It’s hard to explain to a Diet Coke fan
Or a four-wheel-drive, six-pack and Marlboro man,
But I still get my kicks from a little pink can –
It’s TaB, baby. Yeah, it’s TaB.
[click to continue…]
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Photos
Many years ago the cartoon character Cathy expressed the anxiety many people feel this time of year. She says to her boss: “My left brain is making lists of people I haven’t sent cards to yet. My right brain is at the craft store, thinking up creative gifts I could make before Christmas. My nerves are at the mall, worrying whether I should have gotten the other necktie for my Dad. My stomach is still at last night’s party begging for more Christmas cookies. My heart is stuck in traffic somewhere between my mother’s house, my boyfriend’s house, and the adorable man I saw at the post office.”
Her boss asks, “What is it you want, Cathy?” Cathy replies: “May what’s left of me sneak home early and take a nap?”
For many people, Christmas has become something other than a celebration. It’s more like a mission. The holiday, instead of being a holy-day, has become a holocaust. The celebration has become a sale, “Silent Night” has become replaced with “Walmart Fight.”
And have you noticed how guilty you always seem to feel at Christmas?
You spent too much money, or didn’t spend enough.
You didn’t get everything your kids asked for, or the present wasn’t the right size.
You didn’t give enough to the church or the Salvation Army.
You “put Christ back into Christmas” and were “too spiritual,” or you had too much Santa Claus and reindeer.
Do you ever wish you could just somehow go back and start over? Football coaches have a good term for this: they call it going back to the fundamentals. Let’s give that a try this year. Let’s make Christmas a celebration again… 100% guilt-free! Click to see a great idea for connecting with people
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Remember what it was like as a kid to go to sleep on Christmas Eve?
Stockings hung with care, note and snack left near the tree…
Listening with both ears for any sound that resembled, well, anything…
Sneaking a peek out the window to see if you could see, you-know-who…
Trying to go to sleep cause you-know-who can’t you-know-what until you’re fast asleep.
[Cue the choir…]
Then came the morning! Wow! Where to start? All that stuff!
And then… [click to continue…]
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Sort-of-random thoughts from going over the river and through those woods for Thanksgiving…
When the weather report is rain-free and the only wind that is blowing is in your face as you’re roaming through the pasture on a hayless hay ride, that’s a sign you’re having a good week.
I wonder what would happen if there was a new global holiday and the whole world got to swing as high as they could on a swing that is big enough to hold lots of different people. Maybe people would be less on your case and more at your side. It works for little kids – why not big ones?
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Leading people is like pulling a wagon.
It can be complicated and frustrating to over-analyze or steer from the rear. [click to continue…]
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Albuquerque. Sunday morning, 4:30 a.m. MST.
I think I had an encounter with a prophet.
Or maybe it was one of those times when the Lord Himself wanted to pay somebody a personal visit and get their attention. He definitely got mine and for the briefest of moments it wasn’t pleasant. [click to continue…]
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(Baby giraffe born Sept. 23, 2012 at Hogle Zoo, Utah. AP Photo/Utah’s Hogle Zoo)
+++++++
“Whence comes this idea that if what we are doing is fun, it can’t be God’s will?
The God who made giraffes, a baby’s fingernails, a puppy’s tail, a crooknecked squash, the bobwhite’s call, and a young girl’s giggle, has a sense of humor.
Make no mistake about that” –(Catherine Marshall)
Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy (Ps 126:2-3, NIV).
Have I told you lately that I love to laugh?
That hasn’t always been true.
There was a time I was convinced that the world was going to hell and I had to do something about it. And by God, that was serious.
I’m still convinced the world is going to hell (I have that on pretty good authority). But I’ve realized two other things as well. First, God has already done something about it – it doesn’t depend on me.
Second, the nations will never see what God has done for me until my “mouth is filled with laughter and my tongue with songs of joy.” Angry sermons and surly scowls from Mister Blister won’t get the job done. [click to continue…]
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(Sort-of-random thoughts after two road trips and some new journeys to come…)
For all the delight I have in seeing family, especially grandbabies, the comfort found in my own bed is irreplaceable.
I’ve been blessed by delighted voices that call me “Papa” and wordless raised hands that see in me the solution to the primal angst of not being able to reach a Ritz cracker without help. With that kind of adoration, what else in this life could be a more precious investment of time?
There was never a time I could remember when I didn’t want to be a father. But being a grandfather is like showing up at McAlister’s Deli on Free Tea Day having forgotten it was free tea day but there you are and the tea is free!
Some of life’s delights are limited to the moment – then they leave an emptiness that’s sort of like the crash you get after eating a lot of sugar. On the other hand, some of life’s delights feel as if God has poured permanent joy in me, even when I’m tired and know the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and “Elmo’s Greatest Hits” lyrics by heart. [click to continue…]
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Well… THAT was an adventure! Apparently when the doctor said, “Let’s go,” you decided you would prefer to stay, and that sure got everybody moving!
But we are so glad that today, July 23, 2012, we were able to welcome you into this world… healthy and with a strong pair of lungs, even if you weren’t happy about having to use them yet. Your Mama, Daddy, and big sister and big brother have been waiting with excitement for a long time for you to arrive, and you didn’t disappoint. And though I have only held you once, you have already established yourself as a one-of-a-kind. [click to continue…]
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(or a business, or a team, or a church, or, well, you get the idea…)
1. Work on collaboration (easier said than done).
2. Make yourself a part of the story.
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