It’s not yet Thanksgiving and yet here I go sending you wishes for Christmas! Maybe that will help me to keep things in perspective before I get caught up in the materialism of the secular Christmas that is so prevalent here in the States.
I do wish you a Merry Christmas! I know that it is possible to have a beautiful Christmas wherever you may be if you keep the true meaning of Christmas in your heart. Forget about the gifts and glitz and Santas and snowmen and tinsel and trees for a few minutes.. Remember that ancient of sayings? “All that glitters is not gold.” You may be in a much better place for keeping Christmas “right” than we are here.
We are so bombarded by ads and commercials and billboards and shopping….we forget to remember. Jesus was born in a dusty, lonely stable, probably smelling of hay and animals..…not a bad thing but definitely not high and mighty or glorious. He wasn’t born to rich folks but a carpenter and his young wife. Just common people, not chosen for this honor because of their knowledge or status or their wealth but because of their uncommon and incredible faith in our God and love for him.
Can you imagine what awesome faith Mary must have had to know what she would have to endure as an unwed mother back then? What would people think?!!! She was betrothed to Joseph but would he believe that she was still a virgin and carrying God’s child? Joseph had the “right” to have her punished for infidelity or at the least, he would be expected to divorce her and leave her abandoned.
God made sure Joseph understood that Mary was “conceived in the Holy Spirit” and all was good with her. So he stayed with Mary, that left him in a position of ridicule, too. What would people think? Folks surely believed that Mary was either unfaithful to Joseph or that he and Mary had conceived a son together before their marriage…both big ol’ No-No’s back then. (Oh, yeah, they still are!…we forget.)
Wow! What amazing faith and trust in God those two had! Anyway, back to Christmas night. Mary riding a donkey while in labor! (I wasn’t sure I would survive the 30 minute trip in the car on the way to the hospital when I was in labor!) At the point when they discovered the stable Mary must have been grateful just for a soft place to lie down! We take our cushy lives so for granted. I’ll bet you don’t take your simple bunk for granted, after having slept on tarmac and in foxholes and in mud and dust.
So…there you are in Iraq at Christmas. So very far from those you love and all that is a normal Christmas. My prayer for you is that you will recognize the gift of God sending his son to us so that we could really understand how to love God … So we wouldn‘t get so sidetracked by all the worldly “rules“ … So we would have a perfect example to follow… So that our sins would be forever forgiven… So we would love one another.
Oh, how very short we fall of all that! It amazes me how he just keeps on forgiving us. Every day I wake up in the morning and thank God for another day, another chance to get it right. Then I try but I get sidetracked and distracted by the world in front of me and my own selfish desires. Stumbling about, tripping and falling and there, always, is God’s hand willing to pull me back up and guide me back onto his path one more time. Do you every feel like that?
Sometimes I feel like I spend so much time shopping, making sure my loved ones aren’t around to see the many and expensive gifts I have purchased for them. that I spend little time with them. I am too busy! Spending $ instead of time.
Sometimes I feel like I plan every minute of December trying to fit in the parties (with coworkers, with acquaintances, with friends, with family) and the events ( Christmas concerts & programs, Big Sales & shopping days, Tree Lightings and Santa-seeing) that Ihave no time left to relax with the friends, with family, with God. I am too busy. Spending time running around instead of paying attention.
Sometimes I feel like I pay so much attention to what is expected of me, by family, friends, society, and the world that I forget what God expects of me. I am so busy giving my heart to the Christmas Machine that I forget to give it to God.
So Marine, as I pray for your safety and that you keep hope and love in your heart with your simplified version of Christmas, maybe you could pray for me, too, that I might find God in the middle of my hectic Christmas season. That I could put Jesus back in the center of, not just Christmas, but my whole life.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Dear Marine
Can't sleep. They're getting better at killing you, better at targeting you, better at penetrating your armor. I feel sickened thinking of you over there with only the protection of your own wits and intuition...and God.
They're getting desperate. You are starting to take a toll on them and block them from coming in and, maybe, just maybe, the Iraqi people are allowing themselves to see some hope, some light at the end of the tunnel. So they, those insurgents, those people that do not have Iraq's best interest at heart, they have become desperate. But in their desperation, it appears, that they have also become more aggressive.
