THE GREAT CHRISTMAS CONVERSION

In two of our most beloved Christmas tales, there is a startling conversion of the main antagonists. They triumphantly move from villainous to heroic within the course of those narratives and in the process warm our hearts. Every Christmas we revisit these classic stories and every Christmas we cheer the conversions. It is great literature and entertainment, but perhaps it is even a little bit more.

Of course, these two stories are the enduring Charles Dicken’s tale of A Christmas Carol and the more recent Dr. Suess poem, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Both tell tales of miserable creatures made even more so by the dreaded Christmas season celebrated all around them, only to later to find joyful redemption—themselves fully embracing the spirit of Christmas.

“Humbug!”

Ebenezer Scrooge was a pitiful miser—greedily counting all of his riches but sharing none of them. Gruff, unkind, and utterly lacking compassion, he cut a wide swath through Christmas; grudgingly giving his one employee, Bob Cratchit, the holiday off and sharply rebuking those asking him for a donation to help the poor. His conversation with them as imagined by Dickens reveals his dismal soul:

“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentleman, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.” (They respond) “Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.” “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

It doesn’t get much more heartless than this. But we know the rest of the story. The visit by Christmas spirits in the night that rocked Scrooge’s world, altered this outlook and changed him forever. With a lump in our throat, we celebrate with him as he awakens from the horrors of the Ghosts of Christmas, rushes to open his window to discover it was still Christmas morning—giving him the opportunity to shock his world by spreading his own generous Christmas goodwill, which ultimately found its voice in the famous words of Tiny Tim: “God bless us everyone.”

Dickens would perfectly capture old Scrooge’s conversion with this line: “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”

“You’re a Mean One”

According to Dr. Suess, the three best words to describe the Grinch were “stink, stank, stunk.” He is definitely presented as a “heel” and a “rotter” who despised everything Christmas, especially the noisy, euphoric celebration of it by the Whos down in Whoville. By now the story is familiar. The ole Grinch put on his Santa disguise, slithered into the town and swiped Christmas, even taking the very last can of Who-hash from poor little Cindy Lou Who’s house. Then he gleefully made his way back to his lair on Mt. Crumpit. Waiting for his dastardly deeds to be discovered, he eagerly anticipated the fallout:

“Pooh Pooh to the Whos!” he was grinchishly humming.
“They’re finding out now that no Christmas is coming!”
“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!”
“Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
Then the Whos down in Whoville will all cry Boo Hoo!”
“That’s a noise,” grinned the Grinch, “That I simply MUST hear!”

But, of course, he did not hear any such thing—just the opposite. And that joyous noise overflowing in the absence of stockings and ribbons created such the puzzling dilemma for the Grinch that something wonderfully amazing happened. The Grinch discovered that, well, “maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store.” “Maybe,” he thought, “Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!” And in that moment, with his “Grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow” this epiphany made “the Grinch’s small heart grow three sizes that day!” Quite the dramatic conversion that saw him return Christmas to the Whos, with the Grinch, himself, even carving the roast beast! Whose heart does not grow a bit with every revisiting of this classic?

Christmas is a Little Bit More

Neither of these stories overtly reference or try to tell the story of the first Christmas. Dickens, it has been noted, wrote his story as an indictment upon the cruel treatment of child laborers and the plight of the poor in mid-1800s England. Dr. Suess (real name Theodor Geisel) came up with the Grinch as a response to his own disillusionment over Christmas becoming too commercialized. But they still tell that story—the story that Christmas means a little bit more.

What really makes Christmas special? What fuels the joy felt during this particular holiday? Why does a large part of the world still stop and celebrate each December 25^th? As the Grinch learned, it is not about the stuff. Christmas is a little bit more because of a baby born in a manager; because of the “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10) that he brings; because this baby grew up, died on a cross to atone for our sins and was resurrected three days later. Without any doubt, Christmas means a little bit more only because of Jesus. The great conversions of Scrooge and the Grinch definitely reflect it, too. From what other context could these stories emerge? Why, now that they are oft-told, do they still deliver such an impact? This is what Jesus still can do if we give him the chance—from miserable miserly meanness to suddenly celebrating salvation!

I think our world is in need of many more great conversions. Remember how Dickens described the converted Scrooge as knowing how to keep Christmas as well as anyone? He followed that up by stating, “May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”

May it be said, indeed—today, Christmas Day and every day.

Baltic Family Camp 2023

God certainly blessed our camp sesson this summer in numerous ways. Over 120 folks–missionaries, Christians, families–all came together in Moletai, Lithuania to enjoy a week together of praise, fellowship, study and encouragement. Countires represented at our camp included Lithuania, USA, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, England, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain and even India and Brazil.

