A Reminder: What Christmas is All About

25 Years...Amazing

Happy Anniversary

(With love...to my love, my best friend)

Entangled

Our hearts grew

Softer

With tenderness

As we learned to read

Each other’s emotions

Interwoven

Our days grew

fuller

With wonder

As we shared

Each other’s dreams

Encircling

Our love grows

Stronger

With contentment

As we continue to be

Each other’s joy

Be Faithful

"The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son." ~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (emphasis mine)

Just a reminder-- one I needed (sigh!)--to get my focus back on who I serve, rather than what I am doing to serve. Click the link to go to read the rest of a great entry in the daily devotional for today.

Latte or Cappuccino?

If you are one of those people who feels guilty about indulging your dollars for your favorite high priced coffee, check out this article at Lark News.
I hadn't visited this site for quite awhile, but it's great for tongue-in-cheek, slightly sarcastic humor poking (mostly) gently at Christian subculture.

On the other hand, I came across this book that might give you serious pause about your daily cup of joe.

The Reason Behind All This Time and Sand

Things I've done for work in the last couple of weeks:

• Fluffed and straightened limbs on a 14' Christmas tree
• Assembled and fluffed a 5 foot, 6 foot, and 7 foot tree
• Climbed on scaffolding and ladders to hang lights on 14' and 7' trees
• Got a splinter while climbing on scaffolding
• Shopped at 6 different Walmart stores and at least 4 Target stores
• Purchased black ski masks, industrial strength velcro, red umbrellas, gloves, 24 LED flashlights, 2 types of magnets, superballs, dog balls, tennis balls, mesh ball bags, 20+ yoga/pilates balls, 64 large (8" diameter) Christmas ornaments, 64 kickballs, Christmas tree lights, ribbon
• Deflated 15 inflated yoga balls by sitting on them and smashing the air out
• Super glued magnets onto large Christmas tree ornaments (didn't work--polarization is an unforgiving natural force)
• Cut and bent heavy gauge wire into Christmas ornament hooks. 64 of them.
• Painted a big wooden box bright Christmas green.

I need a manicure. My hands look like I've been playing with a grouchy cat. It's been a busy week, with tasks at work becoming more physical and more "under the gun" as the week wore on. I have to admit that it was hard to keep a good attitude at times. I wanted to be doing more creating and less intern-type tasks. I understand it's just the nature of being new kid on the block at the busiest time in the church calender year, but I had to keep fighting down "pitiful me" feelings of "isn't there someone else to do this?" and "this is not what I expected!"

The holidays prime you for reminiscing about "auld lang syne" even before the New Year arrives, and when you've had a year of change and new beginnings it's hard not to look back over your shoulder sometimes and say, "why can't it just be like it used to be?" It's hard not to miss the old times past where the kids happily spent time with us and even helped decorate the tree, I was enjoying most of my working relationships and felt a great level of competence and creative freedom in my work, and there was wonderful rapport with all our friends and family!

Ok, who am I kidding? While all of those were true maybe for brief moments, they weren't the norm. There are ebbs and flows in jobs and relationships. And some of those things are true even now--creative sharing, developing work relationships and friendships--and while the kids didn't help with the tree, they do seem to enjoy hanging out with us at least some of the time. So why the longing for the past?

There's a great song by one of my favorite artists, Sara Groves called "Painting Pictures of Egypt". The metaphor is from the story of the Israelites wandering in the desert in their long journey to the land God had promised them. They became so discouraged at one point they longed to go back to the place where they had been slaves. (Now, please! I'm not implying that where I came from was comparable to Egyptian slavery--just that it wasn't where God wanted me to stay!) Anyway, here's the chorus:

"I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I"ve learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned "

Change is hard. I don't want to go back. But I do miss it.

Advent: Something Momentous

Advent: "The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important or arrival that has been awaited (especially of something momentous)"

It seems like every year we are well into December before I break down (usually involving tears and frustration lashing out at loved ones) and go, hmmm...maybe I should consider doing something to help me focus spiritually on what the season means, rather than just my to-do list for the season. This year is no exception, but I did find a great online daily Advent devotional to help me this year. Called "Following the Star", it is a great way to get your focus back (thanks, Jenni!). It also seems to be free of "wise-men-still-seek-him, reason-for-the-season" cliches that tend to run amok in these things.

This week is our church's big Christmas "premiere"-a sort of dressiest dress rehearsal before the actual performances closer to Christmas day. Needless to say I'll be busy, but it's exciting to be part of something that thousands of people watch that has the potential to change how they look at Christmas and more importantly, how they view God. I've so far only seen bits and pieces of the whole program as I have been doing background support work to get things ready. I'm excited to see it as a whole! It feels momentous to me!

Strength for the Long Haul (Parenting)

Check out this great article over at internetmonk on parenting. I may be past the point of "raising" my children, but I still found some encouragement and good thoughts here. Even if we're grown ups, it doesn't mean we don't need to encourage others who are trying to raise good grow ups.

So, I'll also offer this word of encouragement from Colossians 1 (from The Message):

"We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us."

Hang in there.