Christmas memories

I have some vivid memories of Christmas past. Born in 1949, Christmas was a grand affair filled with Hallmark kinds of memories. I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin called Fox Lake. I was one of 7 kids - a twin and my parents were blue-collar hard working folks. I remember going with my Mom to the town near us that had a Sears and J C Penney's dept store for Christmas shopping. The stores were decorated to the hilt with Christmas fan-fare and Christmas hymns and music was pumped through the store. The city I grew up in hung decorations from the street lights, and banners across the main street declaring "Merry Christmas". We were a German immigrant community (by and large) and so almost everyone was either Lutheran or Catholic. Even in public school Christmas was recognized and celebrated. We actually had "Christmas Vacation"!

I remember hymns and carols on television. Every year the city would put on a Christmas party at the city's community building. There would be several hundred kids in one place and they'd show 16mm films of Christmas - often cartoons, and then at some point the fire department would drive up with Santa Claus in tow.

Our house was modestly decorated, but decorated it was. Dad put up the tree, but mom and kids decorated it. I remember Christmas music everywhere...department stores, the radio, even on the city streets.

The Lutheran church I attended put on a Christmas eve program and we had to memorize a passage of scripture and had Christmas rehearsals to learn the music and practice reciting our parts. I speak in front of hundreds today, but back then I was as nervous as anyone could possibly imagine.

The presents didn't appear under the tree until we returned from the Christmas eve service, and then magically so. When we left they were no where in sight, but when we returned, there they were. It didn't hit me until I was 8 or so that my Dad mysteriously was always late to get to the car for the Christmas eve service.

It was an old fashioned Christmas and it is nostalgic to still remember it today. There was much anticipation, and much in the way of celebation.
Forgive the nostalgic reminiscing, but it struck me, I've loved Christmas as much as anything over the 60 years of life. I hope the feeling doesn't go away.

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Advent 2009, Day 2

I love celebrating Advent. With apologies, I am writing on Day 2 as I begin this time of Advent reflection.
What is Advent? It is the celebration of the "arrival", the "coming" - from the Latin word, "Adventus". It is that time of the year that the church around the world comes together to proclaim together Jesus' advent into the world. He who was equal to God "emptied" himself and came as an infant male child, born of the virgin Mary and of Joseph his father...WHY? Because "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son..."

The Advent season begins with festive preparation. The day after Thanksgiving Linda and I venture out into the country to a favorite farm and go Christmas tree "hunting". We talk every year of "what kind" of a tree do we want? The space we have is partly the issue, but we're looking for that "perfect" tree to decorate the space.



Along with the tree, the village goes up. The village is the representation of a time when life was slower and community meant you knew everyone, and everyone participated in the seasons together...planting, growing, hoeing and weeding, harvest time and leaves to rake.

I remember raking leaves into huge piles and then after playing them for days on end, we'd rake them again and set them on fire. I still cannot go down a country road and ignore the smell of burning leaves

There's lights that get hung up outside and decorations on the tables and mantles, and finally the Advent wreath is in place.

IT'S ADVENT TIME...

There's Christmas music in the air and a wood fire, and the cold and shortened days are leading up to the greatest day of news to mankind...a savior is born, Christ the Lord.
What glory, what wonder, what joy in human kind. And, this is only day 2!

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So, I turned 60 today

It's an ironic feeling that I am going through today. It's my 60th birthday and I don't feel any different at all from the day before when I was still in the 50's decade.
My brother is turning 60 today also. He's a great brother, and a good friend, even though he whines too much. That's him...he's not too bad looking for a 60 yr. old.
And so is Tom Watson, of Professional golf fame. We all came into this world on Sept 4, 1949...so did a lot of other people I'm sure.
My siblings are mainly older, so they are enjoying my coming into their decade. I have three older sisters, and one younger...and oh yeah, a brother who has gone on to be with the Lord along with my mom and dad. I was born in 1949...Harry Truman was president...bet you don't know his vice-president...shoot, most people don't even know who the current one is. [By the way, in 1949, Alben Barkley was the VP]. In 1949, Sara Lee introduce her cheesecake, and "silly putty" arrived, along with 45 rpm vinyl records. "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" made it's way into print, and so did "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller. In 1949, besides my brother and Tom Watson, Billy Joel, Merly Streep, Bruce Springsteen, and Whoopi Goldberg shared the year with us. I think it was a pretty good year for creating entertainers. But 49 didn't last but a year and we were in the 50's. I started school in 1955...no kindergarten, just first grade. Mrs. Peter's was my 1st and 2nd grade teacher...she was also my next door neighbor for a while.
I've lived through the bomb shelter era, the Russia-Cuba crisis, JFK's assassination, along with his brother Bobby and Martin Luther King. I made it through Richard Nixon and LBJ...both of whom I'm convinced were crooked. I shook Nixon's hand in an airport in Oshkosh in 1968 when he was running for President. Didn't tell my father who was a die-hard Democrat, but it did get him my vote that year, something I soon would regret. I made it through Seminary, which unless you've done it, you have no idea of what that really means. I love God, have since I was 19 and he found me in college. I survived the Vietnam era, and then the 70's...wow, anyone who made it through the 70's probably can't remember a lot of things about it...it was the blah era. I grew up in the 60's era a Packer fan, and have been hooked since. I became a Badgers fan in the early 80's and have been hooked since. I still remember the "Miracle on Ice", which is the most memorable sporting event in all of U.S. sports history - from my point of view.
I married the gal who help me find God, and we've managed to hang in there for 38 years...with four kids that I couldn't be more proud of. Thanks Linda, Kelly, Chris, Lindsay and Andy for loving me...I'm blessed.
It's crazy to think of it...I'm sixty! But it could be worse. My motto from this point onward: "Senior Citizen, give me my bloody discount!"

