Labels, Part 2 "INFP vs. ESTJ"

I was chatting with an old friend this morning over a cup of coffee. It was one of those wonderful “accidents” that God is so generous to arrange. My young friend, who I met when he was a college student, happened to be passing through town.

He is now a college minister and I am so very proud of him. Looking back on our relationship, I marveled at the growth that had taken place in his life. A lot of it has to do of course with the natural process of maturing. And, the fact that he married a lovely, bright, and talented woman has not at all hurt his drift toward refinement. She is definitely sanding off the rough edges of her husband as is the common task of all lovely, bright and talented wives - which describes pretty much all wives by my book! (Shameless pandering, but it increases Blog-traffic). Their job is to “de-Neanderthal-ize” us nose-picking, knuckle-draggers.

As we chatted, he told me that a part of his leadership training that had been especially meaningful to him had been to work through the Myers-Briggs profiling test. This test is commonly used in the business world to help people better understand one another and to build group dynamics...allegedly. (More on that in a moment). I use this tool in pre-marital counseling quite often, thus, I had already formed a few educated guesses in regard to my friend's profile. Allow me a moment to recount a few memories…

When I first met my friend, he was a football player at Fort Lewis College. When we would get together to chat, he almost always had some topic, or someone, with which he was taking “serious” issue. Being an ESFJ (the J standing for Judging), he excelled nicely with the “J” portion. In other words, he suffered no fools, and the world, in his mind, was chock-full of them.

I remember many times that I sat and listened, slowly drumming my fingers on the table, wishing I had brought along just a fragment of duct-tape. Two or three inches of the magic adhesive would have come in quite handy. But, I did what my profile (INFP) does rather easily – I listened and sympathized. My “P” (perceiving) as opposed to his “J” (judging) offered him another way of looking at the people or the situations. I am not at all saying that my personality type is better than his. I, in fact, often put a lot of trust in people – especially in their unrealized potential – while overlooking the present realities of a person’s journey. That has bitten me on more than one occasion. The disappointment always circled back to my projection of what a person could be that was frequently at odds with who they really were. It is both an encouraging gift to many people and yet at times was wrought with wrongful expectations on my part. It took me awhile to figure this out.

What is my point? I am speaking here again, as I did in the previous blog, about labels. I hate them. I really do. Yet we seem to be incurably driven to find a place in our minds to categorize people: He is a banker; She is an accountant; He is a Baptist; She is a Homemaker; He is a jerk; She is a flake. On and on the labels go. We unfairly summarize an entire person’s life with meager amounts of data and impressions gathered by fleeting moments in their presence.

It is terribly unfair but also unsurprising. Psychologists tell us that our brains need a way to resolve what they call cognitive dissonance in our minds; thus, we merrily and unconsciously go about cataloging people as: friend, enemy, weirdo, attractive, not so much, etc. When I was in my doctoral studies, I had a professor describe cognitive dissonance as a bunch of untethered strings floating around in our brain. Categorizing people and subjects help tie these thoughts down and bring us a measure of peace.

It is right here where we can go off the tracks and where we can find help with the Christian celebration of the word “grace”. The word in the Greek: “charis”, when tracked down to its effectual usage in the Scriptures, means: “God’s empowering presence.” I have heard other definitions, but this one seems to work in all circumstances, so it is the one I prefer. Grace is God’s active goodness, influence and participation in our lives. Grace is God becoming a man, a human being, and experiencing the dust and disappointment of earth. Grace is the effort given to understanding every temptation and shortcoming and weakness common to the human race and enduring it all. Grace is placing oneself on a cross as a substitute to take the blame for all of our naughtiness. And grace is seeing within each human being the potential of what they might someday be. Yes, I like to fancy that God is a bit of an INFP Himself! But, that would be overly flattering to my profile type and it is simply less than honest. He is all of the personality types noted by the Myer-Briggs profilers and much more. His character is one of: holiness, mercy, kindness, matchless beauty, mystery, self-revelation, justice and judgment, downy-soft tenderness, transcendence and imminence. Try labeling God into one category and you will come away with a tiny, manageable God – but you will be missing the real thing. In a sense, Deity defies labels.

And this is the big point I wish to make…grace, when freely received, never allows us to remain the same. It is transforming. It is metamorphosing. But there is more…grace freely received is meant to be freely given. It is a pass-through gift. It is a river, not a reservoir.

Here is where we come to the limitations of personality profiling. I once worked through a Myers-Brigg facilitator to help me resolve some conflicts with a few business partners. Actually, I was in the middle of the conflict – a tormented peace-maker of sorts. The Myers-Briggs actually mapped it out quite accurately. One guy was in the upper right hand corner, a driver, and a controller. The other partner was down in the lower left corner – a very easy-going, “collie” type. My personality was in between the two. As our facilitator shared with us our personality types, the controlling fellow lit up and got excited. He said, “Yes, this is me!” And…then he used his newfound knowledge to define and defend his nastiness to the other guy. “This is me! This is me! This is me! You have to adjust to it because…This is me!” As retreats went, it wasn’t one of my more successful ones. He used his personality type as a sledge-hammer.

Grace never leaves us that way. Grace would never attempt to bend the entire universe to one’s own will and personality. Rather, grace fuels a love of others that cures such things – even if very slowly. Grace is always about the business of changing us from the inside out into something more beautiful. And, as it changes us, it makes us extremely sympathetic to other people’s struggles. We become the change we would hope for in other people.

Thanks for hanging out and completing this marathon of a blog. May God’s grace be yours in abundance…

-CJ

Labels

    The other day, I asked my wife to pick up some Fish Oil for me while she was out shopping. Fish oil is supposed to be good for the heart. So is garlic. It seems that everything that is good for the heart stinks. Everything that is bad for the heart smells savory.
    Now, for some time, the chemists that produce these supplements have heard the cry of fussy people with highly developed olfactory senses and have managed to remove the offensive smells that come with healthful choices. Yay!  So, imagine my surprise when I went to open my little bottle of heart health and wrapped proudly around the lid were these words: “Formerly Odorless.” 
    Hmm…I wasn’t sure what they were trying to say. Could it have been a labeling mistake? Did they mean: “Formerly Odorous?” Or perhaps someone complained about the lack of odor and wondered if popping these pills did any good, sans dead fish stench. So, maybe they meant this: “The stink is back!”  Curious, I opened the little jar and found the pills to be odor-free. So, yep, someone definitely screwed up the label. Their bad…
    I am always pimping life for some real-life scenario to help throw some light on a great spiritual truth and this one seemed as good as any. The great spiritual truth has to do with labels. The word Christian was not a self-proclaiming label marketed by the first generation of the church. No, the outside world, observing the behavior of believers, gave them the label, “Christ-like”, or “Christian.” It was a stunning recognition of the simple fact that these humble, first century followers of Christ were behaving in a fashion similar to the man who had recently been crucified. They prayed for people and they got better. They were ridiculously generous. They were fair. They were impartial in regard to the sex or ethnicity of a person. And, they were turning a brutal world right-side up with their gentle, Christ-like ways. In this instance, the label matched the product perfectly.
    Fast forward a few centuries to today. How is that label thing working out? I was chatting with a friend the other day who doesn’t claim to be a Christian but who, nevertheless, chooses to try to live her life according to the teachings of Christ. She called me from work and shared with me a story that I hear all too often, at least in spirit. It seemed that some Christian at work got extremely upset with her for borrowing a bowl to warm up some soup. It rocked her world because this angry Christian had often made a show of reading the Scriptures in the work room and was fairly vocal about her faith. However, her faith didn’t quite reach as far her personal soup bowl. I was saddened as my friend asked me this sweet, simple question: “Would Jesus care if I borrowed a soup bowl?” My response was this: “No, in fact, I think Jesus would have given you his soup bowl.”
    After that exchange, the obvious thing to do was to go and buy the best soup bowl I could find in order to show my friend how Jesus felt about soup bowls. Within minutes, my trustee assistant and I crossed Main Street of Durango and found the perfect soup bowl, the perfect card, and the perfect spoon. We signed the card: “From Jesus! – Bon Appétit!”, or something like that.
    Here’s the deal…the message of Jesus is still as relevant and as powerful today as it was when it was first launched into the world. He is still the most attractive person I know – and I have studied them all. I cannot get over His kindness and His mercy and His generous ways. He has wrecked me in a good way. I will never be just like Him and thus, I am not sure if I have even earned the moniker of “Christian.” Yet, He joyfully calls me His own even with my deeply flawed ways. But, having made these humble, self-deprecating admissions, I do know this – He cares more about precious souls than He does about an ordinary soup bowl! I have at least THAT much revelation!
    We live in a time where the labels are mightily screwed up. Some who proudly call themselves Christians are often the least Christ-like people to be around. Many are full of greed, avarice, pettiness, anger, and judgment. They are, to borrow my earlier example, still full of stink! While I am a little angry about that – God forgive me – I am mostly just sad. I am sad because these poorly labeled folks obscure the gospel of Jesus Christ. Rightfully so, a person outside of the Christian faith can look at us and say, “Well, if that is what it means to be a Christian, then no thanks!”  The message has gotten lost in the hands and lives of the messenger.  And you know what – “Christians” – we have absolutely no right to complain about their passivity to the Christian message. If the medicine has done us so little good, why would they be interested in taking it? They have too much regard for their own reputation to become like us!
    Here is my solution to the times in which we live…it is time for Christians to pipe-down. I know that doesn’t sound very Jesus-like and I am okay with that. I am okay with it because it is outstanding advice. Until our lives catch up to our theology, we have nothing to offer. The old English word for “belief” actually meant, “by-life.”  It is time for the church to reacquaint itself with the marriage of belief and life. A quote often attributed to St. Francis, but not known for certain if it was his, goes like this: "Preach the Gospel always: When necessary, use words. The Apostle Peter said it this way: "Keep your behavior excellent among the unbelievers, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation."  I Peter 2: 12  And, also, Jesus words in Matthew 5:16 "Let your light shine before men that they might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." One without the other is a sham. And, the world is much too clever in these days to sacrifice or change their lives to run with a bunch of grumpy, soup-bowl Nazis.