Our theme was Redeemed. Each day adults, teens and children had opportunties to study together in classes designed just for them. Each night we gathered to worship together. It was a beautiful representation of God at work through our different cultures to bring us together as one. This was made even more meaningful considering the ever present war in that region that directly affected some of our campers. One sister from Kiev, Ukraine shared heart-wrenching stories about what she has witnessed and the consequences of this conflict for her, the church and families in that country. For her and others, the BFC served as a refuge from that ever-present tension. She is in the middle in the photo below.

One of the purposes of the BFC is to offer missionaries and Christian families the opportunity to enjoy a week of rest and retreat, while also providing them in-depth study and resources to help them navigate their local ministries. This year we were blessed to have Harding University professors, Drs. Tim and Anessa Westbrook as our guest Bible teachers and Mitch Anderson from the Czech Republic who, along with he wife, Monika, offer missonary care through their Caretakers ministry. Each brought to us their giftedness–blessing us through their teaching.

The BFC also brings back several adults who grew up attending youth camps in the area. It is always a sweet reunion. Many of these adults are now parents who bring their children. For instance, I first met Viktorija when she was around 13 yrs. old. She never missed a session of youth camp in Lithuania. This session at the BFC, her son, Adomis, who is now 13 was baptized into Christ! We all rejoiced with her, her family, the camp and the angels in heaven!

Of course, the BFC could not happen without the fantastic team who travel over from the states to teach; to serve; and to make sure everything is in place for those attending. It also could not take place without the support of my home congregation, the Levy Church of Christ or without the good work of my Lithuanian colleage, Ilia Amosov. God has blessed us with an exceptional team.

The above picture is of the five of us who were at the very first youth camp in Lithuania in 1998 including on the left–David Pryor, who along with his wife, Louriella come from Clinton, MS each year. He leads worship and she leads one of our kid’s classes. Also pictured with me from left are Zivile Puodziukaitiene, Viktorija Dapšienė and Vladimir Rancev.

We are already planning for next year, God willing. We are excited to share that Drs. Evertt and Ileene Huffard will return to be our guest Bible teachers. Please join us in praying for God to continue to work through our session this year and for his blessings as we plan for next year.

Here is the team from Levy who worked so hard to make the camp a success.

It is About Destruction

If I were to design a way to corrupt a culture; turn evil into good and good into evil, I could not do it any better than what is currently happening in our country. The idea of traditional families has basically been destroyed. The healthy value found in employment is eroding. Crimes that used to have penalties now no longer do. Drug use is legal and/or permitted—creating a generation that works less and stays high more. The tragedy of homelessness is becoming epidemic totally changing life in our cities with few workable solutions apparent. Hate, accusations and blame have become the common cultural language–puncuated by vulgarity and profainity, which frequently drowns out any remaining calls for mutually respectful dialogue. Our nation’s leaders are ineffective—unable or unwilling to promote harmony. Our personhood is now being attacked–potentially robbing our kids of their innocence and childhood by gender confusion. Beyond that our culture seems determined to sexualize our kids. Here is a real excerpt from a book designed for kids entitled “Let’s Talk About It” that actually is placed in some school districts in our nation:

“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying some porn, it’s a fun sugary treat.” When consumed right, porn can help you discover new aspects of your sexuality. A great place to research fantasies and kinks safely is on the internet. There’s tons of people and communities out there who share your interests and have all kinds of advice.” Then there is this advice about sending naked pics to friends: “So before you start sending your naughty masterpieces around the world, take some time to get friendly with photo editing, software and apps.”  

I would do all that plus I would make sure to create hostility everywhere—to reduce every conversation to partisan arguing; to politicize everything producing a climate in which everyone is always suspicious, angry and ready to fight.

Obviously, God has to be removed from the national, cultural conversation and churches must be discredited and made irrelevant. Whatever word they do manage to speak would be reframed and labeled as oppressive, hate-speech and attached to some unpopular political agenda that can be easily dismissed. Or even better–politicize the churches and divide them along party lines.

Then I would hand everyone devices that either fuel the anger or dull whatever lingering alarm exists through constant distraction. I would reshape entertainment. No longer would anything “wholesome” be produced. Instead, it would be much darker, dystopic, vulgar, bleak, hopeless and politically charged. I would attack mental health and create the need for addiction as well—get folks hooked on chemicals, porn, gambling, sex, binge-watching—whatever works to make them dependent and prevent clear thinking and productive habits.

I would make pleasure the highest goal and then distort what that means. I would convince people that I have their best interest in mind. Cultural apathy would be the end-game.

