Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year/Life!



My friend Debbie sent me an email last night and said she was looking forward to seeing a New Year blog post. Oh, the pressure...!

The truth is, I like the “fresh start” feeling of the New Year, but I’m not much on resolutions. On the upside, you take your tree down and your living room looks twice as roomy…you can look forward to hibernating for the next 10 weeks…and the days are already getting longer! On the other hand, you may be suffering from post-holiday malaise…the weather’s likely to get worse before it gets better…and, even though the days are getting longer, it still gets dark at 5:30.

I’ve made my share of New Year’s resolutions over the years. I can’t even recall the specific ones, because I typically failed at them within the first 48 hours. More often, my resolutions have been very vague, for instance, “be healthier,” or, “simplify.” The single resolution I can say I've kept over the past five years was to know my checking account balance at all times, and the only reason I achieved that goal was the advent of online banking.

The other thing about New Year’s resolutions is that they’re almost always rooted in failure. For instance, “Last year I did a horrible job of __________, so this year I resolve to do better at __________.” How is that supposed to work? It feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me.

While I do have hopes and goals and dreams for 2008, I’ll think I’ll opt to keep them close to my heart, rather than publicize them (thus eliminating that nasty “accountability” factor). Besides, if I make a New Year’s resolution and blow it January 2nd, have I blown it for the entire year? As discouraging as that would be, I have a better plan.

The truth is, God offers me more than a New Year tomorrow. He offers me a new life 365 days a year through His son, and that’s an offer that can’t be beat. Sure, I’ll get up tomorrow morning and try my best to be a better me. Inevitably I’ll fall short, but the good news is that I’ll have another shot at it the day after tomorrow, and I don’t have to do it on my own; He’ll be there January 2nd (and March 19th, and July 22nd, and October 5th, supporting me with His grace and mercy.

So I wish you a wonderful New Year, filled with His best for you and the ones you love. But on that day when you wake up and realize you’ve fallen short of your 2008 resolutions, I pray that you can forgive yourself, move on, and lean on Him for the rest of the year.

“Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” ~ Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)

Monday, December 24, 2007

Are You Feeling It?


The presents are all bought, wrapped, and under the re-decorated tree. The food is ready to travel tomorrow – a blackberry wine cake and a cheeseball. The pageants and cantatas have all been presented. The house is semi-clean, the kids are home, and the stockings are ready.

I’m still not feeling “it.” But that’s ok, because I know that tonight in our sanctuary, after we take communion and they turn down the lights, we’ll light our candles and sing Silent Night. And then, finally, I’ll feel it. Christmas will be here, in my heart, having arrived in the guise of a little baby. That’s the Christmas spirit, and it never fails to show up.

My prayer for you is that moment – whether it’s tonight, or tomorrow, or maybe even in the quiet next week after all of the craziness is over – when you know the Christ child is here, alive and well in your heart.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ~ Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

Sunday, December 23, 2007

The Gift of Grace

I'm glad to report the Christmas tree is back up in the great room, standing tall and fairly straight, fully decorated again and secured to the window frame with cup hooks and twine. But after reading my admittedly pathetic Christmas tree story, a couple of my dearest friends gently pointed out what I overlooked that night: That God’s grace remains strong in our lives no matter what else happens.

My dear friend Debbie, who has come alongside me this year in ways I can’t even begin to express my thanks for, put it like this: “If the tree is back up, does that mean grace is real and at work?”

I told her yes, of course…but I didn’t need a tree to tell me that. Christmas tree topples over? It’s no match for God’s grace. You’re dealing with an impossible situation? Nothing is impossible for Jesus. Age old poverty, war, hunger? Even in the midst of these fallen world circumstances, He is aware and at work in all of our lives.

Then my life-friend Connie (another of God’s foundational supports in my life, always keeping me grounded) sent me the sweetest gift... Knowing my fondness for haiku, she wrote this, which I offer as a Christmas gift to you:

Will Christmas not come
because your tree has fallen?
Will his birthday pass?

No! I say out loud.
Even if there is no tree
His birthday WILL be.

He needs no green tree
to give you child his great gifts
peace, joy, hope, promise.

He is not held back
by fallen trees or life's pain
His birthday WILL reign.

There is no green tree?
May Jesus be your sweet hope-
He WILL be your tree.

Friday, December 21, 2007

The Tannenbaum Blues


We’ve always been late putting up our Christmas tree, at least compared to everyone else I know. In the days when we used the woodstove more, our excuse was that a real tree would be a fire hazard by Christmas Day if we put it up too early. And don’t even mention an artificial tree, because it HAD to be a real tree. After all, getting the tree used to be a big adventure for the kids...one that involved the family trekking off to a local Christmas tree farm, hiking hill and dale until we found the perfect tree (i.e., the one that got my seal of approval), cutting that sucker down, and dragging it home like a prize catch on Animal Planet.

