If you asked my students, they would tell you it’s typecasting…
I get to play the role of Ebenezer Scrooge at LifeHouse, the theater my family has sort of made our second home. I am stepping into the show for the final weekend of its run, as the main Scrooge is unavailable. I am pleased to say that I was their top choice for the part after they were turned down by everyone else they asked.
Well, now, that’s not quite true…
Actually, yeah, it kinda is. (more…)
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given… (Isaiah 9:6)
I don’t know if there is anything in life more exciting than the birth of a baby. The feeling of joy, of life, that you get from holding a newborn—it’s astounding. It doesn’t even have to be your child. Hope arrives with every baby.
How wonderful is it that God chose to bring Christ to us in this way. Think about it—the Christ could have appeared fully grown, striding out of the desert on a Thursday morning. He could have simply walked into the temple and started preaching. Instead, we get to see him as a baby—yes, so that his genealogy could be verified and so that prophecy would be fulfilled—but also so that we could see a God willing to humble himself by birth, as he would one day humble himself by death.
Your God loves you so much that he sent a baby—the epitome of life—to call you to eternal life.
Heed the call today.
‘Twas the next billing cycle, and havoc was wrought
To our finances by all the stuff that we’d bought.
I tried to be good; I strove to be frugal;
Still, you would think that I thought I owned Google. (more…)
I am not fond of the Christmas clock.
Can I just say that right now, and kinda get it out there in the open? I love Christmas, and I have no problem with clocks as a general rule, but the combination is simply not to be borne.
It’s just a little clock, about eight inches high, standard Christmas motif. Every hour, on the hour, it plays a Christmas carol.
How sweet.
Not really, no. (more…)
So let me get this straight.
You kill a tree, or hire someone to do it for you.
You drag said dead tree into your house, rearranging the furniture so as to give it a place of prominence. You then proceed to cover it with lights, pieces of colored glass and tin, and bits and bobs of food and fluff.
And why is this, exactly? (more…)
The buck stops here.
I didn’t make that up, just so you know. When I was a kid, I figured that phrase had to do with making money. I thought, “Woohoo! That’s right—let the buck stop right here, Baby! In fact, make it lots and lots of bucks!”
I have since learned that the phrase has an entirely different—and less pleasant—meaning. (more…)