A New Christian Holiday Brought To You By Patrick Crossing!

Throughout a significant portion of Christendom, a couple of weeks ago marked the beginning of the Lenten Season with the starting point being, of course, Ash Wednesday. It is a tradition both rich in history, significance and not a little abuse - the most notable of the latter being the wild day of debauchery immediately preceding known as Fat Tuesday. While Ash Wednesday is supposed to replicate a period of forty days of spiritual reflection, fasting, repentance and sacrifice - Fat Tuesday is more like a bachelor party.

            The term Fat Tuesday is the anglicized translation of the French words, Marti Gras. So...is anyone surprised that getting glassy-eyed, drooly plastered and indulging in as much lewdness, leering, lust, lechery, lasciviousness, and leeching as possible – carries with it a French connection?  "Oui! I am about to embark on zee season of fasting, prayer, Almsgiving, and deep reflection regarding zee Passion of zee Christ. Come; let us get skunk-faced!"              

            Lest you think I am being overly harsh on the French, I will humbly acknowledge that just eight days after the beginning of the Lenten Season, when we are supposed to be thinking seriously about our personal wretchedness, the Irish offer us a Lenten "time-out" known as St. Patrick's Day. Last year, as our Celtic Band played at the local pub for St. Paddy’s, I felt as though I were sitting in the midst of the “end o’day” scene from the movie, The Matrix. It was sweaty, pulsating, malodorous, loud and confusing. I had to crowd surf to get to the bathroom. This year I decided to not wear my kilt. (Please contact me on Facebook for a list of reasons). St. Paddy’s Day has become Fat Tuesday on crack.

            There was a paucity of religious observances in the tradition in which I was raised. We said a few words about Christmas and Easter; but otherwise we were markedly, "low church". We had no affinity for such high church traditions as Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, Advent and such.  And, we sure the heck didn’t acknowledge any Saints, except for the St. Louis Cardinals.

            We really didn’t need a special season to feel bad about ourselves. Our preachers pretty much took up that issue every Sunday. As a child, I was raised with bromides. (Note: Bromides: The term "bromide" derives from the antiquated use of certain bromide salts in medicine - usually sodium bromide but also potassium bromide - as a mild tranquilizer or sedative). Brother Bill, as we called him, from a church in our area, loved to thunder: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  It was his favorite aphorism, which, because of consistent overuse, became a bromide. After awhile, it lost its ability to trouble, much less terrify. It made us sleepy.

