If I were to choose one word that defined my life in 2010, it would be FORGIVENESS.  Over and over again God asked me to forgive as I have been forgiven – no easy task!  To forgive my husband, to forgive those who came with false accusations, to forgive family members who said hurtful things, to forgive friends when they did something to frustrate me – and to then ask to be forgiven when I blew it.

2010 was a year of huge change for me, although much of it was so incremental that I didn’t even notice how much I had changed until I started looking back at where I was when the year started.

I have begun to learn how to forgive.  I am starting to learn how to forgive in the way that God has forgiven each of us, and I have learned how to forgive myself.  To move past the guilt of failure (even if just in my own eyes) and to take the focus of my life off of the bad stuff and put that focus onto God.

So what comes after forgiveness?  What one word is going to define 2011 in my life?  I’m still trying to pin that one down.    God & I have some talking to do before I nail down one word for 2011, but I look forward to it (and kind of dread it!)

I’ve been thinking about Joseph today.

Here is this fine, upstanding, young Jewish man.  He held to the law, he honored the customs of his culture.  He was betrothed to a lovely young woman. He was at the beginning of his life, and was making preparations for the next stage – marriage and hopefully a family soon… but not too soon, right?

He loved Mary.  They were about to be married, and it seems that she loved him deeply in return.  Their life together was just about to start.

But something happened.

Joseph knew that he had honored their vow.  He knew that he had not yet touched her, yet she shows up obviously pregnant after going away for a few months to visit her cousin.

This looked bad – very bad.

While our society doesn’t get upset about pre-marital sex or unwed mothers, in the Jewish culture at that time it was a HUGE deal. According to the law Mary should have been stoned to death… and it didn’t look much better for Joseph that he kept his mouth shut about Jesus not being his.  After all, not denouncing Mary meant that he was equally guilty in the eyes of those around them.

Choosing to listen to the Angel God sent was a major act of courage… and was something that followed him the rest of his life.  Disgrace.  Loss of status.  Decreased income to provide for his family.  He lived on with people always remembering that he “couldn’t keep it in his pants” as it were – even though he did.

Yes, it was hard for Mary – but she KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had never had sex.  Joseph couldn’t truly be 100% sure – he had to go by faith.  An angelic visit is pretty solid, yes, but that could have been a dream.

His life changed completely – and he had to move forward in the faith that he was doing the right thing.

During the Christmas season there is much focus on Mary – as there should be!  But I think Joseph often gets the short end of the stick in this story.

He was called to be a role model for the Son of God.  He was chosen to raise Jesus as his own.  To love Him and teach Him to be a man.  And Joseph had to love Jesus as his own son – not treat Him any worse than he treated his actual sons and daughters.  But also not give him preferential treatment…

That’s a pretty high calling.

It is a calling that he chose, however.  He could have ignored the angel and set Mary aside – after all, by all appearances, she had betrayed him!  He could have chosen not to believe.  Mary could have found herself an un-wed mother in a culture where that was not tolerated.  She could have found herself unable to be wed – after all, who would marry the girl who messed around on her fiance?

But Joseph didn’t take the easy road.  He chose to obey God even though it meant that his life would never be what he had imagined.

He chose to walk forward in faith.  To love Mary even though the child she was carrying was not his.  He chose to take her as his wife even though it was a constant reminder to himself and those around him that it appeared they hadn’t done the right thing.

I believe that he truly loved Mary, that he was able to get past this rough beginning to their marriage and accept her as his wife – the good and the bad.  But it had to have had an impact on their relationship, at least for a while.  Betrayal by the one you love most is a hard thing to get past.  But with God’s help, it is also something that you can get past.  I believe that God honored Joseph’s choice.  I believe that God honored the man that accepted His Son as his own.  And I believe that Joseph loved Jesus as his own son.

And so for these reasons I would like to say the following:

Joseph, thank you for making the right choice.  Thank you for taking Jesus as your own and raising Him as your son.  Thank you for showing Him what it meant to be a man.  Thank you for honoring his mother and loving her as your wife.  Thank you for doing your part in giving Jesus younger brothers and sisters to love.

Thank you for being Jesus’ earthly Daddy.

Isn’t it funny how our wants change as we get older.  Although admittedly there are a couple of items on this list that are also on my kids lists (like a laptop – go figure) most of them are drastically different.

And yes, I’m not so old and boring that there aren’t any toys on my list, but there aren’t too many.

