Farewell and Hello
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."
The elegance of this passage was first introduced to me ages and (almost) ages ago. Dickens published the work in 1859 as a historical novel featuring London and Paris during and around the French Revolution. In America, the Lincoln - Douglas debates and the question of slavery was pressed very near to the brink of war.
The words are timeless, even to this day. "...it was the season of LIght, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..." Our lives run in ups and downs. Some have found the key to that ever desired even keel, but most of us are seemingly searching for some magic cure to the roller coaster existence.
Today we have chosen, maybe unaware, to pick a side. We like sides as we find comfort and common values in the selected members of the team. Team members have been coached by people over the generations to share the fundamental rights and wrongs of one side or the other. Is that the essence of Dickens introduction? It is both wonderful and awful depending on the side you cheer for?
Has empathy been lost based our position in the game? Are we able to walk a mile in the moccasins of another and know their joy? Their sorrow? Their experience of living? Is our culture driven to believe there is only one right and all the others are wrong? Does opinion hold the position of a fact?
2018 was a year much like every other - "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." I reluctantly bid it farewell. 2019 is mere hours away. May it's arrival be greeted with a hardy hello and surrounded in the one thing so desperately needed in a season of Light and Darkness - Hope!
Hope in all that this new year brings is met as the best of times. And that when trials and struggle arrives, which it surely will, we meet it with the hope and faith we find in each other, regardless of the team we represent. May our better selves live in the hope we are unsure of, and that we posses the confidence to know hope reigns.
The vision cast at the end of Dickens novel continues to speak to the noblest intent. "It is a far, far better thing I
a CASE for controversy
I must begin this post with an observation that some may find off putting. The Christmas posts I followed on Facebook were void of taking sides. There was almost, albeit for just a day, the ability to take our vast political differences and put them aside for the sake of family and Christmas itself. Yet, Christmas is one of the most controversial things on this planet?
1. Time is relative in all things
December? Just a response to the pagan solstice and the darkest time of year to bring in the light of the world? Some scholars direct us to March or sometime in the spring. The churches observation of this event in Christendom fits a liturgical purpose. Maybe it's even the time of giving for tax purposes? I could go on and on. My truth is that I come to worship my God and celebrate the miracle of this loving deity as he comes to earth. His very unique creation.
2. You're kidding right -- Creation?
It keeps getting better doesn't it? The foundation of Christmas isn't just the birth of Jesus, but it's the delivery system. Have you noticed that the Old Testament begins with something created from nothing and the New Testament begins with a very similar happening. The writers of the Gospels connect us to the beginning of time with a Virgin birth. Something, from nothing, so to speak.
I'm continued to reflect on my faith each time I come up with a question. I cannot fathom God in a certain way, matter or form. I don't see God as Michael Angelo did, nor do I see him as the anyone else does today. I see God in the very being of my faith. How are these things possible? I have no idea and I don't have to know.
3. Santa Claus and the commercialization of...
Our experience is that Christmas and Santa Claus is for kids. That may be very true. But wasn't it an ancient teacher who rebuked his closest followers with the words, "Let the little children come unto me"? Our truth is that we love the innocent, genuineness of our kids because it draws into a better place. Our very adult reply to Virginia about if there really is a Santa Claus reminds us to be accountable to the very ideas found in the documents of our faith.
Society moans louder and louder about the first retail outlet to break the seal on Christmas Decorations. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Yes, I get irritated by it too! If I'm honest about my feelings though, maybe Christmas truly is something that should be celebrated throughout the year.
If I take one thing from my compromised, evil Facebook page it is this. My friends love their families and the time they spend together at Christmas. Sharing a meal, worshiping, or watching the eyes of they children on the morning where the greatest gift of all time was revealed.