the winter returns

so apparently winter has finally arrived to chicago. i saw the first flakes of snow as i walked to my car sunday to drive to work at 6am, the air was crisp, not much was stirring, and i was reminded of god. i was reminded of him b/c usually on sunday mornings He can be far from thought with the hustle and bustle of running a church. i find that i often loose myself in worship long before i step in thru the office doors. anyway yesterday was the first "really cold" morning. the first time you really needed to break out the hat, gloves and heavy coats. i love "that" morning... it marks the official start of christmas in my mind, it marks the season's change, and it marks the  bitter and dark days to come. for me it also marks a slowing down of pace, the beginning of time inside and quiet. it naturally brings a close to the "we should do something outside" season and allows for the "lets go sit in a coffee shop and read season" it's awesome. this is one of those mornings. we're sitting in dollup, one of chi-town's finest little establishments...

this whole seasonal thing leads me to more time to sit and think. one thing i've been thinking about a lot lately is our communities here in chicago. they're some of the most segregated in the world. with the recent election of a home-town son, Pres. Obama if you're out of the loop, i'm hoping that an age of equality and unity is dawning. i was reading some press thing somewhere that was talking about the recent events as a sign of the "end times". one person whose charisma and power would unite the whole world under one banner. this commentary was coming from a "christian" who was very scared of all the coming events. it got me thinking... even if that were the case should i be worried? jesus tells us not to worry about anything, to love, to seek peace, and to be united in our worship and devotion to god. christ followers should be the least worried people we know but all to often they're worried about everything and marked by disunity. i just don't get it. as for the end time worries... news flash.... jesus wins. but to a larger issue that i'm personally dealing with when it comes to our lives in this world, it's the issue of love. jesus came as the ultimate sacrifice of love. he came to love with literally everything he was and had. how would he like us if he sat across the table or the isle in most of our churches today. i fear he'd find a place that worship's worship, lives in disunity, loves to pretend to love but really fears everything different or scary. i'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to this. i'm comfortable with my version of life, but realize that it's so very narrow. how selfish i/we've become. i think in general all sin and most of the negative issues in my life come back to just simply being selfish. so what do we do? 

here's what i'm coming up with... worship god. it's not about the music, the style, how we "feel" or don't feel. it's about god. he's GOD, have we missed that? when we worship from that fact all of our lives have a whole lot more point to them. when we give god his proper place it's a whole lot harder to be selfish, i'm still pretty good at it, but at least it's a step. it's really all his anyway. 

this has been a big hot mess of a post so if you're still reading my apologies. it's more of a personal devotion/reflection than anything else. much love friends, worship god b/c he is...