December thoughts, take 2

**I started this post on Saturday, December 15, so 1-12 was written then. The rest today, Sunday December 16. References up til 12 to "today" refers to Saturday.

 I have been bored and restless all afternoon and evening, not really feeling like doing anything. I finally got a spark of interest to blog, so here I go.....

 It is a post of random topics. You will most likely find something you agree with, and something that may tick you off. Just a heads up.

1) Christmas

 Christmas is 10 days away. It is coming fast whether or not we are ready for it. I am pretty much ready. I still have some wrapping left, but it is mostly done. Other than that, I am ready for it.

 Or am I?

 The popular Christmas carol, Joy to the World says "let every heart prepare Him room." Do we do that? Have we done that?

 Much is said and complained about the commercialization of Christmas, but what do we do in our celebration to combat that....or do we do our own version of commercialization of this time?

2) Merry Christmas

  I have heard the rationalizations of people many times. "Holiday really means holy day, so when people say Happy Holidays, they are really saying happy holy days". "The X in Xmas stands for Jesus, so they really aren't taking Jesus out of Christmas."

 Baloney.

 Here's the thing: these people may be correct about the meaning of those, but the stores and individuals using those are intending to take Christ out of the picture. They have no issue with Merry, or even the "mas". They have issue with the first 5 letters: Christ. It bothers me a lot, and the rationalizations mentioned above just irritate me. Christmas is supposed to be about Christ. If stores want to take that away, then they should stop having sales to profit from the observed birthday of the One they despise so much.

3) Offensive

 The list of things offending people and being banned is insane. Baby It's Cold Outside, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and more. And yet the same people have no problem with babies being ripped a apart in the womb, children being exploited for the gay agenda, kids being given hormones to try to turn them into the opposite gender, cursing, and a host of other things that are truly offensive and horrific.

 How long until Christianity is branded offensive, and they try to ban it?

4) My lunch date

 I tease my youngest niece occasionally when she posts a picture of she and her boyfriend out eating on a date. I'll ask where I was, or why I wasn't invited. She messaged me this morning and invited me to meet them for lunch at the Mexican restaurant near us, since I am always complaining they go without me...her words. :)

 So I did meet them, and had an enjoyable lunch. Though I think they invited me so I'd pay. Just kidding, I wouldn't have let them pay.

 And she owed me, after saying it looks like I threw the ornaments onto my tree :)

5) Not in the mood for Christmas

 This Christmas season has been weird for me. I'm not really in the mood for it, or at least not in some ways.

 I have yet to watch a Christmas movie. I have only listened to a handful of my 300 Christmas CDs. (exaggeration...it is definitely over 100). I HAVE been listening to my "Christmas favorites" playlist over and over on my PC and iPod (in the car).

 I received some Christmas cards at church and in the mail, but have yet to open them.

I haven't played any Christmas songs on my piano.

 Yet, I decorated and enjoy my lights and decorations. I enjoyed shopping for Christmas, and even have enjoyed wrapping the gifts.

 I have even been wearing Christmas ties to work and church.

 But the way I feel this year is not normal for me. I'm not really excited about anything Christmas, except for one thing: I am looking forward to being with my whole family on Christmas day, and watching them open the gifts I have bought for them, and hoping they like what I bought.

 And maybe that's enough. Oh, I am not meaning before Jesus and the reason for this holiday.... but after Jesus, what else is more important than family at this time of year? There are many who do not have that. They are all alone at Christmas, or tragedy or life choices have removed them from family, or vice versa.

 But we are still all together: my parents, my sisters, their husbands, my 6 nieces and nephews...... and me.

 Truly, that is what I am looking forward to. Being with family, gifts or no gifts. No family is perfect, but our family is close and we all get together great. I can't wait to be with the whole gang for a whole day, and laughing and making memories together.

 And there will be gag gifts. I think I started the tradition, and now there are a lot of them every Christmas. It is fun, and always brings laughter. We arrange seats around the living room, and pass out the gifts. We take turns opening one gift at a time, and everyone enjoys the sight of a gag gift being opened.

 Example of one, between you and I: My little sister said in our Facebook family chat last week that she cannot stand the Veggie Tales music CDs, and that they are horrible. I immediately went on eBay and found a cheap used copy of one of them, and she is getting it for Christmas.

6) America's obsession with animals

 OK, if you are an animal lover, you won't like this one....

