thoughts on the news of the day: Merry Christmas!

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            Today’s news is that it is Christmas.  Today no new wars broke out.  Today as far as I can tell no one in our community was killed by a gun or a car.  No sirens are blaring for health emergencies.  It is a soft, quiet, peaceful Christmas morning.  I even checked facebook this morning.  Everyone’s message is one of good cheer.  Wouldn’t it be great if Christmas was celebrated every day?  I don’t mean the presents and the hoopla; I mean the joy, the peace, the hope of good things to come.

            Now, I am not so naïve as to think that all is goodness and light all over the world.  One of my facebook friends wrote that he was leaving in a minute to go to work; he fights fires for a living.  Hopefully he will have a quiet day but you never know in that business.  Another friend is a nurse who will be pulling a double shift over the Christmas weekend.  Then there’s my friend who is an undertaker.  What a sad day it will be if she is called into work.  We all know someone who is sacrificing today so that we can celebrate in peace.

            Take a moment then, in the hustle and bustle, in the excitement of the day to say thank you.  Say thank you to friends and family who brought presents but also bring joy to your life everyday. Say thank you to those who sacrifice so that we can be assured of safety today: firefighters, police officers, our armed forces all over the world.  Say thank you to medical teams who stand ready to serve when the need arises.  And most of all, take a moment to say thank you that a tiny baby came to our little planet to teach us the way of love and gratitude.

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thoughts on the news of the day: Christmas Eve

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            Today is Christmas Eve.  It’s a day of anticipation and expectation.  Hopefully at your house all the presents are purchased and wrapped and all the groceries are bought in hopes of a great feast with family tomorrow. 

            My Christmas festivities are a little different.  For fifteen years I have worked on Christmas Eve.  In every church I have served, we have always had a Christmas Eve service and that takes preparation and time.  It has probably not been as hard on me as it has been on the preacher’s kid (aka P.K.) who lived in my home for many years and still celebrates Christmas with me. 

            I remember another P.K. who told me the story of eating hot dogs on Christmas Day because his Pastor Dad was busy visiting other families.  It has never been that bad in our home but I will say that we have had some interesting Christmas feasts.  One year my daughter wanted to have a picnic for Christmas.  So we spread a quilt on the floor, lined up all her dolls around the edges and had fried chicken nuggets for dinner.  Remember the little toy that had fishes that reached up and gobbled at a magnet on a fishing pole?  Well, we went fishing after the picnic on Christmas Day and never had to leave our living room!

            So, this Christmas may not be an ideal one for you.  In fact, like some of the elderly folks in my congregation, you may even have to spend it alone.  But no matter what you do, remember that you are not ever really all by yourself.  There is a God up in the heavens who loves you and wants the best of New Years for you …

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thoughts on the news of the day: handmade

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            There’s an article today on the web about why the iPad might not be such a great idea.  Apparently this year’s new computer tablet is one of the hottest Christmas presents around.  The writer of the article thinks they are too expensive and will be much cheaper next year; having computer games is not such a good idea because they are so addictive; and it’s easy to waste time surfing the web with it.  That’s the writer’s opinion.  I haven’t made up my mind yet about whether they are good or bad but I’m pretty sure that my brother who lives in a monastery will love the one my family purchased for him for Christmas.

            But not in the same way he loved the quilt I made him for his birthday last year.  My daughter and I are in the quilt business so to speak.  Ours are not the elaborate, complicated patch affairs; no, they are simple blocks loving sewn together and hand tacked.  We can make one in a few days; not like the complicated type that take months or even years to finish.

            My daughter’s rough and tumble, hunting and fishing, man-cave type boyfriend asked me to make him a quilt for Christmas.  We could have bought a finished one for half the price on the internet, but he wanted something that was lovingly handmade and one of a kind.  So, my daughter and I are scrambling to finish the one we have selected just for him.

            Techno-toys are great.  They make wonderful presents.  But a hand made gift? There’ll never be another one like it.

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thoughts on the news of the day: the Christmas Spirit

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            “I think people need something they can save,” that’s what a long time Hallmark card artist says.  Mary Hamilton, who has spent 55 years drawing and painting designs for Hallmark cards, knows how to spread the Christmas Spirit.  In a digital throwaway world, hard copy cards still seem to hang on.  We want to have a tangible symbol for an intangible idea.

