Christmas Letter 2014

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased” – Luke 2:13-14

One year has passed since Christine went to be with the Lord. How do I sum up a year that has been filled with heartbreak over losing her and joy over knowing she has gone home, to the home all of us who follow Christ long for – our home with God? I am not sure I can, but let me mention just a few highlights.

I have been blessed in the past year by loving family, friends, and a wonderful church, including each one who will read this letter and who also grieve Christine’s death. Longtime family relationships and friendships have deepened for me as a result of our common grief and hope. One longtime friend who has been an encouragement to me over this last year has said repeatedly, “We will get through this together.” Many of you have demonstrated that sentiment without stating it. All I can say is thank you.

I ended last year and began this year with a two month break from my preaching and leadership responsibilities at our church, for which I am grateful. During that time and other time afforded me away from church, I visited family, returned to the church where I held my first preaching ministry, the first ministry decision Christine and I made together after we were married and a church where we have continued to have deep friendships, and I reoriented my life. I returned to preaching on February 2, and continue to carry on my life’s calling.

I was able to travel to a church planting conference in Florida and to the North American Christian Convention where I reconnected personally with friends I had not seen since Christine’s death. I also had occasion to speak at two retreats for church leaders about my journey on the theme, “Leading When Your Heart is Breaking.” Much more has happened that I do not have space to write about.

In early November, our daughter, Nancy, and son-in-law, Dave made their third mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya with a group from their church in Cincinnati. They are both engaged in ongoing work with the mission in Kenya and Dave is extending that work into other parts of Africa through his new mission, Africa Fire Mission. I am looking forward to when I will have an opportunity to go to Kenya with them.

On December 6 and 7, one year after Christine’s accident and death, Nancy, Dave, and I hosted an open house for family, friends and church members, and we held a special worship service on Sunday. Several of our family traveled to Madison for the weekend, including my sisters Karen and Connie, Connie’s husband, Doug, my brother, Tom, and his wife and their two sons, Christine’s sister, Susan, and her husband, and one niece. Christine’s and my longtime friend, Bud Clapp, came to preach for us that Sunday.

Among the things that Christine had on our refrigerator when she died was a scripture quotation from Psalm 73:23-26 that reaffirms everything she lived for: “Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

I trust you and your family will have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and trust you will have a wonderful year in 2015.

Ken

Are You Ready For an Awesome Christmas

In the November issue of Christianity Today, Megan Hill asks “If Everything Is Awesome, Where Does That Leave God?” In her first three paragraphs, she writes the following:

I have never eaten an awesome meal. I’ve never driven an awesome car or taken an awesome vacation. I haven’t danced to an awesome song or streamed an awesome video. I do, however, know an awesome God.

My history with the word awesome goes back to my childhood, when my father—an amateur linguist and professional theologian—gently corrected my early attempts to apply that word indiscriminately. In our family, we reserved the adjective for the One whose name is great and awesome (Ps. 99:3).

My dad’s point was not that awesome itself was some sacred incantation only for the divine . He simply wanted me to acknowledge with my words that, in both character and magnitude, God is different from deep-dish pizza.

Hill goes on to describe that “we live in a culture of inflated language,” as illustrated by The Lego Movie in which they sing “Everything is awesome.” Then she says, “But if everything is awesome, then nothing is.”

After reading her column, I began thinking about Christmas, and it occurred to me that we can ready for Christmas — or we can be ready for an awesome Christmas.

So what is the difference. Well, I am glad you asked.

I began getting ready for Christmas early this year because Nancy, Dave, and I are holding a Christmas Open House on Saturday. I knew I would not have time to put the Christmas tree up and do some other decorating after Thanksgiving, so I decorated the tree and did some other Christmas decorating earlier than I ever have — before Thanksgiving. You can’t have a Christmas Open House, after all, without Christmas decorations. Now if I get a few more presents that I still need to buy, I will be ready for Christmas. It will be good to have all of that done for Christmas, but that will not make it an awesome Christmas.

You see, an awesome Christmas requires understanding and celebrating how Christmas began, and worshiping the one Christmas is all about.

So you will have an awesome Christmas when you reflect again on how the God who alone is awesome came into the world by being born of a virgin in the person of Jesus. Everything about the birth had been prophesied for centuries and occurred just as it had been prophesied. Nothing like that had happened before and has not happened since. God became a man. Angels announced the birth to shepherds who went to worship him. The world has not been the same since. Reflect on that and you will have an awesome Christmas