Out With the Old in With the New! Or is It?

I was having my coffee this morning and watching the news and on the TV was video of the massive fireworks display in Sydney Australia for their spectacular New Years celebration.  And so it begins I thought, the annual global celebration to kick off the new year.  Another year passes and time inevitably marches onward.  With the turning of the pages of time comes new hope, new beginnings, new resolutions, new ideas and ambitions.  Most of us eagerly set aside the past year as we rededicate ourselves to all sorts of ambitious pursuits and personal achievements.  I always thought that I would like to be a Nutrisystem salesperson at the end of every year.   This way I would rake in the cash promising to remake the physical landscape of people across America in the new year into the next Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie just by eating over priced, poorly made and packaged food.  Or better yet to come up with the latest get rich quick scheme to add wealth and happiness to millions of struggling people.  Or, invent the ultimate cheesy household doitall gadget and have an over the top infomercial that will give you not double but triple the order for the same price if you call in the next ten minutes!  Why, I should just wait till the end of every year to unleash my grand schemes and ideas on the many unhappy and unsatisfied masses of the world so I can promise them stardust and moonbeams and deliver them real life and day to day struggles instead.  Wow, what a bubble buster Rick!  What's up with that you say?  Where's the eternal optimism and eagerness to conquer the future?  Relax folks, it's still there, I'm just making a point.
First of all, you all know that every new year we tend to set these lofty goals for ourselves promising to be different, or better or more beautiful or successful.  Only to find that often times by spring or even earlier we are jolted back into our daily realities or are frustrated by the uneven success of our plans.  We have too many demands or obligations to focus on the complete overhaul we had designed for our personal rejuvenation.  In doing so we consider most of our resolutions an abject failure.  I believe this creates an internal atmosphere of disappointment in us that then manifests itself in our outward disposition.  Pretty Freudian you say?  Let me get back to being me then.  What I really mean is that if we want to be better, more happy, more successful and ebullient people we should try making resolutions that we can keep and succeed at.  So I've got a sure fire way of doing this and I'm going to borrow it from a very dear friend of mine, Jesus.  I will paraphrase this for you.  Jesus was invited to dinner with a Pharisee who was a  priest of the law and temple.  When Jesus went in and sat down at the table right away without washing his hands the Pharisee was taken aback and asked the Lord a question.  Jesus sensing displeasure in His host offered a perfect explanation and stinging rebuke in the same sentence.  It goes like this in His exact words, Luke 11 vs. 39-41, Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.  You foolish people!  Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?   But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.  So there it is, simple in it's method, patently successful and utterly timeless.   Not old, not new either just right.  If you and I want to make a noticeable improvement in 2012 and actually have a resolution that we accomplish in all we do and say then all we need to do is a little interior housecleaning.  What comes out will transform your lives for the better and those around you too.  And so it is with you.  God Bless You and Happy New Year!



Luke 11:37-44

[37] When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. [38] But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.
[39] Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. [40] You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? [41] But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
[42] "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
[43] "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
[44] "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."

A Star Shines Brightly!

