Merry Christmas

Last week was supposed to be "Wow, That's an Ugly Christmas Sweater" day at church.  We had to cancel services because of insanely heavy snow fall here in NOVA, but here's my gift to you:

Merry Christmas from my house to yours.

Beas having Chris Kattan as your number 3

I like Jimmy Fallon.  I know he laughed & broke character in every SNL skit he was a part of, but he seems like your funny friend who got really lucky & knew all the right people 'cause, well, SNL & now a late night talk show.

This little ditty was funny the first time with Chris Kattan & Tracy Morgan, but adding the Strokes is definitely an upgrade.

I'm a fan of George Thorogood & the Destroyers - I have a lot of good 80's memories tied to them.  However, I'm pretty sure this one is proof of some pact with the devil or at the very least, a contractual obligation he was forced to fulfill.  Merry Christmas.

Snow Day

We're getting a white Christmas for our last Christmas in Virginia.  woohoo!

We are supposed to get anywhere from 12 - 18 inches of snow this weekend.  My last Christmas in VA and we get snow?  Bring it!

Primal

I just finished Mark Batterson's third book Primal.  I had read the first two, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day & Wild Goose Chase when they were published & was challenged by both.  

I actually just re-read In A Pit With A lion on a Snowy Day to be reminded of some of the truth laid out on the pages.  Roy & I are starting a brand spanking new church in Burlington, Ontario next summer & at times the path in front of me is as scary as the Haunted Forest in the Wizard of Oz, complete with apple-throwing trees.  But, we know that we know that we know that this is what God has planned for us, & I don't want to look back with regret because my fear overshadowed my faith or because my doubt was bigger than our dream.

This is where Primal comes in. The book jacket asks "What would your Christianity look like if it was stripped down to the simplest, rawest, purest faith possible?" 

What a question.  What would my faith look like?  

Batterson dares you to peel back the layers of how you live out your faith and get back to the Great Commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength." 

In Primal, we are challenged to find clarity and get past what stands between us and a genuine, authentic, relationship with Christ & reignite the passion that we may have let fade.  We are challenged to re-examine what we're doing & why we do it, to think outside the box, get back to basics when our faith was about our relationship, not a religion.

The examples are practical, the personal insight is honest, and you will be motivated to make changes that will take your faith back to it's most primal state.

It was a great way to wrap up my 2009 reading list - I suggest you add it to your list for 2010.  

Not very Chrsitmas-sy

Let me begin by saying I am beyond tired of hearing about Tiger Woods & his fornicatin' ways.  Every legitimate - and not so legit -news source, pop culture blog & pundit have been all over this story.  He cheated - A LOT - I get it. 

But - and forgive my cranky old man rant here - I don't know why anyone is surprised.  I'm disappointed, yes, surprised, no.  Whatever he did off the green, he was - and is - a great golfer.  But that commitment to excellence in golf doesn't seem to have translated to his commitment to his marriage. There was two sets of rules.

Personally, I think it's because as a culture, we've become very complacent about marriage.  No one gets married for better or for worse, it's just "for now" or until "I get a better offer.  Marriage isn't sacred anymore.

For example - and I know it's a lame one - if you watch Glee, you've seen Will's wife spend most of this season deceiving him about her pregnancy.  At first it was silly, then the deception kept getting deeper .  I think we can all agree they portrayed his wife Terri as Satan's sister & we all loved it when he confronted her & told her off.  That's the power of TV - we invest ourselves in these characters.  All the while, Emma, the Guidance Counsellor has had a crush on Will, and we've watched her awkwardly flirt all season.  She's a sweet, likable, lovable character so we were  all rooting for them to end up together.  But, here's the thing.  Will is still married.

I know it's just a TV show.  I know it's supposed to be fun & it's hardly hard hitting, thought provoking drama - it's a show about a high school show choir for crying out loud.  My point is just that we've come to the point that we're rooting for the wrong things.  Part of me wanted Will to dump his carzy, harpie of a wife & fall for Emma.  Not to give it too much thought but if it were real people we'd feel differently.  I quit watching Grey's Anatomy a couple of years ago when George & Izzy's affair became a storyline.  My sister was going through an ugly divorce at the same time, and the way the show portrayed Izzy as a sympathetic character bothered me.  Cheating is cheating is cheating.

I know I'm making a big thing out of a little thing.  I'll still watch the show - my girls like it & we watch it together.  I'm not saying all the shows I watch are wholesome & family friendly & I'm not pretending everything I watch fits the "Little House on the Prairie" profile.  Nor am I suggesting it's TV's fault if a marriage fails or a family falls apart.  Personal accountability is the bottom line.

But it still made me stop and think.