Prepping for Christmas… again.

Its that time of the year.  You know what its all about:

• 42 community holiday events in 25 days.
• Kids in angel and shepherd costumes.
• Christmas songs on the radio from the musical genius of Justin Bieber.

But seriously, from the pastor’s perspective, the holidays are one of the most fun and most challenging times of the year.

On the fun side: people are willing to get together and do stuff more than other times of the year.  There’s lots of food, way too much sugar, and lots of gestures of service and charity.

On the challenging side: the Christmas story is one of the most well known stories in the world.  Yes, there are some fun things to do with the story: there are certain personal elements o the story things a preacher can try to “bring to life”,  there are a handful of tidbits from the traditional story that are historically and Biblically inaccurate.  But I’ve already preached on those.

The amazing thing is that as I read the story for the umpteenth time, I’m still surprised.

I’m surprised at how certain elements of the story speak to certain things going on in my life right now.

I’m surprised by certain characters’ responses in ways I haven’t seen before.

I’m surprised by parts of the story that make me laugh.

So instead of trying to be super creative, or academic, or theologically awesome… I’ll be preaching from the elements of Jesus’ birth story that surprise me this year.

If you’re in southeast Colorado, stop by on a Sunday morning.  Anywhere else, check the church’s site or iTunes for the sermon uploads.  You might be surprised too.

Now its time to get back to the soothing tunes of “White Christmas”, Bieber-style.

5 Things Worth Waiting For

My kids are waiting for Santa to show up.  People are waiting for Christmas carols to stop playing on the radio.  Here are the five things I’m waiting for in no particular order.

1. The season premier of Lost. They got off the island last season, now they have to get back?!  This show keeps me guessing every week.
2. Weather that lets you cut more firewood. It’s really cold and windy here right now.  Something happens when the temperature dips below “Holy-Cats-Its-Cold” that makes you instinctually want to get more firewood.  You could have three metric tons of wood stored up and still feel the need to get more when one of our cold winds catches you just right.
3. Quality moments with family. It seems like just about everyone hustles around to make it to every relative’s home within a 200 mile radius to get some good family time in.  We seem to amass a huge quantity of memories and polaroid snap-shots, but how many of those moments are quality moments?  How many of those memories will be rolling around in our heads in 20, 40, 60 years?   Take a little time for a quality conversation with a loved one this week.  Let someone know how much you appreciate them.  That’s a memory that will stick with them for 40 years.
4. Christmas cookies. There’s no need to expand on this one.  Let’s just say I’m glad I have an extra hole in my belt this time of the year.
5. Change. Change in myself.  Change in others.  Change in hearts.  All of these things take time.  I can’t force change in any of these things.  God won’t force us to do anything, but he is constantly working in us, constantly changing and growing us.  Most of the time, it’s at a very slow pace.  Much slower than my microwave-internet-everything-on-demand mindset is used to.  The important lessons I’ve begun to learn in the last several years have taken a long time to get to where they are now.  I’m sure it’s the same for you.  Here’s the funny part: change takes years in us, but when it doesn’t happen overnight in others, we get frustrated at them.  How crazy!