Christmas Forecast

For the past decade I found myself in a very particular place this time each year. No matter how much I prepared for it, decorated it, sugared it up…Christmas was becoming more and more a bummer rather than a blessing. I looked at the commercialization of it by our society, did studies into the traditional icons we know of like “where did the idea for a Christmas tree come from?” and so on. No matter what I did each year my emotional forecast for the festive season would be another bitter, cold storm.

But a year before my daughter was born I had something happen to me that changed all that. Now I wish I could tell you that it changed the way the world views and uses Christmas, but it did not – that is obvious. The world did not change, but I did! So what did it? Well I realized something about myself that actually adjusted my life not only on the 12th month but also that other eleven.

I realized that I was looking for Christmas to make me happy! Well it never did! I would buy the wrong gift, received the wrong gift, forget to buy a gift, struggle to decorate the house, attend Christmas parties and Christmas pageants, but none of it brought happiness. Something was wrong and getting worse by the year. I had lost sight of my Joy. What I was looking for was happiness but not Joy! Even though joy would chase me down the same time each year, I would ignore it’s message.

I realized that I was looking for happiness and bought into a selfish lie. I never found happiness because happiness and joy are not the same thing. Funny we can have happiness without joy, but we can’t have joy without happiness. Hummm…I had lost my joy because I was looking for happiness. I was singing “happy to the World….” Instead of “Joy to the world….” When I realized this and started looking for Joy I found it right away. What I was looking for was there all along, I was just looking for the wrong thing.

The next Christmas I experienced joy AND happiness when my daughter celebrated her first Christmas. Never mind she was only a few months old and could not play with any toy we bought her; Joy was in our home and it still is today. Look for joy this holiday, and everything else will fall into place!

“Be joyful always;…” (1 Thessalonians 5:16)

MTV Admits "Family First"!!!

Family, it is what we come home to, what we long for if we don’t have it, it’s what brings great pleasure and great pain. It is full of up’s and down’s, highs and lows yet in it all we learn something about life and God. We learn that family is here to stay, just as God is here to stay. You can’t remove family without destroying society and you can’t remove God without destroying life.

God speaks through family, the abundance of it or the lack of it. He says when you are alone without it, “"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5) and when you are full of family He speaks “…his banner over me is love…” (Song of Solomon 2:4)

Let me ask you today, what is the health of your family? Are you saying, "I'm sorry," "I forgive you," and "I love you" often? Is your family happy? Teenagers seem to be the most unhappy with their families today and they are often used as the blunt of jokes, even with the phrase “Well, that’s a teenager….”

What makes someone between the ages of 13 and 24 happy is not what you might think, according to an extensive survey conducted by the Associated Press and MTV. (Yes MTV and AP did this!) The results showed that spending time with family (73 percent) makes young people happiest. Nearly half of kids surveyed mentioned one of their parents as their hero, with mothers (29 percent) ranking higher than fathers (21 percent). After family, "relationships with friends" was most likely to make children happy.

"You know what's really surprising is that this poll flies in the face of some of these cultural values that MTV is pushing on kids," said Dr. Bill Maier, vice president and psychologist in residence at Focus on the Family. What makes children, teens and parents happy is to have a family to be with.

Don’t forget to place the value on your family that God does and remember your family is one of the most powerful and important aspects of your life. Even though the Apostle Paul is talking about widows, I think this scripture is a powerful message for all of us today in regards to our families.

(1 Timothy 5:4-5) “… learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.”

True Friendship

Friendship, true friendship means something. Well it used to but with the advent of the electronic avenues such as cell phones, voicemail, Facebook, and Twitter we seem to be ready to be that Friend, but often it falls flat in satisfying the desire for true friendship.

I joined Facebook a little over a year ago under the encouragement of my staff. I was reluctant, not because I resist technology, but because I did not want to spend my time trying to be a friend or pastor through a keyboard. I prefer to do it in person, face to face! Eventually I saw the value in joining Facebook, so I signed up.

Amidst the fun of learning another piece of technology I noticed something on Facebook; that Friend’s counter on the left side that shows how many friends I have. Interesting, how many friends I have….humm. Well that must mean something right? I later found out it did not mean they where my friends, it just meant they accepted an invite from me. Sadly over the time I have been on Facebook I have talked with people that consider it a badge of honor or a goal to have as many friends as possible. Instead of gaining real friends they gained virtual friends. I have yet to see a realistic friends list, most range from hundreds to thousands!!! This runs the risk of a false sense of connection and friendship.

The far becomes near and the near becomes far in the electronic age. We have become a culture of individual tribes placing a priority on relating electronically instead of in person, often being more honest to the virtual world than the real world. Our desire for connection and community continues to grow as our friends list grows, yet we struggle to find true friends and become digital nomads wandering through life alone.

True friendship is a rare thing and is more than a simple click of a mouse; it is more valuable than that. So, what friends do you need to get together with face to face with this week? Make sure to cultivate the right friends in your life, they will be few and it will be an investment that will save your life one day.
(Proverbs 18:24) “ A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother”