Bravely into 2015

Walking in snow is quiet. I am bundled up after Christmas. Getting used to the cold takes some time. Snow changes how everything looks. The golf course is now a snow walking field. Golfers are inside perfecting their shots or thinking about it.

The golf course is like a big Christmas present to explore. And am surprised how a blanket of snow changes the scenery.

I come back inside and find a song called SING NOEL by a group called Newsong from their album, Christmas Shoes. It is fresh and beautiful and just what I need to hear today.

We need new songs and we need Christmas Shoes. We need to walk out into this world different because we have had a new touch of Christmas. We need to feel different, walk with a light step and make music in our hearts that is real and fresh.

Like a new born baby, we long for the nurturing moments that a real encounter with the
Christ of Christmas gives.  So take time again to slow down and be amazed at the miracle of God, the wonder of a new song.

Look down at your feet and be ready to step out bravely into 2015!

Angels Song

This time of year and music go together, we hear Christmas music in stores, in churches and on our gadgets. We may be focused on what we are doing but in the background Christmas is in the air.

This year before I was really in the Christmas Spirit, a friend shared a link with me to the Plantatonix song "MARY DID YOU KNOW" from their album, that's Christmas to me.

I didn't know the group, but listened on my iPad to the Mary song. In about two minutes the Christmas Spirit and message got me. That song was just what I needed and many others as well. I immediately requested the album as a gift.

Have you found your song of Christmas? Music may get you where you would like to be. Music this time of year has a way of reaching our hearts and that is good because we need to have our hearts opened again and our eyes glisten with tears at the unbelievable wonder that the invasion of God is into our mundane, sad world.

That is is why God may send you a song to start speaking to your heart, don't miss it because after the tree is dragged out and the decorations put away, the song will linger in your heart.

What is the meaning of Christmas?

There are many good Christmas movies out there old and new. Recently, I watched Scrooge with Bill Murray. It is a crazy blending of Charles Dickens in the modern world.

The story is the same in the cold stinginess of both scrooges. There is a lack of concern for the poor and family right around them. After major wake up calls from a dead partner, a crazy taxi cab angel driver and a manic Christmas angel, the modern Scrooge played by Murray does a dramatic change and becomes human, loving and reconnects with all. Of course there is a Tiny Tim, but you need to watch the movie.

Christmas is about more than parties and good will. Christmas is about divine intervention that brought Emmanuel to us. Of all the most merciful in this world, including the saints, and all the great givers here, there never was nor will be a bigger giver and character changer than Jesus Christ
Of Nazareth.

He was rich, but for our sake became poor. He was sinless but went to the cross for you and for me.
He, alone, changes hearts and makes us become what He designed us go be. Do not, in whatever you are doing this year, and maybe you have had some wake up calls, miss Christmas. 

Get the message? Repent and Be Forever Changed!

Give Yourself As A Blessing!

This year is different for us. There will be no family and friends gathered around a large table filled with children and friends. While others are driving to gatherings, we are home in a blanket of white snow quite foreign to us transplanted Californians. But, a curious thing has happened this year. We started to be very thankful early. Thankful for this home. Thankful that we have heat. Thankful for so many things that is almost like the food and the day aren't that important.

We have a small local turkey. There will be potatoes and gravy etc. but the main thing we are bringing to the table is our hearts of Thanksgiving.

Want to know something? I don't think this one will be bad at all.

Feeling like you aren't having things the way they used to be? Embrace where you are and give thanks. This is an offering that pleases God. I am suddenly thinking of a boy from camp who was asked by Patty what they had for Thanksgiving. He hung his head and said. "WE DIDNT HAVE ANY FOOD."

This really happened. If you are feeling blue about what you don't have this year, I have an idea for you: JUMP OVER THE WALL OF SELF PITY. Sit down at your desk and write a generous check out to organisations that feed the poor like Second Harvest Food Bank.

Get out of your house and go serve meals to the poor. Many places need your Hands to help serve. While you forget yourself, you will discover Gods mercy in action and find your true Thanksgiving!

Being Open and Accepting

One of my friends in San Jose was astonished that we would move out of state away from family and friends. She thought I was very brave. In fact, I wasn't but there had been much prayer over the past few years and this was right for my husband and me.

