Born That Man No More May Die

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

I can't make it through this hymn without crying. 

Okay, okay, you caught me. I can't make it through the first LINE without crying. 

Hark! The Herald Ange- *cue sobs*

Have you ever just read the lyrics and let the words sink in? 

Hark the herald angels sing 

"Glory to the newborn King!

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled"

Joyful, all ye nations rise

Join the triumph of the skies

With the angelic host proclaim:

"Christ is born in Bethlehem"

Hark! The herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored

Christ the everlasting Lord!

Late in time behold Him come

Offspring of a Virgin's womb

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail the incarnate Deity

Pleased as man with man to dwell

Jesus, our Emmanuel

Hark! The herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Son of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings

Ris'n with healing in His wings

Mild He lays His glory by

Born that man no more may die

Born to raise the sons of earth

Born to give them second birth

Hark! The herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn King!" 

Jesus was born a King...born a KING! Can you imagine!? Angels sang, wise men traveled, and shepherds shouted praises at the birth of a child who would one day rule the nation. I can hardly find the words. 

Christmas is the celebration of Christ's birth, the celebration of a fulfilled prophecy, because "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). 

As the hymn proclaims, Jesus was "born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth." If we choose to believe in Him, if we choose to accept Him as our Lord and Savior and pick up our crosses and follow Him, we will have eternal life. He was born so that we might be born again...not physically, but spiritually! 

He has already chosen us. All He asks is that we choose Him, too.

It's not about gifts. 

It's not about checklists.

It's not about obligatory family gatherings.

It's about making room for Jesus in our hearts.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Stop and listen today. Join the triumph of the skies! December 25th marks the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, who was born in a manger over 2,000 years ago.

History revolves around this birth. Because of this baby, everything changed. 

May you never forget that "the magic of Christmas is not in the presents but in His presence." 

He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and He shall reign forever and ever! 

HALLELUJAH! 

Here is a video of our Chancel Choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus. Tears immediately fill my eyes as the organ begins to play and the congregation rises, shouting praises to the newborn King! You'll notice there is a stained glass window on the wall behind the choir loft. It's a picture of Jesus with His arms open wide, the ultimate welcome, as angels kneel beside Him. Imagine standing in the congregation with that image of Christ in the background as the Hallelujah Chorus echoes throughout the sanctuary. I have never witnessed anything so powerfully moving.

"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

Consistency is Key

It was my sophomore year of high school.

I can still picture Coach standing on the three-point line with her arms crossed, shaking her head and looking down at her watch as we ran another set of down-and-backs.

I can't tell you how many down-and-backs we ran that day, but I can tell you how many sentences it took for us to realize why we were running:

"Don't be a frontrunner. It's all about consistency! You HAVE to be consistent."

For those of you who are unsure what a "frontrunner" is, it's somebody who gives 100% only when things are going their way. They are inconsistent with their contribution to the game. They play well when their team is ahead but slack off if and when their team falls behind. When facing adversity, they retreat. 

To put it bluntly, you did NOT want to be labeled a frontrunner!

Coach told us it wasn't about winning or losing, it was about being consistent with our efforts, and she made it very clear that consistency was a characteristic we should all strive to possess.

I walked out of practice a different person that day. 

Not because of the running (which we deserved every bit of...and we knew it, too) but because it was in that moment, as I stood motionless on the baseline taking in every word Coach said, that I decided I would NEVER be a frontrunner, not in basketball and not in life. 

My junior year of high school, the Ladynecks were playing Elysian Fields AT Elysian Fields, so we already didn't have home-court advantage. At one point during the 3rd quarter, we were down 27 points. That's right, 27. None of our shots were going in, the referees weren't calling the game fairly, we were in foul trouble, the list goes on. 

Although nothing seemed to be going our way, we never eased up. We were relentless in our efforts. The desire to win burned deep within us, and even though our opponents tried to put out the flames, that fire only continued to grow. 

We were determined to take what was ours...and we did. 

The comeback was unreal. They had outscored us every quarter (16-14, 19-13, 17-12) up until the 4th. 

We could've easily thrown in the towel and accepted the loss, but we didn't...because we had been taught otherwise. 

We ended up outscoring Elysian Fields 29-11 in the 4th quarter for a final score of 68-63.

The White Oak Ladynecks may have been a lot of things that night, but there was one thing we weren't: frontrunners.

