My daughter recently had her first birthday. For her birthday I made her a wooden rocking horse. She didn’t ask for a wooden rocking horse. She didn’t really ask for anything, she was just turning one. But I’d seen her play with one and I saw the great excitement in her eyes!

Of course, she had played with lots of toys her ‘play-date’ friends had, and she liked them too. The plastic, loud, battery-using, sing- songy toys that always end up breaking in a few months...you know the kind. I could have bought her one of those. But I love my daughter a lot, and I wanted her to have, not only something that would last for years to come, but also something that would remind her of her dad. Something that would remind her of me not only when she played with it… but years later when this wooden horse is passed down to her own kids.

Matthew 7:11 says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gift to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gift to those who ask him!”

God wants to give us good gifts! He knows there may be bright, flashy things in the world that we think would make us happy for a little while, like the plastic battery-using toys my daughter thinks she wants, but he chooses to give us a gift that will last a lot longer… for eternity, and not just a gift for us, but one that we can pass on to our children. A gift filled with love, filled with everything that He is. A gift that reminds us of our Father every time we think about it. And this time of year, all the world begins to think about that gift. A gift that is so much more than a wooden horse.

However much I labored, in love, making that horse for my daughter, it will never compare to the total love we received when God sent His only begotten Son, as an infant, to this world to save us all.

As you give and receive presents this Christmas season, remember the reason we give gifts in the first place…. And remember Matthew 7:11

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gift to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gift to those who ask him!”

My wife and I found out, this week, that the baby we are having in November (due on the 25th...Thanksgiving Day!) is a little girl! At least they will say 99.9% certain that it will be a girl. They have to leave themselves an “out” in case they missed any anatomy...but from the view we got in the ultrasound...I agree with them totally. And both Sarah and I are extremely excited to be having a little girl.

As soon as I found out we were having a baby earlier this year I noticed certain worries and concerns that I had not noticed before. Like, “Is our house secure against break in?” or, “Do we need to sweep the house for anything dangerous before baby gets here?”. A protection instinct kicked in. And when I found out we were having a little girl...other thoughts kicked in. Like, “How will we keep her from wanting to dress overly-revealing in high school? (yes I know it’s a bit far off yet, but still!)”, and, “What are the best things I can teach her so that she grows up with wisdom?”, and “Do I even know how to parent?”.

These thoughts are likely normal for expecting parents, but I am also beginning to see glimpses of understanding, which I’m sure will deepen, about how God loves us. In talking with Sarah we are sure that one benefit of having children (among many) is the deepening realization of what God’s true love looks like.

We began to understand sacrificial love when we married. But our ‘significant other’ had, at least, already lived 20 or 30 years of independent life. Having a new baby introduces not only a hugely sacrificial love...but truly a dependant love. Blood of our blood, flesh of our flesh. And we seek with all our heart to raise her to be spirit of God’s spirit.

I am for-warned that there will be challenges. I know that there will be arguments as well as wonderfully happy times. And both Sarah and I look forward with anticipation to learning more deeply the love our Father, God, has for us, through the love we will experience being mother and father for our new little one.

We are at the end of the year and this is always a bit of a sad time around Campus House. We spend nine months being part of the students lives on a day to day basis. Whether one of the students come into to my office to talk about something important, or we stop while walking across campus for a conversation in the library, or we head out for a midnight steak ‘n shake run, a lot of life-sharing happens in those months between August and May. And so it is a bit sad to realize that though I may hear from them a couple times over the summer, I won’t have that day to day involvement in their lives, that day to day opportunity to watch them grow in their faith.

But, it’s a happy time too. This time of year the staff begin (after a short period of brain dump) looking forward to next year. The lessons series we will focus on, the study we may do, and the leaders we will get to work with. To anticipate with excitement the coming of a ‘new’ year of reaching out to people on Eastern’s campus.

It’s also a time to begin to get to know and integrate our new interns into the work and ministry opportunities here at Campus House. I know I’m looking forward to the fresh ideas that Augie, Naomi, and Seth will bring to our ministry this year.

So, yes, sad in some respects....Happy at the same time, and just another of the many facets of being a campus minister.

I talked yesterday about the idea of “adopting” two of your Facebook friends for a more intentional friendship for the next 30 days. For those of you who weren’t at Campus House let me explain.

We all have people in our friend list (some of them numbering over 1,000!!) that we don’t necessarily think about (or sometimes even care about) at all. So to increase our intentionality in these friendships, let’s take one month and consciously think about being more intentional with just two of them.

For example, you might find out what, specifically, is going on in their lives, and I don’t mean knowing what their status updates are…I mean really finding out what is going on in their lives and then encouraging them accordingly.

Or maybe sending them a message that is just for them…not on their wall…but yes, in their inbox, for them alone.

Or how about asking them to join you for a meal or coffee sometime (if distance allows), and no I don’t mean trying to pick up a date…this is for their benefit not for your own. An exercise in humility as well as intentionality.

So how about it? How about some of us do this for 30 days and see if at the end we feel closer to those two people? See if intentionality makes a difference online as well as offline. Let’s try this together.

So I recently got a new computer in my office. Which is at the same time both exciting and a lot of work! It’s good to start fresh. It’s good to clean away the amazing amount of clutter that ends up on your virtual desktop and in the ‘My Docs’ folder. To start with nothing, and only add what you need.

Yes it is a lot of work to put all of your programs back on the computer, to get your settings right again, to get a bookmark in your browser for football news…but it’s worth it.

So as I sat here going through this process and thinking these thoughts, my mind began to draw the inevitable parallels to our lives.

When I was growing up we moved a lot. I was in 9 different schools by the time I was a freshman in high school. Yes it was hard at times leaving friends, having to make new ones, having to find out where I fit in the social structure of the new school. But it was much like a new computer, in that I could start fresh. Become who I wanted to be. Take on only what I wanted, and leave the rest behind. Not to mention I had to ‘learn’ how to put on the software for new social interactions…and I got good at it.

The beauty of each new year, and maybe even each new semester, is that excitement about starting again. During Christmas break everything from the past semester is…well... past, and the stuff from coming semester is… yes you guessed it, still coming…it’s new. And in this newness each year/semester what are you going to install differently in your life?

You can start clean, you know.
Wipe away what was before.
Add only what you want to become.

And if you’ve begun to pick up on the spiritual overtones I’m hinting at here, good for you. Because it’s as true there as it is in any social/physical realm.

When you put your life in Christ, all the old clutter can be wiped away, you can start clean. Check out 2 Corinthians 5:17. Just like getting a new computer…or moving to a new school…or starting a new semester… yes, it can be a lot of work, but at the same time, it can be the most exciting thing you’ve ever done!