My Grown-Up Christmas List

• 4 new tires for the Suby (it being all-wheel-drive, I can’t just replace 1)
• 2 new tires for the VW (replaced the other 2 a couple of months ago)
• new windshield wipers – for BOTH cars
• my wedding ring fixed
• for the Suby to RUN like it’s supposed to!  (Eric is working on that one – the engine is out & he’s trying to figure out what’s wrong)
• new MacBook Pro (to replace the old, dying one)
• bass lessons… the bass to go with them would be neat too, but there’s a couple around I can borrow.
• iPhone (waiting for Verizon for this one…)  – or suitable Driod-esque replacement
• new exhaust for the Suby (while it’s already in pieces…)
• my cooking knives sharpened
• 1 terabyte backup drive (so I can stop using little flash drives)
• hardwood flooring (ah, someday)
• stairs on the deck
• refrigerator – before this one completes it’s slow, painful, NOISY death.
• the furnace working again

As you can see, lots of these wants fall closer to the “needs” category than the “wants” category.

Compared to the girls lists, well, it’s just the laptop that is on both.  They want toys, toys and more toys.  More junk to fill their rooms and have to pick up.  Clothes would be acceptable too I suppose.  Mostly though their lists look like this:

• DSi & games
• polly pockets
• Li’l Pet Shop’s
• barbie dolls
• American Girl dolls (Josephina to be exact)
• new bikes (theirs are too small or need fixed)
• new sleds
• art supplies & a drawing board
• movies (about dogs)
• a BLACK MacBook or Dell (whose kid IS this?  Dell????)
• computer & Wii games
• books
• nerf guns & refill darts
• board games
• iSpy games
• beads
• gum & candy
• Little Miss Matched socks
• nail polish, etc.
• silly bands
• iPad (can’t fault them for that one – I’d take one too!)
• new iPods (not happening since they lost our old ones we gave them)

It’s not too bad, I suppose.  After all they are 8 & 10.  One of them wants about 5 things.  The other wants over 20.

How do we teach our kids to give instead of receive?  How do we teach them to be content with what they have when their rooms are overflowing with stuff they can’t even find to play with?  I’m open to any ideas on that one.

As we enter this Christmas season I am looking for ways to teach them thankfulness and compassion.

I suppose I want to teach me that too. 

Ever have one of those Sundays where the rehearsal was amazing (fun, got through a lot, just all around good…) and then Sunday came.

Yep, our rehearsal was so great!  Then there were a couple of late nights/early mornings in the middle, and this morning we woke up to have an ambient temperature of 54*F in the house.  Yep, it was chilly.  Then it started snowing, and I had to scrape the frost off of the truck so I could see.  By the time I got there, I was a teensy bit grouchy.  Then I got some news that moved me just a tad beyond grouchy. Yeah- it was one of those days for me.

I know, I’m whining.

But we serve an amazing God.  A God that looks down upon me in the midst of a major grump-fest, and decides to remind me that it’s not about me (what?!?!?)

It’s about Him.  All of it.

And the song list we had today certainly helped too – I don’t know how anyone could stay grumpy while singing Salvation Day!

So, here is our set list:

• Marvelous Light (Christy Nockles version)
• Salvation Day (Beeching/MacIntosh)
• Holy is the Lord (Tomlin/Giglio)
• Revelation Day (Jennie Lee Riddle)
• kids story – Art shared it today
• Glorious (Tomlin/Reeves)
• announcements
• message – “Make Mine a Double”
• Deliverer (Beeching/MacIntosh)
• Communion message
• Salvation Day – bridge & chorus

Other than a couple of snafu’s, it went pretty well.  We led two new songs today – Holy is the Lord and Deliverer – and both were well received.  Of course, Holy is the Lord is pretty well known already, and we sang Deliverer at the women’s retreat in September.  Even so, I’m hoping that both go better next time we do them.

We are losing our one and only guy singer after this week though – something that bummed most of us out quite a bit.  Art had a schedule change at work and now has to work Sunday mornings.  It will definitely be a different sound with all female voices!  Hopefully we will have another guy joining us soon.

That was our service today – what happened at yours?

As always, this is part of the Sunday Setlist blog carnival over at TheWorshipCommunity.com – stop by and join in the fun!

We are spending this past Sunday and this coming Sunday revisiting some of our roots musically.  Yep, we have dusted off some of those songs that we haven’t sung in a while, or that we used to sing years ago.  It’s been kind of fun to o back and revisit some of these.

