I am such a rebel.
You know how, at Facebook, your friends will write something like, "This is cartoon week. Post a photo of your favorite cartoon character instead of your own and make some nostalgic fun for everybody."
Well, I never do that.
And you know those email forwards where, at the very bottom it says, "Send this to ten friends or it means you don't love Jesus."?
I never do that, either. Instead, I just sit here and say, "Ha! I'll show you. I won't forward this to anybody and I will still love Jesus anyway."
Heh.
Always I've been like this.
Even as a teenager I read different books than my friends and watched movies they just pooh-poohed as being family-feel-good. I listened to the Carpenters and classical music while my friends tuned-in hard rock. I never even considered drinking, for I wanted to be a modern Samson who was supposed to never drink, being a Nazarite, (though he did) or cut his hair.
I had long hair when short hair was in. Still have it, even though I'm over 50 (the nerve, huh?!)
And while I grew-up in churches which found it too hard to believe in divine healing and spiritual gifts and miracles, I believed in it all. I believed God was big and that the Bible was literally true. And I confess, I now avoid preachers who make tradition huge, but God, tiny.
I am contrary, yes I am. And well, that is probably one reason I've never been popular.
Good thing I've never wanted to be that, either.
It becomes easier to stand alone when necessary (and sometimes it is) when being popular isn't the goal.
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"When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”' ... from John 21
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Ahoy! Now there's a verse that can set you free this Christmastime.
What is it to me, to us, if people are doing Christmas all hurried, worried and scurried?
We must follow Jesus.
What is it to us if people spend too much money on gifts? If they start Christmas too early? What business is it of ours?
We must just follow Jesus.
When I wandered into Blogland in 2004, the homemaking blogs blew me away. I mean, I discovered all these peace-filled women who cared for their homes, their husbands, their children week after week, and without complaining (!)
Instead, they baked pies, sat down and read good books and hung laundry outside to dry. They made crafts, scooted their furniture around and painted walls-- all with a grateful heart, as though on no planet is there a more fulfilling way to live.
They didn't write scathing blog posts about women who choose to work outside the home nor criticized others who did Life differently. No, they just followed Jesus. And Grace and Light, also, from room to room, and they reaped the peace which comes only from personal, God-directed obedience.
Oh wow. Instant hero worship! They reminded me of all that is holy in home-keeping and I longed to be just like them, to grow stronger in that joyous lifestyle.
What I've learned? If I want to make a real difference in this insane world (I do! I do!) I must just live my life.
In obedience. In love.
In step with Jesus, walking room to room with Him, remaining within that incredible peaceful atmosphere He brings along with Him.
Yet that peace flickers, dims to dark when I criticize a world of people who are so lost and clueless and who do Christmas 'all wrong.' For Jesus came and died for all of them, us, because He loved us, because we could never, ever save our own sad, clueless selves.
So what remains is for me to love the clueless, too. To keep the peace of Presence strong, gleaming around me. And to just live my life, creating a thirst in others for the wonders that Presence brings.
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Loving the unsaved is tons easier when we stop expecting them to act like they are saved already.
"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands... " 1 Thessalonians 4:11
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The photo: Our first snowfall arrived today. So, alas, the view outside our kitchen window. (At least there'll be no more mowing of the lawn for a long time--woo hoo!)
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And so it begins. Christmastime.
Bleh.
Ha! シ
Probably I'm one of the few Christian bah humbugs you know, but you know, right?, that what I object to is the Christmas frenzy. The trappings. The wild-eyed-must-have-and-see-and-do-it-all-ness of it all.
And those silly deflated, face-down Santas splattered all over everybody's lawns. And Rudolph (who's on tv tonight). The whole terrible tragedy of the little guy.
I prefer a type of year-around Christmas. It's quite different and the fun lasts much longer.
But anyway, remember when Ma Ingalls told Laura: "There's no great loss without some gain"? Well, guess what's been swirling inside my head this week?
Why? Because for the last five Christmases (or more) we've downscaled Christmas majorly around our house. Fewer decorations. No parties. Less gifts each year. No tree except for the gold grapevine one I pulled from the basement (perpetually decorated so I could just plop! it on the table).
But in our Big Move, we even gave that away.
And each year, I've enjoyed Christmas more. The fewer the trappings, the greater the room for Christmas joy, I say.
And then last year I kept repeating, "Next year let's scale back even more, ok?" Tom and Naomi nodded agreement, though not as excitedly as I did. So, well, guess what? The 'no great loss without some gain' thing is our wonderful excuse this year. Because Tom was downsized into Unemployment Land, we have our legit reason to cut way, way back and do Christmas ultra-sanely.
(Insert the Hallelujah Chorus here.)
Already I had my lovely half-off Victoria Christmas cards (from last January) and the stamps I'd stocked up on. Scribbling messages on Christmas cards is lovely and Grace-filled so that tradition will remain.
And our old-fashioned kitchen radio dial is set on the Constant Christmas station, for there's nothing like carols in the kitchen while my fingers shape pie dough and I'm gazing out on a snowy field laced with trees.
At Thanksgiving, Tom, Naomi and I discussed a money limit for each other, a lower one than ever, citing also that creativity is good and if we can make things or find gifts for free, well, so much the better. So look-out online credit card--you will be on a diet this December.
There will be gifts for our parents. Offerings for the needy, too. Hopefully a morning visit around the table with two of my friends. Maybe a few Christmas lights wrapped around the furniture. I'll retrieve our one (and only) box of Christmas decor from the attic and watch a few Christmas dvd's (don't you just love the Charlie Brown one?). And we'll eat a pleasant Christmas dinner, of course.
And well, that will be about it. But it will be lovely and peaceful and hopefully, Jesus-centered.
And definitely, mall-mob-free. :)
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What are your favorite Christmas movies? The ones I've watched a bazillion times are:
Charlie Brown's Christmas,
A Christmas Carol (with Geoge C. Scott. Hard to believe I used to have a major crush on him at age 14 after I saw him in Jane Eyre),
the first two Home Alone movies (I know, I know, but I love them),
It's a Wonderful Life,
Prancer,
Miracle on 34th Street,
Ebbie,
Christmas in Connecticut and
While You Were Sleeping which I consider a Christmas movie when others might not.
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