Watching The World Go By

 Hi Everyone!

It feels like it's been a while. This happens when the world you live in gets so busy the days run together. Just the other day Fiona asked me, "When was the last time you showered"? It took a 15-minute conversation to figure it out. My days had run together. I thought it was two days. It was four. I was embarrassed. I tell you this because that's how life is. Time runs together, we get caught up in the moment, and we forget the things that are not in front of us, and they become less important. As a  Missionary, this is the very real reality of our life because we fundraise to do a job. People often give because they know us or they are committed to a vision. As life goes on, those who like us drop out because they don't get the attention they feel they deserve. It's hard. We don't love the people any less because we left. We come back to a world full of changes. The kids grow, parents die, businesses close, and priorities change. People get disgruntled because our priorities didn't change. The priorities of God's kingdom never change and that is who we serve. Holidays are among the hardest. It is rare to be home during the holiday season, but you can't see everyone, and most people are not so forgiving that they didn't make the cut. I often remind myself of what Jesus points out in Matthew 10: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me". When we consider Christmas, have we reduced it to family again? Or have we used it to push a family into a place of sharing the love of Christ with a broken world as the liturgical holidays were meant to do? This is a big challenge in America because we often see holidays as about family. Let's not make the Holidays just another family day to help us watch the world go by. Let us use the Holidays the way they were meant to be used, to make the biggest impact we can for Christ's glory while the world passes us by. This will create a lot of tear-filled decisions. Your lives, your children's lives, and the whole world will be better off for it. Merry Christmas! 

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