Making It through December

While my wife took a turn at driving from Taylors, S.C., to our home in Southern Pines, N.C., I thought about December.

On Thanksgiving Day 2008, the day before Carol and I began our 200-mile trip back to Southern Pines, we enjoyed dinner at the home of our older daughter and her husband in Taylors. Our younger daughter and her husband drove from N.C. for that meal, and my Aunt Frances and Uncle Fred joined our group later on Thanksgiving Day for food and fellowship.

On Friday, after lunch with Aunt and Uncle at the Southern Thymes Café in Greer, we drove north in holiday traffic.

Driving amid heavy I-85 traffic, we saw numerous highway patrolmen and glimpsed a couple of “full to the brim” mall parking lots. I’ve heard that stores slashed prices to lure cautious Christmas shoppers discouraged by our country’s economic recession.

As we drove, I thought about the end-of-the-year month that many love and some find emotionally difficult.

The carpet manufacturer I work for laid off most of its hourly workers during Thanksgiving week, and another layoff is planned for Christmas week. A couple of my friends recently lost their jobs.

Songwriter Merle Haggard tried to express feelings about job-loss and Christmas in a song called “If We Make It through December.” That song contains these words:

“Got laid off down at the factory / And their timing’s not the greatest in the world / Heaven knows I been working hard / Wanted Christmas to be right for daddy's girl / I don’t mean to hate December / It’s meant to be the happy time of year / And my little girl don't understand / Why daddy can't afford no Christmas here / If we make it through December / Everything’s going to be all right, I know…If we make it through December, we’ll be fine.”

Barbara Russell Chesser, author of “Keeping Christmas,” notes that for some people, Christmas is a time to grieve. Memories of a hard childhood, a divorce, or the death of a loved one are often overwhelming – and the surrounding glitter and happiness intensify those memories.

“Christmas rekindles for many people the most vivid memories and evokes the strongest emotions,” she says. “We all long for the perfect holiday…To savor the peace and joy of the season, we must reconcile the disappointments, the tragedies of the past year – indeed our entire lifetime – as well as the triumphs, large and small.”

Christmastime can be tough. Christians have great opportunities to direct attention to Jesus Christ and his birth during the festive season, but we must purpose to avoid falling into despondency because of less-than-perfect relationships or because of the world’s materialistic approach to Christmas. Many may battle personal sadness as the calendar year ends during the short, often-gray days of December.

As Carol and I drove along, we heard the song “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” on our radio. The author of that hymn, written in Latin in the 12th century, is unknown. Here are some words in that song:

“O come, O come, Emmanuel / And ransom captive Israel / That mourns in lonely exile here / Until the Son of God appear / Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel / Shall come to thee, O Israel.

“O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer / Our spirits by Thine advent here / Disperse the gloomy clouds of night / And death’s dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel / Shall come to thee, O Israel.”

That song is based on Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (or Emmanuel).”

“Immanuel” means “God is with us.” Jesus Christ is our Immanuel, and he said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

With Christ, we can make it through December – and through any other month of the year.

Give Thanks

When I was a child in the Mountain View Community above Greer, S.C., my parents, my younger sister and I usually gathered at my paternal grandparents’ home for our main Thanksgiving Day meal. My Uncle Fred and Aunt Frances Crain usually met us there.

We were a small family, and “Ma,” my Grandmother Lillian, each year prepared a large chicken – no need for a big turkey. Back then, I thought only rich people ate turkey at Thanksgiving. Of course, before Mountain View Elementary School let out for Thanksgiving holidays in the 1950s, we children feasted on turkey, dressing, gravy and all that stuff in the school lunch room. (In those days at school, a fellow could buy an extra carton of milk for three cents!)

Thanksgiving involves fellowship, and one my warmest memories is of gathering – perhaps we met a day after Thanksgiving – at my Uncle Jay and Aunt Nell Crain’s little house on Groce Meadow Road, not far from Faith Temple. My grandfather and the older men went rabbit hunting that autumn morning and brought back some cottontails. Aunt Nell and the lady folk cooked a huge dishpan of rabbits and dumplings. I fondly remember that day of fellowship.

Some say the Pilgrims, central figures in the “Thanksgiving story” most of us learned about in school, weren’t the first to celebrate “thanksgiving” in America. Native Americans celebrated thanksgiving festivals before Europeans arrived in America, says writer Dennis Rupert. He says the Wampanoag (Indian allies of the Pilgrims) held six thanksgiving festivals each year.

Rupert notes that the first recorded Christian thanksgiving in America occurred in Texas on May 23, 1541, when Spanish explorer, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, and his men held a thanksgiving service after finding food, water, and pasture for their animals in the Panhandle.

On December 4, 1619, two years before the Pilgrims held their Thanksgiving service, a group of 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Plantation in what is now Charles City, Virginia. The group’s charter required that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a day of thanksgiving to God. Captain John Woodleaf held the service of thanksgiving. Here is the section of the Charter of Berkley Plantation which specifies the thanksgiving service:

“Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty god.”

The colonists most likely held thanksgiving services in 1620 and 1621. The colony was wiped out in 1622.

Those early thanksgivings probably did not involve feasting but were religious services of thankfulness to God.

Here are some facts about the “Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving,” the one most of us heard about during our school days:

Pilgrim leader William Bradford wrote in his diary that the voyage to America was motivated by “a great hope for advancing the kingdom of Christ.”

The Pilgrims set aground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Rupert says their first winter devastated them. He writes, “Weakened by the 7-week voyage and the need to establish housing, they came down with pneumonia and consumption. They began to die – one per day, then two, and sometimes three. They dug graves at night, so that Indians would not see their numbers dwindling. At one point, only seven persons were able to fetch wood, make fires and care for the sick. By spring, they had lost 46 of the 102 who sailed on the Mayflower.”

The Pilgrims needed help, and it came from an English-speaking member of the Wampanoag nation, Squanto. He stayed with the Pilgrims for the next few months and taught them how to survive. The harvest of 1621 was bountiful, and the remaining colonists and over 90 Indian guests celebrated together with a 3-day thanksgiving feast.

Dennis Rupert says, “Our Thanksgiving celebration is a wonderful reminder to ‘give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever’” (1 Chronicles 16:34).

Keeping a Good Perspective

Tom, a Gulistan Carpet salesman, shakes my hand and takes a seat in my office.

We converse in Gulistan’s product development building, where I work in Aberdeen, N.C. Our conversation goes something like this:

“You’re taking over the North Carolina sales district, too,” I say.

“Yep, I’m on the go,” says Tom, who told me last year that he’s a Christian. “I’m 56, and when I hired on here some years ago, I told them I was going to retire at Gulistan.”

Tom tilts his head sideways and rolls his eyes, indicating he’s not sure he’ll make it to retirement age without getting “let go.” He recently worked as Gulistan’s South Carolina representative, but the company cut its sales force and told Tom he’d have to cover S.C. and North Carolina, too.

“I’m doing some driving at night, so I can get to a town and be at an appointment early the next day,” Tom says.

He tells of talking recently with a man in his fifties who sells carpet for a competitor. Tom says that man told him, “I work out and try to stay in shape, because I know there are 100 young fellows out there who want my job!”

We have no promise of tomorrow. But, as the late songwriter Ira F. Stanphill advised, we can trust the One “who holds tomorrow.”

I years ago met Stanphill when he visited a small church near Greenville, S.C. He said some people referred to his famous song as “I Don’t Know about Tomorrow,” but that the title is “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.” He felt there was a big difference between those two titles.

Ira Stanphill (1914-1993) was born in Belleview, New Mexico, and by age 10 became fluent at playing the piano, organ, ukelele and accordion. At 17, he was composing and performing his own music for church services, revival campaigns and prayer meetings.

Educated at Junior College in Chillocothe, Missouri, Stanphill later received an honorary PhD from Hyles-Anderson College in Hammond, Indiana.

Stanphill traveled the U.S. and Canada and visited 40 countries to preach and sing. Many secular singers performed his works. Elvis Presley recorded “Mansion Over the Hilltop” and "His Hand in Mind." Johnny Cash recorded “Suppertime.” Bill Gaither performed “We’ll Talk It Over.”

