As 2013 begins

On December 20th I left work until January 2nd.  It was such a beautiful couple of weeks full of rest, relaxation, lack of alarm clocks and responsibility.  I watched a bunch of movies, read a book and started 2 more, catching up on so many things and just...enjoying my time off.

2013 has started and while 2012 went out quietly, full of relaxation, 2013 has swept in like a tsunami and has wreaked all sorts of havoc.  Between a crashed server and other hardware issues at work, Aaron woke up last Saturday and as the day progressed got steadily sicker.  The flu entered our home.  Our receptionist at work has been sick all week, too and has come in with it a time or two.  Fortunately I've had my flu shot so I am hoping to dodge the bullet but Christopher is still vulnerable. 

Having talked to several people the same theme has come up - prayer this is the worst that 2013 has to offer and we get all of our "troubles" out of the way at the start.  Not sure that's going to be the case.  Watching the news tonight and like every night we are bombarded by so much that is not comforting.

Fiscal cliffs, debt ceilings, flu "epidemic," gun control, school shootings...and those are the headlines in the first two minutes.  Our country seems to be rushing toward... something.  A showdown?  A cliff (not just the fiscal kind)?  Disaster?  I'm not sure. 

The funny thing is, I know I'm not in the first generation to think such things.  I hear - a lot - and do agree that things seem to be "getting worse" but I also know, well... they're supposed to be.  No offense but... God doesn't say it'll get better before Jesus returns. 

It is heartbreaking to see, though and to know that even if I manage to die before anything horrific happens and thereby escape true "suffering," my children or my grandchildren or my great-grandchildren won't.  Someone is going to have to suffer for the mistakes we make.  Too many bright minds lost to drugs.  Too many neighborhoods lost to drugs, to unemployment.  Too many families losing their homes, their jobs, their livelihoods.  Too many children dropping out of school.  Disease, earthquakes in "unusual" areas, hurricanes of such massive force they make roller coasters look like toothpicks...  These are not new occurrences and perhaps they aren't even anymore frequent than they have been in the past.  We just hear about them more now.  Media and Technology have made this a very, very small world.

Yet...there is hope.  This morning I woke to a dog wagging his tail, happy to see me again.  Cars still run on the roads, children head off to school.  I know it's not perfect but then...this world isn't supposed to be.  It is, however, still good in many ways.  So...come, 2013.  And I don't mean that as a challenge but more a welcoming invitation.  Help me to grow - in my faith and in my character, challenge my mind, open my eyes.

Show me my to-be memories...

Technology - Joined at the Hip

I have to admit.  It has been a pretty nice couple of weeks.  Toss out the minor surgery on the 21st and it's been perfect.  (Surgery went well, recovery has involved pain - only downside)  I had to come back to work on Wednesday, though.  At first I was fairly excited.  It felt good - the idea of moving again, getting back into the swing of things.  My leg improves almost every day so the idea of not HAVING to rest so much felt REALLY good (I don't make a very good lump, actually).

Loving my job is easy.  I've been here a very long time and while I never know what I'm going to get when I get back after an extended time off, I certainly wasn't expecting what happened this week.  I walk in the door on Wednesday and there is no voice mail, our server is fried and we can't access the internet...

Oh joy.....

It has been a VERY long three days of phone calls, no emails, no computer...  Our IT guy tried to set up our receptionist's computer (she is off this week) as a virtual machine we could run things through until he could fix the bad block on the server's hard drive but he ran into problems there.  He has been able to keep her machine online, though, which is the only reason I can do this.  There have been a few things I could do that didn't involve my computer but it absolutely floored me to figure out just how much of my work life relies on this machine.

There is a pile of work on my desk brought as far as I could bring it without the computer and now I wait... 

The server is back in the building, though and our IT guy is slowing getting us hooked back up and running.

Here's to next week being normal.  I hope...

How has your New Year been going so far?

A Sermon Worth Watching

I don't do this very often but I feel quite strongly to share the link to my church sermon from last Sunday (December 30th).  Pastor Mark Barrett has been with our church for a couple of years now, he spoke at my mother's funeral.  He has a way of not pulling any punches when he's speaking but he's not hurtful or mean with it.  He knows the truth, he speaks the truth and he isn't going to sugarcoat it.

Just want you to be prepared for that when you listen but please...the video is 37 minutes, 5 seconds long and it's 37 minutes & 5 seconds you want to take.  It is worth every moment...and then some.

Be blessed!

Worship:  The Greatest Priority

2013

For 2013...

I wish you....

May your joys be as bright as the morning, and your sorrows merely be shadows that fade in the sunlight of love. May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet, enough trials to keep you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to keep you happy, enough failure to keep you humble, enough success to keep you eager, enough friends to give you comfort, enough faith and courage in yourself to banish sadness, enough wealth to meet your needs and one thing more; enough determination to make each day a wonderful day than the one before.

(Irish Blessing)

And...

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." ~Numbers 6:24-26

May 2013 be filled with all God intends for you, may you see Him at every turn and may you remember He is Emmanuel - God with us.  Always.

Happy New Year.

Pet Peeves

I have a serious love for the English language, more specifically grammer.  Truthfully, I am not an expert and make many, many mistakes - spelling, punctuation...  Often I sit as I type, struggling to think of a synonym - shooting for something that sounds more brilliant than the mundane word my brain can't seem to skip past.  In the last two days, though, I've been confronted with three very specific pet peeves I have and it's funny - I don't think I ever gave too much thought to just how much they bother me.  Perhaps, if I type them out here, those little ear worms will wiggle their way out of my head.  At least for now...