            Most of the sermons could be broken down into three basic categories: “You don’t come enough! You don’t do enough! You don’t give enough!” If it was a really long sermon, the preacher could easily cover all three.  At one revival meeting I attended, the Preacher shouted: “John was called the Baptist! He baptized Jesus! Therefore - Jesus was a Baptist!” (It would be years later that I would become enamored of the discipline of philosophy where I studied, among other things, the area of logic. Within that broad category is the sub-category of deductive reasoning.  A decent example of good deductive reason would go like this: 1) All birds sing 2) A Robin is a bird 3) Therefore, Robins sing.  A flawed example of deductive reasoning would go something like this: 1) All birds sing 2) My daughter Molly sings 3) Molly is a bird. Or, see above: Jesus was a Baptist).

            Sadly, in the past, I have tried to motivate people, congregations, my wife and my kids through guilt. It only works until they are out of site. It also causes resentment.  There are three things I have learned about by trying to motivate people in this way: 1) Guilt-tripping is too much work – you always have to raise the bar. 2) It carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction – eventually people will flee because they already feel pretty poorly about themselves absent my input; and, 3) Guilty Christians are an oxymoron and therefore unattractive. Proselytizing becomes a non-issue – why would a stranger to the faith exchange one misery that they are accustomed to for one which requires missing pre-game during the football season?

            The announcement of strict religious observance seems instinctively to set off a rebellion of panic within most people. Whether it is a seasonal thing like Lent, or a steady dose such as I received in my formative years - there is a yin and yang, a good and an evil, a Luke & a Darth wandering about and at war within all of us. We can only take so much of rules, regulations, and sacrifices, before we explode. Every Ash Wednesday seems to demand its Fat Tuesday.

            But, is that point of Christianity – causing people to explode – or to always feel like exploding?  Are we promoting a schizophrenic religion that pushes for seasons of sorrow that is preceded by, interrupted and followed by Athenian decadence? Is that a good plan? I think not. You see, I do not feel any particular loyalty to either increased depravity or augmented religiosity. They can both be traps that leave us alienated from our true purpose.

            Jesus stared down this dichotomy in response to His critics with these words…

For John [the Baptist] came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” Matthew 11:18,10

            Do you get that?  John the Baptist lived the life of Lent – every day of his life. And, without meaning to sound at all blasphemous or disrespectful of Jesus - the rap coming from his critics seemed to suggest that He represented a version of Fat Tuesday every day of His life.

            The larger point to be made is that neither life – one that appeared outwardly austere or one that appeared outwardly free, could please the expectations of established, organized religion. Why? - Because the rules always change and the goalposts are always on the move. One man’s spirituality is another man’s burden. One man’s freedom is another man’s sin.

            For the Christian – for the one who truly understands the freedom we have in Christ – the freedom for which it was His purpose to live and to die – every day is, if you would, both Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. It is "Fat Ash" if you would...

            Now, do we pay attention to holiness and goodness? Sure, but Jesus told us not to make a show of it. Do we celebrate freedom from rules and endless regulations? Yes, but we are not to make a show of that either. You see, for the Christian who is “getting it” – neither freedom nor holiness is calculated, nor are they separate issues. Freedom and holiness are cut from the same cloth. We are free because we are holy. We are holy because we have been made free. It is a beautiful spontaneity. “Planning” to be holy – to get your “holy on” say…next Wednesday…simply stirs the pot of rebellion in one’s own heart. It is the religious antithesis of the Fat Tuesday phrase: “Let’s go get wasted.” Both are dangerous. The first can make you feel spiritually superior – a very bad thing. The second usually fills you with some sort of regret – also a bad thing. Both are less than what Jesus has in mind for us.

            The last part of the above Scriptures has Jesus saying this: “But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.” In reference to John the Baptist, his wisdom was proven by His austerity. John needed to behave the way he did in order to outduel the religious, judgmental elites of his day. In other words – no one could claim to “out-holy” John. Thus, you find even the Pharisees lining up to get baptized. With Jesus, it was just the opposite. Was He holy? - Absolutely. But where do we find Jesus? He is constantly hanging out with the wrong crowd – the I.R.S. agents, the whores, the hounds and the misfits.

            His first miracle was making about 300 gallons of wine. When a significant portion of your disciples are sailors, wine depletion can be a major problem. Was that a necessary miracle? Yes, especially if you’re out to prove that the popular conception of God has become all twisted up by organized religion. A sermon I heard as a youth  which declared that Jesus had actually made up big vats of grape-juice at the wedding do not take into account the astonishment and pleasure of the Jewish Maitre’d who announced that the best wine had been saved for last.  Who is to question a Jewish wine expert?

