From The Mountain Top.

Every year at this time, we start going down memory lane. Think back to when you were real young. Most of us will remember go stuff. But then again, we might remember things we have done that are not considered good ideas. Playing with a ball in the living room sounded like a good idea. Nope, it wasn’t and one lamp went in the bin.

Seems like those occasional bad notions only got bigger as we grew up. To be kind to ourselves, we also had great things happen. Our lives have had experiences that the bible talked about when it said there are mountain tops and there are valleys in life. Then again, as we mature and add more years than we want to count, we hopefully make more right decisions and suffer less from fewer poor ones.  I guess another saying is also true, we do stupid things before we mature.

Now at the turning of a new year, a new decade, we will again look back on what went wrong and what pulled us up to that amazing, life changing mountain top, where the air is clean and the sky clear and always blue. Maybe it’s because on the mountain top we are closer to God. At least that is what some people say. You decide that.

As you think on this past year, see if you are smiling or just reminiscing on what is now part of your past. As we look back, we are the only ones who can change what we will think about when next year comes and goes. As I thought about this, I remembered one verse that should change the trajectory of our life; Luke 2:52, ‘And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man’. Can that be said of us? Can we say that about ourselves? We need to live the same way He did, through all the ups and downs of 2020. Let’s make sure, all our steps will be good ones.

Something to think about.

Happy New Year

Rob

Hours To Go Before We Sleep

Everyone will be home by now.  I’m thinking of all of you tonight. It’s Monday. It’s also Christmas Eve’s Eve. For some, that means just eight or so hours until all the stores will be closed and Christmas Eve will be with us and prayerfully, ‘all is calm, all is bright’. Many will be sitting in the glow of the Christmas tree watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” and wondering if our lives make a difference. Others may be watching, “White Christmas” or “Holiday Inn” and looking at the grass growing on the other side of the glass.

It’s been an unusual December. We had our white Christmas early on and maybe now think of this as the fall we missed. Doesn’t matter. We are home with the tree in the corner and a few more gifts to wrap. There is something special about the last few days of getting ready. To me, it’s a number of intangible things, like, memories of the past, of people who are no longer with us and times when we use to dream about what would be under the tree this year.

A long time ago I decided I would never be disappointed on Christmas morning. It was not my dream to have a perfect present. I had simple wishes. They included simple things like a tool I needed or a new shirt for church and some chocolate. At first I didn’t tell anyone about how I have every year since, bought something for myself to make sure I received at least one thing I really wanted. (When you see me in a couple of days, ask me what I bought for myself.

A good number of years ago, on Christmas, I received a most precious gift. My daughter showed up that Christmas day with her gifts to everyone. We were sitting around the room, and one by one, we opened them as if of them were the most precious. As time went by we continued to go around and around the room. It came around to me and I decided to open the gift from her. It didn’t look like much because it was haphazardly wrapped. It turned out to be a lawn ornament you hammered into the ground. At the top was an angel, with the caption, “Angel’s Gather Here”. That night I left the room and went outside and cried with the angels surrounding me.

In those very special moments I felt like those shepherds must have felt. They were just lying there watching their flocks by night and heard;  “But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Maybe Angels are saying to us there is still one more thing to do this Christmas and that is ‘go and see this thing which has come to past’. Let’s go see the Baby.

Something to think about.

Merry Christmas

Rob

We Will Arrive

Last week we talked about counting and now it’s all about preparation. Just over a week from now, we will have our most festive and wonderful celebration of our calendar year.  So let’s get ready. Wrap, clean, arrange, plan and pull it all together.

And even at church we are past the halfway point in our journey to Christmas. Hope fads into the past as we faintly remember that this life is not the end, but the beginning of eternity. On top of this, a sense of peace between ourselves and the creator of the universe brings relief. It was a threshold if you will, of going through a door that opens to a new life where the lack of peace in the world does not impact the peace we feel in our hearts given to us by God.

