When Your Wheels Stop Turning and You Feel Let Down

I do not have a lot to write tonight before I go to bed, but as I was looking back at pictures that I took today during our trip to my grandmother's farm, one stood out among the rest.

I can understand if the more photographically astute readers of this blog chastise me for the blurry nature of the shot or the problems with spacing, but to truly understand this photo, you must know my grandmother. You can see her walking here with my cousin Andrew, but if I told you that she's 82, you would probably be pretty impressed that she's keeping up with a 21-year old as we walked through the fields.

I could tell you that she lost her husband 27 years ago to lung cancer, and has lived alone almost ever since, and that might make you feel sorry for her, but this picture says everything. Instead of feeling sorry for herself and constantly wondering why life dealt her the hand that it did, she has moved forward. She loves each and everyone of her 17 grandchildren, including yours truly, in countless ways. She travels around to visit her 6 remaining children whether they be in Waco, Irving, or Whitehouse. She continues to learn, grow, and enjoy each day as it is given to her.

That's why this picture tells the story of a woman, my grandmother, who is in perpetual motion.

And yes, she still calls me "Jason", but I've forgiven her many times for that.

Then I Looked Up at the Sun and I Could See

I'm not sure what each of you were able to give and receive on this Christmas Day, but just in case you were wondering, I was actually able to give exactly what I wanted to my entire family.

That's right, I delivered a pitch-perfect imitation of Converse Judson head football coach Jim Rackley's halftime interview during this past weekend's 5A Division I state championship game. Many thanks my grandmother for playing the role of the sideline reporter.

I'm not really sure why, but after my performance everyone just told me to go into the bedroom and lay down for little while.

Oh well.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

And So She Woke Up, Woke Up From Where She Was Lying Still

A few words on Christmas from former ABC and CBS anchor Harry Reasoner:

"The basis for this tremendous annual burst of gift buying and parties and near hysteria is a quiet event that Christians believe actually happened a long time ago. You can say that in all societies there has always been a midwinter festival and that many of the trappings of our Christmas are almost violently pagan. But you come back to the central fact of the day and quietness of Christmas morning--the birth of God on earth

It leaves you only three ways of accepting Christmas

One is cynically, as a time to make money or endorse the making of it

One is graciously, the appropriate attitude for non-Christians, who wish their fellow citizens all the joys to which their beliefs entitle them

And the third, of course, is reverently. If this is the anniversary of the appearance of the Lord of the universe in the form of a helpless babe, then it is a very important day

It's a startling idea, of course. My guess is that the whole story that a virgin was selected by God to bear His Son as a way of showing his love and concern for man is not an idea that has been popular with theologians. It's a somewhat illogical idea, and theologians like logic almost as much as they like God. It's so revolutionary a thought that it probably could only come from a God that is beyond logic, and beyond theology

It has a magnificent appeal. Almost nobody has seen God, and almost nobody has any real idea of what He is like. And the truth is that among men the idea of seeing God suddenly and standing in a very bright light is not necessarily a completely comforting and appealing idea

But everyone has seen babies, and most people like them. If God wanted to be loved as well as feared he moved correctly here. If He wanted to know his people as well as rule them, He moved correctly here, for a baby growing up learns all about people. If God wanted to be intimately a part of man, He moved correctly, for the experiences of birth and familyhood are our most intimate and precious experiences

So it goes beyond logic. It is either all falsehood or it is the truest thing in the world. It's the story of the great innocence of God the baby-- God in the form of man-- and has such a dramatic shock toward the heart that if it is not true, for Christians, nothing is true

So, if a Christian is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it, and maybe on some given Christmas, some final quiet morning, the touch will take."