Christmas is tiring...

There is so much to do all the time. It’s all fun but just a lot. Maybe that is a sign of age on my part.

Now comes the bad part of taking down all those decorations that took so much time and energy to put up. The good thing is they come down much faster than they went up. It is still a chore though.

Why is that? The most enjoyable times of our lives involve so much time, energy and sweat. It was said by a coworker at a funeral that his friend believed work could and should be fun (not a quote). If that is true and I think it is, then the inverse is true fun can be work. Why is it that fun is not fun but only work sometimes?

The answer is our missing the point. We see this at Christmas when we concern ourselves with decorations, cookies and party themes to the point that we miss the people. After all Christmas is a story of God loving people so much he gave his only Son. It is easy to miss the point in all of the hoop la and “good times” leaving us feeling tired, discouraged and well tired (yes I said it again). Family and friends are the point. They are the ones who make us wonderful. “No man is a failure who has friends,” Clarence tells George in the holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life.  There George missed the point of life and living and Christmas. He was tired and discouraged when the worst happens and all seems lost. In the movie it takes Clarence and the experience of life without his influence to bring him back to God, remember the prayer? On a side note it is Mary his wife who spreads the word of the problem and the people respond. George missed the point.

Christmas is tiring because …well...it is however it is not pointless or without fun. It is the people who make the difference. It is the person Jesus who changed everything. People make the difference. Maybe the answer is to not concern myself with the details and just let the fun be fun with the people.

People make the memories as we spend time together at the holidays and any day. That is the point. Love God and Love people, simple really. It’s all the other stuff that makes us so tired. I need a nap. Maybe I will find some of my family and together we will take a nap.

Happy New Year to you and yours. We will meet again next year!                  

The Rev

A Baby chnages everything...

...The title of a Faith Hill song. Being a song title does not make it true but any parent knows a baby changes everything. Recently a family in our congregation added a third child a little girl born on the 5^th of December. She is a precious addition to their family of 4. But her little-bitty-self will change everything that family does forever. Her older siblings are in middle school and elementary school now there are diapers and feedings, small toys that get under the bridge of your foot before you step on them (did I mention with sharp edges). Yep that baby will change everything. Christmas does that too, it changes everything all because of a baby. Life changes dramatically in most homes at Christmas time.

My own for example gets cleaned from head to toe and then comes the decorations. If it sits it’s decorated. That is my secret keep moving or I will be decorated. The whole house and everyone and everything is transformed by greenery, glitter, lights or tinsel most of the time all of the aforementioned. Outside lights are hung and strung from anything that will support them. Inflatable snowmen are enlarged with a push of air and sway in the breeze dangling joy and peace from their bulbous arms. It is probably much like your home. I think it is like most homes. It’s true a baby changes everything.

We change too at Christmas. The schedule makes you change adding parties and gatherings each week and by the last week a party each day. There are gifts to be given so decisions must be made as to what and “can I afford it.” The pace picks up dramatically. So does our spirits. Strangers wish complete strangers Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Lips that most days are shaped in a frown now have a curvature more vertical in nature or a hint of one at the edges waiting in anticipation for an opportunity to bust into sight of one and all. There is a glad tone to the despondent and sorrowful voice for most. Hope blows in the wind in greater concentrations than dust in the summer and for many they look forward to getting together with family and spending time in the same room. Yes, Virginia a baby changes everything.

THIS baby changes everything, he was supposed to. Right now the transformation is impossible not to see and experience. We have a fire in our fireplace at Christmas. The rest of the year the fireplace consumes space. This baby, Jesus came to change not the physical world but the world of the physical from the inside out. He came to change our perspective on life and living from getting to giving, from trial to transformation, from impossible situations to great opportunities and from existing to living, really living. Live it up this Christmas (the end of the world didn’t happen 12.21.12 as the Mayans never predicted) because THIS baby changed everything!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!             

The Rev

Since we like choices...do we choose well?

The family and I went to Mellow Mushroom in Pooler Thursday night to eat. As we settled in to our booth with menus in hand, I was amazed at all of the choices available, pizza in 3 sizes but with some interesting combinations of toppings and sauces and cheeses. Then there were the Calzones with this list of possibilities that at first glance equaled the pizza choices and then surpassed pizza like a Ducati at full throttle. I was overwhelmed and then I chose. I chose a combination that I did not see on the menu. That meant we had to ask the waitress.

I wanted a Calzone with a topping list from the pizza menu. Seemed easy enough to me to do but you never know. The risk I was taking involved a “no” and what else would I choose. There was so much on the menu but I had a target. If the answer was no, it would be like my children who at times go to the refrigerator open the doors wide cooling the house stare into the stuffed appliance and with great emphasis state “there is nothing to eat.”  Heard that? If you have kids you have. Maybe you have even said it yourself. What that means is there is nothing you choose to eat regardless of the endless possibility of the supply at hand. That was where I was. The menu was full of possibilities but I had laser targeted one combination and now for the answer.

 Jesus speaking to his followers said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” John 15:16 NIV 1984

That would appear in our minds to be an unlimited menu. Endless possibilities for us to ask God for…riches…health…peace…well you name it and you can claim it all in prayer. Sounds too good to be true but we ask any way, don’t we? In our asking from this unlimited menu we believe we are the customer and customers are always right. We can tell God what we want and He will do it. After all, HE said to! That is selfish and at the same time foolish. We just don’t know enough to ask sometimes for the right stuff. On several occasions I have asked God for…well…a job…or…resources and he did not give it to me. I was disappointed. As time passed, I came to thank God for not giving me what I had asked for. My desired request turned out not to be what I thought it was. I was thankful God had said no. Sometimes the answer is yes just not how we thought.

Barbara my wife told me of encountering some ladies who were downcast and upset following a weekend (no not from Monday morning). They had a dear friend die that they had repeatedly, faithfully asked God to heal. Many folks had petitioned God on behalf of this saint for healing and yet death had come. They were upset that God had not heard let alone answered their prayers. Maybe you’ve been there or are there. God has not answered like you asked him too. Your loved one died or continues to be sick. You are mad at him! He broke His word. That’s OK, be mad, he is big enough to handle your anger. David was angry with God on several occasions look in the Psalms.  I suggested to Barbara that God had heard their prayers and answered yes! Their friend, who was a believer, was now whole and Holy. Healed of sin and its terminal effects and completely transformed into the image of Christ.

I often forget that God in allowing me to ask anything of him never ceases to be God. Never ceases to be the ONE who wants the very best for me all of the time. He is targeted on my salvation by transformation into the image of Christ. Every request is judged by that goal and response is made in light of that goal of his. Not always is my goal the same. I am a saint who still sins you know, oh do you know. Most times I don’t have any idea of the BIG picture. That is why I count on him to do the best for me. That is faith, counting on God to be and do the best for HIS glory and my good. It may not be what I like, but it is always best. When I can’t see his hand I need to trust his heart. His heart is good. Di I say the food was good?            

Back to my food request, she said, “yes we can have that small pizza folded over.” Simple solution and a great meal and lunch Friday as it was so big (expensive too in my opinion but hey I was not paying for it). I chose well (this time).

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev