Fireworks

Well we've passed the Christmas, and survived! Imagine that. And now it's already time for the present year to end and the new one to begin. Now I know what most people think of when you say 'New Year.' They can't help but think of those sad little clay-mation (how exactly is that spelled..) movies with a big-eared baby crawling around the world while weird people that can't walk normally chase after him to save us all from not having a new year or something. At least that's what I think it was about....I don't know, but where exactly Rudolph fit in there, I will never know. It was a very confusing movie to say the least. I'm thinking maybe the animators of it could have been recovering from some spiked eggnog of sorts when they made it. It's a possibility. I do like those corny claymation movies though. It's like those dogs that are so ugly, they're cute. Because they're so corny, they're funny.

I wonder if people still try to make New Year's resolutions anymore, or is that a thing of the past? I don't keep up with them really, they don't seem to make much difference anyway. Though I have heard rumors that gyms get hundreds of customers for about a week or so after New Year's, only to have them stop coming a few days later. Such commitment I tell you;) It's a curious thing, that people make an inkling of effort to evaluate a smidgeon of their life and want to improve it, but don't usually see it through. Kudos to the ones that do. It really is a brave thing to want to change a pattern in your life and work to do it.

We're all creatures of habit in some form or another....we eat the foods that we know we'll like, we go to the places we normally like, watch the shows we normally like, listen to the music, buy the clothes, and round and round we go. But it is difficult to stop a pattern in your mind and retrain your brain to go a different way. Hopefully it's for the better, and not bad patterns that you're creating:) It definitely is hard though.

I'm sorry to say that every year when that psychadellic ball drops in New York, I am usually asleep. If I'm awake, I'm usually not interested in watching it anyway. I think when you've seen it once, you've seen the general gist and it can lose the excitement. It did for me anyway.

I wonder if it's the best way to celebrate a new year.....going to the parties, or events, or watching the special on tv.....or maybe not. We should celebrate the end of the year and coming of a new one obviously, because God has blessed us to live for another year! We've survived the wild jungle of life for 12 months, that is always something to be thankful for. But I just wonder what would be the best way to prepare ourselves for the new twists & turns ahead. Probably the same way it's best to prepare for everything.....pray. Pray about your work, your problems, your school, your friends/family, your dreams, your weaknesses, your strengths.....pray about every little thing. Who better to lead you into the unknown future, than the author of life, who carries your future?

One thing I do like about the New Year festivities, are the fireworks. I love fireworks. I think they're fascinating. And they explode. Legally. In different colors even. How cool is that? When I was little I used to wonder how people made them and how all those little light fragments could shoot off into so many different directions to make a beautiful shape. So neat to watch. Ofcourse not everywhere has fireworks for that I guess, more so for the 4th of July. But still, I love to see them:) It would be a neat thing, to think of our lives as fireworks......we're given the ingredients and tools to do something bigger in this life than we can think. Just like people put all the right ingredients into making and planning a fireworks display. We've all got different colors and shapes, and we shoot off into different directions from each other and at different times. But when we're obedient to God, he get's us ready and teaches us how to use all the things He's placed inside of us so that when that time comes.....BAM! He shoots us high into the stars, so we can burst in the pitch black sky with a magnificent array of lights. So high that it's noticeable from a long distance away and everyone can see. Then everyone is left wondering how all those icky ingredients, those trials in life, could make something so stunning. That would be neat.

So here comes the New Year! Let's pray that the Lord will take all the grimey trials we go through in life, and make us burst through them...exploding into the sky and showing everyone in the world how His light shines inside us. Happy New Year!

Christmas Chaos

Well today is Christmas day. Amazing that the year is already over and it feels like it just started yesterday. I just can't catch up to it I tell you.

Now ordinarily I would never have time to sit down and write something on a blog at Christmas because our holidays have always been so full of chaos that there isn't a second to spare. Ever since I was little, we would all open the presents we received on Christmas morning and then you'd have to race to clean up the house and run out the door to visit relatives. The same group of relatives in fact, all of us going from house to house in something resembling a cattle drive. I don't think anyone ever stopped to think how silly it was really....going to see someone, knowing that they were coming over your house a couple hours later. Not much sense in that at all. But there it was, a little carousel of tradition that no one would ever dare to question, because no one was to go against family tradition. But since we're disowned from that family, now we're free from those decrepit old traditions that did nothing but exhaust everyone who had to clean & prepare food, taking all focus off of the actual meaning of Christmas to begin with.

Sadly, even with just a few of us, we can make traditions all over again that will only continue to keep us looking at the over commercialized Christmas that everyone is supposed to have. You walk through the stores and what do you see? The zombie faces of people killing themselves trying to shop for everyone on their list so that they can keep the whole world happy and not ruffle anyone's feathers. Is that really important? Why do we have to buy each other presents at Christmas? If we want to buy something for someone, why not just buy it and give it when you want to? Why do people make lists of what they want others to get them? I think I've become completely sour on it to tell you the truth. Kids don't care what Christmas is about, they just want what's on the list. What a great thing to teach a child....Christmas = presents. Yep. Can't see that doing any harm to a child.

And there's always the food. You must have certain kinds of food at Christmas or someone's angry eyes will surely make an unfestive appearance and most likely create more stress for the one who was so bold as to not make it. Turkey. I hate turkey. I'd rather have chicken or steak, if we're talking meat. How about some Christmas pizza? Oh, let's just live on the wild side and make some dang quesadillas. Come one, live a little people. And that stuffing. In a box. Or better yet, the age old recipe of someone who died a good number of years back but was kind enough to leave the "secret" ingredients to their precious stuffing. Folks, let's be honest....they probably keeled over from eating that stuffing too much. That stuff is gross. And the vegetables, ok vegetables are good for you, obviously I've never been on good terms with them but ok. Except collard greens. What is that?! Does anyone know? It scares me, it's like an unidentified alien form of seaweed that tries to pass itself off as some high powered vegetable that all old people believe will somehow heal every ailment. I wouldn't touch it with a 50 ft pole.

And there we are.....the neverending cycle of Christmas "traditions" that keep going on all over the world, right beside the rock hard fruitcake that will outlive us all. Gee, what a lovely way to remember holidays huh? Mmm..maybe not so much.

The reason why I'm rethinking the whole psycho-cycle of holiday festivities right now is because I've actually been able to feel what it's like to stop all of it and realize what's important. I always knew that we were supposed to be celebrating the birth of Jesus, an incomparible gift to us. But yet, that cyclone of craziness really prevented me from thinking about it on Christmas for more than a couple seconds in between visits and present giving. Isn't He the Prince of Peace? I wonder why we want to celebrate the peace He gives with absolute chaos. I don't know.....but I'm very thankful to be able to think about all that He's done for me on this awesome day. And I can lift up some worship to Him, which will honor Him more than running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Maybe I'm finally seeing firsthand what it is to truly celebrate Christmas after all, by offering God the gifts that He so richly deserves, with my time and joyful worship of a mighty God. I am completely penniless at the moment. I mean, if you opened my wallet, the only thing you'd see in there was a little tumbleweed rolling by. So I can't buy gifts for anyone......but life goes on even though I can't get everybody something special. It's about giving to the Lord anyway isn't it? So maybe my gift giving is exactly how it should be after all, giving my heart to Jesus and giving His love to all those around me:)

I hope anyone that may read this will understand that I'm not saying any of this to bash people for doing their Christmas traditions. I only want to challenge others to step off the chaos carousel and listen. Listen to the voice of the Lord calling to people, wanting to show them His true heart. Have a most blessed and peaceful Christmas day!