Crossings Christmas 2018 Part 2

Intro

?Sears wishboox

Info

Issue here is… (Solomon…)

More is not better, it’s just more

certainly can have too much of a good thing

illus

It’s not just an issue of too much—give real attention to the options:

1 handful vs. 2 comehow equals peace vs. striving.

** WHy is this teh choice? IOW, ehy can’t the choice be 1 handful of peace vs 2 handfuls of peace (or some other good stuff)

** Solomon’s experience

Key to grasping—how many hands? Completely occupied w/ pursuit—whatever that pursuit is. No margin, no quality—and most importantly, nothing left of you given to the invisible things where life matters most

*** Illus e: inner things / invisible things—nothing left to experience those most critical things--

Completely absorbed w/ accumlation!!

Gets even more clear—definition of “peace”

word (HEB) literally has idea of sitting down

sitting w/ Kim teh other day—guess I was bouncing leg or something—pointed to nervouse energy—said, just not used to sitting down ad being finished so early

??better illus

REall illuminating here--

Exodus 20:11 ESV

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Why sabbath? Some things don’t end in life—yo ujust have to stop.. IOW—sometimes enough has to happen inside when everything around yo usays it’s not

wish book

refilling bowl, open chocolate

Kim w/ chips

????** Sometimes the problems we experience are the discomfort of excess, but often the problem is the ache that leads to the excess—just won’t get “settled”

Implications

Christmas exposes all this—becomes so much more obvious

sale papers (job is to keep the top open to show yo uhow much more)

Numbers “murmerers”

Cf. Tony re: shoes

CF. Hoover shooter

CF. Jeff—not just thievery—dui, pot possession, traffic arrests…—just disturbance in culture

“Tis teh season to notice the empty hand

Fascinate to consider this—several epiodes of revival and reform in Israel—first thing to be restored—Sabbath

(here “ache that leads to excess”??)

cf lunch eating chips

cf issue of not “why eating” but “why not eating”...

The drive inside can be deadly

3 Questions—thinking of gifting, wanting, purchasing, and even the other aspects of two-fisted ???

1- What are you getting w/ what you get (IOW—what deeper thing after)

don’t get into naval gazing, but almost always after an experience)

(relationship, smile, joy, significance, acceptance, feeling appreciated, etc) ** issue—being after these things is sometimes driving you, and you think it’s about teh thing when it’s really about the thing that the thing does for you) **It’s not that yo uought to feel bad about this—but sometimes God is looking at yo uand thinking, “I hurt for you—you’re just aching inside, and don’t realize why it’s never quite enough, so your answer keeps being more, and you’re disappointed…, get frustrate and hurt b/c people don’t seem to appreciate enough—all because it’s not about ahet you’re getting with what you’re getting

Isaiah 55:1–2 The Message

1 “Hey there! All who are thirsty, come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway—buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money—everything’s free! 2 Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest.

2- What are you getting with what you’re getting that you don’t realize is part of the package?

LIfe complicated—filled with weeds

obligation (pet pony, pet fish, etc—smell, food bill, need for attention, keeps growing needing more of your space) (future expense, spent energy, baggage of guilt, debt

*** Never realized that some of these things are in your life b/c part of teh package of things you actually were after—not realizing that it was never about the thing to begin with, and never realizing that yo ucan’t have the one without the other, or yo usimply didn’t appreciate teh weight of what it woiuld feel like)

3- WHat are you missing because of what you’re getting

opioids

teh kid who came to sit in the seat you were saving for your best friend on the bus)

replacement, distortion

CF. chips for lunch??

** Cf. calorie density

** Cf. high glycemic index—in this cycle of surge and drop—going froom hype to hype—how is a pair of shoes worth shooting or being shot at??

BUt you’ve got a version of crazy-wanting too!

Learn to celebrate / maximize the good things (stop and enjoy for a littel while—cf impact of eating while watching tv

Make a choice to cultivate the better things (What if rather than adding 699 more wives and concubines, Solomon had just cultivated…; what if sabbath in the simple garden out back—what if not always focused on what was missing

Start seeing past the choice—see the deeper desire and ask how best to get (maybe this is cultivate) (and start weighing teh unintended consequences differently)

??Rom6