It's the Holiday Season...

There's no zippity-do or hickory-dock yet but the Christmas season is upon us once again. In fact, as if Black Friday wasn't enough to kick off festivities, today is the first Sunday of Advent, the traditional church celebration leading up to Christmas Day. I've been trying in recent years to align my personal celebrations more with the traditional church calendar than the wall calendar, if for nothing more than to connect with the traditional church and add a bit more structure to my life. Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Advent, etc. — all have had a specific place in the church calendar through the centuries and most find their origins in the first three centuries of the church.

So today is the official start of the Christmas season according to the church. The season will end on January 6th (the 12th day of Christmas).

So... Merry Christmas!

This is a busy time of year for so many people, myself included. Things are hectic and crazy! There are holiday parties and holiday concerts, holiday lights and holiday wreaths. Holiday commercials and holiday sales. Gifts to buy and feasts to plan. And all within a four-week span. (sometimes I spontaneously rhyme) This year I find myself a little behind in just about everything Christmas related. I still haven't put up any decorations. In fact, my tree is sitting in pieces on my front porch. I don't have the will to put it together and garnish it yet.

I haven't even wound the clock. Isn't that sad?

It's the holiday season, a time reserved for peace and joy. The only time of year that actually stopped a war — if only one European battlefront during World War I. Seriously. Here's more. I watched a remarkable film a few years ago called Joyeux Noel about it. It's the holiday season, a time reserved for garland and bows. I love garland and red bows. They can make nearly any surface instantly look nice, from white columns to wrought iron fences to gray composite siding.

It's a good time of year, one that I look forward to every winter. I'll connect off-and-on during the season when time allows (busyness often hits hard during the holidays).

Keep the merry bells ringing and happy holidays to you!

.

The First Thanksgiving

In my search for Christmas videos at church I just ran across this one by the Skit Guys for Thanksgiving. Hilarious! Take a look at a unique pilgrim-turkey relationship.



.

What City Dwellers Miss

Having lived in both the rural country and the big city, I know that there are some major differences in lifestyle between the two places. For example, rush hour is the city can last for hours, clogging major transportation arteries and causing certain other arteries to get majorly stressed. In the country, rush hour lasts for 15 minutes and consists of two pickups, a sedan, a green tractor, and one beat-up work van missing its license plate.

I just read an article via Yahoo extolling the virtues of choosing the country over the city. Titled, "Six amazing things city dwellers miss out on," it pretty much tells you what you might expect such an article to say: life is more peaceful away from the city.

Here's the full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/20101111/sc_ygreen/sixamazingthingscitydwellersmissouton/print

The six things are:

1. Stars
2. Fresh Air
3. Peace and Quiet
4. Greenery
5. Sounds of Nature
6. Animals and Wildlife

Is there anything else?

There are other major differences between the city and country, of course, and generally people choose to live in one climate or the other — though these days more and more people are living in the country and commuting to city jobs. While I follow the logic, I question the sanity. Why put so many miles on the car, fight the traffic every day, and miss out on mornings and evenings at home just to get some noise-and-light-free sleep at night?

A suburban product, I once (twice, actually) lived in Gainesville, a city of 16,000 about an hour north of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Cooke County has about 32,000 people total. By contrast, Denton County to the south has over a million. I used to love the lower stress on just about every area of life. Traffic wasn't a problem. Pollution wasn't a major problem (it's growing, though). And noise was never a problem. Life was just... simpler.

I could see the stars at night and I was mesmerized by them. Never did I feel so small and God so big than when I started at the mass of twinkling beings above my head. Never did I feel more important than when I realized that God considered me of more value than any of those celestial lights. I guess the stars were a big part of my spiritual life back then.

I also loved the fresh air and greenery. And the peace and quiet and those other things, too. Sometimes God has to be "found" outside of the big city (though He resides there, too). When we have lights and noises and stresses surrounding us it can be very hard to be spiritual. I know I struggle in the city. Those rare times I get to travel are generally my most peaceful, spiritual times. Times when I can forget about life in the concrete jungle and relax.

Maybe that's why Jesus sometimes called His guys to the countryside to pray and relax. They needed to get away. Of course, they had the creator of the universe among them but.. they still needed to get away. Our Lord knew that was important for spiritual health. Do I? Do you? Do we?

.

The Willingness to Be Tested

Sorry it's been a while, folks. It's not as though I've lacked thoughts over the past month, just lacked motivation. And sometimes motivation is the hardest thing to find. I actually had some great ideas for blog entries. But never fleshed them out. Sorry. My bad.

You could say that this season of my life is a great period of testing. Testing of my heart. Testing of my desires. Testing of my faith. Testing of all kinds that have left me a bit shaky and bruised but still standing on two feet, albeit feet that are a bit wobbly. Faith wobbles. Or so I've found. Not so much saving faith, mind you, as sustaining faith. Trials and temptations come our way and we shake. Plain and simple. At least I know I do.

Tonight I went to a leadership meeting at my church and listened to a marvelously deep talk by Hud McWilliams, president of Christian Associates, a church planting ministry. Hud has been a counselor, pastor and missionary in his life, so I'm pretty sure he knows something about testing. And that's what he talked about. He talked about how leaders need to strive for integrity, which he semi-defined as a willingness to be tested. God tests us, Hud said, in order to do good for us, to find out what's in our hearts, or to help us grow. Look at all the people in the Bible. Like, every major character. Over and over again they were tested — sometimes by divine will, sometimes by circumstance, sometimes by both — and they had to deal with it. Sometimes they passed, sometimes they failed. I personally think every one of us will pass and fail testing during a lifetiime. Only one man passed every test, and He's seated at the right hand of the Father.

Back to the Bible. The testing revealed what each person had in their hearts and what they thought of God. When David was tested, he was forced to fall back on his knowledge of God and his experience with God. If you want to know what was going through his mind during times of testing, read the Psalms. His heart is open for all to see. Biblically, Hud said, we should want to be tested. For the willingness to be tested is a mark of leadership. In order for a leader to have integrity (which is wholeness), they need to have that integrity tested and proven. Plus, James said we should count it all joy when we're tested. As if it's a good thing. I don't know about you, but wanting testing is usually down the list of John's desires for life.

"I think that tests are designed to (loosen us up) so we don't rely on what we see," he said. After all, most believers these days seem to want a "seat belt Christianity" — one that's safe — when, in fact, God calls us on an adventure. There will be bumps and scrapes and sometimes broken limbs. We don't want to hear that! I know I don't. But it's true.


Hud talked about a bunch of things related to testing and even though I soaked it all in I won't discuss them now. His conclusion was that God uses this world to test us, though He Himself will not bring evil upon us, and we should let times of testing and adversity build personal integrity. Lean upon what you know about God — what He has revealed to you about Himself. I find myself doing that just about every day, for I've found that tests come every day in my life. I'm in a period of testing right now. I want to pass. Even if I don't, I know there will be grace.

That's a really, really, really great feeling.

Be God's!

.