Picture in your mind any of the times when God seemed so real, so close that you felt your life would never be the same. Maybe it was recently, or perhaps years ago, but these "mountain-top" experiences punctuate a spiritual life. It may have been at a retreat, or a church service, or alone in a meadow, or during prayer with a close friend. Moments like this are special enough and powerful enough that many faithful folks go on searching for them to repeat, and where nothing else quite measures up.

Here we are again, wrapping-deep in Christmas week. Messages abound, even mine last week, with lessons and reminders to take the story of the birth of Jesus, rich with colorful characters, looking for lessons for how we might live better lives in our times. The backdrop for Joseph and Mary rivals anything folks face today: Living in an occupied land under a harsh regime, later being refugees fleeing to Egypt to escape a death plot aimed at their child, certainly economic uncertainty, and on it went for them. And they chose to follow God on their interesting journey.

Talking with folks at the Habitat Restore, where I hang out a couple of times each week, a consistent theme of weariness keeps popping up. Staff, doing good work helping people earn their first house, work at the ragged edge. Shoppers looking for bargains to stretch budgets seem exhausted by inflation. One guy, from the Burns area, sagged into a recliner and said he was dreading the drive home, "I'm out of gas and almost out of gas."

Stop for a moment and brainstorm words which might describe our culture these days.

Now, do the same for the state of the church in our times.

Waiting for a deliverance, for some, seems to come easy. To folks wired like me, who get frustrated if I miss an opening in a revolving door, not so much. I recall a special needs student who explained why he sometimes had outbursts. He simply said, "Life don't easy." I can relate. With so much to be thankful for, and following a God who has shown himself faithful time and again, why would I doubt a deliverance was on the way, but I often do.

Ever listened, really listened to how folks pray? Better yet, have you ever paid attention to what you say when you pray? All too often it seems my prayers major on the stuff I hope God will do for me and mine. Don't get me wrong, we are encouraged to ask for what we need, but if we settle there time will show if we shrink down to a room of mirrors. For followers of Jesus, that is no way to live.

If you are like most folks, you have at least a passing recollection of the story of Jonah.

This reluctant prophet was called by God to travel east from Israel to proclaim God's message in Nineveh, the capital of ascendant Assyria. Known for brutality and ungodliness, this land of foreigners (in present day Iraq) was a direct threat to Israel. Understandably, Jonah scooted west and hopped a ride on a ship to Tarshish. Instead of going some 700 miles northeast, he intended to get as far away west as possible.