Okay, I cannot lie. Monday, January 4th, 2010 was a huge downer for me… Since there was actually no catastrophe I should should probably back that up a bit-I was a bit bummed. I found it surprisingly difficult to get back into the swing of things, mostly because I had the most amazing time off. Lots of relaxing days with dear friends, family, great food, a lot of snow, too much shopping and football watching, lingering time with God, deep conversations, much needed rest – just an overall amazing break. Strange how this past Monday loomed over me simply because of one small word. Work.

So I was testy on Monday, right on the verge of snappy really. Just not ready to get back to the grind. And when I say grind, I am grateful for the grind I have, but it’s work nonetheless. So for anyone who might be feeling just a bit the same way – whether it’s back to the office, the airport, the house, the computer, the phone, here’s what I saw this morning in Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

I love the phrase “take care of”, “keep”, even “dress” in some versions. I was reminded of this last night when I helped a friend move her 92 year-old aunt from PA to Nashville. I picked her up from the airport and got to help her into an assisted living apartment just hours after she had said goodbye to her home of 40 years. When I hung up her Pennsylvania London Fog coat and helped her find the “Republican Station” on television (I think she meant FOX News), I got the feeling that this might be the most important hour of my year so far. The wisdom and longevity of this woman and the opportunity to tend to her in some small measure were timely blessings. I will get to know her more in days to come but I’ve already discovered that she has handwritten most of the Bible and stores the pages in shoeboxes. When I asked her how she has stayed so healthy, she thought about it a while and then looked up and smiled, “It’s the Lord.” She also told me that Nancy Pelosi had great posture and that she just loved to watch her walk… I am making no political statements here, just loved the irony and sentiment of these comments while the Republican station bellowed from the background. It was a privilege to serve her.

As a woman, I feel that I have this innate desire to dress and keep and tend and take care of, even when this feels exhausting. Yes, you can drop your kids off at my house 🙂 This “tending” excites me, despite how much I’d love to stay frozen in Christmas vacation for another month. I hated to leave the East Coast snow and the scent of my Christmas Tree and wrap up the lights and put away the ten tons of sweets (because my Dad likes to say, ‘it’s not what you eat between Thanksgiving and Christmas that’s the problem, it’s what you eat between Christmas and Thanksgiving’), but there are things to be dressed, people to be tended, hearts to be nursed, souls to be invited in 2010…After last night, I’m just about ready to get back at it. Thank you Lord for the gift of dressing and keeping. Give us the strength.

Meet some of my favorite girls from The Next Door in Nashville, TN. My friend Mary Katharine (far right) and I have been teaching a Bible study here this semester to four amazing women who are overcoming addiction (one is not pictured). We are having the best time! And two of our other friends April and Paige have their own group as well so it’s a mid-week party really!

God really spoke to me in the summer of ’08 to start engaging in my local community. I had heard The Next Door was a Christian organization for women who had recently gotten out of prison and were working diligently to enter back into free society. The director told me she needed someone to teach on Wed nights so I figured I’d have the roughly 60 women who live there in my class. When I got the list there were only FOUR names! I have to be painfully honest in admitting that this didn’t seem like the best use of my time (again, this is a shameful thing to admit, but if a blog isn’t about honesty, what would be the point really).

I had already agreed to the semester so I jumped in with my four girls not sure what to expect. That was about four groups ago, so you can see I’m hooked. And, btw, I refuse to have more than five women in my study if I can help it – that’s how much my mentality has changed. There has been something so powerful about being able to invest on a personal level with these women – and of course they have invested back into the lives of me and my friends. And to see them begin to understand the incredible personal love of Jesus Christ for them is what gives the whole experience meaning. I could go on and on about the changes we have seen as women move from their addictions to truly understanding for the first time that God has cast their sins (and mine) as far away as the East is from the West. And, that He came to heal them from all the abuse that helped set them down the addiction road to begin with.

I know this is a time of year where people are thinking about resolutions and giving and helping and extending their hands. My prayer is that you would consider investing in a new way whether it’s in your church, children’s school, a prison ministry, a relative who needs it, whatever God is putting on your heart. It will cost you, but you will never be the same.

On that note, Merry Christmas from The Next Door!

I just finished my last official dates of the year with Christmas events: hitting Phoenix, Sacramento and finally Houston! After an incredibly amazing and busy year, I am happy to report that I am now sitting on my couch across from my fireplace mostly staring… While taking intermittent breaks from staring I’ve ‘toggled’ between my systematic theology book, Bible, Facebook and SI.com for most of the morning. You would be amazed at how seamlessly Wayne Grudem’s doctrine of miracles goes along with the article on Alabama heading to Pasadina for the national championship.

At any rate, I am hoping some of you have the opportunity to rest during this season. I am committed to it this year. The Lord has been speaking to me out of both the Old and New Testaments about rest. Sabbath rest. There is something exceptionally rich about getting to linger with the Lord; something I have really longed for these past few months.

As well, I am reminded during this season of the very global, yet deeply personal, message of the Gospel. I absolutely love in Luke 1:25 when Elizabeth, who has just become pregnant with John the Baptist, says “The Lord has done this for me!” I remember this really hitting me a couple of years ago, suddenly recognizing that God’s universal will of sending a messenger of the Gospel perfectly intersected with a deeply personal blessing for Elizabeth. Yes, God was sending John the Baptist for the world, but he was also sending him for just her. (and Zechariah). Amazing!

My prayer for us this Christmas season is that we would recognize the message of the Gospel as powerfully global, without forgetting that it is deeply personal. I so believe that God wants to meet you this year. Remember that Elizabeth also continued in the same verse, “In THESE DAYS God has shown His favor.” Because of Jesus Christ we can celebrate that in these very days, the days of December 2009, God has shown, and will show, His favor. Yes, for the world. But mysteriously, for just you and just me.

I hope you will rest and take the time to meditate on all He has done for you personally, even if you’re in a remarkably difficult season. I continue to circle back to Elizabeth and Zechariah’s story who waited such a long time for a child. And yet when the angel appeared to Zechariah in the temple he said, “Your prayers have been heard!”So keep praying, keep resting, and in just the right time, He will accomplish all He has promised.