The Little Drummer Boy

This is my favorite Christmas song. I think the lyrics are so elegant because they are so simple and yet so profound. This powerful yet tender king desires us and the gifts we bring out of our personhood. The moment we believe that what we bring to the table out of who we are isn't enough is the moment we fail to understand the type of desire God already has for us. Just bring your drum. It is enough.

The lyrics:

Come they told me


A new born King to see


Our finest gifts we bring


To lay before the King
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum

So to honor Him,
pa rum pum pum pum, 


When we come. 



Little Baby


I am a poor boy too


I have no gift to bring


That's fit to give the King
rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum, 



Shall I play for you
pa rum pum pum pum


On my drum? 



Mary nodded


The ox and lamb kept time


I played my drum for Him


I played my best for Him


rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum



Then He smiled at me
pa rum pum pum pum 


Me and my drum.

Christmas - I don't get it

The birth of Jesus. Does it make sense? Why so much attention paid to His birth, both in the bible and in Christian cultures?

See, I get the cross. The cross is the central theme of God’s atonement for our sin. I look at Jesus on the cross and the suffering He endured on my behalf and it makes sense. It makes sense to meditate upon His work at the cross.

The birth of Jesus - I don’t get it as much. I don’t have as much reason to meditate upon it. What significance does His birth have?

Recently, as I pondered the questions above, I tried to think about the perspective of the wise men who came to find Jesus. From their perspective, they had no idea who He was. They didn’t know who they’d find. Rich. Poor. Known. Unknown. Who could he be? They really had no clue. They simply followed God’s leading at the star. To them, He was a mystery. And, the other interesting thing is that they were presumably from another religion in the east. Or, maybe they were Jews living in another area. It doesn’t really say. Of course, we don’t know, but what I do know is that they were walking in the dark. They had no idea what their travels would find. It left Jesus mysterious, as He should be. Just as a woman longs to draw a man to her partially through her mysteriousness, so God longs to draw the entire human race to Him partly through His mysteriousness as well. Of course, I’m not talking about hiddenness or fickleness or self-protection. No, I’m talking about a healthy form of mystery that draws us in for the ultimate purpose of being known. God longs to be known and He will reveal Himself to us, but part of how He draws us in is through the seductiveness of mystery.

So, in thinking about the Christmas tradition and the yearly celebration of the birth of Christ, I am brought to a place where I become like one of the wise men of long ago. They had no idea who he would be. And here is the anaglogy: When I ponder the birth of Christ at Christmas this year, I think about the fact that I don’t know who He will be in the year to come. Now, I’m not saying that Jesus literally becomes a new person, but I am saying that we don’t know what He will bring in the year to come. It isn’t that who He is literally changes, but who I perceive Him to be changes over time. In this sense, I’m taking some license. When I think about the birth of Christ this Christmas, I don’t know who He will be next year. I don’t know who I will come into contact with. I don’t know what new personality traits I will discover. I don’t know what new expressions of power and love or sadness and suffering He will bring. In essence, even though I know Him and even though He never really changes in reality, who He is next year remains a mystery to me.

I long to know who He is next year. His mystery draws me in. I want to know Him, and this Christmas season I will travel to find this babe. Who will I find?

A Healthy Fear of God

God tells us in the Bible that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 12:2) and that perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). In fact, 1 John 4:18 says that those who fear are not made perfect in love. Further, Luke 1:67-75 says that Christ came so that we would be able to serve God without fear.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of confusion in the church over what a healthy fear of God looks like in light of the cross. Thus, what does a healthy fear of God look like? What does it look like when all threat of condemnation has been taken away? What does it look like when one of God’s directly stated purposes in Christ has been to do away with fear? What’s left?

The New Testament does discuss the fear of God and show numerous examples. Let’s look a a couple of them.

In Luke 8:25, Jesus commands the winds and the waves to stop so that their boat wouldn’t topple over. It says that they had fear and amazement because Jesus had told the winds and the waves to obey.

In Luke 1:12, John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, sees an angel. He is gripped with fear.

In Luke 8:37, it says that the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave because they were afraid of Him. He had delivered a man from an evil demon, the man came into a right mind, and Jesus drove a herd of pigs over a cliff without even saying a word to them much-less physically scattering them.

What kind of fear do we see in these three verses? Jesus controls nature. Zechariah sees an angel. I propose this is a fear based upon power, not based upon judgement.

Thus, I argue that the only healthy form of a fear of God in light of the cross is due to the power of God, not due to any threat of condemnation or even of any turning away of his face from us. It just doesn’t go with the gospel.

Something that helps me to relate to this type of fear is to go back into my childhood and think of times when I was afraid of things that wouldn’t hurt me. For example, I remember watching hot air balloons being filled up and getting ready to take off into the air. I was very young. The noise from the fire being used for the hot air and the enormous size were very powerful and I distinctly remember being afraid. Yet, at the same time, I remember being drawn to them as well.

I also think of the times I’ve watched the Space Shuttle lift off to go into outer space. In particular, if the volume and speakers on the TV have enough bass, I have had this distinct awareness that if I were in person that it would be a fearful event due to the immense power of the vehicle.

Another time, I remember being tested for my green belt in Karate. The founder of my system called American Kenpo, came to test me and another student. His name was Ed Parker and he had rubbed elbows with Bruce Lee and taught famous people such as Elvis Presley. I was 14 years old and Ed Parker felt enormously powerful to me. He felt so powerful and so commanding that I feared him.

These are three times (among others) that I can remember when I had a fear that was based upon the immensity of power of the object, event, or person. The hot air balloon wasn’t going to harm me. The space shuttle wasn’t going to harm me. Ed Parker wasn’t going to harm me. In fact, he was there to help me. Nevertheless, I feared him and the other situations as well. There was so much power.

Finally, a feeling that is associated with the fear of power is exhilaration. I feared Ed Parker due to the immense power surrounding his presence. However, due to his goodness, I also experienced a feeling of exhilaration. I was blown away by the fact that I was in his presence. It was (to this day) one of the most amazing experiences of my life. (This might sound a little over-the-top, but you have to look at it from the perspective of a 14 year-old).

In short, a healthy fear of God, biblically speaking has nothing to do with condemnation and everything to do with power and exhilaration.