Childlike Faith, Grown Up Love

Spirituality Column #216
December 28, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Childlike Faith, Grown Up Love
By Bob Walters

It’s easy to think the Bible has it backwards telling us to become like a child (Matthew 18:3-4) when we are working so hard at being grownups.

But maybe we get the “grownup” thing wrong. If I have one prayer going into the New Year it’s that I never “mature in my faith.” The wonder of Christ is so much fun, so exciting, so big, so interesting, so deep, so comforting, so assuring, so challenging and so complete that the last thing I want to do is have my faith get old.

Consider that “being a grownup” in the societal context is generally about earthly works – responsibilities, problem solving, more responsibilities. Ever notice that? Satan sure does. He’d much rather have a responsible adult worried sick about earthly travail than have a responsible adult with a childlike faith in God. The latter doesn’t give Satan much to work with.

Having the ability to lay anything at the feet of Christ is the kind of grownup I want to be. I’m fine with responsibilities; it’s a joy when we can trust each other. Most of us have been on both sides of that one, though. We’ve sometimes trusted the wrong people, and maybe on occasion we have been entrusted with the wrong things.

The point here is that childlike faith knows God can be trusted all the time, every time. It knows God is the good, the right, the eternal; that God can do anything but actually does everything according to His own plan. God gives us the freedom – love’s foundation – to make up our own minds about our faith.

Childlike faith? I think that means, “no doubts.” It definitely doesn’t mean “unquestioning.” Have you ever known a child that didn’t have a million questions? God loves that! “Ask and ye shall receive” (John 16:24) isn’t about Christmas presents. It’s about God’s grace and mercy. Ask for that, and believe.

I know plenty of people who define the completeness of their adulthood by “knowing what they want and getting it.” Satan’s plan is to get us to focus on the things we want so that we either second-guess or completely ignore the things God wants.

Certainly that sounds childlike (childish?), but have you ever known a parent who wasn’t second-guessed or ignored despite their child’s neediness?

Christ on the Cross proves our Father loves us anyway … even the grownups.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) hopes you’ll enjoy childlike faith in the New Year. When you can feel God smile, you’ve succeeded.

Finding Christ in Christmas, Part 4

Spirituality Column #215
December 21, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Finding Christ in Christmas, Part 4
By Bob Walters

I wandered away from religion as a teen and no part of college or career the next 30 years pointed me toward God, church, or Jesus.

Not that I especially wanted it to, or expected it to.

Little about secular society points us to anything resembling Truth. Do your own thing. Believe what you want. Try to do something nice for others once in a while, but look out for No. 1. Half truths, blind ignorance and personal arrogance are completely OK with Satan, the lord of this life’s shiny falsehoods.

But I’m a sucker for tradition and, church or not, when Christmas rolled around every year I was hungry for the “Spirit of Christmas” I knew so well as a child.

Presents were a minor part of it. Our feast was always Christmas Eve, during which Dad played a German recording of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Before saying grace he read the beautifully lyrical King James Version of Luke 2:1-14 …

And it came to pass … Mary was great with child … no room in the inn … firstborn son … swaddling cloths in a manger … shepherds in the field … sore afraid … multitude of the heavenly host … fear not … good tidings of great joy …

For unto you is born this day a savior ... Christ the Lord … Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

The first time I tried to read that to my own young family, I had a hard time finding a Bible in the house, a harder time finding the verse, and no clue why the words had changed (different Bible translation). I was in my mid-30s.

In my mid-40s I finally “got it,” the truth of that annual Christmas heart-tug.

The Holy Spirit on behalf of the Savior patiently abides – waits – and when given the chance, lights our yearning for Christ, for truth, for love. After all, that’s what God is, and our yearning for Christ grows immense because God is immense.

Satan works overtime to darken the truth of the season but I wish we would all “get it” that Jesus Christ arrived on earth and became flesh (John 1:14) to save us all (John 3:16). That’s the light of Christmas, the reason for the season.

And why not find Christ in Christmas? He’s been looking for us all along.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) worries not when Christ was actually born, but rejoices that in fact He actually was.

Finding Christ in Christmas, Part 3

Spirituality Column #214
December 14, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Finding Christ in Christmas, Part 3
By Bob Walters

I once visited a local church to hear an internationally known Christian minister and author preach at an evening worship service.