We didn't need perfect circumstances to give perfect effort...and by "perfect effort" I simply mean giving 100% of ourselves. 

All we needed was a ball and a net. We came to compete, and we weren't going down without a fight. 

Even if we had lost that game, I know Coach would have been proud of us...because throughout those four years of basketball, there was only one thing she asked of us - that we give consistent effort - and that's exactly what we did.

I think about that game every time I find myself facing adversity. I then think about that day in practice where it all began and how different my life would be had I let those words go in one ear and out the other.

Three sentences changed the way I lived the rest of my life.

As you know, life does not always go according to plan. We face one challenge, one disappointment, after another. We spend days, weeks, and even MONTHS preparing for a certain moment only for it to arrive and not go the way we'd hoped. It is in that moment we have a choice to make. Will we retreat, or will we be relentless in our efforts, regardless of our circumstances? 

Even if you fall short, there is satisfaction in knowing you gave it everything you had. 

If we want something bad enough, we must be willing to fight for it. Our actions should prove that the end goal we're chasing means something to us. We should be racing full-speed towards adversity, preparing for a head-on collision, because we know there is something of great value waiting for us on the other side of that crash.

I approach life (specifically my dreams) the same way I approach basketball games, with a desire to compete. I am too passionate, the end goal is too valuable, for me to give anything less than my best effort. I will NEVER not try because, oftentimes, there are no second chances. 

One of my favorite quotes says, "Do it with passion or not at all." 

If we're truly passionate about the goal we're after, we will give the same amount of effort in the valley as we did on the mountaintop. 

The effort we give in the valley determines our success on the mountaintop. In other words, unless we know how to handle adversity in the valley, we will never be able to prosper on the mountaintop...and the climb to the mountaintop is no easy task! 

There is much hard work, persistence, and discipline required of us in the valley. Success is NOT convenient. It's actually inconvenient. We will never achieve our goals unless we're willing to go beyond what is convenient. This means doing what needs to be done in the valley, even when we don't feel like it, even when it's hard, so we can prolong our mountaintop experience. Frontrunners never flourish because they're never willing to go beyond what comes easy. 

Either "break through the obstacles or let the obstacles break you." It's that simple. 

Success doesn't happen overnight. Success happens over time as a result of the day-to-day diligent effort we give. Our energy and our effort must remain consistent throughout the entire journey, whether things are going really, really good or really, really bad. 

DON'T BE A FRONTRUNNER! 

Nothing worth having will ever be spoon-fed to us or handed to us on a silver platter. WE HAVE TO GO GET IT!

Win or lose, there is victory in knowing you gave it everything you had.

Self-Tanner and the Christian Faith

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but for those of you who don't already know, I love going to the park near my house. I always have. I've been playing basketball there for 14 years. The older I get, the more time I seem to spend there. Of course, it helps that they built a small pond with "sitting rocks" spaced evenly around it. 

I find myself sitting on these rocks quite often.

Some days I'll walk over and rock-sit after I play basketball or run. Other days I'll go specifically to sit, think, brainstorm blog topics, practice my talks, read, or write. There's just something about observing God's creation that floods your soul with peace. 

The other day when I was rock-sitting, I was looking down at my legs and suddenly found myself thinking back to my freshman year of high school. 

It was track season and, for whatever reason, I had decided to use self-tanner. Which is fine! There's nothing wrong with that! There is, however, something wrong with only putting it on your legs.

I had no idea how off-balanced my skin appeared until one of my friends pointed it out to me.

Friend: "Dang, Kris! Your legs are DARK! But um...what's going on with the rest of your body? Why is it so uneven?"
Me: "I've been using self-tanner!"
Friend: "Only on your legs???????"
Me: *laughs nervously and uncontrollably* 

I went home that day and looked at myself in the mirror. Sure enough, my legs looked like an oven-roasted turkey while my face and arms were whiter than new-fallen snow. I'm not one to get embarrassed, but if I did, this moment would have made it in the top ten, no doubt. I spent the next few weeks applying self-tanner to only my face and arms. When the top half finally matched the bottom half, I made sure to apply self-tanner to all areas from then on. 

I smiled as I thought about how our faith is a lot like that self-tanner. 

Stay with me, I promise I'm going somewhere with this! 

As Christians, we often treat our faith the same way I treated my self-tanner. We apply it to certain areas of our lives, but not EVERY area. We go to church on Sunday mornings and we attend weekly Bible studies, but the rest of our life is off-balanced because we don't implement what we learn into every aspect of our life. This, of course, results in an uneven faith, an unnatural glow. 