• You’re Worthy of My Praise (Ruis)
• You Never Let Go (Redman)
• Enough (Tomlin/Giglio)
• Desert Song (Fraser)
• kids story
• Rain It Down (Whittaker/Ingram/LaRue)
• message – The Zarephath Express
• Great Is Thy Faithfulness

It was great to have Pastor Chris back from his vacation this week.  He had a great message to bring to us this week – if you would like to hear it, just click on the title above.

This coming week we are studying my favorite passage in the Old Testament – 1 Kings 18:16-40 – where Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal. I can’t wait to see what Pastor Chris brings out from that story!  It’s also Communion Sunday, so I’m expecting a great time of corporate worship!

We will be singing these songs:

• Come, Now is the Time to Worship (Doerksen)
• We Will Worship You (Whittaker/Ingram)
• O Worship the King (Haydn/Grant/Tomlin)
• Blessed Be Your Name (Redman/Redman)
• kids story
• Top of Our Lungs (Bradford/Neufeld/Neufeld)
• message
• Agnus Dei (Smith)
• communion

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If you know me on Facebook, you may have read recently that I like to read.  I have been averaging a book a day on my non-ministry-work days for a few weeks, and some on work days too.  I guess you could say I am a book lover.

With that in mind, I have recently joined a couple of book review sites, so I will be posting reviews of books that I read form time to time.  With my rather skewed taste in books, it’s going to be a rather mixed bag of books – just know that I gave you fair warning.  Herein lies my first review… the Alexia Tarabotti series by Gail Carriger.

The first book in this series is Changeless.  In Changeless you meet Alexia, a spinster daughter of a silly English Mama, and a dead Italian Papa.  And did I mention that she has no soul?  Apparently there are a few people roaming around that have been born bereft of an afterlife.  Who knew?  Upon first meeting her, you also find that her lack of a soul renders immortals mortal.  That is, she makes vampires & werewolves mere human mortals at a single touch.

It really does sound like a bad joke: A werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost walk into a bar, or something like that.  But it’s not a joke, and it’s most definitely not bad!

Brief Synopsis: Vampires, and Werewolves are a part of accepted society in Victorian England.  So accepted, in fact, that one of each are advisers to the Crown!  Much of the fashion has been guided by the Vampires – cravats and scarves, high-necked gowns and pale skin – much to the detriment of the Werewolves.  Apparently it is a challenge to the were’s since it is difficult to run about in wolf-form fully clothed.  No, the two species don’t like one another, but they have learned to co-exist in polite society.

Contrary to popular belief, not just any vamp or pup can bite someone and change them – it takes a hive queen or an Alpha wolf – and not just anyone can be changed.  Nor can just any dead person linger after as a ghost.  It would seem that you must have an excess of soul.  That is why they tend to target the more creative of society – actors, musicians and the like.  Into this mix of humanity and supernatural is tossed a half-Italian spinster.  Not only does she not have the excess of soul, but she has a complete absence of soul.  None at all.  Most of the supernaturals don’t much like her kind – after all, preternaturals used to hunt supernaturals.  They have been used by the Templars for centuries to destroy all supernaturals that can be found!  But Alexia is a proper English lady… she would rather not go hunting down people that hold such a wealth of knowledge in their heads – that just isn’t civilized.

Book 1 – Soulless – finds Ms. Alexia Tarabotti getting tangled up in the affairs of the Bureau of Unnatural Registry, and of their Chief Minister in Charge of Supernatural-Natural Liason for the Greater London Area, Lord Maccon.  She is only trying to help solve the mystery of why a vampire attacked her without knowing what she was (as all hive queens instruct their new vampires of her exitstance almost immedietly), and avoid the boredom of spinster-hood.  There is an attraction, however, which greatly adds to the storyline.  They do eventually discover where the vampire came from, and why he knew nothing about her, and she helps in the capture of a group that is endangering the entire supernatural society – vampire and werewolf alike.

Ms. Carriger wrote the book that she wanted to read, but couldn’t find anywhere, and I am so glad that she did!  It has a great storyline, wit in spades, and adds in a liberal sprinkling of steampunk fun that all combines to make this series hard to put down.  The characters are well developed and highly likeable, and while she does make sure you know that the married characters rather *ahem* enjoy one another, she doesn’t go into explicit detail.  This is Victorian England after all!  That simply isn’t spoken of in polite society.

If you are looking for a fun, quick, engaging read and have any interest in Victorian England, steampunk or paranormal stories, I highly recommend this series.  I will warn you, however, once you start you may be hooked!

