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.