I’m sitting in an unfamiliar church today. And I’m ashamed to say I’ve been silently chuckling to myself as the service goes on at all of the little quirks and problems that have happened. No harm in that, you might say; it is after all a small country church- funny things are bound to happen.
But then one of those strange God-moments happened to me. Who am I to laugh? It’s not that we shouldn’t strive for professionalism and excellence. It’s the fact that these people, no matter how unprofessional their service or how many times the vocalists fell out of tune- no matter what happens- these people are genuinely worshipping the living, breathing, omnipotent and omnipresent GOD. And that’s something I can respect.
After waking up very early on a bright and snowy Christmas morning, we read both Luke and Matthew’s accounts of the Christmas story.
Soon after, we opened the presents under the tree and discovered five matching Santa hats!
Family at Christmas
Our good family friends, Vernon and Lois Wells, from (balmy) Beaumont, TX sent us stockings filled with goodies… most of them to remind us the frigid outside wasn’t everything!
My sister, Corrie, and Me
After we opened our gifts we decided to try everything out. Corrie was hooking up her new portable external hard drive.
Katie and Tucker
It was our yellow lab Tucker’s very first sizable snow- and he thought he’d woken up in heaven. He and Katie tore through the fresh snow, inspecting every smell.
We spent the afternoon running around with them, sledding, and thoroughly enjoying our first White Christmas in many years.
In all, it was a great Christmas Day. I’m so thankful for my family and the many blessings God has given us. May you always remember the love of our Savior: the true Reason for this most blessed Season.
To see all of our Christmas pictures, check out my MobileMe gallery.
And so was proclaimed the good news of the birth of the Son of God by the angels sent by God himself- not to the ruler, King Herod, nor to the high priest, but the lowly shepherds sitting out on a lonesome hillside, protecting their only livelihood.
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:13-14 (NIV)
Thus began the greatest story ever told, that of peace, of grace, and of completely unconditional love. It truly was a night that changed our world forever. For it wasn’t just a normal birth. No, for God Himself came to Earth, not because He had to, but because He loved us with such a burning passion He could not bear to see us wither and die in our sin.
You see, we weren’t created to just make money or even give gifts. We were created with the ultimate purpose of bringing glory to our Creator. Sin, our wrong choices, our mistakes- they keep us from fulfilling our purpose and leave us more than empty inside- they hollow out our souls.
And that’s why Christmas is so important. With the birth of one child, God set out to rescue us from ourselves. He made the ultimate sacrifice: He gave His son so that we might live.
It is my mist sincere wish that you realize just how special you are to God’s heart, and how His love for you is unquenchable and neverending, no matter what you do. Tomorrow morning, when you get up with your family, think about His gift to you.
For the past few years, we’ve had to do without any snow whatsoever for Christmas, but this year, God was generous, and we had a perfect Christmas Eve snowstorm. In the end, we got about four inches, including some ice and sleet.
Safe travels to all of you still out there in it. Be safe, and Merry Christmas.
Here are some pictures of my parents’ house in the snow:
As the turkey and pumpkin pie settles in our stomachs, it’s important to take a look back and remember God’s faithfulness.
What I’m Thankful For:
God’s Provision- Just as He clothes the lilies of the field, He’s always provided for me.
Family- No matter what, we’re there for each other.
Friends who truly care- Sometimes a person who listens unconditionally is all it takes.
The gift of time to spend with older relatives- We never know how much time we have left.
A college education- So many in the world never have the chance to further their studies.
Employment- After looking for over two months, God provided me with a steady paycheck.
So many times throughout the year we grow calloused to the idea of God providing, and we take for granted that his mercies are new everyday. May you and I never forget His Love.
In this season of Thanksgiving, let us not forget to thank our Lord for the many blessings He gives us everyday. This year has been one filled with new life learning experiences for me- from paying my first real bills to living on my own. I’ve definitely learned I need to appreciate the little things a bit more.
Usually my family and I spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my dad’s family in Wichita, KS. However, because of my job (another blessing), we were unable to make the trip this year, so we celebrated Thanksgiving Day at my parent’s house in Oswego, KS. We thought back, and this is possibly only the second time we’ve shared a Thanksgiving meal as only our immediate family. While we of course missed getting to see our other relatives (and the more opportune Black Friday shopping!), it was a nice change to spend a quiet evening at home.