God doesn't want us to apply our faith to the areas of our choosing. 

He wants us to apply it evenly throughout our lives, whether it's going to be seen by others or not.

When we do this, when we implement Christ's teachings 24/7 rather than only when/where we feel like it, we develop a natural glow, radiating His light wherever we go.

Are there certain areas of your faith that need to be evened out? 

Don't get caught picking and choosing where you apply your faith. Apply it every day, in every single way.

My Thoughts on Turning 23

I TURNED MY FAVORITE NUMBER TODAY!

I've favored the #23 ever since my City League "PARD" days. That's right, I proudly sported Michael Jordan's number with my slicked-back ponytail (this was pre-side-ponytail), navy blue scrunchy, and flesh-colored lip bumper. I was quite the sight. For those of you who have seen Little Miss Sunshine, I looked a lot like Olive Hoover minus the glasses. For those of you who haven't, see below:

Little "Kris" Sunshine at your service, sweatband and all.

I would post an actual picture of me in my prime but since I'm trying to build a career in blogging, I'd hate to scare you off so soon in the process. For those of you who knew me at that age, you're welcome. You can thank me later for the picture you have of me in your head. 

Okay, you can quit laughing now.

If you Google "turning 23" you will see headlines that read:

23 Reasons Nobody Likes Turning 23

23 Soul-Crushing Truths About Being 23

23 Things In Your Life That Will End At 23

Apparently 23 is an "unfortunate age" to turn. 

Not to me, though.

To me, turning 23 is anything BUT unfortunate!

This is the age I've been waiting for, as it marks the beginning of the rest of my life, a journey I've been eager to travel for as long as I can remember...not to mention this is the first year of my life that DOESN'T INVOLVE SCHOOL. In the words of Jen Hatmaker, "ALL THE PRAISE HANDS!"

Turning 23 means, from here on out, I will be in a fearless pursuit of my dreams as I seek to discover God's purpose for my life. It's always been school first, dreams later...but now I get to focus SOLELY on what sets my soul on fire! I would fall asleep at night thinking about my dreams, my heart racing, only to have to wake up and go to school the next day. Now I get to spend every minute of every day working towards those dreams.

The 14-time NBA All-Star set high expectations for himself, passionately followed his dreams, and refused to let obstacles or failure keep him from achieving what others deemed impossible. 

I hope to do the same. 

I'm so thankful to be where I am. There may be a lot of uncertainties that come with turning 23, but there are a lot of opportunities, too! 

SO, LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!

Although I could go on and on, I think I want to leave it at that. It's been a good 23 years, y'all. Well, I actually don't remember much from ages 0-7 (I like to refer to those as the "lost" years) but regardless, I turned out okay. 

The bottom line is this: God is good and I'm so, so, so excited to spend the rest of my days learning about Him, using what I'm most passionate about to glorify Him, and living a life devoted to serving Him. 

I know this ending is a little abrupt but it's impossible to squeeze an entire year's worth of life into a single blog post. I think the song Good, Good Father by Big Daddy Weave says it best:

Well I've heard a thousand stories of what they think you're like

And I've heard the tender whispers of love in the dead of night

Well you tell me that you're pleased and that I'm never alone

You're a Good, Good Father

It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are

And I'm loved by you

It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am

Well I've seen many searching for answers far and wide

But I know we're all searching for answers only you provide

Cause you know just what we need before we say a word

*chorus*

Cause you are perfect in all of your ways

You are perfect in all of your ways

You are perfect in all of your ways to us

Oh Love so undeniable

I, I can hardly speak

And peace so unexplainable

I, I can hardly think

But you call us deeper still

And you call us deeper still

God you call us deeper still into love, love, love

You're a Good, Good Father

It's who you are, it's who you are, it's who you are

And I'm loved by you

It's who I am, it's who I am, it's who I am

Because you are perfect in all of your ways

You are perfect in all of your ways

God you are perfect in all of your ways to us

Yes, you are

God, You truly are a good, good Father, perfect in all of Your ways. Thank You for the past 23 years. Thank You for knowing what I need and for teaching me about Your person, Your will, and Your ways in every situation, both good and bad. Thank You for loving me too much to leave me where I am. As Psalm 63:3 says, "Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You" today and every day. I hope to make You proud.