 I'm not an animal lover, and not even close to it.....unless you count fried chicken, steak, pork chops, etc. I care about cruelty to animals, but it is nowhere near the top of my concerns.

 You would think that animals are the most important thing to some people though. I see constant posts about fur babies, how horrible it is to leave animals outside, etc. I have seen the following post or similar ones lately, and they kind of irritate me.

 What about homeless people? What about kids with no parents or someone to love them? What about the babies being ripped a part in their mothers' wombs? Are they not more important than some stupid animal?

 Sure, we are free to post what we want on Facebook, well except anything negative about Trump.....but it is a fact of life that we will talk about and post about what is most important to us. Compared to aborted babies, homeless vets and others, and kids needing parents...animals aren't even in the same universe of importance.

 I'll be honest: I really wish I could do something for hurting kids....foster, adopt......Kids need two parents - a mom and dad, not 2 dads or 2 moms - but one parent is better than none, and I could love a kid enough to be a decent parent. But I can't. My hours I work, my pay.....my sexuality. No, I'm not going to hurt a kid that way, but too many Christians still have the wrong ideas about gay/SSA people.

 It breaks my heart when I read of kids no one wants....but animals? Nah. Not worried about them.

 And they aren't fur babies, nor are you their mommy or daddy.....they are animals, and you are not. Nor do you adopt animals. You own animals, you adopt children.....human children.

 There is a pastor I had years ago that I have a very low opinion of, but he wasn't all bad. One sermon he preached has stuck with me. Colossians 3:5 mentions inordinate affections. Inordinate is beyond normal, extreme, without limitations. He used that verse and preached about how over the top people are with their animals. I think he had a point.

 And no, I am not saying it is wrong to love an animal and be fond of it, but people are way over the top with animals, and too many truly do seem to value animals over humans and care more about animals than what humans are going through.


 And yes, that verse could apply to about anything we value too much.

7) Trump mania

 Speaking of inordinate affections.....

 It is no secret I am in complete opposition to Donald Trump, and still cannot imagine how and why the Republican Party picked him as the GOP nomination over several decent and true conservative candidates. I have listed the reasons why before, so I won't go into that.

 What I do want to mention is the over the top adulation and worship of the man. I still view him as a corrupt and not very nice individual, but many of his Christian followers constantly post praise and defense of him. I don't say this sarcastically, but seriously: the ratio of praise and adulation of him compared to praise and adulation of God by many Christians is so out of whack, one would think that Trump is their Savior instead of Jesus, and more important to them than God.

 I don't agree with them, but I can understand saying something positive occasionally about your candidate occasionally....but not multiple times a day, over, and over, and over.

 And then some of the crap they post is ridiculous....make Christmas great again, Trump is the best president ever, we have never had such a great Christian president (he is NOT a Christian.)

 When Obama was president, his followers said a lot of over  the top stuff about him. I 100% believe Trump supporters are far worse. Maybe they aren't, and it is because I have so many Trump supporters posting the stuff day after day, whereas I didn't have Obama supporters doing that, and only read it on the news.

 An example that a Facebook friend posted today:

 OK, imagine if an Obama supporter posted that.....well, that is how over the top and obnoxious it is to me.

 I don't get it. What about this man has Christians so.....well, I can't come up with a polite word, so I'll say enthralled....he isn't a good man, he isn't a nice man, he has a history of supporting liberals and their policies, and he has broken campaign promises and done stuff that his base is silent on, yet would be criticizing Obama or Hillary for.

He funded Planned Parenthood, after promising to de-fund it

He talked about adding a gasoline tax on top of what we pay already

He nominated the first gay ambassador, and Pence swore him in with his husband by him

Most recently, he is talking about lifting the federal ban on marijuana, and making it legal.

He has made a couple of moves to harm gun rights.

He promised to further gay rights, and appeared at a gay rally for him holding the gay pride parade with LGBQT for Trump on it. Imagine if it had been Trump.

 Why are conservatives silent? Why is he so untouchable, and why do they want anyone to keep silent who does take issue with him?

 All of this just causes me to dislike and oppose him all the more, and cause me to hate politics even more than I have in the last couple of years.

 I'll never, ever understand how the so-called conservative party could elect such a man for the GOP nomination. I get why they voted for him over Hillary, though I wanted neither.

