Christmas 2014

FB is filled with mountains of Merry Christmas posts which have supplanted the traditional snail mail Christmas cards thus I would assume Hallmark has been deeply affected by this technology. Each year I am amazed beginning about Thanksgiving at the astounding increase in the number of people in the obituaries leading up to Christmas and this year is no exception.  This year our world seems more broken, scary and frustrated than any other Christmas in my memory when viewed through the global and domestic prism.  The DOW broke 18,000 yesterday and that, alone, defies logic of normal market equity trading rules and weigh that against the plunge in oil and gasoline prices with no rational logic as to why and you just scratch your head and just enjoy the ride, no pun intended.  The daily news of new frontiers being broken in the values and mores of our nation make national news as gay marriages are now considered chic, lesbians marrying and being artificially inseminated to have children to rear is simply over the top for me to even contemplate and yet, such aberrant behaviors are not only accepted but celebrated.  We are in an era that is frightening and New York and the NYPD murders and protesting has upended yet again our safety net about our public servants which is tragic but very telling about the state of our nation.  There is simply too many people in too many places talking too much and too often to inflame racial tensions in our land. I could go on but will use these example as the door to open to my heart this early morning as I view into this season of joy and peace, we have always been told.

 

For me, I always find myself reflective on this special periods of the year as my mind probes the years of my life and the twelve months past but as well my mind goes to my childhood, my early school years and teachers that touched my life some of whom I am on FB with to this very day.  I think about my global career and the many wonderful people I met, worked with and the challenges that boggle the mind now at the the complexity and environments within which pressure-driven work goals had to be met. I think about all I missed with my children and their young lives in being so consumed be my vocation.  Strangely but telling I believe is that I have been retired from Goodyear now almost twelve years and probably 95% of my night dreams are still very Goodyear-centric.  I find that amazing, sad, but amazing still.

 

As we now prepare to spend time with families over these next couple of days, I realize daily how vital family is to a person.  Family, if close, provides that anchor of hope that you can turn to verbally and non-verbally when the winds of change and concern blow. Seeing and getting to know thousands of prisoners each year, you can see the pressure and angst escalate geometrically when December comes and the Christmas time tends to increase the worries and fears and tears of these men and women incarcerated with a dismal, questionable future before them determined by judges, lawyers and prosecutors as well as victims they have hurt in some way.  But see, those hoards of men and women, as bad as what they have done, have become part of the circle of my family extended and I pray and feel deep concern for each of them and their families and their lives once out from behind the bars.

 

On this Christmas Eve, given all the above and the much more I will just not write into my list, I have really built a Case for Change for myself personally.  I want 2015 to be a better year for my family and for the masses I get to meet either through singing, preaching or simply meeting in the relationship example I want others to see clearly I have with my God. I pray that each of those I yet to know will yearn to find that same relationship I bask in each day in knowing my home for me in Glory is ready and waiting for me once this journey is complete.  I want to be a better father and grandfather to my amazing children and their families and to spend more time spiritually with Logan, Noah, Isabella, Gracie and Ms Hopie. I want my legacy with them to be one of them knowing how loved they are and how much they bless my life and I want them to see Christ clearly in my walk.

 

I am going to propose something for each of you that my wife and I have been doing daily for several months just this morning completing Jeremiah 25.  We began a daily reading of the Bible beginning with Genesis 1:1 several weeks ago from a challenge by our Pastor he gave to the congregation from the pulpit. We have read the Bible through many times but never had we read it from verse one and continuing.  We have learned so much in the morning readings but as we enter this Christmas celebration of the birth of Christ season, until you understand the history, architecture and events of the Old Testament, you will never fully grasp the amazing majesty of the coming of Christ.  We may read the Christmas story from Luke but understanding the depth and richness of history leading up to that starry night, the true meaning of the  coming of Christ is made more real and clearer with His coming. I highly recommend you take the challenge of reading the Bible from page one and we will finish the rest of the Bible probably in March of 2015.  Please do this!

 

So to all my friends that will take the time to read this, each of you are part of that amazing family God has surrounded me with. We cannot know what 2015 will bring but the great news is that I am not concerned nor worried about that unfolding for I stand on a solid Rock.  Seek to enjoy every moment of this holiday time and thank you for allowing me into your busy lives. I only want to radiate God's Will for my life via my words, thoughts and deeds and actions. See, that means I am truly blessed.