Category: Joy

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Go Ahead…Tell It

Tell it

Tell it again

Tell of the night our redemption began

 

Sing it

Sing it again

There’s joy now and hope for all men

Tell it again

 

Those are the words to the chorus of a song we recently sang in my church’s annual Christmas cantata.

It seems this time of year is one that lends itself to keeping secrets as we try to surprise our loved ones with just the right gift. I will never forget answering the phone one December to hear these words, “This is Sears. Your ping pong table is in.” Well, there went that surprise! At age 10, I was both excited and devastated by this phone call. I gave the message to my mom, minus some detail, and put on a pretty good act when the ping pong table was unveiled on Christmas morning. That very same ping pong table now resides in my basement. I find that it makes for a wonderful place to wrap gifts!

Unlike the ping pong table, there is a gift that isn’t meant to be kept secret. This is not just any gift, it’s the Ultimate Gift—Jesus.

And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Matthew 1:21 NLT

The angel’s words to Joseph were fulfilled in a stable of all places. God gifted us with His Son when Mary gave birth to the long-awaited Messiah. That night changed everything for it WAS the night our redemption began.

I found myself getting choked up every time I sang the words…

Tell it

Tell it again

Tell of the night our redemption began

 

Because of that night there IS joy and hope for all men (and women and children too)! There are a whole lot of people in our midst who are struggling right now. As Pastor Chris often says, “Everybody is dealing with something.” Does someone you know need to hear (or be reminded of) this Good News? Go ahead—tell it. Tell it again and again. Keep telling it. Sing it if you wish, but PLEASE don’t keep this a secret! There is a hurting world that needs to know that Jesus is our joy and our hope, the Savior of the world.

Have you heard?

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:16-17 NLT

Have a Merry Christmas as you celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

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The Journey

On Sunday we will celebrate another big milestone in our daughter’s journey through life. These occasions always cause me to be reflective and highly emotional. As part of my therapy, I had determined to share part of that journey with you through my writing. I found that was easier said than done yesterday. I didn’t know where to start and where to stop. After many hours and countless words, I scrapped the whole thing and went to bed late last night. The truth is, I cannot condense what we’ve been through with Hillary in her 21+ years to a blog post. It deserves a book! Maybe someday….

For those unfamiliar with her story, Hillary Jayne is our miracle baby. You’ll have to wait for the book to fill in the gaps, but I’ll paint the big picture now. She was diagnosed with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) in the womb. The hole in the left side of her diaphragm allowed her abdominal organs to come up into her chest cavity and take up the space where her left lung was to be developing. She was given a 50% chance of surviving IF she was born in the right place at the right time. By the grace of God, she was. She came out fighting and has been fighting ever since! Hillary had her hernia repair surgery when she was 6 days old and spent the first 88 days of her life in intensive care at Allegheny General Hospital. I remember the neonatologist describing Hillary’s hospital stay as a series of three steps forward and two steps backwards. That’s a net gain of one, right? We’ll take it! Even with the medical advances today, 50% of babies born with CDH do not survive.

CDH isn’t just a hernia. The 50% that do survive live with the threat of complications of it for the rest of their lives, including the very real possibility of reherniation. So, as they say at CHERUBS, the CDH Support Group, “Just because the hole is fixed, doesn’t mean the battle is over.” For instance, Hillary recently spent a whole year on three high-powered antibiotics to rid her good lung of a serious mycobacterial infection that was indirectly related to her CDH. It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Hillary. Far from it! I guess that’s what makes each milestone that much sweeter!

I believe God has lessons for us in each of our life experiences. Nothing comes to us without a purpose. Without question, Hillary’s story is the experience that has had the greatest impact on my life. I look at life differently now because I realize just how precious it is. Each day is a gift from God, not to be taken for granted. In the words of Jesus:

I have come so they can have life. I want them to have it in the fullest possible way.”  

John 10:10b NIRV

Jesus went to the greatest of lengths to give us life. It would behoove us to make the most of it. Let’s not squander today, for tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. Live life….enjoy it…celebrate it…and give God thanks for it!

On Sunday we will celebrate the college graduation of our precious daughter. This milestone, like every other one before it, will be magnified times one hundred because of the journey that brought her here. I couldn’t be more proud. She has overcome so much adversity in her 21+ years and has excelled in spite of it all. Or perhaps BECAUSE of it all. When they call Hillary Jayne Leipold on Sunday and she crosses the stage with numerous cords and medallions draped around her neck to collect her diploma, her devoted fan base will be there leading the cheering. That is, all except her mother who will be too choked up to muster a WooHoo!

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Harmony + Melody = Heavenly Music

It all started a few days before our church’s annual Christmas cantata when a good friend shared a humorous post on my Facebook timeline poking fun at altos. The post was just a short video of a woman singing the alto part all by herself. It wasn’t pretty, but not because she couldn’t sing. The problem—-the melody was missing. A melody can stand alone and create a simple song, but harmony alone is just not appealing to the ear. However, if you add harmony to the melody, a stronger and more beautiful sound is created. The song is made complete. The friend that shared the video with me summed it up well in the commentary that followed that post. She said, “Without an alto it’s just a melody. How boring.”

Earlier this month I spent a large part of one weekend at my church singing alto in the annual Christmas cantata. We performed it once on Saturday and twice on Sunday. In the midst of it all, God delivered a very timely and special message through my current reading plan in YouVersion. It’s called “The Magic of Christmas” and that Sunday’s devotion was written by Cory Draper. He says, “A melody is what gives a song its body. A harmony is what gives that body a soul.” When I read those words, I had to pause a moment and let them sink in.

Think of each of us as individual songs, a collection of notes strung together one after another. We were created by God, but without Jesus we are incomplete. Sin entered this world when Eve bit into the forbidden fruit and has run rampant ever since. Sin separates us from God. Because of His unparalleled love for us, God the Father put His redemption plan in motion by sending God the Son, Jesus, to earth. Through Jesus’ birth, sacrifice, and resurrection, we are brought into harmony with God. This (re)union of notes makes for a more full and beautiful sound. Our songs are made complete through faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room….

 

Are you singing it yet?

May Jesus bring joy to your world as you make room to receive Him in your heart this Christmas!

(adapted from my Christmas letter)