Think About It

If you gather up all the calendars you have around your house, there is a good chance that at least one of them will make reference to today being Boxing Day.  Now, for those of us who are fans of the television show M*A*S*H* we might recall an episode where the 4077th was introduced to the day and told that, traditionally, on this day the supervisors (in this case, the officers) would trade places with their staff (the enlisted folks).   Some of my British friends might be in a position to correct me on this, but I never really found any substance to this tradition.  So, what is the origin of Boxing Day?  While there doesn’t appear to be a definitive answer on the subject, one thing that seems to be pretty consistent is that it was a day when the “haves” did something nice for the “have-nots”.  It may have involved the rich giving their staff a day off to spend with their families after having served them during the busy holiday season.  It might hav...

“Do you still believe in Santa Claus?”  Oh, the pain this question wrought for many of us in Elementary School.  We wanted to hang on to our youthful confidence while facing some ever-increasing realities.  We liked the idea of the Jolly Old Elf, but we feared being looked down upon by our peers or those older kids we idolized.  We did everything we could to hang in there, but eventually about the only thing we could rationalize was a belief in the “spirit” of Santa Claus. Do we still believe in Jesus?  I struggle with how the lines this time of year get blurred.  In all honesty, I really don’t care if you promote the idea of Santa Claus, but it is vital to me that we all believe in Jesus.  It’s kind of fun to think about the personification of Kris Kringle, but we must remember that even if there isn’t a real Santa there is very definitely a REAL Jesus.  He was a real person and He is the real Savior.  Yes, at one point Jesus was the Babe...

When I look back on the Christmases of my youth I have some very fond memories.  We always had presents under a tree and we were often able to spend the holidays with family.  We had a few White Christmases, but more often than not the “white” was beach sand rather than snow.  As I look back I do recall a few disappointments – such as waking upon on Christmas morning and NOT finding a 1978 Trans Am parked in the driveway.  (One time I was given a new car for Christmas … it was a plastic car wrapped up and placed under the tree – I was not amused.)  In retrospect, when I was disappointed during the holiday season it was because I wished for something that I should not have expected.  The thing that set me up for disappointment was me, not the circumstances that presented themselves. I believe that when we, as adults, feel the stress and disappointment this time of year it is often because we “over-expect”.  After years of family conflict at the Chris...

I had a bit of a problem with dissonance last week.  I guess Friday was some sort of “Ugly Sweater Day” … which is fine … except when broadcasters are supposed to be delivering the news.  I was finding it hard to digest some very challenging news stories presented to me by someone wearing a Rudolph-head sweater.  Not only was it visually incongruent, the vacillation between a deep discussion of news and the chatter about ugly sweaters caused a bit of anxiety. I guess a broadcast channel can decide how they want to deliver the news, but this got me to thinking about how, as Christians, we need to marry our message with our attitude.  Can you imagine the impression we give when we preach about hope while living lives filled with discouragement and despair?  How difficult is it for people to equate our message of joy with the pessimism we are tempted to display?  Is advocating a faith in God overwhelmed by a reputation of being fiscally tight-fisted and unw...

I try to stay pretty positive (and, at times, Pollyannaish) during my daily postings, but every-once-in-a-while I get the urge to venture into something a bit deeper and today is one of those days.  I have been doing some studying on the Ten Commandments and I have recently been thinking about the one prohibiting adultery.  Folks, we don’t talk a whole lot about sexual sin these days, but this is one that needs to be discussed.  Simply put, adultery is a sexual relationship between two people when at least one of the people is married to another person.  In essence, it is a violation of the sexual exclusivity of marriage.  Sometimes we have a tendency to muddy the waters in our discussions of “peripheral” definitions of adultery … but, honestly, we have our hands full with this classic definition.  If there is a direct message in this missive, it is this – don’t do it!  Adultery is a violation of God’s law and the trust of the marriage relationshi...

There is an interesting story coming out of Atlanta this week.  Many of us are familiar with the electrical outage at the airport that disrupted thousands of travelers (in fact, some of you may be much more familiar with it than others of us), but the outage wasn’t the interesting news – that comes from Chick-fil-A.  If you are familiar with this particular fast food chain you probably also know that they do not open on Sundays because of their corporate principles.  Well, it just so happens that when thousands of people were stranded at the Atlanta airport, they were willing to come to the rescue by preparing and serving sandwiches to the stranded passengers last Sunday.  Honestly, I don’t know if they gave away the sandwiches or sold them for a profit, but it did get me to thinking about our approach to some of our spiritual principles.  Yes, I believe that there are some things that must never be broached or changed, but there may also be some principles t...

Jesus’ arrival on earth was accompanied by an incredible proclamation.  When the shepherds were told of His birth they witnessed a heavenly host praise the event by singing, “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased. ”. (Luke 2:14)  For the past couple of millennia mankind has been comforted and encouraged by these words – but, what do they mean?  Come now, since that time countless wars have been fought and untold numbers of people have been killed in struggles and acts of violence.  Even when conflicts didn’t end in death, millions of people have been at odds with each other, often to the point of disrupting relationships and destroying any hope of civil co-existence.  How could the angels of heaven been so wrong? I don’t believe God’s messengers were in error, in fact, their proclamation remains true even in today’s crazy, mixed-up world.  The peace promised in the Scriptures is possible, but it is something ...