Christmas Eve Eve - A New Tradition

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! 

Ok, I know that celebrating the day before the day before Christmas is a little strange and redundant, but if you're as excited as I am about Christmas then you'll understand. (FYI, I'm one of those nuts who cheered when they had Christmas decorations coming out in tandem with the Halloween junk.) I won't appologize for it. I just love Christmas

Christmas is rough for the guy living single. Wait... before you jump the gun and assume that statement is going to lead to me qhining and pining about being alone, let me nip that thought in the bud and assue you that's not the case! It's rough because there are so many people I forget or am unable to say "Merry Christmas" to the way I would like. See, when I was still living at home my folks would help remind me who needs to be remembered and even supply gifts or cards to send to special someones (like Grandma... YIKES! I FORGOT GRANDMA!). Even in college, I had the excuse of "I'm in college." And that excuse is accepted without question. College students being just a step above the homeless in terms of social responsibility.

But living life on your own, you learn that in between the daily grind of wok and trying to stay sane after work, there remains little time (or energy) to go through the lists of people I know and determine who I should send Christmas too. I barely have the ability to keep my house clean, cat fed and laundry clean. Although, I did free up just enough energy to keep my place from being designated a disaster area by shaving my head. You wouldn't believe how much time can be saved by not shampooing AND conditioning. 

What's more, Christmas cards are EXPEN$IVE! Hallmark, I love that you captured my thoughts on Christmas and made a very nice looking card... but for $4.50 I could get a person a peppermint latte at Starbucks, which I think would be better appreciated that a colorful piece of cardboard that won't even be remembered come January. Next year, I wish Santa would bring me an inexpensive yet personalized way to remember and tell everyone I know "Merry Christmas."

Interjected story time! I have to tell you this. Consider it my Christmas gift to you for reading this quasi-holiday blog. Yesterday I joined a crack team of experienced movers to help relocate the Florida District office of the Wesleyan Church. Well, among the usual characters of heavy things that need to make it through a tiny door and into a U-haul (conference tables, desks, plastic trees, etc...) was this one particular object that I named "ARRRGHBINKHGFGDCGFDFJGKHOITURYT)(*&%^$#@$%^&*(." Ok, if you can't determine what that was from the name, let me describe it more articulately and then you'll understand. 

This item happened to be a filing cabinet. Not just any filing cabinet, no, this was Satan's filing cabinet. This filing cabinet was imbued with the added ability of being able to withstand fires. Apparently weighing 600lbs equals fire proof. The walls of this cabinet were so thick and sturdy that I have serious doubts that fires were all this thing could've withstood. I was willing to bet money that I could crawl inside and survive a nuclear holocaust quite comfortably. Needless to say, this beast was the prized portion of the day requiring 6 strapping men just to push it up a ramp into the truck... Thankfully no one was pancaked by this behemoth.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! Only a couple dozen hours stand inbetween the world and the joy of Christmas celebrations. Children, young and old, waking up on Sunday morning jumping with expectations onto their parents' bed begging to go out to the tree and share their love for each other by opening the gifts they've carefully chosen and wrapped especially for each other. The snow glittering from the sky bathing the world in purest white... well... I'm in FL, so I tend to romanticize that part of the experience of Christmas day. 

I love Christmas (you may have read that somewhere). I cannot sleep Christmas Eve night... I'm 24. I don't care about getting presents. I just want to see the joy on my family's face when they open up their presents. I've already received the greatest gift of all. I love when we remember the reason for the season as a family. Our tradition, shared by countless others, is to read the Christmas story found in Luke. We let our minds travel back in time 2,000 years to the birth of Christ. We allow our hearts to be touched by the greatest gift that man ever received - Jesus, salvation, reconciliation, LIFE!

I love Christmas because it represents the greatest moment in history, when God wrapped himself in humanity and came to earth as one of us. He humbled himself into the lowest of circumstances. Jesus lived for the purpose of death. A sacrificial lamb to pay for everything wrong I've ever done. Selflessly giving everything just so I (and everyone else) could have an opportunity for forgiveness and life everlasting. That gift is totally better than an iPad. The Christmas miracle is this - That God loved us SO MUCH, he would be willing to come in person to give us life. What do we deserve? I'm barely considerant enough to acknowledge that I forget people on Christmas. I don't deserve a gift like this... no one does. But that's not the meaning of Christmas. Santa demands you be good for presents. God gave us the best one even when all we deserved was coal. Sorry, St. Nick, I think you need to reevaulate your principles there. Amazing love. Christmas. 

So, this Christmas I'm hoping that everyone takes a moment to reflect on WHY we even celebtrate the season. I'm praying that everyone can appreciate and accept the greatest gift ever given. And I'm excited already to share the love and joy that is the natural biproduct of this amazing gift of God, Jesus Christ. 

What's YOUR favorite part of Christmas? AND, if you could give someone special the BEST gift, what would it be?

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL!

