Ugly Thoughts

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

I love Thanksgiving. I hope all of you had a great one.

We went to Tucson to spend the time w/ Sara’s family.

Her dad, brother and fam.

I think Thanksgiving is the perfect guy holiday.

Sleep in. Get up in the morning and start eating.

Sara put out a Charcuterie board.

Whatever that means. Veggie tray, cheese & crackers, Meat.

We start early.

When the dumb parade is finally over, football starts. All day.

The Lions get killed and the Cowboys disappoint. Every year.

But, it’s football. Then a night game.

So we eat, watch football, fall asleep, wake up, rinse and repeat. Until it’s time to go to bed.

Tell me how the day could be made better?

Then, it’s right into the Christmas season.

There is so much good and beauty about the season.

I love the decorations. Linda, everyone did such a beautiful job w/ the church.

Sara does beautiful work in our house.

Throughout the month there are extra parties, more time w/ family and friends, and all sorts of special events that include more food, more to drink, and desserts!

Oh the sugar!

This is the time of year when so much beauty comes out.

But it’s also the time of year when so much ugly comes out.

Sweaters! Am I right?!

But sweaters aren’t the only ugly things to come out during the Christmas season.

All those beautiful things have an ugly side.

I love seeing our house decorated. I hate bringing the boxes of decorations out of storage, up the stairs, one at a time, 100 boxes and bins of Xmas. Then, all the stuff Sara takes down go into the boxes and bins and I have to carry them back downstairs.

Bah humbug!

The thoughts going thru my mind!

Do we really need all this stuff? Is there a Jesus in here anywhere?

If the house burned down I’m not saving any of this stuff.

The mind goes.

The food is so good. And the desserts! The sugar!

This is the time of year when we measure our weight not by lbs, but my seconds. IOW. stand in front of a mirror, stomp your foot hard, and count the number of seconds it takes for things to stop jiggling.

The thoughts that go thru your mind about how you look and how you feel. After that second or third dessert do you really feel good?

We can always buy larger sweaters.

New Year’s resolutions are already being planned for the diet and exercise because we’ve eaten so much this month.

Swear we will cut back. Wait, is that chocolate?

And do you know how much sugar is in the adult beverages you’re drinking? Eggnog?

Rum. They take the sugarcane, water it up, wring it out and call it rum.

Wine. It’s not hard liquor. It is calorie laden!

And you know alcohol is a stimulant, right? It may knock you out but you won’t sleep well. It will keep you up at night.

We overeat, maybe over drink, can’t sleep at night, and tomorrow you’re going to be in a house full of your favorite relatives!

That is a recipe for disaster.

The thoughts that go thru your mind.!

If you have the self-control to keep your thoughts to yourself, by the time New Years rolls around you will be an emotional wreck.

Ugly thoughts will mess you up. Is it time to be thinking of another New Year’s resolution about what you think about your family?

If you let those thoughts out of your head and off your teeth, napalm didn’t do as much damage as you can do to your family.

So, then, your thoughts about yourself, thoughts about your family, lack of sleep, feeling more stuffed than your Thanksgiving bird; maybe it’s time to tell your best friend what they’ve needed to hear for a long time.

It’s your responsibility as their friend.

So another New Year’s resolution. Find a new best friend.

The scorched earth damage that can be done during the most wonderful time of the year.

Either we implode or everything around us explodes.

All b/c of the ugly thoughts that can come to mind during the season.

Is there a Jesus in here anywhere?

We come by this naturally. We are naturally a negative lot. All of us are drawn to assume, observe, and think about what’s wrong.

The reason for all the gatherings, all the food, all the desserts, all the parties is Jesus’s birthday. It’s a monthlong baby shower.

Focus on the Nativity.

B/C, the nativity will take away our negativity and bring beauty out of the ashes we create when we let our ugly thoughts scorch the earth around us.

This is not the easiest thing for us to do. But b/c of what Jesus did, beginning with His birth, he made hard things like this possible.

That’s what the Nativity represents. Making hard things possible.

Mary conceived w/out being intimate w/ a man.

Joseph loved her and married her anyway, w/out becoming so jealous he couldn’t.

Jesus was born healthy, in a stable, w/out the help of a midwife, Mary’s mom or aunt or any other woman, just Joseph.

The germs, the sites, and smells; the ugliness of the place.

God did the impossible. He took something that was naturally ugly and made it beautiful w/ the birth of His Son, our Savior.

Let’s start w/ out we start out. Why are we naturally prone to negativity and ugliness.

Who We Were

Romans 6:6–7 NIV

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Our old self.

When we were born, we were born like this, w/ this part of us that is drawn to the negative views of ourselves and those around us.

Whatever we think of ourselves, we make every effort to make everyone else seem like less that us.