I believe having hope and peace is the beginning of a fulfilled life. The hard stuff is behind us. To give up our life and hand it over to God is huge. But it is also a relief. Anxiety and fear, pain and terror are gone. Probably because, in many ways, we don’t know where we are going or how we are getting there. In a word, He Does.

This past Sunday we jumped, head first into the Joy of realizing that everything will ultimately be okay as we leave our fears behind. It may not be this afternoon, or this week, but ultimately. After all, aren’t we walking towards the manger? It almost, yes, almost gives us the impression that Joy is the jumping off point into a new feeling of knowing this life in Christ is so amazing.  How quickly we arrived at this point.

Maybe, we need this moment to go back and find out if we really know what each one means to us, to me individually. Making sure we know and believe all these things about Christmas to tell us we are ready as we should be when we stand over the manger, and look down into the eyes of our Lord & Saviour.

Whether or not we are ready, next week we will experience the Love of God as we gather around the manger. He came to give all these feelings, these words a significant place in our lives. God sent His Son knowing He would die for our sins. Take time this Christmas to attend worship and Thank Him for the gift of forgiveness through His Son – the Christ Child.

Merry Christmas  

Rob

Make A Mental Note - Don't Forget...

We are a society that counts things. As we go through Advent, we seem to be counting things even more. It starts with counting down the days until Christmas arrives. Do you have one of those ornaments that you change the numbers every morning? Many of us count the days by using an Advent calendar. Open the little ‘date’ door and you receive an anticipation treat.

My wife and I had a yearly conversation just the other day. It went something like this: “Have you finished your shopping?” And then, “Who have you still to buy for?” That was when she started rhyming off what’s done and what’s not done. This all happened while I was driving so I didn’t remember much.

The most concerning counting, beyond the presents can be summed up in the phrase, “Are you ready”.  Do you have, is there enough, are we missing someone, have we forgotten something? These lists keep us on our toes. After all, we don’t want to get to Dec. 24^th at 6pm realizing, we are not ready and you forgot something for Cousin George.  Here is a little secret I know about. Buy two generic gifts and if you don’t need them, they are a gift to yourself.

Advent is about preparing ourselves and asking many more questions. These are internal questions that guard our hearts. I believe, after pondering the presence of: Hope, Peace, Joy & Love within us, the most important counting question is, “are these four items, feelings, present in me”? Then can I say in my heart of hearts ‘I’m ready to stand in front of the manger and look down at Jesus face and unconditionally say, ‘I’m ready for this moment.’  

Something to think about

Rob

Who Am I Talking Too?

Every one of us has had those annoying ‘telemarketers’ phone calls. They call you at the most inappropriate times. Well, it seems so. I want you to know something about these calls to help you with them.

When your phone rings, let it ring three times before you pick it up.  This goes for every call that comes to your phone. You see, their computer dials three numbers at a time and the first one to pick it up gets the call. The other two, get what is called ‘dead air’. This means you were not the first one to pick up their call.

Here is the next part of this problem. Their computer dialing takes note of what time of the day it was when you picked it up and they will continue to call about the same time each day until they talk to you. Then after a good number of no pickups on your part the computer deletes your number. On top of the three rings, also, say hello once, and if you don’t hear someone talk to you, hang up immediately and never say hello more than once.

I followed my advice last week and just as I was ready to hang up, someone said, “Hi, so nice to hear a voice instead of a hang up. MMMMMMMMMM, interesting, but still a telemarketer.  The conversation was about supporting a certain political party with a donation. I said no, that is not something I do. The person, or so I thought, said, “I understand, but maybe you could give a lesser amount”. This was repeated again.

This is where I realized that I was not talking to a person but I was talking to a machine and it was talking back to me.  They call it, Artificial Intelligence. It blew me away for a few minutes after I hung up. I was talking to a computer and it was talking back to me. did some checking and there are already 13 thing artificial intelligence impacts our lives today.

I am so glad that I can talk to God, who is real. He can talk to me and it’s real, very real.  

The song is true, “He walks with me and He talks with me. . . “

Something to think about

Rob