What's Goin' On?

Wow....It has been a busy past several days. We moved into a new house all the week after Thanksgiving. With Johanna and I both working during the day, most of the move was done at night and when I could slip away from the office during the day, making for a long, strenous week. Luckily we have some great friends and some great students who helped out and made the load lighter, literally. Also, I have been dealing with some conflict at work that has been really stressful and wearing on me. One of our leadership students has been having some big attitude problems and some repeated problems with language and we've had to deal with taking this student off of our worship team. It has really upset the parents and they can't get past the one thing about the language to see the bigger picture. They feel we are punishing her for struggling with cursing when it is a bigger issue than that with the attitude problems and repeated language/behavior and all. They also see me as a "dictator" and the only one making the decision when several people have been consulted and we all agree on the decision...I guess you just sometimes can't get people to see your side so they will misunderstand the process. My prayer in all this is that this student realizes that we do really love her and want God's best for her. I pray that she realizes that we are motivated out of the love, truth, and grace of Jesus to lead in this way and that she grows from this. But sometimes that is hard to see when you disagree with what is being done....
On another note, I had a great evening on Sunday. We went with two other couples from our church and one of the couples friend's from Austin to go to Burnet to Main Street Bethlehem. Main Street Bethlehem is an incredible "production" of First Baptist Church Burnett during the Christmas holiday season. Basically the church has an entire city block that they have built to replicate the town of Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth. There is a stone wall around the town and it stays up year round. But on the first two weekend in December the church makes it come to life. The people of FBC all dress up as peasants, soldiers, rope makers, tax collectors, shepherds, jailers, basket weavers, and many other characters from the time of Jesus. You can go (after standing in line for a good while) take your own journey through the town, seeing people arrested for failing to pay their taxes, getting a look inside the tavern, smelling the hot bread being cooked (and the camels, donkeys, and sheep). You hear the sounds of that day in street vendors selling their goods, chickens clucking in the background, and the ruccus of the guards and prisoners in the town jail. It really is a production that involves all of the senses and it makes the story and atmosphere that existed at the time of the birth of Jesus come to life. It is a great Christmas present from the church for all who get to come through and experience it and it puts the birth of Jesus in a whole new light. You end your journey touring the inn that was full and going out back to see in the stable (cave), Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. I have been to this a couple times now and each time it really brings to life that fact that we serve a God who spared nothing to show his love for us. Our God is one who stepped out of the realm of heaven and took on the form of a human body, just like us, so he can identify with us. When we deal with stress, hurt, pain, loneliness, temptations, joy, sorrow, happiness, and life's struggles we can rest assured that we have a God who can say "I understand your hurt. I share your pain. I rejoice with you." Whatever the case may be, we have a God who knows....because He's been there. And in my opinion, that's what Christmas is all about.