"How else can we expect to survive a world that is unremittingly vicious? We numb ourselves with trinkets. We distance ourselves with promises of nice and happy. But God doesn’t want us to have "nice and happy," because He knows it will never satisfy. He offers Good, True, and Beautiful and knows our souls, made in His image, can settle for nothing less.
Nevertheless, we hunker down with flocked trees and smiling wise men, watching our kids unwrap the toy that will be the best thing they’ve ever seen for a grand total of one week, if we're lucky;
and we tell ourselves that if we just make enough gingerbread men together, maybe we can stave off the darkness a little longer."
--LINDSAY STALLONES ON DECEMBER 22, 2010 AT 5:00 AM / evangelicaloutpost.com
you and I, dear daughter, agree with each other, for starters. The above statement, from your own e-mail link, is proof. Christmas should be about everything else, buT not JUST @ presents.
I love you; I love your giftings, your dreams, your lore, and your persevering heart, AND I'M SORRY I was angry all december.
I'd spent my wad, and somehow missed the GIFTS YOU'D HOPED FOR. I felt horrible, and asked YOU for those "catalog hints." then MY TEMPER FLARED AGAIN, and I chucked the catalog. again. when my anger subsided, I FINALLY went to the bas blue website and the one thing i'd delighted to get you was ...out of stock.
"And your brother wanted contacts. And your sister wanted clothes. . ." I suppose the only way to prevent such travesty is to only shop at the 11th hour. My habit of collecting stuff throughout the year only serves to clutter up the holiday cheer.
"stuff" sticks to me like cat hair on wool pants. By the time December rolls around, the stuff stash feels old and infertile. After sitting up in my closet for nine months, it's slightly stale and less than love-filled. It's not the "good, true and beautiful" your web link lady longs for.
Study and pray with me, then, for a way out of Christmas as we've known it. We don't want it just because everybody else does IT. Why celebrate the author of the universe with a universal violation of his tenth commandment? We want to respond to a creator saviour who draws us, to use your Brit-Lit expression, farther up and further in... to a "walk" with him that is singular and custom built; not mass produced or "made in china for the ash heaps of january."
And I'm glum because your brother, like an American Christmas, is a hapless clone. with no discussion at dinner tonight over what did and DIDN'T happen in vegas, I was left to a miserable set of wild imaginings. The deafening absence of jolly banter over his three days and two nights in sin city spoke volumes, especially now that his friends have made it a regular destination. "How To Crush A Mum In Twenty-One Easy Lessons."
Or, did I just imagine that your Dad was avoiding the subject?
It all leaves me very intent to give up on prayer. Hence, our little Bible-Club verse today spoke volumes:
"Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For, we have become partakers of Christ IF WE HOLD THE BEGINNING OF OUR CONFIDENCE TO THE END." --Hebrews 3
O, Man. I am SO POOR IN SPIRIT.
Nevertheless, we hunker down with flocked trees and smiling wise men, watching our kids unwrap the toy that will be the best thing they’ve ever seen for a grand total of one week, if we're lucky;
and we tell ourselves that if we just make enough gingerbread men together, maybe we can stave off the darkness a little longer."
--LINDSAY STALLONES ON DECEMBER 22, 2010 AT 5:00 AM / evangelicaloutpost.com
you and I, dear daughter, agree with each other, for starters. The above statement, from your own e-mail link, is proof. Christmas should be about everything else, buT not JUST @ presents.
I love you; I love your giftings, your dreams, your lore, and your persevering heart, AND I'M SORRY I was angry all december.
I'd spent my wad, and somehow missed the GIFTS YOU'D HOPED FOR. I felt horrible, and asked YOU for those "catalog hints." then MY TEMPER FLARED AGAIN, and I chucked the catalog. again. when my anger subsided, I FINALLY went to the bas blue website and the one thing i'd delighted to get you was ...out of stock.
"And your brother wanted contacts. And your sister wanted clothes. . ." I suppose the only way to prevent such travesty is to only shop at the 11th hour. My habit of collecting stuff throughout the year only serves to clutter up the holiday cheer.
"stuff" sticks to me like cat hair on wool pants. By the time December rolls around, the stuff stash feels old and infertile. After sitting up in my closet for nine months, it's slightly stale and less than love-filled. It's not the "good, true and beautiful" your web link lady longs for.
Study and pray with me, then, for a way out of Christmas as we've known it. We don't want it just because everybody else does IT. Why celebrate the author of the universe with a universal violation of his tenth commandment? We want to respond to a creator saviour who draws us, to use your Brit-Lit expression, farther up and further in... to a "walk" with him that is singular and custom built; not mass produced or "made in china for the ash heaps of january."
And I'm glum because your brother, like an American Christmas, is a hapless clone. with no discussion at dinner tonight over what did and DIDN'T happen in vegas, I was left to a miserable set of wild imaginings. The deafening absence of jolly banter over his three days and two nights in sin city spoke volumes, especially now that his friends have made it a regular destination. "How To Crush A Mum In Twenty-One Easy Lessons."
Or, did I just imagine that your Dad was avoiding the subject?
It all leaves me very intent to give up on prayer. Hence, our little Bible-Club verse today spoke volumes:
"Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For, we have become partakers of Christ IF WE HOLD THE BEGINNING OF OUR CONFIDENCE TO THE END." --Hebrews 3
O, Man. I am SO POOR IN SPIRIT.
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