 Don't like this post? Then give me a good explanation why so many conservatives ignore and are silent about all the bad stuff he has done and is doing.

8) Pro gay Christians

 I read an excellent article this week titled "Why Are So Many Millennial Christians Confused About Homosexuality?" It is becoming more and more common for Christians to ignore or twist what the Bible says, and be OK with gay Christians. This article brings up some great points, and reasons for younger people especially to feel that way. If this is a topic that interests you at all, I would recommend reading it. The article title is linked to the article.

9) Gay Christians

 I have discussed this before, but it is on my mind, and that is what I blog about..what is on my mind. Well, not everything that is.

 It used to be that the term "gay Christian" meant a gay person who was having a sexual relationship with the same sex and claiming to be a Christian. Now, it has become a big thing for celibate Christians attracted to the same sex to use that term. I am against it for a couple of reasons. #1, gay is an identity, and if a person is living for God and not wanting to give into his same-sex desires and attractions, why cling to that label/identity? #2, it is confusing. I have people following me on Twitter who use the label gay Christian, or LGBQT in Christ. Some of them I know are celibate, some not, and some I have no clue...because the label is now being used by both people having sexual relationships with the same sex, and those who are attracted to the same sex and are not doing that.

 And if I, who deal with that personally am confused......how much more is the average Christian or person of the world going to know?

10) Max Lucado

 I have always liked Max Lucado's books, though I have not kept up with all of his. He is one of the few well known Christian leaders who did not support Trump, and was called a Pharisee and other lovely names by the lovely Christians who took issue with him not supporting their guy. It just impressed me even more with him.

 I learned something new about him this week. He spoke at Wheaton College at a seminar about sexual abuse, and told that he is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. It was brave of him to talk about it, and it is nice to see someone who overcame that to be used of God in the ways he has been.

11) Reading

  I set a goal of 130 books for the year, and have long ago passed that. I am currently at 196, and should hit 200 with no problem. Maybe I should make 200 my goal for 2019.

12) Beards

 I see a lot of stuff about beards being more manly, and how real men have beards, and other baloney like that. Yeah, baloney. Beads don't make a man more manly than a hairy chest does. I actually find most beards distasteful. The shorter the better, and most men look better without a food/crumb catcher...there is a reason they call it clean-shaven when a guy doesn't have one. I honestly don't know why guys want facial hair. I wouldn't want hair all over my face, and why would I want to deprive the world of seeing my face? :)

 Barring some major disfigurement to my face, or something happening that I couldn't shave myself....or not being able to afford a razor....I cannot see any reason I would ever of a sane mind grow a beard.

 By the way, the pictures above are of the Duck Dynasty guys with beards and without. Which would you rather kiss? :)

13) Being like Stephen

 No, this is not about you, Steven....my best friend....though he rarely reads my blog, so he most likely won't see this anyway...... :)

  I am reading/reviewing a book titled Stories Behind the Traditions of Christmas. The chapter I just read was about Boxing Day. The author discussed the origins of the day, and I found out the origins are tied to the Feast of Stephen. All I knew about that feast comes from the somewhat annoying Christmas song, Good King Wenceslas........"

Good King Wenceslas looked out 
On the Feast of Stephen 
When the snow lay round about 
Deep and crisp and even

 So I also discovered from this book what that feast is all about: it is to honor Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Here's the most amazing thing about Stephen: as the religious leaders of the day were stoning him, he prayed that God would not hold their sin against them. He died forgiving the people who were murdering him.

 Could you do that? Could I do that? A friend of mine recently posted something I cannot find now, but the gist of it was that the reason for so much hate and division we see now, is people are unwilling to forgive. Too many of we modern Christians really do a lousy job in that area.

 "They didn't go to my wedding, I'll never forgive them!" "They didn't speak to me, I'll never forgive them!""They criticized my politician, I'll never forgive them!" We may not say the last part, but it is a reality. For all our talk of wanting to be like Jesus, too many of us too often fail at that. We don't need to be a doormat, but when you take what the Bible says about forgiveness and how we react to and treat those who do us wrong, we don't get high marks.