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New Beginnings are Exciting

Hi Folks,
Tomorrow Christian Life College - Madison launches into existence. The registration and orientation for the first semester's first class has gone well. Like all new beginnings there is a bit of excitement mixed with "oh, I hadn't thought of that yet".

Christian Life College-Madison is going to be an off campus program of CLC in Mount Prospect, IL. You can check out CLC's web site at http://www.christianlifecollege.edu/
I am going into this as the school's Academic Dean and as thus am taking the challenge of academic integrity seriously.

I've been asked a couple of times, "Why do this?"

I have been a pastor for almost 35 years. I went through seminary training and although there were value differences I've always held on to my academic training in that Christian worldview as an invaluable part of my own formation.

NOW, I have a huge concern for this generation's ability to relate Christianity's values and principles - gained from scripture - back to the world in which they live in.
I'm writing some material for the school's eventual web site. Here's what I wrote in the section on "About Us":

"We want to equip Christians with the knowledge of Christ so that they may walk in confidence and excellence in the world around them. 'A life of steadfast discipleship to Jesus Christ can be supported only upon assured knowledge of how things are, of the realities in terms of which life is lived' -Dallas Willard.
Serious and thoughtful Christians find their faith under attack in many institutions of learning because of assertions that their faith and beliefs cannot be based on knowledge in the context of modern life and thought. As a result beliefs are relegated to mere “opinion”, or rituals based on outdated traditions. The result is that Faith stands separated from Knowledge. Even Christians fall prey to believing that knowledge is an enemy of a life of faith. We do not.
CLC-Madison seeks to bear witness to truth and knowledge in both matters of faith and academics.
'God has room for people with very little sense, but He wants everyone to use what sense they have...God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all...One reason why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself!' - C. S. Lewis"

It's worth considering isn't it?

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Prayers for my friend Mari

Sometimes we run up against life...and frankly it sucks! My young friend Mari Day, who is the daughter of one of my dearest friends, Dave and Rhi Day, is going to have to endure another round of chemo after months of hoping they had gotten it all the first time around.
I can't help but feel so sad to think of this beautiful young woman fighting off an enemy within her own body...but that is what she will need to do, once more.
If anyone can do it, Mari can. She's a fighter...tenacious and lovely.
All I'm asking is that any of you who read this remember to pray for Mari Day... let's pray that the cancer disappear quickly, that the treatment not debilitate, that the medicine do it's job once and for all, and for God to be glorified in Mari's body!
Amen.

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The Presence of the Kingdom

The Christian lives in the strange place of neither/nor. There is a positive to state, so don't take the neither/nor as the ultimate reality; but for a Christian to truly live in the Kingdom of God, there is of necessity, a recognition that the world that surrounds -- wherever that world might be -- is material, and always ruled by that which is destructive. The world is filled with a self-destructive bent and no matter the political, national, or ideological championing the world is not evolving into something better.
There is neither a better world ahead -- regardless of the voices that champion their goals -- nor is there a reason for the Christian to escape. We live in the strange place of this neither/nor. The Christian lives in the presence of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God brings life in the place of death; light in the place of darkness, salt in the place of staleness and spoiling, prayer in the midst of despair, life in the place of death. We don't love the world, we live in it as agents of the King.

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No more Facebook, only the blog!

I came to a decision to eliminate my Facebook acct. It wasn't a difficult one to make since I rarely use it anyway. I've struggled with the desire to stay linked to people, but one of the chief concerns I've had is the propietary nature of what goes onto my facebook page. I don't like the fact that so many of the photos and personal information -- while share with only those I say yes to -- is still property of facebook. I work in a sensitive area of life and can't take the risk that someone might use it improperly. So, it's no more Facebook...you can read this blog if you want to find out what's happening in my world.

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