            The point is this – being a Christian is not so much pre-planned, as it is simply, lived. Jesus signed up to walk out and work through this life with us, side by side. He makes it up as He goes. Yes, there are some things that are wrong that will always be wrong. There are such things as absolutes and propositional truths. I get that. But there also is a wide-field of freedom where Jesus will take us where we somehow sustain the path of holiness and freedom in the midst of a dark and hurting world. When we once step into that freedom, we will find two things: 1) We will never – EVER – want to go back; and, 2) We will gain a lot of critics – just like Jesus and just like John.  But that won’t really matter. We are designed, as believers, to please only One. Life is good when that becomes our standard. As Jesus said, “Wisdom is proved right (over time) by her deeds.’

            So, with that freedom in mind, let me be the first to announce that our ministry, Patrick Crossing, is declaring a brand new observance for the liturgical calendar. I am going to borrow an insight from a few paragraphs ago and announce the commencement of: “Fat Ash Day.”  I like it. It blends the spontaneity of freedom and the responsibility of holiness. Be sure and tell all your friends so this thing can go viral.

Be well blessed…

-CJ

Merry Christmas!

I was driving around town the other day trying to knock off a number of errands prior to the arrival of holiday guests. Before the day came to an end, I would run fourteen errands. With that much windshield time it was perhaps inevitable that a few things would cross my field of vision that would make it into your inbox.

I have a friend I call fairly regularly with my Durango traffic reports. Basically, these are nothing more than giving eyewitness updates regarding the bumper stickers I am reading while stuck in traffic. I only call with the best. For example, the other day I was following an 80’s era Ford Ranger that was happily belching out its emissions with the following pasted on its bumper: "Fossil Fuels Are Dead." Feel free to supply your own commentary. Normally, I do not swing at such softballs lobbed in my direction.

Yesterday had me reaching for my phone as I sat behind a car that was a rolling display of self-declaration. In the center at the top of the back window was a happy "Save The Whales" picture. Below that and to the left was a sticker that coldly announced: "I hate people!" On the left side of the bumper (where I suppose "bumper" stickers are meant to go) was this gem: "This is what an angry feminist looks like." And, finally - amazing for its endurance - was an old, raggedy "Kerry-Edwards" presidential campaign sticker.

My mind began to engage with each bumper sticker. I was wondering why anyone would care to announce that they were an angry feminist. One would probably figure that out pretty quick without the bumper sticker. And, one would also be wise not to mention it. "Oh...NOW I get it. YOU are one of those ANGRY feminists! That explains a lot!" (Obit: His friends called him C.J. He was 51 years old. He enjoyed cinnamon toast with lots of butter. He is survived by...Services will be held at...etc.)

And this - being a trained philosopher in the Socratic tradition, I wondered what the antithesis of an angry feminist might be? - a happy masculinist??? Hey, count me in. Order me a bumper sticker.

I like whales. And I do agree - people can be very trying, although I try not to hate them. But...with that much driving I also experienced a road-rage incident yesterday that temporarily lured me toward the "hate people" consideration - if only for a moment. Let me set it up for you. One of my errands yesterday was to get our ancient, decomposing old Pug, Moe over to the good folks at Puppy Love whose love for animals is truly St. Francis-like - the man who happily preached the gospel to small woodland creatures. (Perhaps he didn't like people either. We'll never know). Those nice ladies gave Moe a good Christmas bath and adorned his fat little neck with a dashing holiday scarf. As I was waiting at the intersection on my Moe pick-up run, I was happy to be in the front of the line awaiting the green light - a small grace. When it turned green, I eased out into the intersection, heading straight, matching the speed of traffic that was turning left. Evidently, because I didn't lay rubber when the light turned green, the crazed demoniac in the pick-up behind me became undone. I heard a loud, prolonged braying of his truck horn and noticed that both of his hands were off of his steering wheel. Both of those hands were going through the universal signage of displeased driver angst. I have witnessed this in every country in which I have had the pleasure of driving. It is a sign that my wife once scolded me for when we were driving in the Dominican Republic and I had no way of expressing my feelings fast enough in Spanish. It seemed to me an appropriate, short-handed (finger actually) lingua franca. And yes, my sign language WAS understood - no Spanish required. Jan really hates to be wrong.

