Here comes Christmas!

Christmas is coming soon! I'm excited, in a way...
As an adult, it is a different feeling. Being a Pastor, I enjoy the opportunity to preach God's Word to the people, and hope that they get something out of it, praying that they understand the meaning of Christmas. Also, being a Pastor, it's, in a sense, a position where I don't get the "day off" like many other people might. I'm in a different frame of mind when I preach, and so I'm hoping that I'm close enough to some colleague's church so that I can be "on the other side" sometime Christmas Eve. I miss that.

But as a kid, I would be counting days, and to practice my Math, I'd count the hours, minutes, and seconds. To tell you how excited I'd be about Christmas, I don't mind Math, but it's not something I would sit around doing to that extent.
I've shared a couple of memories in past blogs, and now here is another memory - the t.v. specials, mostly the Rankin-Bass ones like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town.

As I watched Rudolph this evening, I remember the feeling of the felt pajamas that I wore as a kid, and thought back to the days of looking through the TV Guide for more TV Specials to come on. The only one I didn't like to watch was Little Drummer Boy because for some reason, I'd always feel so sad that I would want to cry when I'd see the little lamb get hurt and the Drummer Boy would cry (I remember crying when I was 5 years old from that scene).

It's amazing how seeing how hearing something can bring back memories. Even as my brother was texting me pictures of the process of him baking rocks (yeah, we eat rocks - a family recipe if you haven't been reading my posts... I might post the recipe later if you're nice. LOL) I could seem to smell the scent of the rocks baking in the oven as I looked at the pictures.

Who knows... maybe this year I'll get the courage to watch Little Drummer Boy if it comes on t.v.

Another Christmas memory - I wasn't always a Pastor

I was just reading my brother's blog, and remembering how when we were kids, all of us (we have a younger sister and brother) would gather in our room and wait for our parents to get up before we could go out to see what we got for Christmas, and when we moved to our house in Pickerington, my brother and I had separate rooms, so we'd meet in his room because it was farthest from our parents' room, and wait for them to wake up.
Again, let me say that I think that there were times that our parents were awake and were enjoying the "torture" of us kids trying to decide who'd make the most "typical noise" so that they'd wake up.

But as much as we'd wait, there was that anticipation that came with the waiting. What did we get? Did we get something big or little? How much did we get?
To keep us from "cheating", there was a sheet hung at the end of the hall so that us kids couldn't see into the living room if we had to go to the bathroom or go to one another's rooms for something. Darn it. But that didn't mean that we weren't in the hallway, peaking around the corners, looking to see if there was any openings at the bottem of the sheet, and seeing if we could see anything down the hallway if there was. Back then, we'd give anything for x-ray vision or to be the Six Million Dollar Man with that Bionic Eye... But again, darn it!

Living in Pickerington, we were upstairs so there wasn't the need for the "sheet at the end of the hall". But I remember one Christmas, we realized that there was a gigantic mirror on the wall at the bottom of the stairs, and given the right angle, we could see into the living room - BONUS!!  So like some sort of Special Rangers soldier, crawling across the floor, around the corner to peek down the stairs to see the mirror and.... a sheet was covering the mirror. DANG IT!!!

The "extra waiting and wondering" gave me time to wonder what the day would be like... What would happen when we go to our grandparents' houses? Will my parents like the gifts I got them? Etc Etc.

Life gives us lessons that are just like we're taught in the Bible, but maybe we don't know it, or it's not as obvious at the time. As we enter into the Advent season, preparing for the celebration of Jesus, we have the time to reflect on why we're celebrating. We can consider what the Season really is all about. We can consider everything we have and what other people don't have.

Waiting and wondering... How about reflecting and preparing?
Blessings!

Is Thanksgiving over?

I'm stuffed! Cornish Hen, yam, stuffing, carrots, cranberry sauce, rolls, and of course, pumpkin pie. All of this after weeks of watching people post on Facebook of things that they're thankful for and giving my congregations a challenge of being thankful for what they have, thanking 10 people each day, and ending each day with realizing what they learned to appreciate.
Then as I've sat here and relax and watched movies and enjoyed my Thanksgiving Day dinner, I watched as people would post on FB about their dinners and such, and prepping for Black Friday specials (and how some people are even posting tents in front of some stores - what is so important that you have to camp in front of a store? Sheesh!)