For the past two years I’ve made use of eBay and Amazon to sell my excess stuff in order to supplement my Christmas gifting income. This year I have a mix of dinnerware, textbooks, Mac software, and networking equipment listed.
I’d appreciate it if you stopped by my eBay or Amazon (seller id: chaysster) page and helped out a poor working college student. A portion of some of the sales benefits the Families in Crisis Foundation in Kansas.
Add it to my Christmas list: Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue was released this Tuesday. I’m anxious to read it, and from the excerpts I’ve been able to soak in, it appears to be a solid book.
I wanted to share a solid interview Palin did with Sean Hannity earlier this week. It’s one of her best and most decisive interviews I’ve seen and answers some of the biggest questions all of us have had regarding her decisions and the McCain campaign’s choices.
When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed Congress earlier this year, I knew it was only the beginning of a long four years under the Obama Administration. When President Obama was elected, he promised us, repeatedly, (Can I get a “Let me be clear…” anyone?) to run a transparent and honest administration, a goal I hope any political opportunist candidate lives up to.
However, mere months after the implementation of this so-called stimulus package, we’ve learned the “jobs saved or created” numbers were falsified and that someone got a little lax with their number checking regarding Congressional District numbers. But the whole point of this whole kerfuffle isn’t the fact that some Congressional District information was iffy.
The real issue here is the sanctity of the American Republic. What time machine did we step into that dropped us off in an alternate-universe called Soviet America? As The Next Right wrote today, “Politicians lie,” but never before in American history have we had an executive branch so blatantly use the 1984 treatment on figures and data with the expressed intent of creating more support for a political agenda.
But with lax legislative language regarding the posting of “estimates” (h/t TNR) of jobs created (or saved, whatever that means), it’s no wonder we’ve ended up where we are today. Language such as this is nothing more than a cop-out on the part of our elected officials. They provided enough wiggle room for themselves to claim accountability, but, at the same time, offer some justifiable deniability. It’s just “politics as usual” in Washington, to quote my favorite former Governor; we’re still beating the same dead horse named corruption. The problem is, she’s not really dead; the sleaze bags in Washington just renamed her.
Final thought: how much better would the world be if America could trust her leaders?
[As many of you know, I serve as the Events Coordinator for the Pitt State College Republicans. This post is related to one of our events]
On the way home from our Arkansas Tea Party tour over the Independence Day holiday, Virginia Crossland-Macha began talking with me about her plans to host another large 400+ person event in SE Kansas on the Pittsburg State University Campus. We wanted to help people put to use some of the energy they’d built up over the summer to help defeat the government takeover of healthcare.
In the end, we settled on a theme for the event, based mostly on our location at the backside of the PSU Football Stadium, as “Tailgate Tea Party.” We figured it would be a great way to draw in college students and local citizens who otherwise wouldn’t attend a political event.
We lived up to the “tailgate” moniker, as well, with live music performed by Josh Hucke and the Goin’ Nowhere Band and free hot dogs and bottled water.
We had some direct resistance from the Campus Police Department, resulting in a logistical stand-off that forced our headlining speaker, Bob Basso, to use a trailer graciously provided by Josh Hucke as his dressing room. With some attendees traveling over an hour and speakers flying for several, it was terribly embarrassing to the students, faculty, and alumni of the university who were in attendance. Some participants even vowed to reconsider their donations to the school because of their treatment of our peaceful, educational event. How’s that for serious?
Frankly, our speaker list was terribly impressive, if I may brag on Virginia’s connections for a minute. We had big names in to speak from D.C., California, and, of course, more local places, such as Iola, KS, Topeka, KS, Joplin, MO, and Rogers, AR.
In all, I consider the event to have been a great success. We hosted nearly 400 people from all over the four state area at a liberal university in a strongly Democratic area of the through-and-through red state of Kansas. I continue to believe tea parties are one of the most effective ways to engage the everyday, average right-of- center American where they are right now. Our organization has surely felt this influence, and we are very appreciative of the support we’ve gained.