After it was properly trimmed and screwed into a tree stand, we would throw open the great room doors and bring it into the house, always tucking it into the same perfect corner next to the bookshelves. I was in charge of decorating the tree from the crocheted angel at the top to the tree skirt spread out around the base. (Naturally I always tried to con someone else into putting the lights on first, if possible.)

So this year was pretty much going according to plan, albeit with less pomp and circumstance, when I asked my son Ben (finally home from Boone by way of Chattanooga) to venture forth and get the tree – any tree (after all, it was already the 19th!). Bless his heart, I was working and Hannah had other plans, so off to Mendota he went … and back to Brumley Gap he came with a very large Scotch pine. Ben and his dad then worked for a fair amount of time to trim the bottom, install the tree in the stand, and wrestle it into the house. When we finally determined it was as straight as it was going to get, they washed their hands of it (literally…Scotch Pines are very sticky).

The tree stood in my great room au natural until last night, when I came home from work, pushed up my sleeves, and commenced to decorating it. The lights went on beautifully...then I took a real leap of faith and let silver and gold ribbon cascade down from the top of the tree, rather than wrapping it around the tree’s girth like garland. It looked great.

Hanging our ornaments on the tree took the most time. We’ve never had a “department store tree,” because each of our ornaments has a story. They rarely match, but I know the history of each one, and have, to the extent they’ve paid attention, taught my children those stories. So when I present them with their ornaments one day, after they’ve moved out of my home and are decorating their own family tree, they, too, will be able to pass the story behind each ornament along to their families.

Finally, after three hours, the tree was finished, and if I may say so myself, it was perfect. I had watered it, spent some time just gazing in admiration, and wandered off to make brownies for my co-workers. Brownies baking in the oven, I wandered back to wrap the base of the tree with a skirt and place our presents under its branches. I was pretty well pleased with myself.

Until it came crashing down, that is.


It was almost as if it was falling in slow motion… I was standing there, but there was nothing I could do but watch helplessly as it fell over, crashing to the floor and scattering ornaments and berries in ever direction. Broken glass and water were all over my hardwood floor and under the furniture (heavy furniture, like the sofa and piano). I was too stunned to move.

After I got over my initial shock, I called my daughter Hannah, who was on her way home from a movie. Unfortunately, she misunderstood and thought a tree from our yard had fallen across our house and landed in the living room. But once she got home and discerned the real situation, she helped me pick up the disgraced tree and put it out on the deck, presumably as punishment. She even helped me clean up, sending me off to bed before she swept the floor...what a girl.

Twenty-four years, and our tree has never, ever fallen over. And it’s funny, but I’ve heard three other friends tell of their trees falling over this year, as well. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Christmas trees had secret lives, and maybe even a union. Could they be on strike this year…?

In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul wrote,

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~ Philippians 4:5-7 (NIV)

I wish I could tell you I handled the whole tree crisis with poise and good humor. But the truth is I didn’t, and God’s grace, much less my gentleness, wasn’t evident when that tree fell. I’m not proud to admit it, but at one point I whined, “This freakin' tree is a symbol of my life!” And true enough, just when I think I have everything perfectly in place in my life, the whole thing is likely to topple over.

Tonight, the tree is lying naked in the yard, awaiting our decision as to whether it can be redeemed as “The 2007 Christmas Tree,” or whether it will be unceremoniously exiled and hauled to the burn pile. I’m not sure what to do with it yet, but I do know it’s just a tree, and I’ve still got three full days before Christmas to figure it out.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Merry Christmas, Mountaineers


Looks like Santa came to Chattanooga early, and the Appalachian State Mountaineers were very good boys again this year!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Waiting on "Baby Cheesus"

Christmas decorating is an evolutionary process in my house. If you’re not paying close attention, you won’t even notice it happening. Then one day (typically the week before Christmas) you’ll look around and think, “Hey, when did all of this happen?”

But there are a couple of decorations that I put out right after Thanksgiving, regardless of my crazy schedule and tendency to procrastinate. My Nativity scene is one of those.


Funny, but I still think of it as my father’s Nativity scene, even though it’s been in my possession for most of my adult life. Maybe I feel that way because it’s the one he purchased from Sears over 40 years ago and he never, ever let me or my sister arrange the paper mache people and animals, no matter how much we begged. If we moved one of the sheep even a fraction of an inch to the left when he wasn’t looking, he noticed and immediately put it back in its proper place. He would, however, let us wind up the music box – artfully camouflaged under the hay in the stable – and listen to “Away in a Manger” one time each night before Christmas.