And when any voices ever rise up to challenge—I would use every method to silence them; to prevent them from being heard I would bully; blame; accuse; shout; threaten, turn it all political, etc. I would forgive nothing. Instead, I would just keep reminding, rehashing and reliving whatever problems exist—historical or current. I would keep it all raw, fresh and painful constantly on every screen. I would choose violence if necessary and then justify it. I would create a compelling cultural narrative to support my efforts, use all resources to promote it and then dare anyone to differ.

I would distort truth; sow confusion and raise a harvest of disorder and chaos. Then I would normalize it all.

And when good becomes known as evil; when evil is redefined as good, then I will have succeeded.

It is about destruction after all—not construction. “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy” (John 10:10) and he ( “the accuser”– Revelation 12:10; “the father of all lies”–John 8:44) is very good at his job

The Least of These

I write this article in an attempt to heighten awareness of mental health issues. The struggle is real and challenging for those who fight this battle everyday–and for their families. Please take a moment and read; take a moment and pray for those, like my daughter, who live with this reality. Perhaps, these words may broaden understanding if just a bit and encourage more sensitivity to those in the grips of this disease.

The diagnosis was severe anxiety with catatonic depression. It was spoken over my 14 year old daughter who lay motionless—unconscious in a hospital bed. It was crushing to hear, but at least we finally had some clarity and direction.

For a couple of years we had none. We did not understand or know how to respond to her. We saw defiance; practiced tough love; made plenty of parental mistakes; hurt with her as she struggled in adolescence trying so hard to figure things out for herself, while navigating the often cruel and unforgiving world of middle school. But her ability to fully process theses challenges like most kids do was somehow off. Her awkwardness in social settings always hindered her. Friends were difficult to make and keep. She became familiar with disappointment. The release of all the resulting emotion at home was frequently tumultuous. We sought counseling, but saw only limited benefit. We tried to do our best. We reacted sometimes in unhealthy ways. We prayed. We cried. Most often we did not know what to do.

Then came that day when she just ceased functioning. Severe anxiety with catatonic depression.

As heart-crushing as that day was, it set us on a better, more informed path. She recovered from that trauma and life moved on—still uneven, but generally better. But still for her, even now several years later, many things that come naturally and easy for most young people, remain painfully hard.

She bravely tries, but it is difficult for her to put herself out there. She feels the stigma that unfairly remains attached to those who live with mental health issues. Friends remain a challenge and she often feels invisible among her peers, overlooked and let down by her Christian university system and rejected by many. She is academically gifted, beautiful both inside and out, but does not see much value in herself. Life just does seem to give her many breaks. And she looks around, imagines everyone else getting those breaks and continually loses the comparison game in her mind. She fights against the constant nagging and often debilitating voice that tells her, “what is the use.” That is her daily battle.

This is severe anxiety and depression with the added burden for her of the inattentive type of ADHD. For those who have never dealt with this, it is almost impossible to realize how defeating and disabling all of it can be. We have heard (and once said some of) it all. Shake it off! Tough love will cure it. Just snap out of it! It is nothing but laziness. Bad parenting. She doesn’t look sick. If she were my daughter…

As I write this, I am aware that even now she is hurting. Disappointments seem to often be her compainion. We keep praying for a win for her. She is stronger than she realizes, but gets weary with the battle. She knows she is loved, but occasionally would like to be affirmed by someone not her family.

She is not unique in her struggle. Mental health illness is ever increasing in our broken world. Yet it remains stigmatized and often stays hidden in the shadows of shame and fear—the unspoken disease. Those suffering are often pushed to the margins. Relationship with them involves an investment of time and patience that many, especially students dealing with their own insecurities, are unable or unwilling to make. Often they end up feeling like they don’t even matter and that is the greatest tragedy of all.

The Good News is that Jesus tends to hang out on the margins. He sees eternal value in the folks there. They are his precious “least of these.” If society positions them last, he inverts that order—elevating them to be first. That is the long-game for believers and a reason for hope when sometimes only hopelessness is felt.

Hope is what I desperately want for her. She has got so much to offer this world. She is a gift from God. Today is her birthday. I love her so much.

Redeemed: How I Love to Proclaim It

There is power in stories. There is great power in great stories. The greatest story every told is that of Jesus. It is the redeemption story. It is THE story of all-time. The story of God’s action, interaction, presence and relationship across all of history with people and creation. What is this story exactly? What is redemption and why should I be proclaiming it? Redemption is:

God’s work to set things right again—to reverse the fall and bring all things back into harmony with his will; to defeat sin and Satan and restore us back to full relationship with him.