 

#1 - "ex-President Bush"  A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I completely agree with her.  Reuters posted an article regarding former President Bush's recent and still on-going as far as I know, stay in the hospital.  The headline was "Ex-President Bush..."  This one actually makes me angry.  He is a FORMER President, not an "ex."  To my way of thinking, using ex in this instance seems overwhelmingly disrespectful and it saddens me that "ex" is cropping up in many places it probably shouldn't.  He held THE top office in the United States of America, as a veteran of that office, he deserves great respect.  So does the title. 

 

#2 - Referring to a person as "that."  This one may not be "technically" wrong, I should do some digging here but it is, for me, for lack of a better description, "painful" to me when I see it.  When someone says or writes something like:  "My mother, the most beautiful woman that I have ever known."  My mind goes right to the "that."  That denotes an object - usually inanimate - to me.  The sentence should read "My mother, the most beautiful woman who I have ever known."  Of course, it probably should be "whom" but my memory is fuzzy on that rule.  I only know my mother was a "who" not a "what/that" or "it/that."

 

#3 - , and.  A comma before the word and is redundant and unnecessary.  A comma denotes a pause - a shift in the tenor of the sentence.  And is a joining of two thoughts.  It also denotes a pause.  A comma before an and is also not technically incorrect I've been told.  Apparently that rule has changed since I was in school because I can still see my freshman English teacher dancing around the classroom teaching us about redundancy and how it indicates a lack of understanding in what you are actually trying to say. 

 

These issues are again not technically wrong, I don't believe but they sure feel wrong to me.  Pet peeves.  Mine.  They don't interrupt my life for too long...this post only took about 3 minutes to type.  I'll probably forget very soon each of the above infractions and where I saw them...until they crop up somewhere else, tormenting my feeble brain yet again.

 

So...what are some of your pet peeves?

Music Speaks

I don't believe in coincidence.  God has intention behind everything, He is in the details.  After all...if He isn't, why does the Book of Numbers exist?  Creation had order, it was to work together.  Every time God created something, He saw that it was "good."  It wasn't until sin entered the world that everything went a bit haywire.  Even in all of that, though, God still works things together for the good of those who love Him. 

 

Today I had a conversation that involved an off-handed comment that hurt.  Cut deep.  Opened old wounds, brought old anger bubbling to the surface.  It surprised me, actually - how fast it bubbled up, how desperately I wanted to scream, punch something...hurt the person who originally caused the hurt as bad as I was hurting at that moment.  Every time I think I have put my anger aside, actually forgiven the people who caused the hurt something happens to remind me that I haven't.  Not really.  I take possession of it as soon as I'm given an opportunity and I can't believe others don't feel the same. 

 

As I was driving, I started thinking of how I was going to handle this.  It's been going on far too long and I'm exhausted by it.  I'm tired of it having any type of control over me whatsoever.  The people who did this to me really aren't worth it...It would appear the only answer I have is to cut out of my life anyone who has any dealings with said people.  That would be the easiest answer.  The quickest "solve." 

 

And then this song starts to play... 

 

"Forgiveness" (by Matthew West)

It’s the hardest thing to give away
And the last thing on your mind today
It always goes to those that don’t deserve

It’s the opposite of how you feel
When the pain they caused is just too real
It takes everything you have just to say the word…

Forgiveness
Forgiveness

It flies in the face of all your pride
It moves away the mad inside
It’s always anger’s own worst enemy
Even when the jury and the judge
Say you gotta right to hold a grudge
It’s the whisper in your ear saying ‘Set It Free’

Forgiveness, Forgiveness
Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Show me how to love the unlovable
Show me how to reach the unreachable
Help me now to do the impossible

Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness

It’ll clear the bitterness away
It can even set a prisoner free
There is no end to what it’s power can do
So, let it go and be amazed
By what you see through eyes of grace
The prisoner that it really frees is you

Forgiveness, Forgiveness
Forgiveness, Forgiveness

Show me how to love the unlovable
Show me how to reach the unreachable
Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness

I want to finally set it free
So show me how to see what Your mercy sees
Help me now to give what You gave to me
Forgiveness, Forgiveness

 

And as I'm driving along I realize - God isn't messing around with me.  He's been gentle, kind and nudged me in the right direction.  It's time to do as He's asked me to do.  It's time because every single day I don't forgive those who have wronged me is a day I spend spitting in His face for His amazing gift to me.

 

I don't expect to have this solved immediately.  That much I do know and I don't think this is the first time I've even posted about this issue.  It keeps coming back.... But I have to stop ignoring it.  I have to give God the respect He deserves.  I can't treat Jesus' death on the cross as something that was done only for me.  I need to drop the selfishness, the anger, the self-absorption.  It's not going to be easy, that's for sure.  There is a part of me that is very proud of how strong my feelings are.

But...I love God more than I love myself.  He deserves my whole heart, not just those bits and pieces I think He deserves.  And it's time to forgive...to dump the black pieces in my heart.  To give those to  God and let Him clean them, mold them into what He wants them to be, not continuing to hold onto them.  Beauty from ashes, I pray...  beauty from ashes.

 

Christmas...

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.

~Isaiah 9:6-7

AND...

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

 

Thus is the Bible's description of the man whose birth we celebrate today.  May He be first in your heart today and every day.  May today be a day of glorious celebration, filled with a love unlike any known.  May you & yours be blessed today and every day.

 

Blessings to you and Merry, Merry Christmas!