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O HOLY NIGHT
O Holy Night is far and away the best Christmas carol of all time. (Don’t @ me on this.😉) It’s one I wish we sang throughout the year. It was written by a French wine merchant named Placide Cappeau in 1847 and later translated to English by John Sullivan Dwight around 1858. If you take a look at a strictly literal translation of the original lyrics, you might agree with me that Dwight greatly improved upon Cappeau’s ideas. I love the fact that these two men were a couple of “nobodies”. I don’t know that they ever met, but they…
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WONDERFUL
It’s Christmas Eve and my family just finished one of our Christmas traditions – watching It’s a Wonderful Life together. I bet I’ve seen that movie at least 20 times. Probably more. Tonight Sarah said, “The older I get, the more I like that movie.” I had just been thinking the same thing. When I was younger, I probably related most to pre-angel-visit George Bailey – with his simmering frustration over life never quite unfolding the way he planned in his imagination. These days I identify more closely with the wiser, more content George Bailey who has learned his lesson…
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SIMPLICITY
A friend posted today on Facebook how she wishes she was in Haiti for Christmas. I know the feeling. Our family Christmases in Haiti held a beautiful simplicity. Christmas was quiet and unrushed. For one thing, there was nowhere to shop but on Amazon – and that had to be done by late November. Once the twice weekly Missionary Flights International mail runs hit cargo capacity during December, there was no guarantee your packages would arrive from Florida before the 25th. So we tended to skip physical presents and opt for a family experience instead. Preferably a few days of…
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CHRISTMAS MUSIC
Each November 1st, a radio station here and there start playing Christmas music 24/7. More join in with each passing week. By December 1st, everyone is all in on the Christmas music. We get week after week of Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and – God help us – Feliz Navidad. So isn’t it weird then, that at midnight on December 25th, it all comes to an abrupt stop. NOBODY plays a single Christmas song after Christmas Day. Zip. Zero. There is no afterglow whatsoever. It’s like Christmas never happened. I guess I am weird about Christmas music. I grumble about…
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2022 IN REVIEW: GO LEARN
I am sending out a Christmas letter and card with a family update by snail mail, but I wanted to reflect further here on what 2022 meant to me individually. If 2022 had a theme for me, it was this: “Go Learn”. I used to tell my teenage students that although they may dislike school, we all love to learn (as long as we are learning stuff we deem important and valuable). Learning is fun. So here is why 2022 was so enjoyable for me: Wesley Biblical Seminary – Come April I will be halfway through my doctorate of ministry…
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THE QUIET ONE
Now and then, when I sit down to write a blogpost, I spin my wheels, staring at a blank screen for 15 minutes straight. I start typing. Stop. Delete. Sometimes that’s because I have nothing to say. More often because I have too much to say. Either way, my head is full of words and ideas. It’s just hard to force them out in the open. I suppose – when I think about it – it’s much the same way when I am with another person.
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END OF 2022 KID UPDATE
I am working on our family’s first Christmas card in several years. Here today I am posting the heart of the letter: The update on each of the kids. Here we go: Caleb, 21, has one semester left at Wabash College and then he will be serving the next few years with the Army. Since his sophomore year, Caleb has been involved in ROTC, and we recently found out that after graduation, he will be working in the Armor branch – which means tanks – and he’s pretty excited about it. Early in the new year, we should be getting…
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CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
A USB drive arrived in the mail yesterday – a Christmas gift from my brother Spencer. When I plugged it into my computer, images I hadn’t seen in over 40 years came to life. It was a much too short list of frustratingly short family movies from my childhood – mostly Christmas footage from when I was under 5 years old. There is no sound to any of them but the films were hypnotic. I have watched them through several times already. And each viewing hits me hard in the feels. Tonight I took some screen shots. Here’s me at…
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A GROSS PRODUCTION
I spent about 6 hours today putting together a short video for one of my classes. I used some fairly new camera capacities within PowerPoint. Even though it was time consuming and it kept me from joining in with family activities, I have to admit that I enjoyed doing it. I don’t know if it is worth anything, but I will post the YouTube link below so you can judge for yourself. It’s about what Christians can learn from 4 other major world religions. It’s about 18 minutes in length – so it might be a good one to play…
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FOUR LITTLE WORDS
There are four little words from the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:5 that make for a good reminder a week out from Christmas. They come at the end of a list of vices which he calls on believers to “put to death”: “Greed – which is idolatry”. Greed is the only vice listed to get a parenthetical definition from Paul. The others on the list are sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Is greed really in the same league as cheating on your spouse? It certainly is if we understand, as Paul points out, that greed is, in effect,…