Karen Tripp’s BLOG                                    Speaker, Author, Counselor    www.Godisbiggerthan.com

There are so many things about the Christmas season that I look forward to with great expectation: the music, the food, the gift giving, the lights, the decorations.  You name it, I love it!  But there is one seasonal tradition I dread with great trepidation: my husband’s office party.

 Now let me make this clear, it’s not the place or the people. Over the 25 years of our marriage, my husband has worked at many companies, for many bosses and with many people.  The problem is that my husband’s office Christmas party presents great potential for me to say something incredibly stupid in front of my husband’s boss.  You see I have been inflicted with the foot-in-mouth disease numerous times over the years.  I just wish someone else could be in charge of my mouth!  Do you know what I mean?

 In the Christmas story there is a woman that received some help with her mouth.  Her name was Elizabeth and she was Mary’s cousin.  One day, when Mary was already pregnant with the Christ Child, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth.  When Mary said “Hi’ to her cousin,  Elizabeth began to speak with a loud and great voice.  Only Elizabeth didn’t get into trouble for her loud mouth, just the opposite. She used her great voice to proclaim the arrival of Jesus. She said to Mary “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the Child you carry.”  Isn’t that great!?  How come at such a monumental moment, Elizabeth didn’t have the foot-in-mouth disease?  How did she have a moment of great truth instead of a moment of great embarrassment?  Simple.  Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Elizabeth knew the truth that Mary was carrying the Messiah because the Holy Spirit told her. 

 Now here is the best part of this story: The Holy Spirit is speaking truths to believers everyday.  Do you know when you say “That was such a God thing.” Or “I couldn’t have done that without God.” Or even just telling God “Thanks,”- that’s the Holy Spirit speaking through you.  And in case you are thinking-“not me.  The Holy Spirit lives in those other Christians, but not me.”- think again. Scripture says the Holy Spirit lives in all believers.

 So this Christmas think about the true Spirit of Christmas living inside of you just aching for you to share the love and joy of the Christ Child with those around you.  The Holy Spirit is trying to speak through you all the time, not just in your Bible study group or at Church but in the grocery store line or having lunch with a friend or even at my husband’s Office Party.  Yes it’s true.  So I am taking the Holy Spirit with me to the Office Party and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I know God is BIGGER than my husband’s office party.

Karen Tripp’s BLOG                                         Speaker, Author, Counselor    www.Godisbiggerthan.com

I suppose you’ve noticed that mall parking lots transform this time of year from easily accessible valleys of parking opportunities to hot beds of competition and anxiety.  Typically mild mannered drivers become death defying Kamikaze pilots with only one mission: find a parking space.  Preferably legal parking but that’s not mandatory. My personal survival strategy is to drive to the biggest, busiest entrance to the mall and then wait.  I wait for some unsuspecting shopper to walk out to their car as I casually drive my car after them, trying to get first dibs on their spot.  But do you know what happens?  They hang a tight left and walk across two row of cars leaving me in the dust or even worse, I follow them all the way to their car only to find them dropping off their packages in their trunk and return to the mall.  They leave me as they found me: waiting for a parking space.

 I hate waiting.  To me waiting is like someone punching my hold button, leaving me in the land of limbo.  After all, I did not go to the mall to sit in the parking lot.  I went to go inside the mall.  Fortunately, in the Christmas story there was one expert on waiting.  His name was Simeon.  The Holy Spirit revealed to him that he would see the Messiah one day before he died.  But needless to say, the Holy Spirit does not appear to have told Simeon any specifics.  Simeon didn’t know when or where or how the Messiah was going to show up.  He just knew He would.  From reading scripture, we know that Simeon met the baby Jesus when Mary and Joseph presented Him in the temple.  But we have no clue how old Simeon was when the Holy Spirit revealed to him that one day he would see the Lord’s Christ.  What if he was a 16 or 23 years old when the Holy Spirit first came to Simeon?  What if he lived years, decades, looking, listening, waiting?  Do you think he became discouraged?  Did people make fun of him and tell him his hope was unfounded, illogical and senseless? Difficulties surely happened in Simeon’s life just like ours: sickness, money problems even death of a love one.  But Simeon was told to wait for the Messiah everyday, not just the easy days. 

 How did he do it?  The truth is Simeon was doing more than waiting on the Messiah, he was expecting the Messiah. Doesn’t that change everything? Think about the times in your life when you have waited for something wonderful: a baby, a graduation, a new home or even a visit from an old friend.  That sweet sense of expectation can add streams of hope to even the toughest days. 