That’s what makes us slaves to sin, slaves to the ugliness that scorches the earth. Deep down inside we don’t like ourselves. We know there is something important missing.

So, the natural tendency is bring everyone else around us down into the ugliness.

Only the truly humble have an accurate view of themselves. But that requires strong sense of ID and self worth that are not part of our old self.

But there is a reason why we don’t have an accurate view of ourselves until we believe what the nativity represents.

2 Corinthians 3:14 NIV

But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.

There is veil that covers our ability to accurately see the truth.

We have friends who, when we met them, the husband was a Christian but the wife was not.

He tried for years to get her to believe in Jesus. He showed her bible verses, took her to church when she’d go, tried everything.

It wasn’t working.

We moved in and started a small group among our neighbors and he convinced his wife to come along and join us.

The first few weeks she would sit in a chair, body language communicating clearly she did not believe this stuff and leave her alone.

Over time she softened. And eventually came to Christ, we all celebrated.

A short time later, Sara was leading a women’s BS that our friend was, they are discussing a passage, kind of an ordinary thing, when all of a sudden our friend, the new Christian, shouted out, “Oh my!”

What? She remembered the passage they were studying that day as one of the passages her husband would use to show her who Jesus is.

She couldn’t it then.

That day she said, “That is what it means! Jesus is the Messiah.”

Then she could see it b/c the veil had been removed.

Sometimes we get frustrated w/ the ppl around us b/c we wonder why they can’t see what seems so obvious to us.

They can’t. They can’t until Jesus does a work on their mind, removes the veil so they can.

One of the reasons our thoughts can be so ugly is b/c we can’t think of any other good options.

Something has to change. And the Nativity brings the agent of change who gives us a way to see more options other than just the ugly ones.

What Jesus Does for Us

Romans 12:2 NIV

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Nothing changes until our mind and mindset changes.

Remember, our mind is made up of our head and heart. It is our intellect and emotion.

Our mind is our evaluator. We evaluate every situation and option before us. We evaluate ourselves w/ the same.

Then, our will always chooses what our mind determines t/b our best option.

When you go out to buy a new car. Think about how your choices get evaluated.

Intellectually and emotionally.

Either a mini-van or PU truck. How about an SUV compromise?

A new Corvette, red. Pretty much all emotion.

Nothing intellectual about me buying myself a new Corvette.

Or how you evaluate whether or not to have that second piece of Xmas pie. Or another drink. What is your best option?

What will it do for you?

Or, what’s the right thing to say when your son-in-law says the other political party is the only one that can solve our country’s biggest problems?

How do you evaluate that? Before or after that 2nd piece of pie and drink?

Maybe you should just keep you mouth shut and let your daughter handle it.

So you see how important it is that your mind be renewed so Your new self can evaluate things entirely differently.

Jesus transforms our mind so we can have better thoughts that don’t become a problem when they leak out into our words and actions.

Our renewed mind resembles Jesus’s mind.

Philippians 2:3–5 NIV

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

We can have the same mindset as Jesus.

What kind of mind evaluates situations and determines it’s best to be humble and value others above ourself?

The passage goes on to describe what Jesus did for us.

He left heaven in the first place. No tears, no pain, no problems. Streets paved w/ gold for streets lined w/ pine needles and potholes.

He left the presence of God to be in the presence of us.

Not really an upgrade.

He could have just strolled up on the scene. He did that a few times in the OT.

He showed up here thru the birth canal.

Due respect, I have an idea of how painful that is for moms. I think I’m glad we babies have no memory of our own birth.

He could have been executed in a more humane way. The Romans had a number of methods of execution. If the ACLU had anything to say about it, it would not have been nearly so brutal.

Jesus did all that for us. His mind did not need t/b renewed. It came that way. And He evaluated his best option to make that sac for us. So, he willingly chose to do it.

That’s what our renewed mind allows us to do. It changes what we think so we can change what we choose to do and say. Which may end up costing us and that’s okay.

So, when you see baby Jesus in the Nativity, remember his sac began as soon as he arrived.

Even w/ a renewed mind we have a battle on our hands. While our old self died w/ Jesus, we still have the remnants of the ugliness and sometimes it wins a battle or two in our minds.

The Fight for our Minds

2 Corinthians 10:3–6 NIV

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

It is still a fight. We are fighting for the lives of our marriages, families, and personal health; both emotional and physical.

We have strength we didn’t have before. Other resources, too, that help in the battle.

But a tool is only good if you use it the way it’s supposed t/b used.

We can take every thought captive. We control what we do w/ the thoughts that come into our minds.

We cannot allow ugly thoughts to gain a foothold in our minds. If we let them gain a foothold, before long it becomes a stronghold.

Our thoughts ugly become a stronghold when we meditate them. We can become mired in the ugliness when they dominate our minds.

