Walking The Journey

And the big day has arrived, what we’ve been waiting for, it’s Christmas. So many writers, poets and songwriters have made attempts to pen the meaning of Christmas. Here are a few of the classic examples of songs we sing during the Christmas season, attempts to state in melody the significance of the birth of Christ: • Away in a Manger • The First Noel • God Rest You Merry Gentlemen • Hark! the Herald Angels Sing • It Came Upon a Midnight Clear • Joy to the World • O Come, All Ye Faithful • O Come, O Come, Emmanuel • O Little Town of Bethlehem • Silent Night, Holy Night • We Three Kings • What Child is This? Of course, there are also many movies, books, poems, and the like that attempt to tell the story of failure, rebirth, and redemption in modern terms, or in what were modern terms when written. Like so many “rewrites and remakes”, the original is often the best, and probably also the most simple. The Gospel of Luke tells the story in this way, “And an angel of the

Our fascination with spies and covert operations seems to come and go, as evidenced by the television series throughout the ages, which also seem to be driven by the movies of the day. It is probably safe to conclude as well that this fascination is also feed by the world climate and conflicts between nations. I can remember looking forward to the weekly episodes of “Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, sharing the excitement of young boys the next day with friends. It seemed spies and espionage trickled into many night time shows and many actors took their shot at being a super spy. And of course, the ultimate spy of all time is the one and only Bond, James Bond, 007, licensed to kill.  You can almost hear the famous music in the background, the popular song from your favorite episode ringing in your ear. There are varying opinions as to what actor was the best and greatest James Bond of all times (Sean Connery would be the answer, of course). Bond was famous for bravely and courageously walking i

In my solitude, when I can get it, I find at times drifting back mentally; reviewing the many paths I’ve walked in my life. Truly, none of them cause me great regret or remorse. Sure, there are paths of embarrassment, hurt pride, foolish acts, memories I’d rather not have, but no real regrets, as each road, each path, has taught me the true road towards life, towards Salvation, towards God. I still walk roads that will lead to future memories I’d rather forget before they occur, but in my humanness, I know that these roads will need to be traveled. In those moments of solitude and contemplation, I can rest in my serenity and appreciate the changes God has orchestrated in my life, and thus, in the life of those I encounter. Most of my friends of the past or my family of the present would never have imagined I would be were I’m at in life right now, and in that statement, rests the true power of God. And yet, the reality also exists that inside me lurks a beast that if I’m not careful,

Besides having a day off to relax with the wife and daughter, it was a day with no real expectations. A nice drive on a nice sunny, yet cold day, to a town in another state, only about 90 minutes away, to attend a retirement ceremony for a distant in-law, an uncle of my wife’s, whom I’d only met on three other occasions. From what I’ve gathered, he’s a nice enough fellow, big, tall, that left over hippie looking guy who really isn’t, more of an academic superstar who excels in everything he attempts, with a sense of humor that never appears to stop. Like I said, nice enough appearing fellow. One of those guys I wish I’d known more of and known more about, spent more time with. I assumed I’d encounter other academic likes and military personal as well; officers I would gather. And, upon arrival, I was right. The setting was smaller than I’d figured, and more formal. We were greeted and escorted to our seats, the second row of seats from the front row, name tags on our chairs, feeling

So many of us in our lives have came to that point when we began our search for a mate, a partner, a spouse to spend our lives through eternity. And as our marriage grew, so did our desires, and the eventual desire to add children to our family. After conception, we share our news with our family and friends, begin to read our books, take our courses, prepare the nursery, have our showers, buy what we and the baby will need, and celebrate the eventual birth of our new baby child. We care, protect, love, and wait for those exciting days when our child will begin to coo, roll, crawl, and utter those first words. Our little angel looks up to us one day, in his post-infant toddler stage, and firmly states, “NO”. And the world of “no’s” begins, from the mouths of our baby to the attitudes of toddlers to the defiance of preteens to the rebellion of teens and on and on. We grow up and begin to experience the reality of the “no’s” of the world, from teachers, from those we are interested in

Have you had those moments when you’re walking through life just fine, not really up and not really down, just minding your own business, not really connected to much but not severely disconnected either. Life is just life and in such moments you just are what you are, or as Popeye the Sailor would say, “I yam what I yam”. Something happens, someone engages with you in this way or that way, the environment impacts you, an injustice occurs, etc, and an event or person just has to throw that symbolic wrench into your complacency, messing up your “just fine” to anything but “just fine”. Have you ever noticed how God tends to do that throughout His history? People of old are going along just fine, minding their own business, comfortably wrapped up into their own worlds of complacency, minding their own dysfunctional lives, doing just fine, and God throws this wrench into the middle of it all. Adam and Eve are just fine; they only wanted a little fruit from this little old tree. Noah is o

Oh, the beauty of snow, white fluffy flakes, fills the skies, falls upon our earth, a freshness and visual splendor for our eyes to see. Snow fills aging hearts with the memories and wonder of their long past youth, reliving for just a moment the child like joy of falling snow. Snow excites and energizes millions of youth who pray to stay home from school and enjoy endless hours of white filled fun. Snow covers the landscape with beauty and awe, a canvass of fresh paint from a Skilled Master Artist. Oh, the beauty of snow. Oh, the horror and misery of this white torture, falling all over the roads, making life miserable, another struggle of endurance in an already difficult journey. This white death that covers the winter and causes so much agony for so many people, just wish it would dry up and go away. Oh, the dislike of snow, wondering why God fills the day with this awful stuff. I’m sure there are multiple degrees between the above two descriptions of snow. Life brings us some

Have you ever noticed in the seasons Christmas movies there is always a villain. Some shifty character looms behind the scene, his whole goal to mess up Christmas for all others, giving himself total pleasure. We had the Mr. Potter in “It’s a wonderful life”, the magician in Frosty, the Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol, and of course, the great Boris Karloff telling the story of the Grinch. All these characters whose sole purpose is to bring as much doom and gloom, the very condition of their hearts and souls, into the lives of everyone they encounter. I feel relatively safe to write that most of us, my readers, have our own Grinch’s who darken our doors, spewing forth their foul stench to sadden our spirits during our own Celebration of Christmas. They wear the frame of family, bosses, situations, commercialization, and memories, to mention a few, ever to happy to sew misery into our joy. They are like the leaky pipes hidden behind walls, causing slow and gradual, unknown and unseen da

A factor that is part of the Christmas season, whether it is one of joyful anticipation or worried concerns of anguish, is in-laws. Some we travel to see and some travel to see us, or both, in the same season. Some of us are blessed that we have grown from an attitude of “us and them” to us as a family, by blood or law, the meaning being the same. Others have the continued emotional and behavioral struggles of “us vs. them” encounters which affects the majority of personal relationships in a family unit. Such struggles can rock holidays in all ways but the good ways. In a bigger sense of a religious world view, we are at the same time all related and all adopted into the same family. Paul tells us in Ephesians that we are “adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ”, telling us that God has adopted us as his children, having full birthright as any natural born child. Passing a church today, a sign read, “Advent is a time to reclaim our inheritance as children of God”. Have you found yo