical mandate to be and do right before God and man. But too many of us have adopted the world's standard of polarized conduct toward those who differ from us.

So, we become not only aggressive but, at times, abrasive. As Bible-believing Christians…

We are right about the doctrine of salvation by faith alone.

We are right about the inerrancy of Scripture.

We are right about the sacredness of life.

We are right about the biblical standards of sexual conduct.

These are all foundational issues, for sure. But in our thirst for "rightness," have we lost our capacity for kindness? James 2:13 warns, "For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment."

Speaking to the Pharisees in Matthew 9:13, Jesus quoted His Father: “Now go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, RATHER THAN SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I’m not saying we should sacrifice doctrinal purity or moral clarity on the altar of “let’s-all-just-get-along.” I’m simply arguing that there’s a place for kindness.

Yes, our view on any given issue might well be more “right” than someone else’s, biblically speaking. But if we can’t be kind, does it matter?

Jesus never shied away from speaking, doing, teaching, and preaching what was right. But He always led with kindness.

It’s important to be right, for sure.

But let’s first be kind.

Okay. I admit it.

A blog about thankfulness on Thanksgiving might be too on the nose. But I have a question I've been wrestling with that I'd like to ask you.

Are you thankful—or merely thank-ish?

By definition, someone who is thankful is—well—full of thanks. So much so that thankfulness oozes out of your pores. Thankfulness is a resident of your heart, not merely a visitor.

But many of us live at a different level—one I’m calling “thank-ish.” Here, we occasionally enter moments of gratitude. But it’s not our sweet spot, not something we think we need to work on. We treat thankfulness like a distant vacation spot—a nice place to visit for those who don’t mind going the distance.

Every time you genuinely thank someone, there’s a bit of humility involved. Thanking someone else acknowledges they did or said something that you could not or did not do yourself. Something that leaves you in their debt. In a strange way, it makes the other person larger. We don’t like feeling smaller—so maybe that’s one reason we’re not more thankful.

Other reasons?

• Many of us are so preoccupied with trying to survive that saying thank you feels "optional." It just doesn't make it onto our radar screens.

• Also, some of us grew up in homes where parents didn't model thankfulness well. That's no excuse—but it is an explanation.

• Then, many of us suffer from a sense of entitlement we don't even recognize in ourselves. Why say thanks for what you feel is owed you?

• Finally, some of us treat the Bible like we treat church, like we treat our entire Christian lives: "We get to it as best we can whenever we can. And that's good enough."

Except, it isn’t.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 commands,

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

That's the standard: "In everything!”

So, I ask again. Thankful or thank-ish--which are you?

P.S. Thanks for reading this blog! I'm grateful for you!

It was supposed to be a relaxing evening at church, singing favorite songs. Instead, the lyrics of a hymn I hadn't heard in years plagued my soul.

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;

Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.

Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,

Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

As the music to this old hymn soaked my soul, a barrage of uncomfortable questions fired at me.

• I take time for Hulu—but do I take time to be holy?
• I take time for football—but do I take time to be holy?
• I take time for walks, work, the web, friends, books, and dinner out—but do I take time to be holy? How much time?

What kind of priority is holiness in my life—and yours? With eternity in the balance, these are hardly idle questions (are you squirming yet?).

In 1 Peter 1:16, God commands—doesn’t merely suggest—“Be holy, for I am holy.” But perhaps you wonder, what does it look like to be holy? And what's the payoff? Verse two of the hymn implores us…

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;

Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.

By looking to Jesus, like Him, thou shalt be;

Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Hebrews 2:4 warns, “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.”

Ephesians 4:24 compels us, "put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."

Bottom line: Hymns might not be your thing. But holiness ought to be.

Verse four of William Longstaff’s hymn says it best:

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,

Each thought and each motive beneath His control.

Thus, led by His Spirit to fountains of love,

Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

Lord,

Forgive us for wanting to be happy more than holy. 

Help us hunger for the thing you want most in our daily lives—holiness.

Help us settle for nothing less—or be captivated by anything other.

In the holy name of Jesus, we pray,

Amen!