Canyons & Fireworks

Streams of rain poured from the heavens the day after Christmas. The rumbling of raindrops calmed my soul and gave one final justification, of the season, to be a homebody. Hopefully treasured times of connection with friends and family have filled your December and not just an exhaustive list of rooms to decorate, recipes to make, and items to purchase. Regardless of how your Christmas season turned out, it's drawing to an end. Are you satisfied or are you visited by the post-holiday blues?  Soon the gyms will be full and mindsets will shift back to goals and work. A part of me loves the idea of a new beginning and casting vision. Today my thoughts are elsewhere. I can't help but notice how quickly we go from one thing to the next. The tides of time roll in and out but, what about rest?  More than once I have had to learn the lesson of Sabbath rest. The all powerful God, at the very beginning, institutionalized rest weekly. The gift of trusting the Provider enough to refrain ...

What are your favorite Christmas movies? It's a Wonderful Life is a personal favorite.  My daughter loves Home Alone and my husband usually chooses The Polar Express . Last year I added the movie Klaus to our must sees.  Regardless, the various depictions of A Christmas Carol are mandatory. Rob and my mother both go for the hilarious Bill Murray's Scrooged . As someone whose second language was English and who grew up outside of Pittsburgh, all things Sesame Street have my heart. A Muppet Christmas Carol is like my Christmas movie spirit animal with A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey as a close second. Charles Dickens' instant bestseller from 1843 portrays a narrative we sill find uncomfortable today. To correct behaviors, one must heal the person which involves addressing memories and wounds from the past. This truth hit mainstream popular culture 180 years ago but we still try to avoid the personal implications.  Why do we shy away from this transformative work...

My first Christmas as a wife and step-mother I received the most luxurious package. My darling neighbor had a box of golden gourmet pears delivered. Included was a charming pear shaped ornament with an image of a bird on it with no explanation. The subtlety made me love it all the more. Once realized, I decidedly commenced my family on a twelve year commitment. The following years would be memorialized in alignment with the carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Rob found our second year's ornament in a shop at Christmas in the Village in the Historic Gold Hill.  The merchant explained that she acquired the ornament from an estate sale and believed it to be from the nineteen fifties. In our third year as a family, my mother-in-law did extensive genealogy research. Her work divulged the surprising truth that Rob is not primarily Italian but rather, quite purely, half French! A convenient development given our tradition. I took great pleasure in making several ornaments. First th...

Every year my husband, daughter, and I faithfully purchase our trees and wreaths from NW TreeLot. We stumbled across the local lot on our first Christmas together and loved their products and picture booth station.  Our yearly snapshot on their grounds marks the beginning of the season for our little family.  Our next annual festive photo is the three of us in crazy Christmas hats. This year may prove a bit challenging as our daughter is less than excited about the whimsical caps. My plea to our teen is, “But it's tradition!” When I was growing up my mom liked to buy living trees with the roots still intact so that the sapling could be planted outside in the spring. As an adult, I appreciate mom's environmentally sound custom but as children my brother and I hated it. The living trees were usually tiny; and all we cared about then was size. Other than the living evergreen, I do not remember a lot of family traditions from my upbringing.  In part our family was, shall we s...

The week before Thanksgiving I was hurrying to tie up loose ends at work. My imaginary clip board of lists was going to be perfectly checked off as tasks were being accomplished in splendid sequence. I was confident all would be settled before our travels. Once the house was spick and span I became the obnoxiously cheerful Christmas caroler buzzing around like one of Santa's helpers. Seemingly out of nowhere I was hit with some pervasive anxiety. Still jolly, I began implementing the guaranteed psychology tool of positive self-talk. After running to a client's house I noticed, the moment I was back in my car, the anxiety was still present. This observation began to penetrate my merriment. Annoyed that I had done the work of self-talk to no avail, I not so consciously tried to shrug off or ignore the pesty uneasiness.  Later in the day, I had to meet another client at their place of employment.  Back in the car I went and again was accompanied by the unpleasant feeling. At this...

Are you an encourager?  Maybe your gifting is more geared toward correction. Ephesians tells us that there are pastors, teachers, evangelists, apostles, and prophets (Ephesians 4:11). Regardless of the role, one usually has a predisposition for either grace or the law.   I have often been described as an encourager.  The gift comes naturally to me because I pay attention and remember details and interactions. Perhaps it’s because I am observant that I can easily spot areas of needed correction. I cannot shut off what I see just because the behaviors have become less admirable. Recently, the conflict between Paul and Barnabas came to mind (Acts 15:36-41) and I mentioned it to my husband, Rob. I have always wondered if it was Paul or Barnabas who was in the right. Any commentary I have read about the matter is summed up to something like: Paul needed Barnabas to get into Christian community. Community was essential for the call of God on Paul's life. Barnabas was...

Have you ever noticed Jesus invited the Pharisees to judge His works? Jesus had performed known miracles which created quite the following.  In John 10 the Jews asked Him to tell them plainly if He was the Messiah. Instead of responding to their request Jesus referenced His works. I love this because Jesus understood all the types of proof people needed to accept Him. Feelers needed to encounter His love, the more intellectual types needed works, the sick needed healing, the lonely needed friendship, the demon possessed needed deliverance and on and on. He provided assurances of His deity to every aspect of human need and doubt.  Jesus again referenced His works for the imprisoned John the Baptist.  He offered works as evidence of His supremacy but warned not to be offended by them. How can we be offended by the works of God? His works are not for our agendas but for His glory. What of our works? God calls us to be fruitful.  Fruitfulness is about identity, being con...