I was recently asked to provide some music for a Christmas candle lighting and memorial service for a grief support group my parents joined after the loss of my sister. I chose to sing “Jesus Saves” by Travis Cottrell accompanied by myself on piano. I also decided to read an excerpt from an excellent article titled “Christmas Is ror Those Who Hate It Most”. 

There was one problem though, in this sentence:

Jesus was made to be like us so that in his resurrection we can be made like him; free from the fear of death and the pain of loss. 

It takes on a whole new meaning, however, if you do not properly enunciate one of the words in that sentence, and I didn’t. I corrected myself, but my dad caught it. 

Oh my…

I mention this, not to make light of an otherwise profound statement, but I believe God has a sense of humor. It’s important to laugh at life sometimes as well as ourselves, and perhaps at that moment I needed some levity.

But next time I say the word “resurrection” in front of people, I’m going to be a lot more careful. I guess that’s what I get for trying to do two things at once, or as I like to say it’s one of those ways God keeps me humble.

Thankful for failure, struggle, sadness…:

It’s a little late for a Thanksgiving post, but as my sister used to say, whatev’s, because there are some good points here. There are a few things we are typically thankful for: family, good health, a roof over our heads, etc; but there are less glamorous things in life that we should also observe.

John Maxwell argues in Failing Forward that failure is (an often necessary) part of the process toward success. Likewise feeling vulnerable or taking a risk isn’t comfortable, but that’s where real growth occurs. The writer of this article points out that sadness indicates that you actually care about something. Often these uncomfortable things are avoided, but they help us improve and grow.

Here’s the list from the article:

1. Failure
2. Criticism
3. Sadness
4. Respect
5. Options
6. Struggle
7. Delay
8. Regret
9. Family
10. This moment

10 Unexpected Things to be Thankful For via Inc.

5 Things We Will Wish We’d Done Differentl:

John Piper is known for the phrase, “Don’t Waste Your Life.”. There are a lot of things we millennials can waste life on nowadays, and this article from Relevant Magazine looks at a few (and I’m guilty in some respects):

1. Most of my spare time was sacrificed to social media
2. I knew more about celebrities than I did about my neighbors
3. I was so set on buying things, I never got the pleasure of making them
4. I wasted my life entertaining myself
5. I never found time to be quiet

Read The Full Article at Relevant Magazine

Putting The X Back Into Xmas:

Some good points about what it really means to take the “Christ” out of “Christmas”. It has nothing to do with the letter “X”, and we are all to blame.

If there is a war on Christmas, it’s because we started it with our greed, materialism, and pride.

But we can also be the ones to end it.

If we can begin to reimagine Christmas as a season for changing lives, rather than a time to change out our old TV for a new one, then not only will Christ find his way back into Christmas, but the kingdom of God will be incarnated on earth, just as it was in a manger so long ago.

Full Article: Putting The X Back Into Xmas via The American Jesus

We live in a social world. Here is the latest video from Socialnomics. Interesting stats include:

• If Wikipedia were made into a book it would be 2.25 million pages long
• New Yorkers received tweets about an east coast earthquake 30 seconds before they felt it
• Ford Explorer launch on Facebook more effective than a Super Bowl Ad
• 1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook
• Every minute 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube