Sacred Mundane: The Blog

This morning I read 2 Thessalonians 3:16: “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.  The Lord be with you all.”  World peace is what everyone wants.  Every Miss America contestant bats her eyelashes and tries to explain how she would bring world peace.  Even on a daily basis, we strive and long for peace in our marriages, homes, workplaces, families.  We battle for peace between the sexes, the races, the political parties.  And yet, more than ever, peace is lacking.  Depression is at an all-time high.  Stress characterizes our world.  And this season of Christmas, supposedly characterized by Peace of Earth, is one of the least peaceful times of the year. 

Pastor Joel humorously pointed out that this is the way we celebrate the Prince of Peace at Christmas:  we decide to throw more parties than we do during the entire rest of the year combined, jam-packing our schedules with activities.  We write a letter, take a photo, and spend tons of time and resources to send them to a hundred of our closest friends.  We bake treats feverishly for everyone we know.  We shop during every waking hour, racking up stressful credit card bills and decreasing our financial margin for the rest of the year.  And to top it off, we let the kids out of school so they can be home all the time!  How’s that for peace? 

I must say, however, that I love all of those things (except the credit card bill–we don’t go there).  I love baking, I love the parties, I love sending out Christmas letters. Honestly, Christmas isn’t stressful for me.  I do feel God’s peace. In fact, I love this time of year because for once the world is forced to at least somewhat think about what Christ has done for us. Even if they celebrate Kwanzaa or Festivus for the Rest-of-us, there remains the lurking reminder that Jesus is behind it all, no matter how hard we try to take Him out of it. We can call it “Winter Break” for the kids, but guess what holiday still remains at the center of this break.  The birthday of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Light of the World, Risen and Coming King. 

The world has a million and one ways to try to bring peace into our lives.  Candles, soothing music, massage, video games, TV and movies to unwind, yoga, meditation, wine, food, smoking…none of those things are bad (ok I think video games and smoking are both pretty bad), they’re just a temporary fix.  True peace, as we know, is only found in Christ.  And Scripture tells us that there are two kinds of peace–Peace with God, and the Peace of God. 

Peace with God is the greatest need of this world.  More than lower taxes, better schools, relief for world hunger, economic turnaround…our world needs peace with God.  We know from Scripture (Romans 5:1) those who do not know God, who have not received the gift of His Son Jesus through faith, are at war with God.  Not only are they against God, God is against them.  Imagine having God against you!  No thanks!  True peace is impossible until we are at peace with the One True and Living God.  Peace with God has nothing to do with feelings. It is a reality that you either have or do not have. You are for Him or against Him.  Are you at peace with God?

The Peace of God is more subjective and difficult to nail down. For those of us who are at peace with God, there is the possibility to have the Peace of God.  Philippians 4:6-7,9 tells us:

“Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, Rejoice…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus…What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me00practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” 

The peace of God is found through surrendering our lives to Him, obeying His commands, and laying up every need and request to Him, entrusting everything to His sovereign control.  This is the abundant life.  Have you ever met believers in Christ who still are anxious, worrying constantly, and trying always to control others?  These do not have the peace of God.  When we surrender up our lives to Him, we in essence say that God is in control and whatever He is doing is best.  Whatever He is doing is best.  That means that no matter what our economic state, no matter who is president, no matter what our home life is like, this peace if available to us.  This peace surpasses understanding. And this peace is real.  Do you have it?

We’re almost there.  As many of you know, the first six weeks of Jeff’s new job have overlapped with the last six weeks of Fall Semester, where he is taking a full load of classes including Greek II.  I was also finishing my class and internship.  We knew it’d be full, but also knew that you can do anything for six weeks, right?

I know I brag about my husband a lot on here, can I just do it one more time?  The last week and a half have been rough for me–I think our whole family is wearing thin in every area–sleep, patience, time.  Dutch has been missing his daddy, and kids seem to pick up on craziness. Last week Jeff had commitments almost every evening and Dutch would say cry “Dada” a hundred times at night.  He’s also definitely hit “the 2’s”, and while I love my son with all my heart, coupling his newfound personality (picture hitting and saying “No!” a thousand times a day), with being seven months pregnant, with a missing husband who’s up til all hours studying, with just an overflowing calendar (full of wonderful things!), by last night I was at the end of my rope.  When Jeff got home from work, he could see it, wonderful husband that he is. And even though he had at least five hours of work to do on a project due tomorrow, he insisted I take a 1/2 hour and go off somewhere, by myself, and regroup.  I hemmed and hawed, insisting I was fine, then finally gave in.  Oh the glory of 30 minutes by myself at Fred Meyer!  A $2 bottle of red nail polish and some ice cream…sometimes that’s all it takes. 🙂

So tonight I’m sure Jeff will pull an all-nighter after our staff Christmas Party, but tomorrow he will turn in his final project and be DONE!! DONE! DONE!  He won’t graduate, but he’s taking a year off to focus on his job and his family (that’s me!), and then only take one class each term after that, which is definitely doable.

I’m so proud of him, and of Dutch, for persevering through these last six weeks… We’re almost there, Hon.  You can do it!

As I’ve mentioned before, Dutch loves books.  He would be happy sitting next to me on the couch, all day long, reading and re-reading his favorite books.  One of his favorites is called Welcome is a Wonderful Word.  It’s about a little girl named Jenny and her friends Nicholas and Sam and dog Shags, who love to dress up and play pretend.  When a new family moves into their neighborhood, they want to make friends with the little girl Mei Sue.  But Mei Sue is too shy to open the door, so they put together a grand “welcome wagon” full of all sorts of dress-up treasures–hats and shoes, a baseball glove and fishing pole…their very best and favorite things.  Mei Sue is so overjoyed they all become friends and have a cookie and lemonade party.  The last page (which I have memorized because we’ve read it so many times) reads:

Mei Sue said, “I was sad when I had to move away from my old home, but you have made me feel welcome!”

“Welcome,” Jenny said, “is a wonderful word, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Nicholas agreed.

“The best,” Sam said.  And Shags let out a loud and happy bark. 

I must say I agree with Jenny.  Welcome is a wonderful word.  The last six weeks have been a series of beautiful examples to me of just how wonderful welcome can be.  For those of you who’ve read The Road to Santa Clara, you know about our welcome down in sunny California…or lack thereof.  It’s funny how I distinctly remember thinking, “Maybe they’ll bake us some cookies or something.”  How without saying it in so many words, I longed to be welcomed.  And I think that (among plenty of other things) was what stung the most when we arrived. Not only did the pastor not remember we were coming, no one else had a clue, the random bachelors still lived in our apartment, and not a single person in the church had any idea we were even arriving.  Then the whole firing-us-before-we-even-started thing wasn’t exactly welcoming either :-).  But that whole experience gave me a taste of how painful it is to feel distinctly unwelcome.  Since then I must say I’ve had a few other unwelcoming experiences. Not so blatant, but subtle messages that conveyed the very clear reality–watch out, you’re not welcome here. 

I could never have even fathomed the welcome we would receive here at WCC.  I hate to even write this, but some people have the impression that people in West Linn are snobby.  I have never met a less-snobby group of people in my life, hands down.  From the very first day Jeff and I set foot there, we have been nothing but welcomed, even before we were hired.  So it’s not just because Jeff is the associate pastor, we were welcomed while we were “nobodies”.  Does that make sense?

And since being hired, I cannot even convey how amazingly loved we have felt. From the incredibly personalized, generous compensation, to notes and welcome hugs from all the staff, to a Meet and Greet party with all the staff, to a “Get to Know the Pattersons” party for all the young couples to gather together so we could get to know people (thrown by an elder and his wife who have absolutely nothing to gain from it–just selflessly extending love and hospitality), to just the amazing respect and honor that has been shown to Jeff.  God has used this experience to heal deep wounds in my heart.  I could never have imagined feeling this welcomed and loved. And we think welcoming is such a small thing. We think that job of Greeter at church is not a big deal.  It is a huge deal. How we welcome each other conveys the love of Christ in profound ways.

And isn’t this what we’re exhorted to do in Scripture?   I’ve been amazed recently realizing how many times Paul exhorts his churches to receive so-and-so, or greet or welcome or honor someone bearing a letter or visiting the church.  Jesus tells us to greet not just those in high position, but everyone, for in doing so we minister to Christ Himself.  I have probably been accused of being too exuberant sometimes, or of using too many exclamation points in my writing (!!!!!!–there!), but I just have to say that our welcome here at WCC has been one with many exclamation points following it.  It was been a “Welcome!!!!!!”

So  now when I read Dutch his book, it touches me in a different way.  When I see Jenny and her friends preparing a welcome wagon for Mei Sue, I can’t help but reflect on the welcome wagon we have received, and how honoring it is to God when we give our very best toys to create a welcome wagon just for someone else.  Oh how we minister to one another in this way.  Welcome is a wonderful word indeed.   

Disclaimer: I have no idea how to actually do this!

Today I read 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

“From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as thugh they were not rejoicing and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealing with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

In essence, I think Paul is saying avoid being overly consumed with the world.  As I typed those words our son starting bawling in this crib…so now I am getting up and checking on him…