Day 12: The Journey of the Magi

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him.”

When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him. He gathered all the chief priests and the legal experts and asked them where the Christ was to be born. They said, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

You, Bethlehem, land of Judah,

by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah,

because from you will come one who governs,

who will shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod secretly called for the magi and found out from them the time when the star had first appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you’ve found him, report to me so that I too may go and honor him.” When they heard the king, they went; and look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Because they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

Matthew 2:1-12 CEB

Herod had no intentions of honoring the newborn king. Kings don’t like competition! King Herod was troubled, as was everyone in Jerusalem. The magi were not troubled, although they went to a lot of trouble to travel and honor the newborn. They brought gifts too.

I find this remarkable. The story says these magi were from another country – and yet they travel far to pay homage to one who is not their own. I imagine these magi made a series of life choices to arrive at a place in life where they could empty themselves for the purpose of showing up and bringing gifts to a child.

Who is the most vulnerable and weakest friend, acquaintance or enemy you know? How might you extend yourself in a way that offers them a gift? Maybe they are not a person who is someone you feel safe around - can you pray from afar? Can you love, expecting nothing in return? It’s ok if the answer is no, because God’s love is not dependent on your behavior or even your attitude. But it might be something to think about as you move toward a new year with perhaps new desires and goals for your life.

Day 12: The Journey of the Magi

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him.”

When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him. He gathered all the chief priests and the legal experts and asked them where the Christ was to be born. They said, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

You, Bethlehem, land of Judah,

by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah,

because from you will come one who governs,

who will shepherd my people Israel.”

Then Herod secretly called for the magi and found out from them the time when the star had first appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you’ve found him, report to me so that I too may go and honor him.” When they heard the king, they went; and look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Because they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

Matthew 2:1-12 CEB

Herod had no intentions of honoring the newborn king. Kings don’t like competition! King Herod was troubled, as was everyone in Jerusalem. The magi were not troubled, although they went to a lot of trouble to travel and honor the newborn. They brought gifts too.

I find this remarkable. The story says these magi were from another country – and yet they travel far to pay homage to one who is not their own. I imagine these magi made a series of life choices to arrive at a place in life where they could empty themselves for the purpose of showing up and bringing gifts to a child.

Who is the most vulnerable and weakest friend, acquaintance or enemy you know? How might you extend yourself in a way that offers them a gift? Maybe they are not a person who is someone you feel safe around - can you pray from afar? Can you love, expecting nothing in return? It’s ok if the answer is no, because God’s love is not dependent on your behavior or even your attitude. But it might be something to think about as you move toward a new year with perhaps new desires and goals for your life.

Positive Emotions are Fleeting

One of the challenges we face in trying to add positive experiences to our lives is finding out fleeting, or temporary, positive emotions can be. We have to be careful, then, that we’re not simply chasing one pleasant experience after another. Building positive emotions in our lives requires more of us than this.

As we talked about the last few days, our goal is not just more moments of happiness but to live a life worth living. We do this through intentionally seeking things out in our lives that make life not only tolerable but enjoyable, and not all of these positive things are fun or pleasant to do. For instance, meditation is something that broadens our minds and our experience of the world.

Research has shown, in particular, that loving-kindness meditations are particularly helpful in this area. While it may be difficult to learn to do, and difficult to practice regularly, and may not be particularly fun, it will increase the internal resources we have to deal with life as it is. It broadens our perspective which allows to engage with life more creatively (as opposed to, say, the fight-or-flight kinds of responses that are more typical).

My point is this: increasing our ability to thrive and experience positive aspects of life is not just about sensation-seeking. It is about adding in things we need in order to grow and develop as humans regardless of how enjoyable they may be. It is also not easy to learn a new skill, develop meaningful relationships, or create time for silence. But, doing so may expand, in a positive way, our experience of our own lives.

It will require hard work...but we can do hard things.

Positive Emotions Open Our World

If you have not read anything by Barbara Frederickson then stop what you are doing and read something. Or watch a video of one of her talks. Her work is a gift. She has long researched positive emotions and the role they play in our lives.

I used to roll my eyes at the positive psychology movement. I thought it was shallow, and only about making us feel good and asking us to ignore our pain and hardship in the process. I was wrong. Very wrong. And, largely, I was wrong because I had not actually spent time exploring what people in this field are actually saying.

In fact, they don’t ask us to ignore anything, or suppress anything. This movement, if anything, is about expanding our emotional range rather than shrinking it. What people like Barbara Frederickson teach us is that we can actively pursue positive emotions in order to broaden our experience of our lives. Positive emotions lead to greater creativity.

Positive emotions lead to greater resilience. Children perform better on math tests if they think of a positive memory before taking a test. Doctors make better decisions about complex cases when given a bag of candy just before having to make the decision. (A weird experiment if you ask me- but helps us see that even a tiny boost in positive emotions can have an unexpectedly large, positive impact.)

Positive emotions create more trust, they lead to better compromise, and they increase our ability to focus on the needs of others rather than just ourselves.

Given all of that information, we may be limiting ourselves if we are not actively seeking to add positive experiences to our lives. We may be limiting our emotional range, our creativity, our flexibility in relationships, and our ability to serve our loved ones and our community.

What can you do, today, that will give you even just a small boost of joy?

Seek Positive Experiences

The past few days we’ve talked a little bit about thriving, and whether we see ourselves as people who deserve to thrive. I’m not talking about getting everything we want in life, or having no pain, etc. What I really want each of us to consider is that we are each valuable people, loved by God, who have the capacity to experience a full life- a life that encompasses our sufferings but is not defined by them.

It’s important, I think, to ask ourselves if we’re doing what we need to do in order to experience life as being worth living.

What types of things do you do that make your life feel like it is worth living?

Or, what types of things did you used to do that helped you feel life was worth living? Perhaps you’ve gotten away from some of these things and may want to get them back, so to speak.

What types of things have you always wanted to do but felt you just did not have the time or emotional resources? Do you want to learn to draw or paint? Do you want to learn to play an instrument? Do you want to read more books? Do you want to get counseling? Do you want to spend more time in nature, or see your friends more often, or cook more meals?

Our lives can be about a lot more than our hardship and, sometimes, we have to intentionally seek positive experiences to add to our lives in order to experience that fullness.

7 So Jesus spoke again, “I assure you that I am the gate of the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and outlaws, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.

John 10:7-10, CEB