My friend Jennifer writes today for the Des Moines Register. Few can tell a story the way this one does, and today is no exception.
Go let your heart be warmed, in a cold Iowa field of all places. Stop by her place on your way.
Again, a merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. Thank you for being a part of my life this past year.
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Tagged: Christmas
A few nights ago as dusk dropped its velvet draperies over my neighborhood, I gazed out the window at my neighbors’ homes, nestled in the snow. For the first time all year, I saw the Christmas lights twinkle and knew I was home.
It’s Christmas.
We erected our Charlie Brown tree — a four-foot discount store wonder — last night and limited decorations to lights and tinsel. Even that was enough to send the cat into a nervous tailspin. This morning she climbed up inside and removed two branches so she could lay down inside more comfortably.
It’s Christmas.
The boys went online to do their Christmas shopping, purchasing gifts for us at WorldVision. They made their selections, printed cards and wrapped them to put under the tree. I closed my eyes and handed over the credit card.
At some point, you have to trust your kids to do the right thing. Even with your Discover card.
It’s Christmas.
The blizzard is cancelling Christmas Eve services all over town, we’re hunkered down to wait out the storm, the makings of an amazing pork loin roast are in the kitchen, and whether I know how to do it well or not, it’s Christmas.
It’s Christmas.
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Tagged: 12 Days of Community, Christmas, High Calling Blogs, Sanchez the cat
I’ve been a million miles away from my house long enough that I’ve started to refer to that place where I live as “back home.”
And back home in my church this Advent season, folks are focusing their worship through an exploration of names — those unique words God wrapped around Himself.
I haven’t heard them calling out His name; it’s been weeks since I last worshiped with my own people in the sanctuary, surely by now appointed with greenery and ribbons for the season. No, God’s been meeting me these last Sunday mornings in a hotel lobby, speaking through through pixels, headphones and my leatherbound.
But I do know the names by which they have been calling to Him, despite my absence. For before I left, God met me at the rear of that same sanctuary, darkened at midweek, while I built the computer graphics that would spread a backdrop for their worship. I dragged and dropped elements and tweaked colors and typefaces while Agnew’s bass reverberated in the shadows.
And God roared and crooned and whispered His name, all of them at once.
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Tagged: 12 Days of Community, Christmas, God with us, High Calling Blogs, Immanuel, names of God
Day 4 – 12 Days of Community
My dad does not officially blog. Every now and again we like to cut him loose from the comment box and give him a guest spot. Though he has no blog of his own (I like to think of him as sort of a Blogger Emeritus), I’m featuring him for Day 4 of the 12 Days of Community we’re celebrating at High Calling Blogs. Dad previously posted for us on keeping performance in perspective and stepping out from behind the mask. He writes for us again today.
:: :: :: :: ::
by Paul Willingham
As I drove home from church on a recent Sunday, I noted that one of the billboards along Highway 7 had been updated with a new message. In true billboard fashion it only contained eight words so that we could read, process and absorb the message before we blew past it at highway speed. The sponsor is a huge nationally known shopping center here in the Twin Cities. The eight words “FALL IN LOVE WITH YOURSELF ALL OVER AGAIN”.
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Tagged: 12 Days of Community, Blogging, guest post, High Calling Blogs, Vanity
Odds are good Mary did not keep a journal.
Not on parchment, anyway.
In fact, as a girl in her middle teens living in Nazareth in days before we began to mark time in increments of “the year of our Lord,” it’s likely she didn’t even read or write.
But she did soak herself in some of those same practices that many of us who journal do: She pondered. She treasured. She observed and absorbed and processed.
Mary’d traveled quite the winding road since her engagement to Joseph.
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Tagged: 12 Days of Community, Blogging, Christmas, High Calling Blogs
“I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
As though angel-meetings and world-flippings were commonplace, these words slipped from Mary’s mouth after Gabriel revealed God’s plan to pass Immanuel through her womb on His way to walk among us.
May it be to me as you have said.
Seems she could as easily have said May my reputation be destroyed as you have said.
May my fiancé abandon me and my family reject me as you have said.
May I be a single mother in a male-only world as you have said.
May I be responsible to safeguard the Savior of the world until He’s old enough to take care of Himself as you have said.
May I be ruined as you have said.
But she didn’t say all that. What she really said was this: While whispers behind me rustle through my shame, I’ll hear the shouts of joy in the streets. All generations will call me blessed. Blessed!
She looked through swirling dust down the bumpy road of her future, imagined likely outcomes and still replied, May it be to me as you have said.
I have no other explanation. I conclude that it had to be the hunger.
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Tagged: 12 Days of Community, Blogging, Christmas, High Calling Blogs
I Christmas-ified my header.
A paltry effort, I know. But it’s something.
I’m not very good at Christmas.
Not sure the reason, but it doesn’t come so easy. Seems for most, Christmas dances in amber glow. For me, the lighting seems more a bluish fluorescent. It can be a little twitchy and sometimes it makes that buzzing sound.
Perhaps my middle name is Ebenezer.
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Tagged: 12 Days of Community, Blogging, Christmas, HCB
Micah — not that Micah — proved himself a resourceful fellow.
To put together a little homegrown, do-it-yourself worship he would need to stock the household shrine and procure himself a priest.
But he didn’t live in the Levite part of town. And the nearest house of God was, well, inconvenient. So he cobbled together his own house of little-g gods complete with carved images and cast idols, and installed his own son as a priest.
He had a stand-in for God, a stand-in for His house, a stand-in for a priest, and a stand-in for His people.
The writer of Judges punctuates the telling, reminding us that “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.” (Judges 17:6)
Everyone did as he saw fit.
Micah thought he had it right.
→ 4 CommentsCategories: Accountability · Idolatry
Tagged: Accountability, Idolatry, isolation, Judges, Micah
My grandma would have had no idea what a blog is or what it means to guest post.
But earlier this evening, my mom dropped a gift in the comment box for my earlier post on my grandma. What she left there, really a gift from Grandma, begged for a little more attention than it might get tucked away in the comments.
So it seems Grandma has written a post for us without knowing it.
During her last few years here, Grandma had a harder time holding onto the day. She might struggle to remember who she was talking to. She would confuse dates, or times, or places. At times, what she said simply made no sense at all.
As Grandma began to drift away more and more during her visits, my aunt encouraged her back to the daylight by rehearsing her alphabet.
→ 13 CommentsCategories: family
Tagged: family, Grandma, memory
Worth a Read 
Recently at the High Calling Blogs
Is Anonymous Your First Name or Last Name?
2009/12/06 · 26 Comments
I looked up from my notes during our weekly staff meeting to read my pastor’s expression before I answered. Eyebrow up, head cocked a little as he leaned back in his chair behind the desk.
Swell.
Someone had called.
“We went to A&W,” I said. It wasn’t as though it were a secret. “A lot of families were out of town this week, so only three kids showed. We thought it would be a good night to take a walk to the drive-in and hang out. They got our full attention, and we got to know them a little better. We loved it.”
“I got a call saying some people are concerned about this kind of thing,” he explained. “Youth group happens in the youth room. Even if there’s only one kid. That’s where you do your Bible study.”
Who called? How many people are concerned? Which ones? And would it be okay to teach them to worship Satan as long as we did it in the youth room?
“I appreciate the concern,” I told him. “If someone else calls, be sure to remind them of my phone number.”
The next day, a friend called, pretending to wonder what the young people did on Sunday night. “Some people are concerned . . .”
:: Keep reading →
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Tagged: admonishment, anonymous comments, Blogging, encouragement