Between
Between Christmas Eve-Christmas Day and New Year's Eve-New Year's Day we find other, anonymous days and nights and tasks we do not commonly celebrate.  We should rejoice.  Ephesians 2:10 reads:  "For we are his workmanship, created in Chirst Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

What business is that of yours?
Has anyone ever said that to you?  This week, I found myself saying that to myself, and in the middle of the night.
We've been having household repair work done, which is rather time consuming since one or both of us has to be here while it's being done.
What happened was that I woke up wondering what had been done with something we had put in place as a temporary expedient.  It was a temporary item--trash bag--being used just until; and once the real work was done, it didn't really matter what became of the trash bag--until the middle of the night.
Even then it was of little or no real significance, apart from the fact that inquiring minds...etc.
I found myself saying to myself, What business is it of yours what became of that trash bag?  It served its purpose.  Let it go.  Then the thought came, Well, what is my business?  (Keep in mind the time of night.)
What is my business?
Honoring and glorifying God in everything.  As Paul wrote to the Corinthians:  So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Thinking out loud about temporal and eternal matters
This was drafted on the 12th:  it isn't the 15th yet but anticipating it as we have our annual plumbing challenges and this time they are plural.  Leaks, repairs, more leaks, more repairs, and I feel like my mother Eve (as in Adam and) impatient to have things taken care of NOW!
Wrestling here on the computer as I pray; and patience is a dangerous thing to pray for, but I don't want God to be dishonored by my behaviour/response to this.
So I pray for God's grace, knowing He will provide it, while waiting this cold Saturday for yet another plumber to assist with yet another issue, and give thanks that we know plumbers and don't have to choose one willy-nilly from the yellow pages and hope matters won't be made worse.
Thinking out loud December 12, 2009
Since I began this, word of two deaths came, one an older man whose death was sudden, unexpected (like my Dad's), the other a younger man who was diagnosed with cancer just in August.  These leave my petty concerns regarding our plumbing issues as just that:  petty.  So the following are thoughts about death in December and what it means to believers in Christ.
Death in December
Whatever means death uses to accomplish God's will,
When the heart is still, the mourning is not,
However silent it may seem,
It is like a dream without an end
From which there is no waking
For family or friend.
Sorrow is the companion of death and stays
With those so bereaved for days and years
And mocks their tears.
For Christians, compassion comes in the form of Christ,
Given this month in a smelly stable,
Laid in a manger, birthed God as man to be given
God as man for God,
Born to bring death to death,
Born to be our sins' offering,
Born to suffer in ways we cannot imagine so that
We need not.
Death and its companion sorrow will face their end
One God's ordained tomorrow, and tears will cease,
In eternal peace and joy, and worship.
But this day death and this day sorrow
Companion even we who know this is not all,
And we seek in our grief that Compassion,
Find our comfort through the Comforter.
December Tears
I feel the start of December tears,
Remembering as I do the years
My Dad's parents died--
Many years apart--
But still the pain remains in my heart.
I feel the start of December tears,
Recalling the first of the years
Since my own Dad passed away,
Celebrations no longer the same
Though the Christmas story is told
From Luke and from Matthew unfolds.
I feel the start of December tears
For those who celebrate with tears
Yet know the joy of this One Birth
Of the One who will wipe all tears away.
I feel the start of December

If, Then
This past Sunday morning, Phil Johnson preached on Psalm 127:1-2 in church.  He made the point that this psalm may have been written by Solomon or by David for Solomon, and that there are similarities between that psalm and many of the proverbs.
I was struck by similarities between Psalm 37 and many of the proverbs, also. 
This time I will focus on verse 4:  Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.
That is certainly straightforward enough:  if I delight myself in the LORD, then He will give me the desires of my heart.
How could I count on that?  If I delight myself in the LORD, my desires will come into alignment with His and therefore He will have no problem giving me the desires of my heart.
This is how sanctification is worked out in the life of the believer:  work out your salvation with fear and treambling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12b-13).

Common to Uncommon continues
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
How can it be the valley of the shadow and not the valley of death?  Christ's death has made it so for those who are His own.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  He prepares, anoints, causes my cup to overflow; I do not need to fear my enemies because He is with me.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
What does it mean to have goodness and mercy following me?  Protecting me.
And, I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever? 
John 14:1-3:  "Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."
John 17:24:  "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."

When the Common is Uncommon

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Psalm 23
I would guess that many if not most memorize this Psalm while doing Scripture memorization programs. It becomes somewhat like the passage we know as the Lord's Prayer: common, rote, rattled off w/o much thought.
While we were on our trip in October, I spent a considerable amount of my quiet times thinking about Psalm 23 and the common became uncommon to me.
The LORD--not just any lord but The One and Only Lord
is--not might be or just hoped for
my shepherd--guide and provider and discipliner
He makes me lie down--which I might not think of doing
in green pastures--sweet and full meeting my needs
He leads me--or I might not go there
beside still waters--necessary for nourishment as much as green pastures are
He restores my soul--and do I not need this daily?
He leads me--me! personally
in the paths of righteousness--again, very specific
for his name's sake--so remarkable that his leading of me is for his name's sake; more to think about: his name