Always Winter, Never Christmas

As we enter the end of the year, the perennial discussion of what counts as a Christmas movie inevitably arises. In one of these conversations with family, it was noted that Christmas plays a key role in Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If you are familiar with the story, then you will be familiar with the White Witch’s curse of “always winter and never Christmas.” It’s a phrase that is particularly applicable to 2020, to the point of perhaps being a bit on the nose. At the very least, it captures what this Christmas season has felt like. The dark, dreariness of winter has come, but the hope and joy seem to be trailing behind.

 

Into all of this comes the season of Advent. In the evangelical world, Advent is often used as a fancy synonym for Christmas. We set aside time to focus specifically on Christ and the Incarnation, but do so with a heavy emphasis on the hope and joy which his coming heralds. This focus is not without reason--after all, the coming of Christ is good news and a key moment in the story of the gospel. Highlighting this fact provides a way to take the cultural joy and celebration which surrounds Christmas and tangibly connect it back to Christ.

 

This approach, though, falls a bit flat in years like this. When the surrounding cultural joy is damped, evangelical Advent also feels flat. When it feels like a season of winter without Christmas, an Advent message of joy seems tone-deaf and forced. Coincidentally, though, I think that this longing for missing joy can lead to a deeper appreciation for the season of Advent and the beauty of Christmas.

 

In more liturgical traditions, Advent is a season of fasting, not celebration. The weeks leading up to Christmas are focused more on the brokenness of the world and ourselves, and how this brokenness leads to the Incarnation. Consider some of the lines from one of my favorite Christmas/Advent hymns, O Come, O Come Emmanuel:

 

“O come, Desire of nations bind

All peoples in one heart and mind;

Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease,

Fill all the world with heaven’s peace.”

 

Pick up any hymnal (or do a lyric search online), and you will find the same theme running through the entire hymn. The world is broken and hurting and looking for a healing king for restoration and order. Underscoring this is the hymn’s minor key and slow melody. It is a musical embodiment of longing--the longing that is at the heart of Advent.

 

As you might have guessed, I had planned to have these thoughts ready to go in the middle of Advent, not the very end. Still, I hope that they will speak to some. After all, in the last couple of weeks, the world has not become miraculously easier to live in, nor have all concerns completely disappeared. And, if Advent tells us anything, it is that it is good and proper to feel the pain and hurt of the world. Not only is it healthy to recognize and grieve the world's brokenness, but perhaps, this is an especially appropriate time of year to express our grief and longing. Further, this reflection brings us into the second facet of Advent--focusing that longing on the Second Advent. While we may not fully understand what it will look like, we know that Christ will be coming again to complete putting what is wrong to right. As we reflect on the pain and joy surrounding the Incarnation, we should also anticipate and prepare for the joy of Christ’s return. This feels especially fitting for the end of 2020, where our need for Christ is even more apparent than ever. It will not be winter forever--Second Christmas is coming!

A Most Wretched Adventure...Right in the House

"Seems to know as much about the inside of my larders as I do myself!" thought Mr. Baggins, who was feeling positively flummoxed, and was beginning to wonder whether a most wretched adventure had not come right into his house."

This delightful little quip from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit jumped to my attention about a month or so ago. Not surprisingly, it jumped out at me because it resonated with where life was, and is, for me. In order to fully understand the impact of this quote, a bit of background on Hobbits, and Mr. Bilbo Baggins in particular, is in order.

Hobbits are one of the creatures which populate Middle Earth, the world created in Tolkien's books. Identifying characteristics include: hairy feet, child sized height, and a love of food, pipe smoking, and song. More importantly though, hobbits hate anything out of the ordinary. They like life to be pleasant, familiar, and generally speaking, comfortable. Anything which smacks of adventure is to be avoided at any cost.

At the time of the quote above, Bilbo Baggins' life has been nearly turned upside down. A band of 13 dwarves has descended on his house, invited themselves to tea, and are about to whisk him away on a long journey full of many perils and dangers. While he's not aware of the trip he is about to take, Bilbo has some unsettling premonitions that an adventure is afoot. What's more, the adventure seems to be forcing its way into his life, whether he likes it or not. Not only is it forcing its way into his life, it's come right into his house! Forget privacy or a place to retreat. Apparently nowhere is safe when trying to avoid the adventure.

Isn't life often like this? One doesn't get to chose the adventures you go on, or when they happen. They simply invite themselves in and take you with them. And, they usually come along at very inconvenient moments. You know, the times where the very last thing you want to have is an adventure mixing up life for you. Further, they usually don't seem to want to leave you alone. As you crawl into your safe places of retreat, the adventures seem to find a way to follow you.

For better or worse, though, we don't have the option to pick and chose our adventures. As Lewis puts it in The Last Battle, we need to "take the adventure that Aslan sends us", even when that's a wretched adventure that is forcing its way right into our house. Knowing who is in charge of history makes all the difference in how we approach the twists that come up in our lives.

Most of my post has explained what adventures can be like. How to interact with them is an important follow up question. Assuming you agree with my description of adventures, how would you encourage someone to think about "taking the adventure"?

New Post...on a Friend's Blog

My latest bit of written musings is on a topic that haven't tackled yet: Relationships. Yep, romance, love and all that good stuff. However, you will not find this post on this blog. Don't worry, its out there for you to read, you'll just need to visit my friend Caitlin Muir's blog to read it. Click here if you want to travel over to my post on her blog right away!