I guess it’s really no surprise that, although I really tried to be more free with my own children and let them arrange everyone the way they saw fit, I would always go back after they went to bed and rearrange them the “right” way. Sheep have to stay with the shepherd – there’s no integration of livestock in my Nativity scene. The wise men stick together. Mary is on the right, Joseph's on the left. And everyone, animals included, are all gazing in awe and adoration at the babe in the manger who is, of course, front and center. Oh, and the angel hangs on a nail, hovering perfectly centered over the stable.

Hannah, my non-compliant child, insisted on rearranging the whole tableau every day, sometimes more than once. In her mind, the goal was to get everyone, even the cow, as close as possible to the Christ child. I’ve never read anything in the New Testament to indicate Jesus was claustrophobic, but if He was her scene would have explained it. Hannah was also responsible for placing the camel in the baby's place while the baby was hanging out with the angel up on the roof.

My son Ben, on the other hand, was fine with my arrangement. His only quirk was his inability to pronounce “Jesus.” It was always an exciting moment when we carefully unwrapped and placed the “Baby Cheesus” in the manger.

The Nativity scene has been displayed several different places in our home over the years, but most recently it has been safely tucked away in the bookcase. This placement was due, in large part, to me losing my mind one year when the children were younger and arranging the Nativity scene on an end table in our living room. I didn't realize it until it was too late, but this table was right in line with the hall, making it fair game for Hannah and Ben’s game of, “run down the hall as fast as you can and skid across the hardwood floor in the living room.” To this day Hannah maintains that everything would have been fine if she hadn’t been wearing her blanket as a cape. I still grieve for the donkey’s ear…

I treasure my Nativity scene, not only for its rich history, but for the beautiful story it depicts. And even though my children think they’re “too old” to get excited about unwrapping the pieces, I still take great pleasure in setting up it up.

Ironically, it makes me a little sad that no one sneaks behind me and changes it up when I’m not looking. I’ve come to realize that it really doesn’t matter where everyone else is, as long as “Baby Cheesus” is in the middle. I’ve heard people say they keep their baby figurine hidden away until Christmas Day and then they bring him out and place him in the manger. But for me, that’s a little too close to the way the world operates, bring the baby out at Christmas, only to wrap him up in a scrap of cloth and pack Him away for the rest of the year.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’” ~ Luke 2:8-12 (NIV)

Advent is a funny thing… While we’re awaiting the birth of Jesus, my “Baby Cheesus” lives, front and center, all year long. I’m awaiting His return, even as I’m thankful He’s already come. And the last thing I want to do is hide Him away until next Christmas.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Going for Three in a Row!



I just had to share this picture from GoASU.com... Last night Appalachian State beat University of Richmond 55-35, earning a chance to win their third straight Division I National Championship in Chattanooga next Friday night. ASU's allotment of tickets sold out by noon today.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Joy to the World



For the most part, I get dragged through December kicking and screaming.

I absolutely refuse to acknowledge the Christmas season before Thanksgiving comes and goes. And did you see the news footage from “Black Friday?” People getting knocked to the floor and trampled in a mad rush for half-priced toys and electronics … insanity! I simply don’t have the fortitude or the desire to participate, and besides, I had to work. But my friend Susan called me that morning to say she was on her way to a sale. After I asked her if she’d lost her mind, she said, “Oh my gosh. There’s a line to get into the parking lot!” Fortunately, she made it through the day without injury or incident, and claims she got some great deals. But I maintain the deals will still be out there in mid-December (by which time I’ll have done the majority of my shopping online).

Then there’s the decorating (I hate throwing my perfectly good pumpkins away), the scheduling (jamming three months worth of events into one month and figuring out who’s going to be where when over the holidays), and the cards (which also involves taking a picture both kids are willing to share with 75 of our closest friends and family). I could go on, but I’m probably stirring up angst (which, by the way, grows exponentially until December 25th). And on top of everything, there’s the ever-present Christmas music (Joy to the World, 24/7? Please!)

Now you’re probably waiting for me to exclaim, “Bah, humbug!” But I won’t, and here’s why: The Christmas Season is really no different than any other in my year. The focus of the Christian calendar shifts to encompass the advent and birth of the Messiah, but the truth is my joy remains the same during Christmas as it does during Easter, the Fourth of July, or Halloween, for that matter.

The other day I was walking into work and a co-worker asked me why I was so “up.” I said, “You know, I guess I’m just glad because my joy doesn’t depend on my circumstances … heaven help us all if it did!” And isn’t that the truth? Every day has its own troubles, whether it’s a routine day or the next 20 shopping days before Christmas. That’s a promise straight from the Bible:

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
~ Matthew 6:34 (NIV)


Happiness and joy are two very different things. You may not be happy with the way things are going in your life today, but if you have joy that comes from the Lord and your personal relationship with Him, there will be glimpses of beauty, moments of divine inspiration in even the most trying of days. That’s a promise, too:

“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” ~ John 15: 10-11 (NIV)

So I say Joy to the World … on December 25th, and the other 364 days of the year, too!