And now I'm thinking of what I'll be preaching as we go upon our Advent journey, and what Christmas means. 30 days of a trip to something which I hope is exciting, but mostly inspiring and eye-opening.

But now that the only idea of Thanksgiving will now be how to use the leftovers, do we stop thinking about giving thanks every day? Do we stop saying thank you as much as we should? Do we stop reflecting how things we've learned to appreciate? If we do, then what good will the hope, peace, joy, and love of the Advent season do?

Was your Thanksgiving nice? If so, why stop? If not, work to make it better now.
We should never stop giving thanks.

Teaching Wants versus Needs

One thing that I've enjoyed here and there in my "adult" years is playing Santa Claus. Being there and watching a kid's eyes light up is something that is so amazing. The only thing that surpasses it is how I will surprise myself by getting out of those tough situations where the little ones realize that the big guy with the long white bread is kinda scary (they're not quite ready for the 'real Santa' versus the 'TV Santa').
Today I got to be Santa again. And what fun! Even when some adults have fun with it, wanting a picture with Santa (hey, anything for a 'fan' - Ho Ho Ho!). But one thing I heard from a few kids was "is (so and so) on the naughty or nice list" or what they "want" as opposed to what the "need". And then after reading my brother's blog where he talked about how we used to go to both sets of our grandparents houses on Christmas, it made me remember how we always seemed to get knit slippers or a package of socks or something like that along with some toys from one of our grandparents.
Back then, I remember, with now remorse, how we could feel the Christmas gifts and "figure out" the knitted slippers or clothing items, and think "do I get these out of the way now with a Thank You so I can get to the toys, or do I get to the toys so that the "thanks" are worn out".

Now, being a grandpa, sitting in my chair with a lap-blanket and wondering what kind of socks will keep my feet warm, I miss those days-gone-by. A time when looking back, we got things we wanted, but also got what we needed.

When a child asked Santa today about if someone else was on the naughty or nice list, Santa asked them if they really wanted to know about that other person, or themselves, and if they wanted to know about themselves, then only their actions could decide that. When a youth told Santa about not getting what they 'wanted', but instead getting something that their parents thought that they needed, and they didn't like that, then Santa told them a story about a little boy who learned to appreciate everything he got.

What we've learned in life isn't just memories - they're opportunities to teach future generations about life.
Like what it means to eat a rock. (A 'rock' is a family recipe muffin-type cookie what is hard as a rock, usually made one year and then left in a tin until the next year, and really great!)
Or hanging over the edge of a roof to hang Christmas lights because you're having too much fun to worry about heights.
Or saving up all the bread bags to protect the numerous plugs from all of the Christmas lights, which in retrospect, makes me wonder how safe it was - like something out of "A Christmas Story".
Or how to have the kids wait in one room while the parents get some extra sleep before opening gifts.
Or how to "raise the noise level" without being "loud" to get the parents up so to go open gifts.
Or how to get the Christmas stocking felt off of the sticky candy.

All of those are fun memories that I plan to share with my grandchildren as I wrap up a sweater or two.

More reminiscing later!

What is the "ultimate gift" this Season?

I love Christmastime. I think I've already mentioned it. If I didn't, there ya go. If I did, it's worth repeating.

I love the memories of when my brothers and sister and I would have to one of our bedrooms and wait for our parents to get up, and in the meanwhile, try to "sneak a peak" down the hallway to what might be waiting under the tree for us. There are also the memories of going to see our grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles later in the day, and of course, cleaning up all of the wrapping paper later.

Probably the best part of Christmastime was watching the specials on TV, especially the Rankin-Bass ones, and now I'm looking forward to that as well. I'm also looking forward to watching the Christmas lights twinkle, whether on a tree or around my window sill. The town that I live in is considered the "Christmas City", so I'm hoping to have plenty of lights to see this year, as well as the fact that one of my churches has a "Tree of Lights" that it does every year, and it uses a big evergreen tree in the Parsonage yard for it. That should be awesome.

