Of my first 18 Christmases in this world, I only remember 3 gifts I ever received.  There were several years my parents gave me presents galore – lots of little toys or knick knacks in which I ripped open each one hoping the next one would be better than the last.  But the only gifts I remember were the years that there was only one gift “under the tree.”

Granted they were large gifts, but those years – the years of the 10-speed, the waterbed, and the gifts of cash my parents handed me with the realization they couldn’t figure out what a teenage boy wants anymore – were memorable.  Now I did buy several items with the cash gifts, but I don’t remember what they were, I only remember those 3 gifts.  For whatever reason we’ve tricked ourselves into believing that the more there is to open, the better.

This year I want to give gifts that would not be “one of the many”, but will be “one for the memory”?

The Family Experience dancers

Hundreds of people gathered tight into the dark room, with only thunderous music with a driving beat between them and the lights about to turn on to begin the event.  An energy filled the room as I walked out on stage to introduce the focus of the coming event.  Lights, there was a camera, and plenty of action ensued as the Christmas Family Experience took its excellence to another level.

What’s better than children dancing up and down to a song about compassion, actors who made all the adults roar with laughter, and a spiritual energy bringing it all together?  Not too much apparently, I found out as many people came to me afterward, thanking our church for the amazing program they had just experienced.  In fact, that’s why we call it that, because we don’t want people to come to a program, so much as we want them to experience something with the kids, like they do when they go to the zoo or see a Disney movie.

So four times a year we put away the band and the preaching and the “adults only” environment, and we all worship together, but different.  And the lights, and the production teams, and the high energy music, and the outstanding acting all focuses us on building something more than Fellowship Church – the Kingdom of God.  Even before we gave away the Nintendo DSi, we were all getting slammed hard with the call to being more compassionate in our everyday lives, children AND adults.

One lady looked up to the ceiling while sharing with me what she thought about the message conveyed during the environment, and she said almost with a whisper, “I hope they get it.  The Kids.  I hope they get it, because our generation sure hasn’t.”  Her husband looked at us both and said with a smile coming from the corner of his mouth, “I hope we get it.”

No, I stopped believing the Family Experiences we do at Fellowship Church were for the kids a long time ago.  They are for you, and they are for me.

Next Family Experience:  March 7, 2010

I drove last night and thought to myself that there are more Christmas lights around where I’m from than in years past.  They look beautiful and they display brightly that the holiday season is upon us once again.  Yes, the Christmas spirit has come again and hope is rising.  Not hope in politics or vague change that never really shows up, but hope based on the idea that God will make all things right.   I like to think that this is the reason people put up all those bright and shiny crystals of the yuletide season – to demonstrate the hope that Christmas brought into the world (okay, maybe not the exact date) those many years ago.  This is what I love about the Christian faith too.  Not that someday I will get to go to heaven away from all the bad people.  I feel strongly at this point that this outlook is flawed in many ways, not the least of which being opposite of what Jesus exemplified.

But the thing that I love the most about faith in Christ is that God will eventually (and only He knows how and when) make all things in heaven and on earth right. This is what we can rightly place our hope in as we work to restore the world to how He created it by being the hands and the feet of Christ. And this makes me want to put up Christmas lights this year.

Who’s with me?

I have a friend who hosted Thanksgiving dinner at his house last week.  After the dinner when his and her entire family sat sprawled out on their couches and chairs, half-heartedly peering at the ‘good-for-nothing’ football games that take up airwave space on T-giving, his wife got the idea to take this opportunity and pick names for the upcoming Christmas swap.  So my friend rounded up the names of everyone present (pun intended) and they all joyfully picked a name of the family member to whom they will be giving a gift.

After the cheery fun of picking the names had commenced, my friends wife walked sheepishly over to him and said, “Honey, I just thought of something.”  “Yes?” He answered inquisitively.  “I already bought all the gifts for everyone in our family.”

After much thought, they came up with a solution:  They would give their family members they had picked the gifts they had purchased for them, and they would sell the other gifts to the people who had picked the recipients of the gift they had purchased.  That way they wouldn’t really have to pay for everyone’s gifts, which is the reason for the swap in the first place, and the other people wouldn’t have to sacrifice to go out amidst the hustle ad bustle of the shopping world and get a gift for their pick.

Aaaaaahhhh the joy of Christmas and the spirit of giving.

1. Worcester Scary Scavenger Hunt

2. 12 Days of Christmas parties

And as a result of the hardships of the New England Ice Storm, 2008, I give you one Holdenites Art having gone through no electricity for an extended period of time:

by the way, the Holdenite is not me. This is not my poem, and when I find out who’s it is, I’ll let you know.

“Our Nightmare Before Christmas

Twas two weeks before Christmas and all through the town it rained and it froze and the trees all fell down.

The wires that were strung on utility poles snapped like a twig and the houses all froze.

We got our selves nestled all snug in our bed while visions of warmer days danced in our head,
and me in my thermals and Pa in his cap stayed huddled together for a bone chilling nap.

The moon on the ice made a crystalline glow and we thought to ourselves, just how long can this go?

When what to our wondering eyes did appear

but our son with some coffee and donuts and cheer.

We could see our white breath in the darkness above and deep under the covers I searched for my love.

His feet, they were frozen and so was his head — made me think to myself that he just might be dead.

The days passed so slowly, we must be insane as we waited and wondered and called out by name

“On Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday (is this it!)

on Sunday, on Monday, on Tuesday (please quit!)

on Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday (oh dread!)

the kerosene fumes must have gone to our head.