 Can I be bluntly honest? Well, I am going to be: the election of 2016 has affected me in ways no one could dream of. I had Christians say some pretty hateful things to me because I wouldn't vote the way they wanted. I had Christians do what I consider lying: "If you don't support Trump, you are for Hillary." Not true. "If you don't vote for Trump, you are voting for Hillary." Also not true. "If you don't support Trump, you are not on God's side." Also not true. "If you don't support Trump, you are as bad as ISIS." Uh, really?? (No one said that directly to me, but a long time friend of mine "liked" that post, which hurt as much if he had said it). And I could go on, but you get the point.

  And I am still really ticked at some of those people. Politics and trying to keep our rights and freedoms have become more important than obeying Jesus' commands on how to treat people. I seriously doubt I will ever get an apology from anyone who said things to offend me and make me feel bad, but I still eventually need to forgive. The same Jesus who said not to treat people the way I have been treated by some Trump supporters, also said we must forgive.

 On the flip side....I do not need forgiven for doing what I felt I had to do - vote 3rd party and not vote for DT.....but even though he won, there are many Christians who still hold it against we conservatives who did not vote for their guy. Even though I did nothing in that area to require forgiveness on my part, they need to forgive what they wrongly perceive as a wrong.

 How are we going to make it if we are ever truly persecuted here in America, and have actual evil and horrible things done to us for our faith, if we cannot forgive the paltry things we have hold against people now?

14) Illegal immigration

  The illegal immigration issue has become a hot topic. Liberals want to let them in because they see them as likely voters, and they are desperate to destroy conservatism. But some conservatives have jumped on the bandwagon and post how we should let them in. I can't believe these people have considered the consequences and thought the whole thing out. There is already a lot of criminal activity from illegal immigrants, especially in border towns. It seems almost weekly, an illegal immigrant rapes or kills someone, and it comes out they were already deported a few times.

 And just how many of these people can we bring in and provide for before our economy crashes from having too many people living off the system? We already have too many Americans doing that.

 One of the poorest arguments that I have seen several times, is that this land belonged to Indians originally, so we are all here illegally. Eye roll.

 I am one who is convinced this caravan was politically motivated. They came close to election time, and they refused sanctuary in two other countries.

 Frustrated by a few posts I have seen lately, I posted this a short while ago on Facebook, and I stand by it:

It's easy to get on a soapbox and take the side of illegal immigrants, quote Bible verses, post memes, and tell us why we should allow the invasion.

But what are you doing about the people around you in need....of a home, money, love, clothes, a friend, and other things?

It's easy to say what our country should do about these illegals when you're not directly involved...but it's another to put your money where your mouth is and help those around you that would affect your safety, finances, and comfort.

Jesus never said anything about how a country should treat people or what a country should do for people in need. He had a lot to say about what the individual Christian should, however.

15) Road of scrooges

 I live in the country on a road that gets little traffic. I am about a mile off the main road. I am the only house in that mile that has visible Christmas lights. I cannot see any on the houses past me either, but I assume surely someone down that way has some up. If I was giving directions to someone visiting me after dark, I'd be really easy to find. "Just look for the house with Christmas lights."

16) The "F" word

 If there was one word I wish I could ban from social media, it would be the "F" word. When I was a kid, no one decent said it. It was rarely heard, and was seen occasionally as graffiti on a train or underpass.

 Now everyone uses it, even people claiming to be Christians. I don't believe other curse words should be said by decent people and Christians, but especially that one. I have Facebook friends who constantly use it in posts or memes. One friend/coworker recently posted a meme that said not to trust anyone who doesn't say that word, or drink beer. I don't know if he was serious, but that is pretty pathetic if anyone actually feels that way.

17) Timers

 Speaking of Christmas lights, I have all of mine on times, with the exception of the ones in the kitchen. Not every window has one. The rooms with two windows have one timer and I ran extension cords from one window so I could do two windows with one timer.

 There are two reasons I use timers:

I don't have to run all over the house plugging and unplugging lights every night.

Since another "perk" of winter is it getting dark so early, I go to work in the dark and come home at dark. Since I use timers, my Christmas lights are one when I get home.

18) Facebook friends

 There are people I am Facebook friends with who I may never meet on this earth, yet are better friends than people I see all the time. That is kind of sad.

 I have done a "purge" on Facebook a few times over my years on there, and am considering another one. What kind of purge? I deleted anyone who I have not interacted with, or at least who has not interacted with me, for several months. No one has the time to "like" and comment on the posts of everyone they are friends with, especially when you have 582 friends (as I do), but if you never, ever interact or comment on someone's posts, then why be friends with them? Why should I keep them around?