It is a vast, historic, all-encompassing story spanning millennia involving known and unknown events and people in all corners of the globe. It is also a living story—playing out contemporarily in all manner of ways in all number of lives. At the center of the story is Jesus, of course. Without him there would be no redemption story at all. So—think about—from before creation and throughout all of what we know as the OT, the story of redemption is evident—God working thru people, places, nations to make his presence known, call people to Him, proclaim his desire for relationship, while foreshadowing the crescendo of the story—Jesus. Then comes Christ who personified the story; living out the very meaning of redemption; personally, demonstrating God’s desire for full, restored relationship with us while paying the price for redemption on the cross and empowering us to live it out through the resurrection.

Read Ephesians 1:3-11 for the apostle Paul’s divine summary of this story.

Then that actually happened as Acts and the New Testament epistles chronicle. Exciting! They were singing redemption’s sweet song as they went into all the world and shared the Good News of the redeemer—Jesus Christ. The grand story of redemption being actualized as people from all lands, all ethnicity and all tongues came to Christ and changed the world. This is the power found in redemption—to renew and bring freshness, healing and new life.

And God continues to act to this day–still working out this eternal story to its ultimate completion when Jesus returns and brings complete redemption to all creation. Yes, it is a huge story, but is also not—for it is also a personal story. We are quite familiar with individuals in the story—Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Ruth, Saul, Hannah, David, Solomon, Daniel, Mary, Joseph, Peter and Paul. God called and worked through them and untold others to move the redemption story along. We remain in it—involved in this continual movement. It is critical that we believe and realize this truth. What God started, what Jesus delivered, and what remains yet completed but promised—the story of the redemption of the world; God wants to be our personal story as well just like as with those before us. They are the collection of witnesses surrounding us and urging us to complete our own redemption story—Hebrews 12. Redemption is to be what defines us; what drives us; what determines every aspect of our life. Redemption is to be that transformative. God did not work through history and send his Son to die for IT NOT TO BE. So, as we proclaim redemption throughout this year. Here is what I hope and pray will happen;

*We will more fully realize the depth and width of God’s love for us and we will more greatly appreciate the lengths Gods went to bring redemption about.

*We will become more aware of the ongoing work of God in Christ as the redemption story continues to play out now around us and in creation. It is about more than me.

*We will more clearly and precisely see ourselves in this story and better understand exactly what that means; and then allow that to finally, completely define us—to become fully integrated into God’s redemption. For us to fully own his story. It is not just a history lesson!

*We will then more completely realize that this changes everything—perhaps most importantly that fully embracing the redeemed identity will reframe how we view ourselves, our purpose and mission; understanding we are only resident aliens here, that this world and all it values is not our home.

*We will then be more encouraged and ready go and proclaim it—to actually share God’s story of redemption thru our story—for there is power in this telling: the power to bring blessed redemption to others. And I mean really tell it; to allow the Holy Spirit to empower our witness to those around us.

*We will then be more able to live in a greater sense of anticipation of Christ’s return and the full redemption of all—to the degree that allows us to frame life and all its challenges as just light and momentary bumps in the eternal road knowing we will be redeemed from them all when Jesus returns.

Why is all of this so significant? Well, it is the eternal movement of God in the world and it is still ongoing. Seeing ourselves firmly within this story and understanding this not just to be God’s will, but the most significant way we can live our life is a game changer. And because it is largely missing among us. That is evident with churches dying and shrinking with what is left of us competing for the same crowd. It is realized in that most in the world remain unconvinced that God really matters beyond perhaps helping us get what we want to keep up our lifestyle.  Fewer and fewer seem to know or care that he actually is active among us—the living God continuing to accomplish his will in difference-making ways in the world. We, the church are not acting as if the story of redemption is the single greatest story of all. Therefore, it does seem like a dusty old history lesson, rather than a continual, living, story of life, renewal and power among us. Yes, we may acknowledge that God is still here, still offers personal salvation and stands by on call when we need him, but we like to write our own stories, thank you very much, and quite frankly resist full integration into his story. Andrew Root in his book, Churches and the Crisis of Decline offers his thoughts on this:

We live in a secular age because we can imagine and at times do live, as though there is no transcendent quality to life at all. Most of us in the West can live our lives as though there is no living God who enters into history and speaks to persons. Westerners hold onto the idea of God (most of us “believe” in God, at least in America) but few of us are sure we can encounter this God.

So, how about it church? Who is up for changing that—for singing redemption’s sweet song? Who is ready for some radical renewal? Who is in need of transformative restoration? Who is sick and tired of the same ole, same ole? Who would like to see God break out boldly into the world around us? It is all about redemption! Redemption of hearts and souls; redemption of broken relationships; redemption from sin; addiction; fear; loneliness; anger; lostness. This Is the story; this Is the song.

Give thanks to the Lord, for his is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say this—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. (Psalms 107:1-3)