But it has certainly seemed like everything has come so much more earlier this year. I've still got the basket of leftover Halloween candy on a shelf, and yet I go to the Department Store and there is one or two aisles filled with stocking stuffers and Holiday clothing apparel. Maybe I might be wrong, but it seems like you didn't hear a lot about Christmas mentioned until Thanksgiving Day with MAYBE an occasional commercial, but nothing more until after Santa stepped off his sleigh after the Macy's Parade.

But in a time when we should really start to be more thankful, maybe some of the Christmas-themed movies that have aired recently on TV, especially some that have been on the Hallmark Channel, might be a good start. The movie "The Ultimate Gift" is a perfect example. It is a movie of a guy who has to learn 12 lessons in life to receive the "ultimate gift" from his deceased grandfather, which some might think is one thing, but in my opinion, the guy has learned something a lot more, and THAT is the ultimate gift.

If you don't have the movie, I highly recommend it... find it on TV, borrow it, rent it, buy it from Amazon or something... but somehow, watch it.
Then you may, too, realize the "ultimate gift".

Having to look for the humor

NBC's "Saturday Night Live" popularity is gained from how it spoofs current events. I hope that a line in last night's episode made a point..."Do you know how this makes you look?"
When even the Devil has to point out to people how they look foolish for supporting people who had a responsibility to protect children, you know something must be getting pretty bad!

NOW... Why do I bring this up?
Because 1-It does make a good point. Do the people realize how foolish they look for supporting someone who knew of the abuse but did something about it? And 2-Because with the sadness and hate and bitterness, there has to be some light of hope and/or humor somewhere. If I had done the SNL skit, I might have had the Devil making "special plans" for the abusers. But again, we need to get past those people and be praying for the victims.

I was reading my brother's blog, in which he was coming back to finding some good news in light of the happenings, and even though he might of had to do some serious searching (he lives in an area of a big city and such), he did find a story of people using the talents of animals to help shy kids with reading.

Today, I preached on using our talents for the good of our community and our churches. (Matthew 25:14-30). Instead of burying our heads in the sand when bad things happen, we need to do something positive for those in need.

Praying is a good start. We all have that talent.

And let's remember to find a smile in our days.
And yes, you can even look it up in the Bible! (Humor and laughter references in the Bible)

Amen.

An interesting turn of events

Today I watched the Neb - Penn St game. I've listened to the news. And now I've read my brother's blog. As a lot was said about those events, not enough has been said about the alleged victims, just how Penn St was going to do without their Coach Joe.I got an email stating that a past instructor of mine had passed away. He did so much for the education of others in so many ways, and yet, even though this guy knew all there was to know about Wesley, and he did more in local and global mission than most pastors will ever do, his qualifications weren't fully recognized.

I've had to sit back today and truly wonder what I'm thankful for. This is something that hasn't been too hard to do since the challenge was placed, but in light of everything going on, how can I think of myself in any way when the world has been blind to what's going on around itself.

Today I'll just be thankful that I can turn to God in prayer for those who truly need it.
Enough said.

Making a list, checking it twice...

Thankfulness.
Been keeping aware of what I'm thankful for each day. And part of doing that is knowing my faults. Recognizing them is considered a mark of humility. And being humble is also something I'm thankful for.

I've noticed that a lot of people have made notes on their social media pages or personally how they are thankful. But I've also noticed the humility in the statements. In other words, people aren't thankful for big paychecks, but instead, for the ability to give extra to someone, or something like that.
That's awesome!

1 Peter 5:6 says "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time".

As we continue to remember to be thankful, let us also remember to be humble.

preparing for Thanksgiving

I'm still amazed at the number of Christmas commercials on tv already. I don't remember (and maybe it's because of my old age) so much Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving.

Don't misunderstand me - I love the Christmas Holiday! I especially love the old Rankin-Bass specials (Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Year Without a Santa Claus...), but it seems like Christmas didn't even come up until after Thanksgiving.

