On knowledge, addendum

So seek knowledge, yes.
But what to do when we've found it?

It's a process, agreed, but it is possible to really know stuff. I mean, I know people who know stuff, so I know it's possible.

What then, ennui?

That would be the worst: the weariness that comes from having been there, learned that, can expound upon it from memory. I know the right answers; I have the right angle.

How do we keep from that tired sense of accomplishment?

Having not quite gotten anywhere close, I can't tell you. But I can talk about Christmas.

When I wrote this, I was approaching my 25th Christmas. Not a huge span of time, but O Come, O Come doesn't thrill like it did the first times I really listened to the lyrics. I've thought a lot on the significance of Christmas. I've read articles, essays, heard sermons-- not exhaustively, but enough that Christmas doesn't make my intellectual pulse race like it would if it were new.

So. Now what? Resign myself to a wonderless, forced smile, mental channel changing celebration?

Or be glad for the small things? That the cold, dark night is decorated by little lights? That people sing more at all? That the season with the least sunlight has festivities to break up the monotony? (Can you imagine a post-Christian, non-celebratory winter? ugh.) That children have something to get excited about? That someone can learn a lovely old tradition for the first time?

I furthermore suggest...
For those who really are knowledgeable:
1) teach- pass it on. Be a means of grace.
2) apply- live it... and live it well till the end of your 80. THAT's an accomplishment.
3) defend- fight for it. (eg: Athanasius contra mundum)
4) create- for the propogation, study, admiration of truth- make it beautiful, make it accessible (i'm reminded of a comment I read once saying that growing up, the hymnbook was their catechism. i'd say Michael Card and Dennis Jernigan were some of my early catechists. Lewis and GK and other masters of language my latter ones.)
5) be humble.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men. Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. God is not impressed with worship-less wisdom. ...the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. All the knowledge we can gather does not make us more saveable- its purpose is to make us more glad, more wondrous that we are being saved!

6) be humbly grateful. What do you have that you have not been given? Misusing God's gifts is worse than never having received them. Knowledge- in a vacuum, as an end, not means- puffs up, but love edifies.

TEACH! Joyfully! Exuberantly! Seriously! Freely you have received; freely now give.

So,
Knowledge is a great thing, but it's not the only thing, the main thing, either. It's a means. It's a means. It's a means.
...for worship.
...for right service (worship).
...for right faith/ thinking about God (worship).

It will not be based on our knowledge that God divides us- sheep and goats- at the end of the age, but on how we applied that knowledge. [Do I forget grace?]

Knowledge is a gift... but not a casual trinket. It is, better said, an investment. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power.

The goal of every Christian, especially as regards the "little ones," is to be able to live (even if we couldn't conscientiously say it): "Be imitators of me, as I imitate Christ." And Christ did not stop with speaking wisdom- He was the wisdom of God- for us.

Yeah. That'll deflate your puffed-upness real quick. Be imitators of me...
...as I study and question (like Christ in the temple)
...as I rejoice and teach (like Christ schooling the disciples on boats, mountains, and country roads)
...as I wash dirty feet (like the Rabbi in a certain upper room.)

dear humanity,

Dear humanity,

I believe we´ve watched enough Disney movies by now to have learned that Christmas is not all about the gifts under the Christmas tree. I´d like to humbly suggest the following to the "Christmas is not all about..." list.

"Christmas is not all about..." LIST:
- gifts underneath the Christmas tree.
- how much you give.
- family.
- togetherness.
- happiness.

Because if Christmas were all about family and warm fuzzies, well, not much of a gift to all the dysfunctional families made of hearts too cold and numb for all that jazz. And if it´s about how much you give, what if you´re a good-for-nothing mess of a person too poor and needy and unstable to give jack? What if you´ve driven off all who love you? What if they´re dead or too busy? What if you´re not enough to keep a crowd? What if you´ve failed all those you could´ve loved? What if you´re Scrooge... but too broke and handicapped to reform?

Well, then, have Christmas, even if it´s not too merry.
Christmas is... Christ´s mass.
He ought to have one.

Because, just think:
God became physically cold, so our freezing souls could be clothed.
God became flesh, so He could be pierced for us.
He became a tiny body, so He could have it to give up for the life of the world.
He grew veins and blood, so He could spend it for bloodthirsty man.
God became man, so that
pathetic,
sin-eating,
self-sabotaging,
dirty,
disenchanted,
disillusioned,
disgusted and disgusting,
hoping,
feeling,
longing,
fearing,
humans
would never have to be alone again.

As ugly and lonely as we can be, we would never have to be alone again. God came to be with us, to be for us, to be one of us. And not "us" just as in universal humanity, but as in, "you" in particular. "me." the lonely, the loser, the loner down the street.

Family or no family, we would never have to be alone again.
Generous or stingy, we would never have to be alone again.
Healthy or dying, we would never have to be alone again.
With absolutely everything going for us,
or absolutely everything against us,
with laughlines creasing our eyes
or dark circles from dark nights of the soul,
with the reward of good choices surrounding us,
or the consequences of bad ones mocking us,
with children
or without,
with a bright future,
or a broken past,
we would never have to be alone again.

So, don´t just grit your teeth and wait for Merry Christmas to pass. Ignore Merry Christmas. Have a quiet, kind of sad one. But you could have a grateful, quiet, kind of sad one. You could rejoice, if not be happy. Maybe rejoicing just means getting out bed. Maybe just opening the curtains. Maybe just turning off the TV and praying a minute. But you can still rejoice. God is with us. That is God´s gift to us. In fact, that´s the only sort of "gift" we can really give back: to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save our souls. You see, Christ´s Mass is all about receiving after all...

Rejoice, knowing all the facts... not just about our selves, but remembering the facts that include Him.