Thoughts come into our minds for different reasons. They can just pop in.

When the ugly thought first arrives it may not even be a problem. The problem comes when decide to chew on that thought for a while.

A thought becomes an idea. And an idea becomes a fantasy.

And that fantasy can take us down an ugly rat hole and burn us up from the inside out.

This is the way we can fight this battle and win.

Philippians 4:4–8 NIV

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

When Paul wrote think about these things, what he meant was meditate on them. Chew on them. Like a cow chewing its cud.

If we’d chew this stuff as much as we chewed all those extra Xmas desserts we’d feel a lot better about ourselves.

Joy is a choice. Gentleness is a choice.

Anxiety producing activities are choices, too. Asking God for help is a choice that helps fight the anxieties of the season.

When we are at peace, when our thoughts are peaceful, our words and actions produce peace.

The angels announced at Jesus’s birth that peace had come to the earth. We have peace when we live our lives for Christ while using the mindset of Christ for our best responses.

When an ugly thought comes into your mind, get rid of it. Don’t give it any more space in your life. Evict it. It’s a lousy tenant.

We’ve got such limited space up there. We can’t allow any freeloaders or thoughts that cost us more than we have to give.

Replace it w/ good stuff. A song. A bible verse. A good memory about something God has done in your life.

Some things Jesus does for us. Some we have to do for ourselves. But even in these that we have to do, Jesus has given us the tools to be successful.

There’s one more thing Jesus does for us that we can celebrate this season.

Beauty from Ashes

When an adult Jesus first announced he was ready to go into ministry, the first thing he did was go to the synagogue, and like all the other men he was given the chance to read from the OT.

He chose this passage:

Isaiah 61:1–2 NIV

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,

Everyone in the room knew this was a OT passage that was about the Messiah who was yet to come.

Jesus sat down and added, “Today this prophecy has come true for you, in me.”

Clearly a claim to be the Messiah.

The baby, born to Mary, Joseph’s boy, the carpenter. They saw him grow up. They knew he was a special kid, but Messiah, come on!

Jesus went on to prove He is Who He claimed to be that day.

And, there is one more verse He did not read that day, but tells us one more thing he does for us. They knew what came next, now we do, too.

Isaiah 61:3 NIV

and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

When ugly thoughts enter our minds and we let them leak out in the form of ugly words and actions, we scorch the earth around us.

We burn up our marriages and burn thru our finances. We explode our families and friendships.

When we allow ugly thoughts more space in our minds than they deserve. And when we meditate on them, fantasize about them. And even if we don’t let them out, they burn us up. We implode.

Whether ugly thoughts about what we see in the mirror, or ugly thoughts we have about our friends. They destroy us.

No one else may ever know we have them.

At the end of the season, all that may be left are the ashes like the residue in our fireplaces and pellet stoves.

One of the beautiful things this little baby does for us, even if we burn up everything around us, he can redeem it and restore it.

There is not a broken marriage, family, or friendship that he can’t fix when everyone gets their minds renewed and uses them for all their worth to take captive every ugly thought, throwing them out, chewing on only good thoughts, remembering the sac Jesus made that began in the manger; that lead us to make similar sac’s for each other.

The nativity can take away all you negativity, take the ashes left from the destruction you created and still make beautiful things.

That may be the best gift you could give anyone for Christmas.

Applications

Every thought

Take every thought captive. Do not give any more space in your brain to any ugly thoughts.

You can control what you do with these thoughts.

If an ugly thought enters, send it out right away. The moment you give it a second thought is the moment it begins to burn you.

You have to ability to send it away. Get rid of it.

Something positive

Once you have emptied your mind of the ugly thought, you have to have something good to replace it with.

Otherwise, the ugly thought can come right back.

Memorize a bible verse. Turn on Christian music and sing along. Open your bible. Phone a friend.

Maybe like a sponsor in AA, you have a friend you can call who understands you’re just trying to fill an empty space w/ something good.

Have something or someone good close at hand, ready to fill the space you create when you empty out the ugly.

Practice

Practice w/ me, repeat after me: “No thank you.”

Not another helping of Christmas ham, prime rib, homemade sourdough bread or yeast rolls.

No more pie, cookies, cake, or chocolate. (God help me!)

Not another drink.

Have a plan before you go. Stick to the plan. Maybe your friend can help you.

Feel better. Feel better about yourself. Sleep better. Speak better words or stay silent. Be kind and gentle.

Create fewer fires this season.

Make the only ugly thing to come out this year is that old ugly Christmas sweater that embarrasses your wife or kids whenever you wear it in public.

The nativity, takes away all our negativity and makes something beautiful out of the ashes we create when we scorch the earth around us.

Fewer fires. Fewer explosions. Fewer implosions. Less ugliness. More goodness. Will make this the most wonderful time of the year it was meant to be.