 But where does one draw the line? I have people who I see in real life who have stopped following me and interacting with me because I dare occasionally to criticize the guy in the White House.....which I consider a bit hypocritical by the way, since they never did that when I criticized the last guy.......

 It is a fact though that when you have so many Facebook friends, your Facebook feed can get pretty clogged up.

19) Tax funded abortions

 I don't know if they will ever stop using our taxes to help fund murdering babies. Trump promised to stop funding Planned Parenthood,  then funded them again. The Republicans in Congress seem to have little interest in doing so either. I am one who doesn't believe the Republican politicians are any more pro-life than Democrats. Democrats are just honest about it, while Republicans say they are pro-life so we keep voting for them.

 But if by some huge miracle we do stop funding the murder of babies with tax money, they should start funding pro-life causes, especially adoption. Of children, not animals. There are so many people who cannot have kids, but adoption is so expensive. It would be awesome if those people could get the same funding that the baby killers are currently getting.

20) Circle of friends

 I don't know how unique or unusual this is, but I don't really have a circle of friends. There's a couple I recently re-connected with, but for the most part, there are no people in my life I see outside of work and church, except my family. There's no one I can call or text to meet for lunch, other than family. My life is almost void of connections outside of church and work, and almost void of connections at church.

 If I was the kind of person to invite people to church, there wouldn't be anyone to invite. I have friends at work, but they all seem to have their own churches, plus they aren't close to me distance-wise.

 They say no man is an island, but I honestly feel like one. I just wish it had a lighthouse and beach.

 Maybe that is why I like social media so much. It is a connection.

 I am going to be the big 50 in May. I am not sure how I am going to handle that. 40 was rough. I cried for a few weeks before, when I thought about it, and for a few weeks after. I think that is when my depression really started, or worsened.

 And now I have another milestone birthday looming. One of my work friends is a woman who is exactly 6 days older than I am. We don't have much in common, but I like her. I was asking her several months back if she was dreading 50, and she said not really. I told her I was a lot. She then said "We should go out for our birthdays. Oh, but you don't drink." I laughed, and said "turning 50 might be enough to push me over the edge to drink." I was kidding. I am very anti-alcohol.....but it is true that I am dreading that birthday. Half of 100. Yikes.

 Guys my age are married. They have wives (well hopefully one), kids, grandchildren, lives. They are more involved in church and other things. I have no wife, kids, or grandchildren, nor will I ever have any of those. I am a loner with not many responsibilities other than work and bills. There is no one to hang out with or get involved with anyone's lives. There's just me and my books.

 Sound depressing? It can be. That is why I am so thankful for my family. It made my day when my niece asked me to meet her and her guy for lunch yesterday. I in no way expect them to invite me on all of their dates, but it was cool and nice of them to ask me yesterday.

 To be honest though, I am for the most part comfortable in my aloneness (guess that isn't a real word)

  Yeah, I have lonely times, but so do married people. Relationships and marriage are not a cure for loneliness. Sadly, a lot of gay/SSA people don't realize that and spend years trying to find the one guy who will fill the void in their lives.

21) 2019

 It seems like just yesterday that everyone was freaking out about the year 2000 and all that could happen. Computers would stop working. Cars made after a certain year would stop where they were. Planes might drop from the sky. People stocked up on bottled water and other things one might need to survive an apocalypse.

 And here we are almost 19 years later, and none of that happened. Where have those 19 years gone? I went from 30 years old to 49 in the blink of an eye. I gained another niece and 3 nephews. I lost more hair and started shaving my head.

 I don't listen to much country music, but one of my favorite country singers is Brad Paisley. He is credited with the following quote he made on New Year's Eve. It is not Christmas Eve yet - that will be the next time you blink - so the "tomorrow" in his quote is actually 2 weeks away, but it is a good quote. If God grants them to us, we have 365 days coming that nothing has happened yet in. We have not failed in them. We have done no wrong....or right. We haven't given into a temptation. We haven't been hurt, or hurt someone.

 I'm not much for New Year's resolutions. They are so easily broken, and are often vain and shallow. However, there is nothing wrong in looking at those 365 days like a book waiting to be written, and resolving to be a better person, to do more for God, to draw closer to God and family, and resolve to do more good in general, if not anything specific.

 But first, we get through Christmas.