christmas past

december 25th has come and gone. it seems for the past month that i was looking forward for christmas to arrive but yet i was not prepared for it when it came. this year it just did not seem like christmas. with all the anticipation and excitement that one can build, there seemed to be something missing.

everyone around me it seemed were enjoying the holiday season as they talked about shopping and putting up decorations but i guess somehow i missed christmas. i blinked and it was gone.
as much as i could listen to christmas tunes and see the christmas pageant there seemed to be something missing. the harder i tried to make it feel like christmas the less it actually did. even with the world around me covered with snow, i just felt like "it was always winter, but never christmas."

i think i talked and wrote about churches canceling services and others saying happy holidays that i myself misdirected the anticipation of what christmas was all about to turn it into an even that needs to be celebrated the same way by every christian.

each year christmas becomes more commercialized and i complain a little bit more. while i do this i take my focus of the Christ born of a virgin and placed in a manger. so even though christmas has past i think today of the humility of Christ placing himself in the hands of a couple. even though he was God he cried and placed his every need in hands of someone else to provide the food and care that he needed.

one allowing himself to do this is obviously more humble then i. it was never about himself. he cared more for others then he did of himself. i pray even if i "missed christmas" that the incarnation will affect my life this year and hopefully the idea that God came to this earth to die will affect all that i come into contact with.

just a quick thought

i heard it mentioned last week that the vote in iraq was titled the "national unity vote"

why can't the u.s.a. have a vote like that?

a new low

this year we have experienced as a country some change due to the christmas season or should i say holiday season. i am not so sure. somehow the christmas tree has become the holiday tree and we are not eating christmas cookies. somehow the tolerance we had for other religions is starting to change how we celebrate one of our holiday's.

it is bad enough that in the past few years we have seen christmas become x-mas. which i read a few weeks ago an article in relevant magazine on "debunking christmas" and how it is okay to use x in the place of Christ. their reasoning for this is that the first letter im the greek word for Christ is chi. in the roman alphabet x is the symbol of chai. because of this they say x-mas is justifiable.

so let me get this correct x and Christ is the same understanding, oh wait, backing up to what they said is that it is the first letter of Christ. so in reality it should be merry c-mas. but even if x stood for Christ, most people in the christian world would not know that so how does the rest of the world see it. it is all about tolerance. letting people of the world control how we as christians celebrate our holiday.

and now of course we have this whole thing with churches canceling services on christmas sunday. so we can take time and be self absorbed underneath the christmas tree opening up our christmas presents with our christmas sweaters and sipping eggnog in front of the fire place. i do not mind the idea of spending christmas with your family but what is so wrong about making Christ the center of what christmas is about. it is named after him.

but today in the world christmas is all about presents, pleasure and pride. yesterday while driving in to work i heard this on the radio. this is the new low. it was an advertisement for "adult world-- where we put the x in x-mas."

this is where our tolerance has placed us. where we have no say is our own religious holiday.

37%

the last few weeks i have been thinking on the line of politics, in general, george w. and the war in iraq. i have been astounded by many news reports and blogs attacking bush. every now and then a poll comes out and shows what percentage of the american people are in support of bush. the last one i recall hearing was at 37% (this is how many people think bush is doing a good job.)

if you watch the news it seems that everyone wants to pull out of iraq. save the american lives. everyone of course except the american troops. sure they want to come home and get out of harms way. they want to be able to see their families and play with their children.

last night we had a marine surgeon speek. he showed pictures and video. he had a picture of each person who died in combat while he was over in iraq from his fort, with names and dates on each one. he said this "the overwhelming majority of military overseas want to continue in the fight in iraq, in order to achieve the goal. the goal of which to bring enough freedom so that when they do pull out, there will not be a civil war."

obviously they have a job to do, and to pull out now would only be hazardous to everyone in iraq. we talk about feeding the poor and rescuing africa from aids. but i ask what about the human life. when we can help stop many people from death. why are so many americans not willing to see the need in iraq.

and anyways where do these polls come from? i have never been asked. have you been asked?

the lake effect

for years i have watched news reports about 2 foot snows. i have felt pity for the people of this area and possibly thought to myself, " i will never live there." they get this much snow due to what is called "the lake effect." to read more on the lake effect go here http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/lkefsnw1.htm

for the past two years of my life i have lived in south carolina. i havent even seen snow for two years. and have missed it. i miss the look of it (pure white), what you can do with it (snowballs) or what happens when a lot of it falls on a mountain (skiing).

this summer jenny and i made the move to new york. we can be at lake ontario in about 5 minutes. it is definately a beautiful site. but also with this move we now have the lake effect snow. two nights ago we had 12 inches. last night another 6 inches were added and is still falling right now.

there is something so fresh and new with snow. there are not too many people in the area more happy about seeing snow then me. i am sure eventually it will wear on me too. but for now this snow is nothing but beautiful.

united politics

it is really hard to for me to understand why it is republican vs democrat or conservative vs liberal. i sit on my couch as there are negative campaigns running in both direction. just this morning i saw an interview with john kerry and matt lauer. matt lauer asked him this question. "i read each of your briefs on troops exiting iraq, and it seems to me that they are saying the same thing." kerry fired back that "they are very different."

even christians do not agree with political issues of abortion, embryonic research, gay and lesbian marriage and adoption, capital punishment and war. i have been on blogs of friends and they are attacking bush. while others are patting bush on the back. personally i have never enjoyed a fight. it is just not my style. how far are we going to get when someone is going to disagree with someone just because he is a republican.

since the tsunamis a year bush sr. and clinton have teamed up. two people who have battled it out in a presidential race that got very heated working together for a common purpose. they did a such a great job working together they teamed up again to raise money for katrina victims. it seems to me that we do such a greater job when we work together. we get a lot more finished. we achieve the goal quicker then we could have if it were two individual former presidents.

it is time to come together. throw aside the things that we disagree on and concentrate on what brings us together. what is best for the u.s.? how can we best achieve this? is it possible to throw away all the titles of denominations... oh crap... i meant political parties.

in all reality the church needs to unify. not in the sense of dropping denomination ties. but in the sense of doing all we can to expand God's kingdom. eventuall denominations wont matter. why do they matter now? because for some reason we concentrate on the minors of following Christ rather then the core beliefs.

as far as politics the same needs to happen.