Shockingly, this visiting purveyor of the loving Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Word of the Bible stopped speaking midway in his sermon and in mid-sentence demanded that a young mother – at whom he actually stretched out his arm and pointed – remove both herself and her somewhat-crying baby from the room.

The child was distracting him, he said. “Sorry,” he said. “That’s my fault,” he said. “I couldn’t concentrate.”

Nothing else the famous preacher said was as memorable as that. Most likely the humiliated young mother hasn’t forgotten the rebuke, either. As she retreated from the room holding her baby, my momentary relief at the silence turned to shame at my own impatience. My sympathies grew toward the mother, and away from the famous preacher’s broken concentration.

I thought of another young mother, a couple thousand years ago, who also had to hide a real, live human baby – Jesus – from earthly authority and social convention. Mary, with God’s grace, was patient with her circumstances.

I have narcissistic tendencies which make me not naturally patient. When we love ourselves too much, one finds, we have difficulty loving the world amid the world’s inconveniences. This would include lacking patience with crying babies, waiting in check-out lines, inconvenient stoplights, traffic, whatever.

Christmas too often is an exercise in impatience. One might rightly notice that the first victim of impatience is joy. Perhaps “Joy to the World” ought to be understood to mean, “Be patient with the world.”

God is. Christ is. The Holy Spirit is. Patient, I mean. Sinful man usually is not.

Try this as an antidote. Next time you’re inconvenienced, pray for the person that is inconveniencing you. That would include each person in line ahead of you. Or the relative whose Christmas plans conflict with yours. Or the baby crying in church.

As our Pastor Derek Duncan once advised, let a crying baby remind you of the one in the manger whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

Christ came to reconnect mankind’s loving relationship with God, and to build our human communion with the Holy Trinity and with each other. Crowds at Christmas are an awesome time to do that, but to find Christ amid the chaos, you have to be patient.

Concentrate.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) doesn’t mind a baby’s cry in church as much as … alas … he minds its parents’ deafness.

Finding Christ in Christmas, Part 2

Spirituality Column #213
December 7, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Finding Christ in Christmas, Part 2
By Bob Walters

You’ve seen the word “Dolby” on audio equipment or at the movies, right?

Named for inventor Ray Dolby in the 1960s, “Dolby Noise Reduction” electronically masked the omnipresent “hiss” (background noise) of audio tape recordings and movie film. “DNR” enabled the massive stereo cassette tape industry of the 1970s and 1980s. “Dolby Surround Sound,” introduced in 1975, redefined cinema sound tracks and theater audio systems.

My brother-in-law Bill, an electrical engineer (Master’s degree from Purdue), explained Dolby Noise Reduction to me once. He fashioned a graph that mimicked musical staff paper.

Recording-tape friction and recording-machine vibrations, he explained, created unavoidable hiss and rumbles – noise – at predictable frequencies when tape is recorded and when it is played back. Dolby electronically compressed nuisance noise frequencies and expanded the desirable music frequencies.

Anyone old enough to have hit the “Dolby” button on a tape player likely remembers the magic – just music, no noise! Modern Dolby digital cinema surround sound quality is even more astonishing in its life, clarity and depth.

Do you ever wish, like I wish, that we could hit a Dolby button to remove the secular junk noise from the Christmas season?

How wonderful to be surrounded by only the magic, wonder, depth and astonishment of Christmas; to know simply and clearly that God arrived on Earth as Jesus Christ the Son of Man to remove our sins, to intercede unceasingly with God on our behalf, to offer us the gift of adoption into the Kingdom of God, to give us eternal life, love and peace with Him at the right hand of God in Heaven.

Yet Satan hisses at us like a snake, and the earth rumbles with mistrust of man’s misguided faithlessness. Happy Winter Holiday! Alas …

How soothing to remove the hiss, rumble and noise of a greedy world busily promoting holiday commerce while it sneeringly conspires to stifle the spirit, silence the truth and disrupt the simple harmony of saying “Merry Christmas.”

Blessedly, God provides us with many Christmas “Dolby buttons.” We can pray, read the Bible, go to church, talk to a priest or pastor or a trusted Christian friend.

We can do for others and give of ourselves.

Yes, we can find Christ in Christmas. We can pray. We can beseech the Holy Spirit to silence the noise in our hearts, and surround us with the love, life, clarity and depth of Christ.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) appreciates the clarity of digital, but likes the realism of analogue. God, however, is not a recording.