Do the Jitterbug

Faithful Readers, when I woke up this morning I realized that I had forgotten to do something incredibly important this week; speak to you about my life, my thoughts, my actions, my inspirations and my goals. I felt exactly like someone who forgot to turn the oven off or who just came to the realization that they left their phone or wallet at a restaurant. Read my post, forgive me and ease my panged blogger-emotional state.

I've come to the decision this week that the negative, gloomy and enigmatic melencholy posts will cease. I don't want to be the brooding blogger who begs for people to feel sorry for them. I want to inspire. I want to give food for thought that won't be vomitted back up from your cerebellum into a pile of black and white helvetica (I love that font, don't you?).

I'm sure you're all wondering what brought about this attitudinal change in the span between blog posts (I know it's not been a regular interval... my bad). Well, God works things out. It's true! just check out Romans 8:28. Once that began to be a reality, my perspective was free to shift back to the bight and sunn side of life. I like it there. So much warmer. Imagine your brain wearing shorts on a beach watching the sunset. What? That's ridiculous to imagine your brain wearing shorts? You'd rather imagine it naked?... pervert!

Anyway, with a fresh direction in life comes a myriad of thoughts. It's true when they say, "what you put in determines what comes out." The minute I determined to take the turn new thoughts and ideas burst through my brain like stormtroopers on a certain starship.

These thought aren't running through my brain to mess things up, capture thought, laser blast ideas and take names. No, these thoughts are taking my brain by force and liberating my thought processes from that "box" people are perpetually trying to escape from. You see, friends, when your thinking is trapped by what is, it's nearly impossible to accomplish anything of merit or value.

The mental place I'm in now, the place I want to be, the place I hope to always stay is in the realm of the impossible. I want to always dream. I love being able to look at what isn't and ask the most important question that has shaped progress in this world; "why not?"

I'm never sure how life springs this trap. You're going along, believing that anything is possible with enough hard work and determination and then something happens to knock the optimism out of you. What once seems clear and possible and in grasp turns into a dark and cloudy mirage... kinda like a painted rock formation from Looney Toons (you know, with Wiley Coyote and the Road Runner). All I know is that this trap needs to be avoided at all costs.

Now that I've somehow been freed from this line of thought, I'm determined to hang onto the wreckless, and sometimes naive, optimism that insists anything is possible. It's not enough anymore to simply accept that this is the best we can do (whatever the situation). The saddest thing it to never unleash the true potential of a situation or person. I want to see the best and, perhaps, I'm foolish enough to believe it can happen. All I hope is that I'm stubborn enough to make it happen.

With that optimism in mind, next week I'll share with you my new year's goals. BRING IT, 2012!

What are you optimistic about?

Thought Singularity

Hey, there! Welcome to my blog! I'm immensely grateful that you are taking the time to read my thoughts. Feel free to let them become your own, to challenge what I say, and to share what you would like. I welcome plagiarism.


I often wonder what it would be like if I could only say a single phrase or word for the rest of my life. What word/phrase would I want to represent my thoughts and character for the remainder of my days? This is a question I keep coming back to again and again because it's such a difficult thing to nail down. Do I want a representative phrase like a life motto? (Mine's "BRING IT!" btw) Or something more useful, like "thank you." That'd be nice. You should always be thankful.


Anyway, I still have no idea what my sole phrase would be, what thought would define my life. BUT I do know this; I don't want my life to be defined or confined by a standard, mundane thought. There's something about conventional thinking that seems so distastful to my essential being. Conventional thinking now includes that whole "thinking outside the box" concept which has kinda become the new box. Now a person can become pigeon-holed into one camp of thinking or the other. This does not seem productive to me.


Now, my line of thinking is this: On Star Trek (if everyone were a Star Trek fan, then I wouldn't have to explain this illustration too much... follow the parantheses if you get lost) the ship usually comes across some sort of space anomoly (an anomoly is something uncharacteristic of the normal laws of space-time. A unique occurance). Some of these are called "singularities" (usually the term spelled out as a gravitational singularity. called by an imploding star or other irregularity of gravity. Again, a fairly uncommon and unique occurance).


I want my thoughts that define my life to be like a singularity. I want them to be unique, dazzling, amazingly brilliant. But I also want them to have gravity. I want my thoughts to grab people, pull them in and win them over to the uniqueness of though. I like being unconventional, but not simply for unconventional's sake.


Here's a danger I try to avoid: being defined by someone else. If I say "I like to think unconventionally" people tend to automatically assume that you are unconventional and now I've been branded for life. It's seered into my flesh and there's no hope to change... NEVER, EVER let people define who you are. DO NOT accept that. God is the only one able to define a person's character and identity, a person's thoughts.


My thought singularity is produced not from my own uniqueness or my desire to be unconventional, but it coes for seeking God's will and ideas and refusing to let myself be defined by others' perceptions.


This is the start of something huge. A mental revolution. Are you ready to get sucked in?


Two things you should take away from this post. 1. You NEED to become a Star Trek fan! 2. Don't let other people define you, don't even try for yourself. Let God do it. He's better.


Thanks for reading!