Today, Dec. 1, 2013, marks the beginning of Advent for this year. Advent is the four weeks leading up to Christmas and is typically coupled with a wreath of five candles. The candles symbolize Hope, Love, Joy, Peace, and lastly the Christ candle. Now, why would I want to devote a post to something that you probably all know, or at least have heard about once or twice, or maybe you just don't care? Well, because every thought gone unspoken is never heard by the one who never knew. Hmm... unpack that one, hahaha.
Advent is the time of year for Christmas magic, Christmas miracles, and above all else, Christmas spirit. Let's look at the four pillars surrounding the Christ Candle on this hypothetical wreath I've laid out, just for the sake of putting it all out there.
Hope: Now, to many of us, hope can cover a lot of ground. Football fans hope their team can pull off a miracle comeback to make the playoffs this year. Hope may be the name of your daughter, sister, niece, and so on. This girl or woman may represent the hope that core family values and traditions are continued; that maybe something that was said to be impossible happened anyway. A woman told she is barren holds out hope for a miracle baby. Hope -- deep down HOPE -- is felt from the depths of one's heart. This is the hope that the believers of long ago felt, the hope of a fulfilled prophecy. In the world we live in today, there are a lot of struggles. Family and individual struggles. Hunger. Homelessness. Unemployment. Working a lot for so little gain, and being unavailable to your family. Wars. But we keep living. We have that hope that things will turn around. Depth of the heart hope. And hope will prevail as long as we believe.
Love: For a lesson in love, I can turn you only to one source. And be it out of context, I don't care. I believe there to be so much value in this source that regardless of religious stand, there is something in here for you. I want you to watch the movie Love Actually with an open mind and open heart. The Bible says to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. The Bible says to love others as you love yourself. The Bible says the greatest commandment is to LOVE. Along with love, you find FORGIVENESS. You find SACRIFICE. You find Christmas Spirit.
Joy: For every Scrooge, there is a Tiny Tim, right? For every grinch, there is a Cindy Loo Who. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The popular song about joy refers to having it where? Yes, down in /my/ HEART. And once you have that joy, you share it. At Christmas time, you sing carols door to door, or at a nursing home, or something of that fashion. Joy is even greater than happiness because of the fact that it's stored deep down inside one's heart, right next to Hope and Love. And right next to Peace.
Peace: Peace be with you. What is peace? Well, it can't be the same thing as Hope, Love, or Joy, can it? Can it? Peace again is something deep inside of us. Every one of us has had something or someone hurt us in some way shape or form. A simple comment from a coworker, or schoolmate. Maybe something harsh said by a boss or parent or other "authority" figure in our lives. We store these things up, whether we want to or not. Forgiveness sets us at peace. Peace happens when we find something that truly makes us happy. Some people may refer it it as their "Zen moment."
As a whole, Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace sum up everything that Christ lived for. The HOPE that a savior would come. The LOVE He taught about in every possible way through action. The JOY of all the sinners whose lives He touched. And the PEACE of those who have been saved by His hand. He portrays SACRIFICE and FORGIVENESS.
Each of these candles represents something that has to be individual before it can be shared. But, when it is shared, look out! Because there... THERE is the Christmas Spirit.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
I woke up this morning...
Originally, this was going to be an "If you woke up this morning..." blog. Then I realized:
1) More likely than not, if you didn't wake up this morning you probably wouldn't be reading this.
2) My first blog shouldn't be telling people what to do, that's kind of a turn off, isn't it?
3) Practice what you preach.
So, here's my new blog idea: "I woke up this morning..."
Thank you, God, for waking me up this morning.
Thank you, past present and future military service people, for keeping me safe while I slept, sleep, and will sleep.
Thank you to my parents (and step parent) for creating this life that is me, and for the support that has led me to love and respect the values of family.
Thank you to family: Siblings, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, etc. The people that make life fun growing up, and the people who make home someplace to come back and visit.
Thank you to friends who, even over long distances, give me a reason to keep going when life just "don't make sense."
Thank you to my feeble mind for stopping me before that last one turned into a country song. And for convincing me that Matchbox 20 isn't really country...even in the song "If You're Gone," even though it feels like it sometimes.
Thank you, YouTube, for making Matchbox 20 - If You're Gone readily available when I get on tangents like this.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we tend to be thankful for things like our jobs, living in America, family, togetherness, and the like. Where turkey and cranberry sauce can smudge away our daily stresses to make way for Black Friday (oh no, I guess I mean "gray Thursday" now? Eeesh, maybe Thanksgiving isn't so family centered as I remember it...I mean somebody has to work to open stores at 8pm Thursday), and before you know it we're rolling into New Years (where we regret our turkey eating and resolve to make better choices next year).
But are we ONLY thankful for these things we take for granted on Thanksgiving? Do we really need a holiday to celebrate that? The Pilgrims came over here as radicals, right? I mean, they were the rebels, the "I don't want to follow the laws of the king, let's go start our own country where we can do whatever we want." Well, their ancestors were the ones who discovered England, right? The Pilgrims came over here and decided that the Native Americans would be good for educational purposes but once their tenure is up, we're going to destroy them, uproot and remove them from our "free" society. We'll learn from them and then use their own tactics against them. So when we sit down to dinner, celebrating the union between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, we use the turkey and cranberry sauce to smudge away the part where lifestyles were nearly destroyed.
But, maybe we need that? Maybe we need that day to count our blessings. Maybe some things in life are just that rough that we need to escape. Maybe every good thing comes from a bad back story? Or maybe it's only bad if you choose to think of it that way.
When the Thanksgiving celebration is over, it's Christmas mode all the way. Radio stations tend to convert to Christmas music, if they haven't already. Then we get into Joy, Merriment, and so on and so forth.
So what am I saying? I don't really know, and by now you've probably stopped caring. We'll sum it up with Happy Thanksgiving, but I also plea that you don't forget the things you're thankful for every day. If that's too hard, try for every day during the holiday season. Have a reason to be joyful and merry. And Thankful.
But overall...
Thank YOU for waking up this morning and reading this blog.
1) More likely than not, if you didn't wake up this morning you probably wouldn't be reading this.
2) My first blog shouldn't be telling people what to do, that's kind of a turn off, isn't it?
3) Practice what you preach.
So, here's my new blog idea: "I woke up this morning..."
Thank you, God, for waking me up this morning.
Thank you, past present and future military service people, for keeping me safe while I slept, sleep, and will sleep.
Thank you to my parents (and step parent) for creating this life that is me, and for the support that has led me to love and respect the values of family.
Thank you to family: Siblings, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, etc. The people that make life fun growing up, and the people who make home someplace to come back and visit.
Thank you to friends who, even over long distances, give me a reason to keep going when life just "don't make sense."
Thank you to my feeble mind for stopping me before that last one turned into a country song. And for convincing me that Matchbox 20 isn't really country...even in the song "If You're Gone," even though it feels like it sometimes.
Thank you, YouTube, for making Matchbox 20 - If You're Gone readily available when I get on tangents like this.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we tend to be thankful for things like our jobs, living in America, family, togetherness, and the like. Where turkey and cranberry sauce can smudge away our daily stresses to make way for Black Friday (oh no, I guess I mean "gray Thursday" now? Eeesh, maybe Thanksgiving isn't so family centered as I remember it...I mean somebody has to work to open stores at 8pm Thursday), and before you know it we're rolling into New Years (where we regret our turkey eating and resolve to make better choices next year).
But are we ONLY thankful for these things we take for granted on Thanksgiving? Do we really need a holiday to celebrate that? The Pilgrims came over here as radicals, right? I mean, they were the rebels, the "I don't want to follow the laws of the king, let's go start our own country where we can do whatever we want." Well, their ancestors were the ones who discovered England, right? The Pilgrims came over here and decided that the Native Americans would be good for educational purposes but once their tenure is up, we're going to destroy them, uproot and remove them from our "free" society. We'll learn from them and then use their own tactics against them. So when we sit down to dinner, celebrating the union between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, we use the turkey and cranberry sauce to smudge away the part where lifestyles were nearly destroyed.
But, maybe we need that? Maybe we need that day to count our blessings. Maybe some things in life are just that rough that we need to escape. Maybe every good thing comes from a bad back story? Or maybe it's only bad if you choose to think of it that way.
When the Thanksgiving celebration is over, it's Christmas mode all the way. Radio stations tend to convert to Christmas music, if they haven't already. Then we get into Joy, Merriment, and so on and so forth.
So what am I saying? I don't really know, and by now you've probably stopped caring. We'll sum it up with Happy Thanksgiving, but I also plea that you don't forget the things you're thankful for every day. If that's too hard, try for every day during the holiday season. Have a reason to be joyful and merry. And Thankful.
But overall...
Thank YOU for waking up this morning and reading this blog.
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