To add to the pleasure of winter’s delight two snowstorms came by – 18 inches of white.

The snowing and blowing made things bad to worse and we prayed to the heavens our pipes wouldn’t burst.

Pa’s eyes now were sunken, his expression — not merry, his cheeks had a pallor, his nose like a cherry.

The odd little smile on his face wasn’t fun and he often was mumbling “go get my gun”.

Then a rap on the door, and  the fireman said, “Are you sick, are you sane, and is anyone dead?

There’s a shelter, there’s warmth, you can come if you’re able, we have showers and kindness and food on the table” — and we looked at each other and thought  —  “what the heck?”

yeah … eleven days later you FINALLY check!

On night number twelve we heard the faint roar of a convoy of trucks and we ran to the door.

To the top of the poles, to the stretch of the cable — please bring us your power just as fast as you’ re able!

They spoke not a word, but went straight to their work and the power came on with a hum and a jerk.

They heard us exclaim, as they drove out of sight —

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!  WE HAVE HEAT! WE HAVE LIGHT!”

Marty and Carie celebrating the "best Christmas ever" at the TCA Facebook reunion!

So all December long I felt like such a scrooge. It wasn’t that I was mean to people, but I just didn’t feel like being in the “Christmas Spirit”.  Ya know, presents and singing and parties.  And I think part of the problem was that I couldn’t have any of those things.  Everytime I was invited to a party, it got cancelled.  Everytime I was supposed to give or get a present, there was too much ice or snow on the road to get to that place of exchange.

In the end, it was just me, my beautiful wife,and this year, I put away the TV during the week of Christmas (save for a few football games that made me jolly),and read through Scripture or books that focused on either the spiritual and/or leadership.

I didn’t really feel like Christmas as I had in years past.  Shopping and gifts and parties seemed more distant than I would have liked.  But the Christ part of Christmas was more evident than ever before.  This part had little to do with external lights as much it had to do with the light of the world.  And the only gift I could think about was the one God gave me when He sent His only son, Jesus Christ to save the sins of the world.

It was the greatest Christmas ever!

Carie and I are travelling for Christmas to Indiana where my parents and most of my family live.  In spite of the craziness that marks life in December 2008 Massachusetts, we decided to make our way west.  We considered cancelling the trip more than once, but I started and brainstormed  an idea to have a Facebook school reunion at my alma mater for the 27th of December and figured it would be in poor taste to back out now.

Travelling west felt like desertion of my friends and chrch family members who have gone through so much over the last two weeks.  I’m sure there have been places and times in history and even in recent history where people have gone through worse, but from a devastating ice storm that knocked trees around like javelins to the twin snow storms this last weekend, more than one person I know have gone through dynamic trials.  Even as recently as Tuesday (Christmas Eve Eve) two families I know from Fellowship had been without power since two Thursdays prior.

So Carie and I departed Massachusetts on Tuesday afternoon after her knucklehead school decided to “rough out” the remainder of the school year.  (I know I’ll be happy about that in June, don’ t remind me)  Our trip was great for the majority!  No problems.  No major traffic issues.  And all was well.

When I gave up my driving seat to Carie late in the evening, I decided to take a quick nap as we headed toward our final destination for the evening, Erie Pennsylvania.  Before I napped, Carie mentioned that there were several sand trucks out, and she wondered if they were looking for a storm ahead.  When I woke up, I received a text from Phil Kenney, admonishing me to drive safely.

The odd thing about this text was that he sent it quite late.  If I know anything about Phil and his wonderful wife, Leslie, I know that they go to bed early most nights.  So now it was my time to wonder:

Did our final hour have poor weather in our future?

Sure enough, about a half hour outside of Erie, the roads transformed into a slushy ice skating rink, and speeds of 65-75 became 25-35 in 1.6 seconds.  This transformation, coupled with my GPS placing me in the wrong part of Erie, made for a final hour of hysteria on the part of the Holmans.

Discouraged and tense, we arrived at our hotel safely around 2am.

I have been pondering a post about my lack of Christmas spirit this year, (with  both good and bad ideas throughout) but this adventure, coupled with what we’ve already experienced in weather, tipped the scales a bit.

I have more I’d like to write, but alas, I must go.

Please give me  a Christmas gift of reasons why you are in the Christmas Spirit this year.

By the way, as I’ll explain later, please don’t mistake my lack of Christmas spirit for negativity.  I’m actually feeling quite positive about most things right now, just not in a Christmas like way.

I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but there’s only one time of year in which I am distracted from what I’ve done for the last 10 years.  That time of year?

Christmas.

Tradition – a state of being which I am not really a big fan – creeps in, and walaa, I am immersed in the sights and sounds and food and viewing pleasures of the season, many of which slam right in the face of the vision God has given to me to lead a church.

Santa inadvertanly takes the place of Jesus.

All of the trips to the store take the place of reading my Bible.

Parties take the place of visioncasting.

Meaningless gifts take the place of sacrifice.

Thinking about what I have to do takes the place of what I should be doing.

So I need some mind re-evaluation.  Maybe you do to?  There’s certainly nothing wrong with Christmas, but is it overkill?  Do I end up spending way too much time thinking about the good times of the past and not enough time thinking about where I am and where God wants me to go?

So this week, I want to…

Fix my eyes on Jesus.

Stop.  And spend time with Him.

Be intentional about encouraging and leading the people I’m with toward the One we worship during this time.

Look to sacrifice rather than shop.

Do what I should be doing.

What should you be doing?