The Lovely Miss M has taken up soccer this fall, and between 3 practices per week and a game every Sunday afternoon, well, we have been busy with soccer.  She’s “playing up” this year since there wasn’t any room in her age group, and has learned a lot about the game.  The team was a pretty good mix of kids – some are really good players, some are beginners (like Miss M) and some are somewhere in between.

They just won their first game of the season this past Sunday.

Yep, games every single Sunday since September 12, and they hadn’t won a game yet.  There were a couple that they should have won, and some that they definitely lost.  But this past Sunday they worked together as a team.  They made some amazing plays, did some beautiful steals, and managed to come out the victor at the end of the game.

Those girls played some good soccer.

As I got to thinking about it though, I began to see some parallels to life in their struggle.

Whenever we get together with people – at work, at play, at church, on the highway in traffic – there is a mix of skill levels at whatever we are doing.  Some people have been doing it for a while, some are brand new to it, and the rest of us fall somewhere in the middle.  Some people have humility, some are arrogant.  Some are teachable, some think they already know everything.

Over time, we can learn to work together, or we can be the loner in the midst of others that wants to be the star player that gets the credit for everything… whether we are good enough or not.  There were times that one of the girls would have the ball and was so intent on making the goal herself, that she didn’t see her teammate over there in a perfect position – open and ready for the ball.  Had it been passed to her, they would have scored a goal… but the ball never made it over to her.

We can be that person that is new – doesn’t quite know all the rules, doesn’t quite have the skill, is hesitant when they have the ball – and our teammates don’t give us the chance to gain experience. We can also be those teammates who don’t give them a chance.

Once we spend that time together though – once we learn how to work together as a team – we will discover that we can do amazing things when we all work together.  When we share the glory, when we give those newbies a chance, and when we pass the ball over to the person who is open & in a perfect position, we may find that by working together we can make the goal.

I was giddy Sunday watching the game.  Miss M played almost the whole game.  She actually managed to steal the ball back from the other team a few times and made a lot of successful passes to her teammates.  She got in there and played her heart out.  She was part of the team, and helped her team come out the winners of the game.  Would they have won without her?  Maybe.  But she also managed to block a couple of goal-kicks by the other team.  Would someone else in her position have played better?  Who knows.  She’s new to this.  She’s learning.  But that’s the point – she’s learning how to be a soccer player.  She’s learning how to be a part of a team – a part of the whole.  She’s not the star player, but she is one of the players that helped her team win the game.

That’s what we all are.  We may not be the one that gets the recognition for making the goal, but we are part of a team that supports them in making that final goal.  Without a team around them, the star players wouldn’t be able to make those goals.

Soccer is life – well, for the next 2 weeks anyway.    There are experienced players and new players, and it is up to those with more experience to help the new people learn how to play the game.  It’s up to the experienced players to give the new players a chance, because if they never get the chance, how will they ever get better?

We are all part of a team.  Let’s work together and see just how far we can go.

Yesterday I read a status update by a friend over on Facebook, and commented on it.  This meant that I would get an email of any further comments… and one of them has stuck with me.

It was a comment that I’m sure was made in jest, but I still found it disturbing.

My friend is nervous about doing something new at her church – it involves putting herself out there in the public eye in a way that she has not done in a very long time.  Part of her status was the following joke:

Oh well. They won’t judge. Uh, will they? Hee.

This was not the disturbing part.  No that came with a comment:

They`re church going people of course they`ll judge you!!!LOL

It disturbed me in part because of just how true it is.  But more disturbing is how little I see the church doing anything to change that viewpoint.

God keeps bringing me back to John 13:35 this year – over and over and over again.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We are supposed to be know by our love, but as the comment above shows us, the Church in America today is known more for it’s judgmental, better-than-you attitudes and hipocracy than by our love for our fellow man.

How can we change this?

I believe that this can only be changed one person at a time.  I believe that each of us has a responsibility to show the world that yes, we love God, and no, we aren’t what they expect “Christians” to be like.  We have to show kindness and love.  We have to help out those around us when they need it.  We have to reach out and be the hands and feet of Jesus to a world that so desperately needs Him but has rejected Him because of those who claim to follow Him.

Why?

Because history is filled with horrendous acts done in the name of the church.  Because the world recognizes Christians by something so far from what we are called to be that it will take something radical to change that perception.

And that radical thing is love.  Real, God-given, Christ-centered, honest love.

We have to love, and it starts with you and me.

What are YOU known by?