Truth is...

Here it is, Christmas Day. Chances are high you're not getting around to reading this until later on in the day...or maybe even a few days later.

If you're blessed enough to have had family gathered around a tree and presents under that tree, the gifts have been unwrapped and appropriately oohed and ahhed over.

We celebrate God taking on flesh by receiving wonderful gifts from each other, and yet, in order to be born, Jesus gave up so much:

Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.

Jesus gifted himself to us, and we give gifts to each other in celebration of that.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, as long as we know the difference in value between our gifts and God's.

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Truth is...I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.  -  Philippians 3:7-9 (NLT)

      

Charles Wesley wrote the lyric, and more than one person has put it to more than one tune, but today ... the prosification of "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus."

Come on, Jesus! We've been waiting a long time for you. The reason you were born was to set your people free, so release us from our fears and sins and let us, at last, find a restful peace by being in relationship with you.

You are the strength and comfort of Israel, but not only Israel. The whole earth places its hope in you. Every nation under the sun wants you. Every longing heart finds its joy in you.

You were born to deliver your people; just a human child, but in reality, a heavenly king. Your purpose is to reign in us forever, so bring your kingdom of grace even now!

Be the only ruler of our hearts, by the power of your holy, eternal spirit. Raise us up to be seated in the presence of your glorious throne ... not by our merit, but by your perfect, all-sufficient, love-filled sacrifice!

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Truth is...even though this hymn can be found in the Christmas section of most hymnals, it really is declaring our longing for Jesus to return to earth and bring his kingdom into full fruition. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!

      

With thanks to Bill Waterson, we, once again, turn to Calvin & Hobbes for confirmation of a deep truth.

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Truth is...You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3 CSB)

P.S. While we're on the subject...

      

Being shocked or getting shocked is not usually considered a good thing, but John Koenig, in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, has come up with a different perspective.

ecstatic shock n. a surge of energy upon catching a glance from someone you like, which scrambles your underground circuits and tempts you to chase after that feeling with a kite and a key.

From ecstatic, deliriously happy + static shock, a charge of potential energy that builds up invisibly until it sparks across the air.

Take away the inferred romance, and I have an instance of ecstatic shock to share with you.

It was a week in June, spent on a college campus in Michigan, cat-wrangling a group of high school students among a crowd of their peers. Church youth groups from across the tri-state area had gathered for a week-long conference of Bible study, singing, group-building, and powerful preaching. As a youth minister, I had taken my group of teens to this particular conference in order to experience it alongside the church group and youth minister (Rick Smalling) who had the most influence on me in choosing vocational ministry as a career path.

Late in the week, at the close of an evening worship service, the atmosphere was electric. Scores of teens were streaming forward to give their lives to Christ or to commit themselves to Kingdom work. Everyone around us was standing and singing, their voices full of celebration. In the middle of the noise and movement, Rick glanced back over his shoulder. Our eyes locked for just a heartbeat, but in that instant, I experienced ecstatic shock.

I felt it in my chest first  -  an almost painful swell of joy that made my breath catch and my tears flow. The thought thundered through me:

How wonderful is this  -  that we get to be here, in the middle of life-changing decisions and pure joy? And not only that  -  I get to share it with YOU, my best friend in the faith.

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Truth is...My words still fall short of capturing the depth of emotion that swept over me in that sacred pause. It was as if Yahweh whispered, “This is what you were made for.” My hope is that you walk so closely with the Spirit that, now and then, you are shocked by a joy too deep for words.

      

In 2006, Felps, Mitchell, and Byington published a paper in the journal Research in Organizational Behavior with the catchy title, "How, When, and Why Bad Apples Spoil the Barrel: Negative Group Members and Dysfunctional Groups."

The truth they discovered still rings true almost 20 years later.

They divided students into teams of four and gave them 45 minutes to solve management problems. The best team would receive a monetary reward.

What the students didn’t know was that some groups included a “plant” — an actor instructed to play one of three specific roles:

• The Slacker – lounged back, feet on the table, glued to their phone.
• The Cynic – interrupted with cutting sarcasm: “Are you serious?” or “You’ve clearly never managed anyone before.”
• The Pessimist – muttering that the task was hopeless and the team couldn’t possibly succeed.

What they found was that even when the other three members were capable and motivated, the negative behavior of just one person dragged down the group’s overall performance by 30–40%.

Their conclusion was striking: a team’s effectiveness depends less on how many strong performers it has — and more on whether it carries even a single toxic presence.

The LinkedIn post I learned this from had some words to say to HR departments and corporate executives, but I would like to encourage you to think about the implications for your local church community.

And more specifically, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you whether you might be a slacker, cynic, or pessimist, and pray for a transformation to happen.

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Truth is...one bad apple really can spoil the whole bunch. But that sounds kind of pessimistic. Let's all strive to be good apples: fresh, growing, and contributing to the health of the group we are in.