Christmas

Christmas

Torn between the hype and the holy.
Signs up, lights lit, stores gearing up way too early.
8 pounds 7 ounce baby Jesus commercialized and pimped. My heart breaks.
I love getting gifts. I love giving gifts
I love the looks on the faces of my boys as they see the bounty of wrapped boxes on Christmas morning.
I even love them asking me every day in December, "can we open a gift today dad? Just one, I promise we won't ask any more????"
How many of us did that?
How much anticipation did we have for that Christmas morning?
The excitement generated might have been a social experiment created by the axis of commercial, Sears Roebuck and Coca-Cola, but here we are.
In this time, in this place, in this buy on-line age where I can get all my shopping done at 3 in the morning on a Sunday with a click of the mouse. Or I guess several clicks.
But the gift. The original gift.
Can you imagine if we didn't get that gift or if we didn't receive that gift?
That 8 pound 7 ounce baby Jesus. How blessed are we that God has given us this grace.
How "lucky" are we that God decided to give us this second or third or billionth chance.
I don't know if we are celebrating the gift that God gave us rightly.
I don't think we are really.
But how happy am I that God bid on that item on eBay (me) and when he put in the amount he was bidding there wasn't a limit. He bid [His Son].
I know I am mixing the sublime with the holy a bit here but he paid for me and my sins with his son.
Christmas traditions are definitely screwy right now. It's hard to remember if my Christmas traditions are mine, the Brady's or the Huxtables.
It doesn't really matter though I guess cus I am going to spend this Christmas.
Spend my money.
Spend my time.
Spend my energy on the right things and the wrong too maybe.
And I'll spend my generosity.
The first Christmas was God blessing the world with a gift
[life in Him more fully]
Christmas is still about that gift but this Christmas we get to bless as partners.
The irony is I'm going to have to use the hype and make it holy.
Even with my kids. Not cheesy or greedy but HOLY.
What other time [other than Halloween when everybody actually comes to my door asking me to bless them]
are the doors, the homes or the hands of the world so wide open ready to receive a gift?

The Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... a little while after that I got around to put together this blog.

I guess I'll start out political because if I'm going to go there [which I am] I may as well just get there sooner rather than later.

Giuliani... really? that's your choice my republican brothers and sisters? After 30 years of pounding Roe v Wade how is Giuliani even in the conversation of winning the republican ticket? It saddens me that electability is more important than your stance on LIFE. All the criticism I've gotten over the years for voting democrat [I'm VERY Pro-Life] on that issue alone and now because there isn't anyone else that's electable, people are folding over like a book of matches for this guy.

I still vote Dem even though they are pro choice becasue the republicans haven't done anything to change it any ways, nor do they want to. I say they really don't want to because they had chances and nothing has really changed.

Furthermore, whenever I bring up the fact that I vote Democrat for social issues like welfare [taking care of the poor] health care [taking care of our kids] environment [tending our garden] my Christian brethren always remind me that those issues are not our governments to solve they are the church's. Well, if "GOD" stuff is the business of just the church's then why is the Christian right always trying to elect a Christian [Giuliani aside of course].

What are the conservative issues Christian stand on that are not financially motivated? It's not Pro-Life anymore. I guess I'm a little confused now what makes Christians Republicans?
What issues on the Republican Agenda are inherently Christian???? Again, abortion doesn't count anymore [Giuliani].

Perfect world => Obama/Huckabee 08