Here are some words – good words for the troubled days we live in – contained in “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow”:

“I don’t know about tomorrow, / I just live from day to day. / I don’t borrow from its sunshine, / For its skies may turn to gray. / I don’t worry o’er the future, / For I know what Jesus said, / And today I’ll walk beside Him, / For He knows what is ahead.”

Refrain:
“Many things about tomorrow, / I don’t seem to understand; / But I know Who holds tomorrow, / And I know Who holds my hand.”

Stanphill’s third verse of his famous song seems fitted for “these days”:

“I don’t know about tomorrow, / It may bring me poverty; / But the One Who feeds the sparrow, / Is the One Who stands by me. / And the path that be my portion, / May be through the flame or flood, / But His presence goes before me, / And I’m covered with His blood.”

Refrain:
“Many things about tomorrow, / I don’t seem to understand; / But I know Who holds tomorrow, / And I know Who holds my hand.”

Someone recently sent me these statements to help me keep a good perspective during “days of change”:

“Whatever happens in our country, Jesus is still King. Our responsibilities as Christians have not changed one iota.

“The greatest agent for social change in America is still this: winning the hearts and minds of men and women through the gospel, not legislation.

“My primary citizenship is still in this order: (1) the Kingdom of God, (2) America (and not vice-versa).

“The tomb of Jesus is still empty.

“The cross, not the government, is still our salvation.

“God is in control.

“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man” (Psalm 118:8).

'Hold and Die'

A war hero who faced almost certain death in Vietnam died in his sleep as an old man, the Associated Press reported on Nov. 3, 2008.

Retired Marine Col. John Ripley, who was credited with stopping a column of North Vietnamese tanks by blowing up a pair of bridges during the 1972 Easter Offensive of the Vietnam War, died recently at home at age 69, friends and relatives said.

Ripley’s son, Stephen, said his father was found at his Annapolis, Md., home Saturday after missing a speaking engagement on Friday. His father appeared to have died in his sleep.

The story goes that Ripley and about 600 South Vietnamese were ordered to “hold and die” against 20,000 North Vietnamese soldiers with about 200 tanks.

“I'll never forget that order, ‘Hold and die,’” said Ripley, who figured the only way to stop the enormous force with his small group was to destroy the bridge. “The idea that I would be able to even finish the job before the enemy got me was ludicrous…When you know you're not going to make it, a wonderful thing happens.” He said that the essence of that “wonderful thing” is that your mind is no longer cluttered by worrying about how you’re going to save yourself.

A Virginia native, Colonel Ripley dangled for three hours under a bridge near the South Vietnamese city of Dong Ha to attach 500 pounds of explosives to the span, ultimately destroying it. His action, under fire while going back and forth for materials, is thought to have thwarted an onslaught by 20,000 enemy troops and was the subject of a book, “The Bridge at Dong Ha,” by John Grider Miller.

After reading about Col. Ripley, I thought about the order he received – “Hold and die.” That sounds a bit like Jesus’ words: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

St. Paul wrote something similar: “…I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me but to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7).

Sometimes Christians die for their faith. Someone said that most of us are required only to maintain our faith until we die. We are, however, to have an attitude of “Hold and die.”

Sometimes the “holding” part is hard. The tedium of day-to-day living can “get on our nerves,” to use an old expression. We may be able to envision ourselves dying some kind of heroic death for the Lord more than we can picture enduring day-in, day-out tensions and trials. But a different kind of dying takes place when we rely on the Lord to endure difficulties. As we “hold,” we learn to “die” to “self.”

“Self” involves one’s “flesh.” The Bible sometimes refers to “flesh” as literal human flesh that covers our bones, but spiritually speaking, “flesh” can refer to one’s physical desires and one’s soul (some say the “soul” is generally made up of one’s mind, will and emotions). “Flesh” can refer to “physical and mental desires in opposition to what God wants for us.”

Paul writes in Galatians 5:24: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.”

Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12:24).

Jesus also said to his disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

When a Christian commits to “hold” and learns to “die to self,” he is free to experience wonderful things that will take place. His mind is no longer cluttered by worrying about how to save his own life, and his heart’s cry becomes “for me to live is Christ.” When that happens, there’s no telling what “strongholds of the Enemy” he may pull down!

St. Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).