Well, good morning and welcome back to another podcast edition of Struggling Well. And we are at this point halfway through Advent. I mean it's and I would say this seat this time of the year as you head up to Christmas is anything but ordinary. I mean people with all their lights on their houses, their lights inside, their lights outside.
Jimmy, let's talk about our neighbor who we they're very nice people, but they have so many lights on their house that we've been getting calls from Charlotte Douglas Airport that planes are trying to land on our street because they think it's a runway. And so some of you may have like crazy lights on. That's fun and festive. So we hope that you are enjoying those lights.
Yeah. And so like I said, it's anything but ordinary this time of year.
But if we go all the way back to the when Jesus was born, it was just an ordinary day. It was an ordinary night. And God showed up in the mundane and the ordinary to or ordinary people. I think particularly of the shepherds. I know we can talk about other people, we probably will, but the shepherds were just they were just everyday ordinary men and it was a job nearly nobody wanted. It wasn't high up on the you didn't aspire to go up the ladder, corporate ladder to become the head shepherd.
and they were out in the fields and just like they were many other nights and all a sudden God chose to show up in the ordinary. And I think it's I think it's a great picture for us as we think about our lives today. So many people say, "Ah, it's just another ordinary, mundane day."
You know, I wonder about those guys in the field and when God showed up the way he did, what was their the posture of their heart that they received that and didn't question it? You know, nowadays we're worried there are UFOs and we don't trust anything or anybody, but those guys probably uneducated sitting out there in the field protecting their sheep as they were tasked to do. It's probably handed down family member to family member. They're out there and something within them had them receive that news and see that star and receive it as something beyond them.
Yeah. And it was like the first reaction when the heavens lit up and the angels spoke, their first reaction was to be afraid, which is pretty much the reaction every time angels appear to men in scripture, their fear because they have to tell them don't be afraid,
right?
So, it kind of puts down the whole view of angels as we saw in that TV show years ago, touched by an angel or it's a little figurines that are these cute little angels and everything. They were awesome beings that created fear. But you're right, they I think maybe just like we're told to do, demonstrated childlike faith
that they believed and they went to Bethlehem to see what had happened.
I'm just amazed by that kind of obedience and that kind of stunned wonder that as we are approaching Christmas, there's a lot of a lot of materialism going on. It's just part of the season. We know that. I'm not trying to you know, hawk on how awful that is. We everyone loves a gift, a well-intentioned gift, but their goal was so simple to take care of sheep. All the other clutter of life. I mean, that's what they did. And so along comes this amazing sight to them and they follow it.
Yeah.
With this, you know, reckless abandonment. I mean, how did they get all the sheep with them? Did they all go? I mean, what did that look like?
Yeah. And we don't know. And I think that you know at the end of it after they go and they see Mary and Joseph and the baby lying scripture says that in the shepherds return glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. And it's just like they their lives were never the same,
right?
We I mean we don't know about anything going forward. We don't know if they were in the crowds when Jesus years later was teaching and performing miracles and all the rest. But we're their lives were forever changed. And I wonder how many times we're waiting for something huge and our lives feel mundane. They feel everyday and yet God shows up. And do we even look for him in those everyday days?
And when he shows up and when he does the miraculous and read that part again where you said that afterwards then the shepherds turn.
The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard in and seen as it had been told them.
So these again, not to beat the word, but these ordinary guys, these shepherds see something that is amazing. They see the glory of God and they take that back. We're assuming if they return to where they were from,
they brought that message back. And do we do that when we encounter God through our study time, our quiet time after we've been in a service where we've heard the word of God opened. when we're listening to Christmas music and it and the wonder and the beauty of God incarnate comes to us, what do we do with it?
Yeah.
We go shopping.
Well, yeah. And you know, there's nothing in again,
there's nothing in scripture that makes it seem like they held a rally or they held a big convention or they held a big meeting to tell it's just like in their everyday lives. Then
they went back and in their everyday lives as they encountered people, they told people what they had seen, what they had heard in a way that didn't puff them up, but in a way that I guess that was a divine interruption, right?
No, that was our president-elect asking me if I would run the FBI.
What do you think? Can I
I think that it's
that's just a little joke.
I think it's crazy. I think so too.
so they just did it in everyday life, in everyday situations where they told people what they had seen and what they had heard.
And that's what being a witness to our encounter with Jesus when we accept him as savior, what we're supposed to be doing is telling people what we've seen, what we've experienced in knowing him. It's not about you having to have a Bible background, a theological framework, any of that. It's just where Has Jesus entered into your life in a profound way? I mean, just knowing him is profound to me. Where has he entered into your life that then you can share with your neighbor or the person, you know, that you see at the store that is, you know, trying to you see their confusion or they're being weighed down or whatever. How do we how do we share who we know with people on an ordinary day? So if this is an ordinary day for you, maybe it's a mundane day and you're thinking, "Oh, it's the same old." Look for ways in which God shows up. Look for ways in which you can then relay the message that you've seen and you've heard that he's brought to you.
And before we close, I want to do a shout out to friends of ours that live in Florida. Sue and Shawn. Sue is a faithful listener and she oftenimes sends us a text and tells us what areas of what we've spoken have impacted her and she's a really good woman. She's a faithful woman. She's crazy about her husband and just want to tell her thank you.
Have a great week.