To Survive This Christmas Season: My End of Year Goal

To survive this Christmas season,

Ending the year with a good reason,

Has become my current goal.

Because I want to be made whole.

But December has proven to be a rough month. Get out your snow boots.

Because I feel a drift coming on.

Thanksgiving was nice,

A time to celebrate

Family, friendships, happy times.

Success is a different story though. The lack of books sales says it isn’t ending with a bang.

As for writing, I don’t feel motivated.

Trials have gotten me down.

Encouragement came, followed by false accusation.

It’s all I can do not to drown in it.

I can’t really tell you how or when or who, but when I feel the heaviness pressing down on me,

I know It’s more than winter blues. It’s what others choose,

Not just what I read in the news,

But other worldly views. Can’t lie in bed

Because it’s hard to get the words out of my head.

Then they come back to haunt me, to taunt me. If you’ve ever had an angry finger pointed at you

Then maybe you know how I feel.

But it’s the start of Hanukkah.

I need to light a candle,

Let it shine. Light divine,

It’s Advent Time. Looking forward to Christ’s return. No room to spurn

The memory of His coming.  Much to learn.

He’s coming soon.

Look up, your redemption

Draws near. Have no fear, because this is meant to be a time of good cheer.

To survive this Christmas season

I can’t allow the treason

Of sins past, present, or future

To cloud my way. It’s a good day.

Blessings new every morning, though there come a storm warning.

To survive this Christmas season

Takes more than human reason.

So, lift your eyes. Deny the shame.

It’s time to rejoice. Lift up the name.

Jesus came once. He’ll come again. It’s more than just a season. He’s the reason.

 

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A Lump For a Bump: Hezekiah’s Pain

Hezekiah had an oily bump, the kind they call a boil,

But he wouldn’t let the boil throw him in turmoil.

He heard the mean Assyrian king who kept on threatening

To take his people from the land, a woeful song to sing.

 

Sennacherib was the king’s name and he played a cruel game.

He said, “I’ll cart you to my country where the fruit’s the same

As what you eat in your land.” But Judah’s king did not a agree.

He knew that God was greater and refused to bow the knee.

 

The evil message that he heard was obviously a trick,

Though knowing that did not keep Hezekiah from getting sick.

The king, he had a boil you see, and it was quite a bump.

To nuke that horrible mean bump He had to have a lump

 

Of something greater than the poison ringing in his ear,

For the enemy’s toxic words were more than he could stand to hear.

They threw doubt on him. Then Isaiah told him he would die.

The prophet’s ominous prediction caused the king to cry.

 

He didn’t cry for medicine, but God sent it to him.

To get that medicine did not require a holy hymn.

To nuke the bump, he didn’t have to have some special oil,

Nor did he have to sweat like Adam, toiling in the soil.

 

He simply looked to God to meet his need and fry the bump,

After which came the prophetic word, the sign and then the lump

Of figs that came straight from a tree God never had to curse

But which contained a medicine whose power could reverse

 

The bitter sickness that had caused the man such loathsome pain.

Reminds me of the fruit of righteousness, which brings great gain.

Such righteousness is something we do not sweat to obtain,

 

“But freely come and buy! Without money you may eat

From the tree of life that makes the foulest water sweet.

The foulest hurts you’ve suffered it has power to defeat.

 

Scripture references: Isaiah chapters 37, 38, and 55; Exodus 15:23-26; Galatians 3:13