As I'm watching what people on Facebook and such are thankful for, I'm reminded of what someone reminded me of - Psalm 25...
I offer my life to you, LORD.
² My God, I trust you.
Please don’t let me be put to shame!
Don’t let my enemies rejoice over me!
³ For that matter, don’t let anyone who hopes in you be put to shame; instead, let those who are treacherous without excuse be put to shame.
⁴ Make your ways known to me, LORD; teach me your paths.
⁵ Lead me in your truth— teach it to me— because you are the God who saves me.
I put my hope in you all day long.
⁶ LORD, remember your compassion and faithful love— they are forever!
⁷ But don’t remember the sins of my youth or my wrongdoing.
Remember me only according to your faithful love for the sake of your goodness, LORD.
⁸ The LORD is good and does the right thing; he teaches sinners which way they should go.
⁹ God guides the weak to justice, teaching them his way.
¹⁰ All the LORD’s paths are loving and faithful for those who keep his covenant and laws.
¹¹ Please, for the sake of your good name, LORD, forgive my sins, which are many!
¹² Where are the ones who honor the LORD?
God will teach them which path to take.
¹³ They will live a good life, and their descendants will possess the land.
¹⁴ The LORD counsels those who honor him; he makes his covenant known to them.
¹⁵ My eyes are always looking to the LORD because he will free my feet from the net.
¹⁶ Turn to me, God, and have mercy on me because I’m alone and suffering.
¹⁷ My heart’s troubles keep getting bigger— set me free from my distress!
¹⁸ Look at my suffering and trouble— forgive all my sins!
¹⁹ Look at how many enemies I have and how violently they hate me!
²⁰ Please protect my life! Deliver me! Don’t let me be put to shame because I take refuge in you.
²¹ Let integrity and virtue guard me because I hope in you.
²² Please, God, save Israel from all its troubles!

A Psalm of Thanksgiving...
So let's continue to give thanks =)

Remember when....?

I'm still working on what I'm thankful for. It can be a challenge in light of different things happening all around, but if one just stops and thinks about it, IT IS NOT THAT HARD!

For example, I could complain that I wasn't able to see Ohio State football today, even though it was listed on my channel guide. Or I could complain about the way that the Huskers played, but what good does being an "armchair quarterback" do?
So instead, I got some laundry done (sure, may not sound exciting, but trust me, I'm thankful to have it out of the way! LOL),
But the most thankful thing today was that I watched some old movies (like "Mary Poppins" - Can you still say "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"?) , and caught up a bit with an old friend.

Tomorrow, we're celebrating "All Saints' Sunday" in our churches, and in doing so, we'll be giving thanks for those friends and loved ones who have passed on. And after the Services, we'll also be remembering some of those people during our Charge Conference (an annual Church Meeting in which we come together to complete certain "business" things of the church) as well as telling our stories of how our churches have made an impact on our lives.

Sitting back and reflecting on the great things of the past... and giving thanks for those things.
All of the past makes us what we are today. Take the good and use it for strength, laughter, and joy. Take the hurts and pains and use them to make you stronger.

Then give thanks for the day - even if it is trying to see how fast you can sing along with Mary Poppins. =)

It could be worse...

I've been challenged. At least I think so.
I follow other's blogs. It's interesting, and fun. As a matter of fact, the one in which I'm writing of should probably consider being a preacher. The writer is smart and makes good points! (I wonder if this person's preacher has ever noticed?)

Anyways, the challenge is about being positive and recognizing what blessings I have.
I have to say that I usually do, but in my writings and when I talk to some people, it doesn't show near as much as it should. Honestly, I have to do better at it.
Thinking back, I remember having that thankful, positive attitude. I remember being able to laugh a lot, relax in tense moments, and thanking God for those little blessings, even when "crap had hit the fan".

Where did it go? I have no clue. It's probably still there, but just not as obvious as it should be. Maybe I've let old age sneak up on me. Maybe I'm worrying too much.
But like my brother once told me - I'm already a grandpa, why should I care what (other's) think of me? (Which on a funny side, just solidifies the old age part (JUST KIDDING).

So here it goes - for the next month, the real me is going to come back out.
It might be scary. Dogs might give me that "cockeyed head" look. I might even start laughing out loud.

If a "little old lady" can walk into one of my offices (I have an office in each city that I work in) and tell me about how she's on a limited income, but still tithes and writes her first check to the church every month, and depends on God to take care of her needs, then why can't everyone else, including me, have a great attitude?

Give thanks in the morning, give thanks before going to bed, and give thanks in between. It could always be worse, so why talk about it?