My favorite "Christmas" story...

 

My favorite "Christmas" story...

“I heard this folksinger was coming to town…between songs, he told a story that helped me resolve some things about God. 

The story was about his friend who was a Navy SEAL...

 

The folksinger said his friend was performing a covert operation, freeing hostages from a building in some dark part of the world. 

His friend's team flew in by helicopter, made their way to the compound and stormed into the room where the hostages had been imprisoned for months. 

The room, the folksinger said, was filthy and dark. 

The hostages were curled up in a corner, terrified. 

When the SEALs entered the room, they heard the gasps of the hostages. 

They stood at the door and called to the prisoners, telling them they were Americans, the SEALS asked the hostages to follow them, but the hostages wouldn't. 

They sat there on the floor and hid their eyes in fear. 

They were not of healthy mind and didn't believe their rescuers were really Americans.

 

The SEALs stood there, not knowing what to do. They couldn't possibly carry everybody out. 

One of the SEALs, the folksinger's friend, got an idea. 

He put down his weapon, took off his helmet, and curled up tightly next to the other hostages, getting so close his body was touching some of theirs. 

He softened the look on his face and put his arms around them. He was trying to show them he was one of them.

None of the prison guards would have done this. 

He stayed there for a little while until some of the hostages started to look at him, finally meeting his eyes. 

The Navy SEAL whispered that they were Americans and were there to rescue them. “Will you follow us?”, he said. 

The hero stood to his feet and one of the hostages did the same, then another, until all of them were willing to go. 

The story ends with all the hostages safe on an American aircraft carrier.

 

I never liked it when the preachers said we had to follow Jesus. 

Sometimes they would make Him sound angry. 

But I liked the story the folksinger told. 

I like the idea of Jesus becoming man, so that we would be able to trust Him, and I like that He healed people and loved them and cared deeply about how people were feeling.

 

When I understood that the decision to follow Jesus was very much like the decision the hostages had to make to follow their rescuer, I knew then that I needed to decide whether or not I would follow Him. 

The decision was simple once I asked myself, “Is Jesus the Son of God, are we being held captive in a world run by Satan, a world filled with brokenness, and do I believe Jesus can rescue me from this condition?” 

---  A excerpt from Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller ---

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Philippians 2:5-11 

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! 

Therefore God exalted him to the highest placeand gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,to the glory of God the Father.