Our Christmas Letter

2006 for the FOSTER'S
Six Hilights:

1) Three day trip with my wife up the coast celebrating our 16th anniversary. With the exception of the traffic it was a perfect trip.
2) Weekend trip with my daughter, Quincy, to S. Cal. The best waves and conversation we’ve ever had.
3) Taking my 10 year old boy, Shay, to a Switchfoot concert and he gets to meet the band afterwards. Oh, and his three pointer in a YMCA championship game we won by one point.
4) My five year old, Evan, coming home from kindergarten running upstairs dumping out his piggy-bank and scrounging up $1.50, bringing it downstairs, to put it in a zip lock bag, throwing it in his backpack while saying in an exasperated tone, “I’m going to buy a hot lunch tomorrow! Dad, your lunch was terrible.” Then with his little finger he started counting, “You gave me the heel. I hate the heel. You gave me grapes. I don’t like grapes. You gave me beef turkey (that’s how he pronounces jerkey) and a power bar!” Poor guy. Only five and he already has to take matters into his own hands.
5) Black Sand Beach.
6) Speaking of Hawaii… baptizing my friend who happened to be pregnant at the time and the both of us getting completely pummeled and subsequently dumped out mercilessly on the sand by huge but surprisingly sneaky, Kanapali waves... not once, but twice! On the third try we finally got-r-dun.

Two Lowlights:

1) ER/Doctor visits. Too many of those again this year.
2) Life being hard. Didn’t someone say it was supposed to get easier?
Anyway, I could go on but I think that’s a pretty decent ratio… 3 good things for every bad. Though I’m tempted to say I’d like a year with no bad things I suppose that wouldn’t make me very strong… or blessed. Isn’t that what our Lord said? When you’re hungry, searching, thirsty, meek, low in spirit and persecuted… then you’re blessed? Seems backwards to me. But I learned a long time ago that He’s more trustworthy than my thoughts about it all. (It’s almost as if His ways are ‘higher’ than mine… hmmm…)

Merry Christmas and here’s to a good ratio for you in the coming year as well!

The Fosters
Jonathan, Johnna, Quincy, Shay and Evan

Advertising the Epidemic of Needs

Most obsessions are the perpetuation of misjudgments. In fact, more people die in the epidemics of needs than in the epidemics of disease. Abraham Joshua Heschel

I seem to be a laboratory of unpredictable needs and interests. Some of these needs bubble up from what I would call healthy places inside of me and I recognize them as simply inherent in being human. Others, induced by volatile chemicals like advertising, style, envy or a combination of many things seem to be wildly unhealthy. In and through it all I’m aware that there are not as many days in the laboratory as I would like where I feel content in the sense that the Apostle Paul said he was content. I probably shouldn’t admit that. It may ruin whatever impression you have of me. But as I am in a life-long struggle to rid myself of impression-management I think it would be best for me to confess.

Along those lines, I can’t seem to get over this line from Dag Hammarskjold (the ‘o’ in Hammarskjold should have a couple little Scandinavian dots over the top but I don’t know how to do that so pretend that they are there.) who said, “Hunger is my native place in the land of passions.” First of all, that is amazingly creative and concise. I wish I had written it and he had written something better. Secondly, uh… that’s me many days. Hungry. Not for food. (Although I am going to my moms in a couple of weeks and am looking forward to cinnamon rolls. ) No, it’s not food or drink. It’s a feeling, a desire, a little voice, a discomfort like bare feet on hot sand that makes me move with more emotion. Left unchecked it could ruin me. I would be caught up in the "epidemic of needs" that Heschel speaks of. But admitting seems to deflate it's temptation and it's intensity. (It's almost like God is providing a way out of temptation through confession... hmmm... neat concept.)

As of this writing it is Christmas season. (Although in Phoenix it’s 75 degrees, sunny and hanging lights in a yard full of cactus and sharp desert foliage doesn’t put me in the Christmas mood.) My gift to God and subsequently everyone this season is at every gift I unwrap, each card I open and during each hug I receive I'll whisper a prayer of thanksgiving and a prayer of submission.

Yes, I know hunger. That’s just a part of it all. But it will not control me. The One who “satisfies my desires” will.

To Live Well is to Change Often

One author whose name escapes me at this moment said, “To live is to change. To live well is to change often.” When God moves in your life change happens. You can’t expect to have a ‘full’ relationship with Him and have your life stay status quo. Sooner or later, if your heart is open, He will introduce change. It's all a part of the journey. This guy named Paul was on a journey when he said, “I consider everything a loss compared to knowing God.” What can I give up for loss? What can I let go of? You see, I really like the idea of change… until it comes to changing me! In one of my favorite quotes along these lines Tolstoy said, “Everyone wants to change humanity, no one wants to change himself.” (AH! Knock it off Tolstoy. Too much truth. You’re killin' me!)

This Christmas season think about…

Mary’s earthly father. One of the greatest possessions for a Hebrew father in the first century was his daughter’s virginity. When Mary became pregnant, more than likely he and everyone else would have assumed at least initially that Mary had had physical relations with a man. This was embarrassing. He had to deal with change.

Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. He probably had his life mapped out a little differently than what was about to happen. Even after he found out that Mary was pregnant he could have saved some honor by divorcing her publicly making sure everyone knew he didn’t approve of this behavior. In fact he even could have legally kept the dowry. But he chose to do something else. He embraced the change. And he was changed for the rest of his life.

Mary. No one had to give up more than she did. No one had to change more. What God asked her to do, really, think about it… it was impossible. Give birth, nurture and help mature the son of God? C’mon. That would take an amazing amount of humility and responsibility. Mary didn’t back down. She dealt with the change. Radical change.

You and me. God may not be allowing change to impact as quite as greatly as these family members of Jesus. But sooner or later if we follow him we’ll have choices to make regarding change. Am I open? Can I embrace it? Am I humble enough?

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