            I have been thinking about what it means to have the “Christmas Spirit”.  My dad, who turned 90 last summer, told me a few days ago that he was having a hard time getting into the Christmas Spirit.  It has been that way for him since my Mom passed away a couple of years ago.  But a few presents, boxes of candy and phone calls have helped him to recapture the same joy that my Mom used to share when she was alive.

            My sister sent me a couple of “forwards” this morning.  I don’t generally even open the email marked “Fw:” that my friends and family send me.  There’s just not enough time to read them all. But these two made the cut.  And in their quaint but endearing tales of generosity, they reminded me once again that the Christmas Spirit is not a tangible thing.  It’s not so much about what we get really.  It’s about what we give.  And that feeling that we get from giving is even more savable than the Hallmark card we put back to enjoy next Christmas. 

            So, if you haven’t gotten the Christmas Spirit yet, reach out to someone in kindness and fellowship.  And share God greatest gift, the love God has for us.

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thoughts on the news of the day: the common cold

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            It takes 48 hours to get the common cold once you have been exposed to it.  Exercise may be the best preventative for a cold and orange juice pretty much doesn’t work.  Echinacea and hot tea are good; lack of sleep not so good.  The average person gets 200 colds in their lifetime.  These are some of the facts about the adenovirus 36, also known as one of the viruses that cause the common cold.  One other interesting fact about a cold virus is that it might make you fat!  A study found that children who had colds were on the average heavier than those who didn’t.

            So far, medical science hasn’t found a true cure for the common cold.  We have many ways to treat it, but no real cures.  We continue to sneeze and sniffle drinking Mom’s chicken noodle soup as we suffer.  Allowing it to run its course is probably the best way to escape a cold.  It just takes time.

            And that’s true of most healing.  Whether it’s physical, mental or emotional pain; one of the most important components in healing is time.  Now I am not advocating dismissal of doctors and healers of all kinds.  Ultimately, I believe that God alone heals. But God uses doctors and medicine, too.  And God uses the passage of time. 

            My prayer for you today is that no matter what your condition or ailment, God will give you all the time you need to heal.

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thoughts on the news of the day: integrity

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            Brianna Lamar is one lucky 14-year old.  She was born cocaine addicted and HIV positive but thanks to good doctors and medicine, has lived a full and healthy life.  Raised by her grandparents, she is not shy to tell anyone about her illness.  Nearly everyone she meets quickly hears about her affliction.  She does not try to hide it in anyway.  In fact, she is so vocal and so healthy that she has been nominated to be a “Champion” of the Children’s Miracle Network.

            Actually, this young teenage girl has what many adults only wish they had and that is integrity.  She knows who she is and she is not afraid to identify herself to anyone who will listen; she has that special quality of being who she says she is.  Even when she was little, she clearly identified herself as HIV positive, in spite of the fact that she knew that many people would shun her. 

            I have heard it said that a good definition of integrity is when your insides match your outsides.  That is, when our actions match our true thoughts and feelings.  It’s is not so hard to do when all is going well in our lives.  It is much more difficult when we are challenged or confronted by people who don’t agree with us. 

            Do you live with integrity?  Are you able to identify your feelings and act upon what you think and feel?  It’s not so easy, but it makes life so much simpler.

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thoughts on the news of the day: diary

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            As you look back over 2010, what comes to mind?  The Haiti Earthquake?  The Gulf Oil Spill?  The World Cup?  The Chilean Mine Rescue?  All important stories that impact our world and in many ways influence our lives.

            What would you write as the top ten stories of your life in 2010?  Would it be about new jobs, new relationships, new adventures, or new births?  We often mark time through events, those things that happen to us, or to people we know.   And as we look back over the year how do we feel?  Sad?  Joyous? Grateful? Angry?   

            I visited a retro “five and dime” store recently and among the Roy Rogers lunch boxes and John Deere ball caps, I found a diary.  You know, the old school kind; it had the days of the year marked on its pages and was complete with the lock and the key. 

            Do you keep a journal, a diary?  It’s a wonderful way to be in touch with our life.  We can say things to a piece of paper or a computer screen that we would never dream of saying out loud.  Our true feelings about issues and people can bounce onto the page with no reaction and no recrimination. 

            Then there’s the God part.  It’s fun to look back and see where God had a hand in even the most mundane of activities.  But that is difficult without a written accounting of things wished for and things received.

            Perhaps in 2011, you could consider writing a journal of events and feelings that affect your life. No one has to read it. No one has to know. And it certainly doesn’t have to be well written.  Mostly, it just has to be honest.

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