Have they been watching the idiots on the news over here? The well-meaning, the misguided and the just plain spotlight-seeking protestors carrying signs of varying degrees of hurtful words. Do they know that what they see on TV is not America? Do they know that our media doesn't cover the every-day thoughts of we the people, but only the weird and the different make the news? Hello! That's not what's going on over here! The media hasn't done a survey that shows that every 3rd vehicle driving down the road has a yellow ribbon supporting you.
I HATE THE WAR! I want you home. I want you safe. I want you to be able to sit on the porch swing and watch the neighbor kids ride their bikes up and down the streets, laughing. I want you to walk out into the pasture, up over the hill and watch the sunset, I want you to sleep til noon on Saturday morning, I want you to wrap your arms around every person you love and tell them so, right into their teary eyes. But... you are there and you are doing what needs to be done for those that cannot, will not, don't know how, don't even know that they should... like a father that goes to work every day even when his children beg him to stay home and be play with them. If only he could, but he knows what they don't understand. So... I hate the war. I hate that our world has wicked and evil people that must be forced into submission. Ah, but there it is. Someone has to have the balls to do it.
Marine, you are a true patriot. I know that you sometimes, when the bullets are flying around your head, forget why you signed up. I know that there are times, when you have leaned over the body of your best friend and cried, when it didn't seem worth it. I know there are times, when you remember your mom's tears and your girlfriend's arms around you, that wish you could be home to comfort them. I know that in the quiet moments, as you were driving the humvee back to base heavy with the bodies of those that were killed by the IED, you wonder where God is.
My dear Marine, God is listening to your prayers and the millions and millions of prayers of those praying for you. He is among you , by your side and with you at all times. He feels your tears and is crying with you. He sees your hate. He knows what you have done and why you did it and he forgives you and only asks that you start over every day and try again. He loves you through it all. When you give up on him he is still right there with you, loving you. Can't you feel it?
They are getting desperate...they can see the tide turning toward you...can you feel it, too?
They're getting desperate. You are starting to take a toll on them and block them from coming in and, maybe, just maybe, the Iraqi people are allowing themselves to see some hope, some light at the end of the tunnel. So they, those insurgents, those people that do not have Iraq's best interest at heart, they have become desperate. But in their desperation, it appears, that they have also become more aggressive.
Have they been watching the idiots on the news over here? The well-meaning, the misguided and the just plain spotlight-seeking protestors carrying signs of varying degrees of hurtful words. Do they know that what they see on TV is not America? Do they know that our media doesn't cover the every-day thoughts of we the people, but only the weird and the different make the news? Hello! That's not what's going on over here! The media hasn't done a survey that shows that every 3rd vehicle driving down the road has a yellow ribbon supporting you.
I HATE THE WAR! I want you home. I want you safe. I want you to be able to sit on the porch swing and watch the neighbor kids ride their bikes up and down the streets, laughing. I want you to walk out into the pasture, up over the hill and watch the sunset, I want you to sleep til noon on Saturday morning, I want you to wrap your arms around every person you love and tell them so, right into their teary eyes. But... you are there and you are doing what needs to be done for those that cannot, will not, don't know how, don't even know that they should... like a father that goes to work every day even when his children beg him to stay home and be play with them. If only he could, but he knows what they don't understand. So... I hate the war. I hate that our world has wicked and evil people that must be forced into submission. Ah, but there it is. Someone has to have the balls to do it.
Marine, you are a true patriot. I know that you sometimes, when the bullets are flying around your head, forget why you signed up. I know that there are times, when you have leaned over the body of your best friend and cried, when it didn't seem worth it. I know there are times, when you remember your mom's tears and your girlfriend's arms around you, that wish you could be home to comfort them. I know that in the quiet moments, as you were driving the humvee back to base heavy with the bodies of those that were killed by the IED, you wonder where God is.
My dear Marine, God is listening to your prayers and the millions and millions of prayers of those praying for you. He is among you , by your side and with you at all times. He feels your tears and is crying with you. He sees your hate. He knows what you have done and why you did it and he forgives you and only asks that you start over every day and try again. He loves you through it all. When you give up on him he is still right there with you, loving you. Can't you feel it?
They are getting desperate...they can see the tide turning toward you...can you feel it, too?
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