God has all of the change in mind. It isn't such a bad thing to have to start over and assess everything. We can see what isn't important and what is. My call to reach out to children hadn't changed and in fact I started finding out much about the need here in Idaho and in the schools. I was shocked to see how many needs there were. I reached out and there was some response but it wasn't easy because people didn't know me and I didn't know them.

We can't make a friend in ten seconds no matter what Facebook thinks. ;-) Even as we get to know Christians in a new area, we have to take time. They have to make time. It can be frustrating.

But, waiting is never a waste of time, if we are waiting on God. He knows how he is guiding his sheep. He knows exactly where you are...better than any GPS. You may feel lost or scared but God is there tracking you all the time.

"Fear not," Jesus said. "I am with you.."

The great constant in our lives as Christians is not where we are or who we know it is that the Lord knows us, his sheep, and is moulding and training us for the next step. Be patient and wait.

My First Experience at Craig's List

I have recently used Craig's List. Always the first time... A few pictures of extra wood was posted to get rid of here in my home town, Idaho. It got 28 hits within two days. They all wanted wood for warmth and to put the wood in a stove or fireplace. It was getting pretty cold here but this response brought that home to me.

Marketing is about filling a need. When the avenue is something as clean as Craig's List, it is a snap. Everyone is going to get cold here. Of less response have been the extra dog run and two old kayaks.

The person you market to, must feel the need. When the need is matched to the product and the price is right, then there is a sale. In the case of firewood...  FREE seemed go be the word that got people motivated. The more we know about the customer's need, the more likely marketing leads to sale. Craig's List makes it possible for things to happen fast.

I took a picture of what I was selling, wrote a brief notice, pushed the publish button and waited for the results. I am told that Craig's List has under 30 employees and I wondered how they made their money. Some of you may know.

Trying something new. It may be challenging but worth it.

Going Light

It wasn't easy to pack in a roll aboard for one week trip. I had to think and choose carefully.  I couldn't take all the changes I wanted, only the essential things.

Like life, we think we need to carry so much but we don't. We just need the things that make us strong. I pack a Bible. I pack what I need for exercise. I consider the weather and packed two pairs of shoes plus soft slippers for the hotel.

Having just moved far too much in the way of worldly goods from one state to another, I am rethinking what we is really needed. Many fewer things than we think. We don't really need another outfit, we need to go through and give to others who really could use our excess baggage. I am finding going light really is fun. It is easy to move with less.

More material things will never deeply satisfy us. I am thankful for clothes and shelter but these are not what really brings joy. Have a look at excess in your closet and the baggage of the world you carry. Isn't it time to let go and get real with yourself about what really matters.

Jesus said, WHAT DOES IT PROFIT IF A MAN GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD
AND LOSES HIS SOUL.

Think about it today and act on it soon.

You Can Do It

Yesterday at the gym, I saw a woman on a machine that was loaded with weights and she was getting ready to bench press all of them. I must have looked surprised. I am a novice when it comes to complicated machines.

"You can do it" she said. I laughed. "You can take the weights off".

Her words "You can do it" just rang in my ears. How seldom we hear that from anyone. She was young and fit and well I well....

One of the things we need most is encouragement as I wrote before. In any area we need to know that someone thinks that we can do it.

In our hearts we may fear trying something new. We may think negatives about volunteering, for example, and think I could never do that. I have no talents or not enough time.

Most of the team working with us for children have very demanding jobs. They have "no time" but they make time to come to meetings and serve once a year at camp for one week.

We all have 24 hours per day. How much time do we give to being entertained. I am not against that: it is just the amount. If we have no time to give back in our neighborhoods, or churches, or community, are we really being salt and light as Jesus said we were to be.

If we sat down with a child and helped tutor that child for a couple of hours a week, would that kill our day runners? Would helping a child stay in school and be encouraged and not drop out by 8th grade make a difference?

Many years ago I had a year substituting in high school. I taught almost everything except boys PE. Algebra was tough for me because I always had a hard time in math. So, I went very, very slowly over the problems on the board. Too my surprise, I got a call from a students mother begging me to tutor her son who was flunking out of algebra.

"He can't understand Mr. X," she said "but he can follow you because you are so slow". This mother literally begged me to "take on" her son. Reluctantly, I started but soon realized that I could help him by studying his book and going very slowly, yes very slowly with him on the problems."

His mother kept having a "YOU CAN DO IT" message to me and kept me posted on her son's progress. He made an A in the course and I was surprised, and delighted.