As I told you last week I am up to my eyeballs in flour, sugar, butter and creeping fingers.  Yep, creeping fingers.  The kind that always makes their way across the kitchen to the cooling racks of cookies and shamelessly runs off with the fruits of my labor like a hungry dog stealing a warm pot roast off the dining room table.  Not that it bothers me that much.  I guess the alternative is for your family and friends to avoid your plates of treats as if it was Aunt Susie's five hundred year old fruitcake that gets passed around every year.  As I take a quick break from this annual labor of love, I want to encourage you to also slow down enough to absorb the true Gift of the season.  In our modern often insane and demanding world, it's hard enough to hear ourselves think let alone take some time for reflection.  Especially at Christmas time with all the parties, school events, shopping and shipping, endless running around and cooking.  It's no wonder that many people can't wait for the holiday season to be over with.  That in itself is a sad statement.  It shouldn't be that way.  We have transitioned over the generations to a physical serving instead of a spiritual nurturing lifestyle.  Most of our collective efforts too often seem to go towards the agendas, desires and temporal whims of either ourselves, bosses, children or other obligations.  I am not condemning the effort or even the passion behind it as we all have daily tasks and service we must complete.  Rather, I am talking about the need to slow down, sit down, pause and reflect.
  It's been over two thousand years since that bright star shone in the sky over a small child born in a lowly manger to humble parents in the small town of Bethlehem.  The King of Kings was born to us!  The one true and everlasting Gift!  Given to us by a loving Father who loved us so much He gave up his only begotten Son for us.  We didn't qualify for this precious gift nor did we rightly deserve it either.  God gave His Son for us simply because He loves us.  How often have any of us just gone out and gave of ourselves to someone so completely without being asked or coerced to do so?  Now I am not talking about placing ourselves into the same implicate circumstance as our Heavenly Father.  But rather I'm talking about a mindset.  No check that, a spirit set.  We live in a crumbling world often full of sad and  trying circumstances.  But people we do have joy!  Joy that is rich and true and unending no matter what can assail us!  We celebrate Christmas for only one reason each year.  We celebrate the divine intervention into our hopeless circumstances in this fallen world of the one true King of Hope.  At least that's what my family and I celebrate.  I can't speak for you.  But I can tell you this.  If you spend some time seeking Him you will find Him.  When you do He will transform your life forever, I promise you.  He fixed a broken man like me as I had no ability to do that myself.  I don't look for gifts under the tree so much anymore.  I just keep opening the one God gave me and it's still new every day.  So may God bless you and your family this sacred season of joy!  That star still shines brightly today!


Luke 2:11
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

The Making and Baking of Smiles!

Merry Christmas everybody!  Sorry I was gone so long but I had to finish up some online schooling in my ongoing metamorphosis to reinvent myself in middle age, but I muddled through.  Anyways, in doing so I have gotten behind in my annual Christmas culinary mad professor hijinks.  But I have already retreated into the lab to pour over my recipes and come up with this years list of the six cookies to satisfy the sweet tooth, warm the soul and put everybody into a winter long sugar coma!  When I finish writing this it's off to prepare, tweak, modify, bake, observe, smell and of course taste in my opinion the essence of Christmas, the love of homemade food, treats and family fellowship in this season of the Greatest Gift ever given.   I don't know, maybe it's me but getting older seems to make me more sentimental and old fashioned.  Give me a warm kitchen, a Frank Sinatra Christmas album, family and friends to visit with and I am overflowing in my happiness quota.  I don't long to see mother's brawling in the aisles at the local Walmart fighting over the newest gothic Barbie Doll or igadget as I am convinced that venturing into department stores at this time of year is a sure fire way to suck the joy out of Christmas. 
  But back to the important stuff.  I will spend the better part of next few days feverishly baking and packing up plates of cookies, helping my wife assemble baskets of jams, breads and ornaments and enjoying every minute of it.  Because this is why, giving.   That's right giving.  There is no greater motivating factor for Melissa and I then to see the joy of family, friends and even stranger's faces light up when you bring them a gift.  But not just any gift.  You can buy a watch or clothes or give a gift card and that's all good.  But nothing conveys love and care as much as homemade goods.  Whether it be my late grandmother's crocheted winter hats, a good friends cheesecake or cookie platter, or my son in laws venison sausage it's the fact that they spent so much of their time putting effort into this true gift of the heart that elevates the value past anything with a label or tag on it.   Yes, it's usually gone quickly or we tend to hide and hoard these valuable treasures for ourselves so we can bask in the lingering effects of their goodness as long as possible.  Either way,  I find myself asking my wife if we will be getting any of these each year as if to ensure myself of my happiness fix.  Shallow really, but I am all about the treats at this point!  I guess they tie me to the simple basic emotions that make this time of year so special.  Love, joy, fellowship and the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Possessions, money and and gadgets come and go but happiness and joy truly touch the soul.  As for the list of the six cookie recipes I am preparing this year, I guess you'll have to stop by to find out!  So pull up a chair, grab some hot chocolate and stay awhile.  Oh, but be sure to have a physician on standby when the levels of sugar and bliss get dangerously high!


2 Corinthians 9:6-7
6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.