Anyway...I proceeded through the intersection, giving the gesticulating fellow who was now riding my bumper (and still honking - now, little staccato beeps) the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he had an emergency. I held fast to that thought for about three seconds. I held it up to the very moment I saw him leave my train and take a hard, fast turn right into the liquor store that I had just passed. Evidently, "beer-thirty" had struck and I can only assume he was anxious they might sell out before he got there.

Yes - I like whales. On that I agree with the earlier mentioned driver - the angry feminist. I have gone whale-watching many times. In fact, Jan and I, along with my daughter Molly and son-in-law Erick, have gone sea-kayaking and paddled right above a mama whale and her calf. They were wonderful. I have never been flipped-off by a whale - at least not that I'm aware. Although I do remember once seeing a humpback whale, with its long pectoral fins, roll over and sort of wave at a boat I was on. Perhaps we were getting "the fin." I wouldn't have blamed him. Many folks were standing aft, leaning over the back rail and steadily depositing their previously consumed breakfast into the whale's living room.

I do have a point - a Merry Christmas point - with all of this verbal sauntering. Christmas is a reminder that God created everything and called it good - whales and all. According to the narrative, mankind screwed everything up because the word "no" in relation to just one freaking tree was too much. The whales didn't jump out of the ocean and take the forbidden fruit, nor did a mouse or an orangutan. It was us. Scripture tells us in Romans that all of creation "groans" for a restoration to occur that would bring all of creation back to Edenic beauty. The animal kingdom and all of nature suffers because of us. If a whale had a bumper sticker, I doubt that it would say anything all that flattering about mankind. God - at Christmas - began the process of changing it all back.

So - am I saying that God agrees with my angry feminist? Well, yes, at least the whale part. I wouldn't presume to comment regarding God's view of the Kerrey-Edwards ticket, or the angry feminist stuff - but I can guarantee you that God digs saving whales.

And, God digs saving people too. That is where He and the angry feminist would part company. Although, I would venture to guess that He could very well sympathize with that opinion - we being what we are. However, He doesn't hate us. In fact, the Bible tells us this: "But God demonstrated His love toward us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8.

Christmas is the beginning of the story that ends in Christ's death for us on the cross. That is God's mysterious plan that He has undertaken to "Save The Humans." That is His favorite bumper sticker.

I grew up a child of the sixties. While my parents tried their best to blunt the influence of drugs, sex, rock-n-roll, and all of that - it didn't mean for a second that it abated my curiosity. I always felt like I was missing out on something. One of the things I do remember - I think it was from a Coke commercial that ran during that era - was the that sense of a global, hand-holding community of people. Everyone from every nation was holding hands singing along with a beautiful hippie woman these words:

I'd like to build the world a home/and furnish it with love/grow apple trees and honey bees and snow white turtle doves...I'd like to teach the world to sing/in perfect harmony/I'd like to hold it in my arms and keep it company...

Then amazingly, the whole world starts singing in harmony about buying the world a Coke. That was before Coke became evil. Back then, that sugary product managed to bring the world together in a warm moment.

That's the world the world loves: One that is holding hands, singing in harmony, drinking Cokes and raising honey-bees. But that is not the world we live in and we all know it. We live in a world where the desperate need for a six-pack causes one driver to flip off another driver because, what - 7 seconds have been wasted? That's much closer to reality.

Yet, the hippie 60's image, the utopian moment captured in a song of mankind all holding hands is alluring. THAT image of mankind would, for even my angry feminist friend, transform the bumper sticker into "I love people." And some people pull this off - kind of. They are lovers of mankind. They love humanity. But so often - I would say most of the time - they can't lift a finger to help their neighbor. Or better, they will gladly lift a finger if their neighbor doesn't move fast enough through an intersection.

The point is this: God does both. He loves mankind. And, He loves you. You - in all of your craziness, inconsistency, hypocrisy, (Yes, even you are hypocrite! - Me too!) sin, self-centeredness - He loves you through it all. Read this - 700 hundred years....700 hundred years before Christmas, a man by the name of Isaiah was given a prophecy about Jesus that was so accurate it is breathtaking. I quote at length:

Isaiah 53

¹ Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this? ^2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.^7-9He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off— and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true. ¹⁰Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him. ^11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly— the best of everything, the highest honors—Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep. "

And that's it - that is the Christmas message. You are loved. You were worth a visit from heaven. You were worth suffering and dying for. Hold that close to your heart, embrace it, revel in it - and your life will change forever.

Much Love & Merry Christmas,

CJ