Nick’s Walk

It was a good Christmas. Lots of family time, good food and fellowship, memorable moments, and some fun gifts. We ended the day around a fire with good conversation and some expressions of exhaustion, even a couple saying  “glad it’s over.” That’s kind of sad.  It seems to me we approach Christmas much as we do Christ. We can’t seem to accept either as a free gift. We have to make both a project. For Christmas, it’s like we are trying to recreate some ancient memory from our youth, or a scene from a favorite Christmas movie, maybe a picture from a magazine or a recipe from the Food Network. We exhaust ourselves for something that just needs to be treated for what it is, a free gift.  We do the same with Jesus. With our universal type A personalities, we believe that it is all about us and what we do. We make salvation into a project. And, like our Christmas fantasy, we doom ourselves to failure.  Next year we have another chance to just relax and enjoy the free gift of Christmas. With Christ, we don’t have to wait a year. We can decide today to accept Him […]

A couple of days ago I brought tears to many of my family by considering how our parents got Christmas right. Our family gathered last night. A good time was had and I got another opportunity to consider my parents. I was unhappy in my failure to nail down how they were able to get Christmas right.  So there is no confusion, although I grew up in the 50s, my family wasn’t Father Knows Best, or Leave It To Beaver, or even The Waltons.  My parents were real people with faults and “issues.” They were sinners, if you will.  We had many of the problems that haunt modern families. After much thought I realize that the difference was that my parents stayed together. Through poverty and drug addiction and even crime, I don’t remember one time thinking my parents might separate. It was beyond the realm of possibility. Through all that happened to us, and much did, that truth produced a stable and assured generation.  Split Christmas was unknown to us. Today too many kids will spend Christmas in two different places. Because of divorce, or no marriage, their parents don’t live together. Christmas Eve isn’t the time to […]

Christmas is a big deal. It is strange how big a deal we make of it. Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead, but that was years later.  At his birth, he just lies there, doing nothing. He is a baby. That’s the big deal.  Jesus did it all during His life. He saved us. But in this season, we don’t even get to that, the marvel of all He did.  We stop and marvel at who He is.  And He is the eternal Son of God, who took on our human nature in order to save us.  “Come, let us adore him.” “What child is this?” All we can do is kneel in awe, then celebrate, gather with loved ones, and exchange gifts and gratefulness. We will have plenty of time to marvel at what He did.  For now, let’s just marvel at who He is.  That’s a really big deal.  Have a blessed Christmas.  Nick

Yesterday I recalled how great our parents were at doing Christmas. Today I saw an article called “16 Daddy Christmas Tips” by Pastor Mark Driscoll on Dec 19, 2011 in Parenting.  I though I would take what he suggested and twist it to my own strange views.  It’s only a couple of days before Christmas and likely your good intentions of Keeping Christ this year are faded.  Maybe it’s not too late. Here are some thoughts.  We need a plan for the holidays to ensure family is loved and memories are made. What’s your plan? Check local guides for fun holiday stuff. My grandson and I went to a basketball game. Not your traditional Christmas fare but we had a great time together. That’s a very Christmas thing.  Mark time for sacred events and experiences to build family traditions that are fun and point to Jesus. Go to a Christmas eve service at a different church from yours. Expand your holiday horizons.  Give as a family. One great way to do this is to serve and love a hungry family through Food for the Hungry. Schedule a big Christmas date with someone special? Help mom. Nicky and I are hitting the supermarket with a shopping list from Rose. Help […]

This will be my sixty-second Christmas. Anything you do 62 times, you should get right. But I still seem to have trouble getting Christmas right. Maybe I have improved in my approach. For many of my initial Christmases I focused on what I was going to get. As the oldest of nine children, looking back, I didn’t get much. My folks were poor. We didn’t have a car until after I graduated for high school. For years we lived in “the projects.” I will never forget spending hours looking through the Sears “Big Book” for the one thing I could ask for. I remember plotting with my siblings to make sure we didn’t make the mistake of asking for the same thing. I guess I’m way past that. In fact, this year I haven’t given any thought to what I might get for Christmas. I understand from those who love me that I am terrible to buy for. I like to think it’s because I’m a wonderfully complex person. My wife says it’s because I just go out and buy anything I want. Maybe that’s a product of growing up poor. I do spend a lot of time and […]

How often when asked how things are going have you responded “fine” when life was anything but fine. It’s easier to be nice than to be honest. Frankly, when we ask how things are going, we often really don’t want to know. We certainly aren’t looking for a detailed response. Much of our conversation is so superficial. That’s probably acceptable in general, but in our special relationships, it just won’t do. In the fourth chapter of Ephesians, while discussing Christian maturity and growing up into Christ, Paul uses the phrase, “speaking truth in love.” That phrase expresses the balance we need to strive for in our serious conversation. While we need to be honest, the truth can be painful. It must be delivered “in love.” Loving honesty is a trait of the mature Christian. It’s not enough just to say, “I’m telling you that you are a worthless, ugly person, but I’m doing it in love.” Describing our intentions doesn’t make it so. There are elements of loving honesty. First, there needs to be a loving relationship. For there to be loving honesty, there needs to be love. We can’t expect to dive into stark honesty with strangers and expect […]

[33] “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.[34] “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.[35] “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart* brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.[36] “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.[37] “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12 NKJV   I am often shocked at what comes out of my mouth. I’d like to believe in the concept of “slip of the tongue” the idea that some things we say come from . . . well, nowhere. But that’s not what Jesus said. He taught that the heart and mouth are connected. Our words reveal our hearts.  We normally control what comes out of our mouths, pretty words  that aren’t really us.  You know how it is. […]

“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. Matthew 5:37 NKJV  Communication is tough but we make it harder than it needs to be. We can’t seem to just say what we mean. Sometimes it’s political correctness that muddles our speech, but mostly it’s just cowardness that keeps us from saying what we mean.  We do great damage to our relationships for fear of hurt feelings. Sadly, we have no problems telling others what we would not say directly to the one involved.   Trust is necessary to avoid these problems. If we really trust someone, we have no fear of losing their friendship or love if we are honest with them. In fact, complete honesty builds trust and strengthens relationship.  But trust is extremely fragile.  Years of honest communication and the trust established can be lost in an instant. A lie will do it obviously. But even a little less than a lie can hurt. We don’t think of flattery as a lie, but it is and it can kill trust. So can a broken promise. It doesn’t help that we had every intention of […]