 The Christmas season is a time we are to be living in expectation of the coming of the Christ Child. Are you expecting the Christ Child this Christmas even amidst the cookie baking and list making?  Don’t spend this holiday season waiting for Jesus like you would wait for a parking space.  Let the sweet expectation of the coming of the Lord sift through your busyness, your loneliness and your joyfulness this Christmas…and beyond.

Karen Tripp’s BLOG    Speaker, Author, Counselor    http://www.Godisbiggerthan.com/

For me potlucks are complicated.  I never know what to make.  I guess this is why being invited to dinner is so much nicer than being invited to a potluck.  And yet, the dinner invitation is barely out of my friend’s mouth before I yelp “What can I bring?”  Some friends let me bring a salad or a desert but then there’s the friends that say “don’t bring a thing.”  Part of me is thrilled to be treated with such hospitality while another part of me is immediately feeling guilty that I’m going to show up without a dish.

 Why is it so difficult for some of us to be treated special when we’ve nothing to contribute but ourselves?  Why do we feel unworthy of this gift?

 This is a lot like receiving the gift of the Christ child.  God gave you His Son completely free of charge just because He loves you.  Although with all our imperfections we don’t deserve it,  Jesus paid the price on the cross so one day we will party with Him in the throne room of God.  Can you imagine!  Yet you did nothing to deserve this and Jesus did everything. 

 It’s like going to heaven and seeing this incredible banquet!!!  There’s this huge table covered in linen that shines whiter than light and hundreds of candelabra’s glistening brighter than the sun and the room is filled with this incredible music that makes you want to shout for joy and the food, don’t get me going on the FOOD!   And you’re standing there, in this immaculate banquet hall, completely dazzled but guess what?  You heard the invitation wrong.  Instead of a heavenly banquet, you thought the invitation said the dinner was a potluck.  So you show up, in heaven, with a casserole dish. 

 Jesus is standing there before this spectacular feast that He’s prepared for you and He says, “You didn’t have to bring anything.”  But do you know what you’ve been doing?  You’ve been spending your whole life trying to find just the right casserole dish because you didn’t want to show up empty handed.  You look back at your life and realize, “I never should have spent so much energy trying to repay Jesus for the gift He’s given me.  All He wanted was for me to soak up all the love He has for me.” 

 Imagine two Christians.  Both serve Jesus but the first Christian focuses only on their unworthiness of the gift of Jesus and the second Christian focuses on what a treasure they are to Jesus.  For us their lives look the same.  But which one is experiencing the fullness of the abundant life Jesus has bought for them?  We can spend our lives overwhelmed by our unworthiness or we can spend our lives amazed that we are such a treasure to our Lord.

 This Christmas focus not only on the gift of Jesus but on what a treasure you are to have received it.  God gave you the gift of His Son because He loves you and He thinks you are worth it…that you are totally worth it.

This Christmas season finds Karen at Lord of Life Lutheran in Chesterfield, MO speaking at their Advent By Candlelight celebration.  This wonderful event will be held on December 14th.  karen’s topic will be Receiving the Gift:

Some of the most dreaded words of the Christmas season are: “I feel terrible.  I don’t have anything for you.”  Fear of uttering those words create frenzie shopping excursions in search of the perfect generic gift so you won’t be empty handed.  Yet empty handed is the only way to be when approaching the Christ child on Christmas morning.  Through fun yet insightful look at Mary’s Magnificant Luke 1:46-55), Karen will share how to enjoy the season with a sense of expectancy that comes by receiving the true gift of the season, Jesus.
For more information call (636) 532-0400 or go to http://lordoflifelcms.org

LOCATION: Lord of Life Lutheran

15750 Baxter Rd
Chesterfield, MO 63017-4983

Karen will be joining the ladies at Christ Lutheran Church in Overland KS for their Advent by Candlelight event.  This year it will be held on December 2nd.  Karen’s topic will be Giving the Gift:

It’s that look on their face when they open the gift and you know you got it right.  Every Christmas, God is waiting for you to open up the gift of His Son.  Seize the wonder of Christmas by beholding the glory of Christ much as Elisabeth understood the glory of the unborn Christ. (Luke 1-2 )  Just as the gift of a savior has been given to you, let Karen guide you towards a path for you to share that gift through this season.

For more information call (913) 345-9700 or go to http://www.clctogether.org/

LOCATION: Christ Lutheran Church

11720 Nieman Road
Overland Park, KS