While you're over there, be sure to check out some of the other posts. Caitlin's blog has a strong focus on how your beliefs should practically affect your life. While I can't guarantee that you'll agree with everything you read, I'm sure that you will find her ideas thought provoking (which can be more valuable than finding someone communicating ideas you already agree with).

But, enough posting about the post. Head over to Caitlin's blog, read the posts she has up, leave a comment or two, and join the conversation!

Truth and Satisfaction

Last fall schoolwork had me studying American Literature. Assignments from one week brought selections from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. While reading the introduction to this key collection of poetry, I came across the following quote:

"Whatever satisfies the soul is truth."

I don't know how it strikes you, but I actually find that I could agree completely with Whitman. Some of you might be disagree with me, and not without good reason. After all, hasn't Whitman in those six words summed up the idea of Relativism? This is a question which is worth a closer look.

By way of background, relativism is the belief that there are no absolutes. Usually the term is used in reference to moral absolutes, but it can be used to refer to a belief about the nature of absolute truth in general. Other statements which epitomize this idea of relativism include:

• "Whatever floats your boat"
• "It's all good"
• "Who are we to judge"
• "There is no right and wrong"
• "Just because it's true for you doesn't mean it is true for me"

Read Whitman's statement again and notice his standard for truth: "Whatever satisfies the soul." If what satisfies us is the determining factor in what is true, than there is no firm definition for truth. After all, we are all satisfied by different things. In some areas, these sources of satisfaction can be contradictory (for instance, my love for coffee and other's pitiable distaste for it). If truth can be both "a" and "not a" at the same time, it really isn't true or a guide for life.

Given this argument, why I would agree with Whitman's statement? The answer to that question lies in definition.

What do we mean when we say "whatever satisfies the soul?" From the perspective of the Bible, the only thing which will satisfy our soul is living in line with God's plan for the world. "Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4 ESV)

With this definition of satisfaction, Whitman's statement makes perfect sense. After all, there is only one time we are ever truly happy in this world, when our lives align with the Truth. It logically follows that the more joy we have in our lives, the closer we are to living the Truth.

But that's the rub. Most of us want to define satisfaction for ourselves. Because of the fall, we think that we know what is best for ourselves...and it definitely is not what God wants for us. By pretending that we can define what brings happiness, we end up running from our most fulfilling satisfaction. C.S. Lewis puts it this way in the Screwtape Letters: "...we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable. An ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure is the formula. It is more certain; and it's better style. To get the man's soul and give him nothing in return..."

In the end, Whitman's quote seems to hold out both a promise and a warning. It promises us that Truth and pleasure enter our lives hand in hand, and that having one will include having the other. However, it warns us that aside from God's salvation and sanctification, we will be blind to both Truth and pleasure.


Do you agree my my analysis of Whitman's quote? If so, how should it affect how we evaluate our lives and beliefs? What kind of an impact should it have on our outlook on life?

An Alternative to Egyptian Poetry

I really should be working on a paper for my Non-Western Literature class. However, analyzing the literary devices used in a selection of Egyptian poems does really get me super excited. So I'm going to jot some thoughts down here on the side about something else I've been reading recently...

Specifically, I've been working on reading C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy. At this point the first book, Out of the Silent Planet, is nearly finish. Of all the lines which jumped out at me, A particular section wanted to be written up in a blog post. Before we look at the section though, a little background is in order.

Out of the Silent Planet follows the adventures of Dr. Ransom as he is flown to a different planet and interacts with the various beings found there. The ruler of the particular planet where Ransom's story takes place is named Oyarsa. In the selection below, we find Ransom sharing the history of the earth with some of the inhabitants he has met. As these inhabitants react to Ransom's recounting, Lewis nails the problem of humanity:

"They were astonished at what he had to tell them of human history--of war, slavery, and prostitution.

'It is because they have no Oyarsa,' said one of the pupils

'It is because everyone of them wants to be a little Oyarsa himself,' said Augray."

"Everyone of them wants to be a little Oyarsa himself." The temptation to be a god, to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong, has been the problem of the human race since the Fall. For most people, it appears that this is a way to freedom. After all, if you are not taking orders from someone else, you are free to do as you want, right? It certainly sounds pretty good. Good enough in fact, that every person since Adam has bit on the idea. As Isaiah reminds us: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way..." (Isaiah 53:6 ESV) 

However, this idea ignores a basic fact of human existence: we are all slaves. Paul pointed this out in his letter to the Romans: "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16 ESV) To put it another way, the world is caught up in a battle between good and evil, and there is no neutral ground. You are either on the side of good or the side of evil. By trying free himself from the rule of good, man has only given himself over to the rule of evil. Further, as all men are dead in their sins (Eph. 2:1), they will naturally continue to choose to be ruled by sin.

In the end, this analysis, so far as it is true, leaves me rejoicing. This rejoicing stems from how it demonstrates God's love for us, and mighty work on our behalf. Rather than destroy man, He has chosen to break the power of sin and raise us back to life in Him (Eph. 2:5-6). It also leaves me with a reminder to stay humble, for it is only in God's strength, given through Christ, that I can hope to actually live a life of righteousness. Finally, it also leads me to ask if there are areas of my life where I am trying to be a "little Oyarsa." Oswald Chambers has correctly pointed out that I cannot be on the throne of my life at the same time as God.

How about you? What thoughts does this picture of the human condition bring to your mind? How should it affect the way you live?