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What a great title!

I guess for quite a while I have struggled with the word repentance.  I’ve come to see the term as referring to a change, a turning around, a conscious choice.  Unfortunately, I have seen the term used to bludgeon others, to condemn others who aren’t like us, to expect that the turning is all that is important.

The word “into” is the term I would like to attach to the term “repent”.  Just knowing what is bad is bad enough.  Not knowing what is good is really bad.

The list of bad needs to be accompanied by a list of good. 

Into the later decades of life, few people repent of the learning that they have done over the decades.  Merely pointing out to them that something is bad is not enough.  They have survived the bad.

Pointing out what they are repenting into is much more effective.  Building a picture that portrays paradise, when they are surviving in hell, is much more effective than painting a picture of the hell they already live in.  They know that hell, and they are surviving in that hell.  They want a hope of paradise – of a resurrection from death into life.

I like the term “Merry Christmas”!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.  Christ came into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.  (Scripture passage – John 3:16-17)

I finished a first draft of a book on funerals back in the summer.  Since then I’ve done very little to edit the book and next to nothing to promote the book (which I guess a finished product would be good to have in hand before promoting).

So, time to get down to the editing. 

Which I enjoy.

When I’m not distracted by cooking, cleaning, cooperating with others on their projects, cleaning up gmail and carousing around Facebook.

My latest temperament analysis shows that I am focused when I’m not distracted. 

I love the obvious.

Twas the week before Christmas

And all through the house

We just got stirring, quiet as a mouse.

When to our amazement, the sun finally rose

The weather was cold, well, that’s how it goes.

Our relatives visits are planned for some days

We’ll see each other briefly, then part our ways,

A church service or two will remind us again

Behind all the tinsel there is something that’s plain.

Christ came as a baby to die in our place

Across the ages and down through space.

His birth would provide peace and joy

For every Mom and Dad, girl and boy.

Merry Christmas, tis the best news there is

Jesus come to earth, the story is His!

These past two weeks I have had three female relatives who turned 90.

Hard to believe they know what outhouses are and can tell you when electricity finally reached them.  Their hair is gray, their eyes still sparkle, and you have to watch what you say – their hearing aids (or lack thereof) make them quite attuned to life around them.

This afternoon is a cake and ice cream time for one of the relatives.  We’ll swap stories and laugh.  We’ll drink tea and cry.  We’ll say good bye at the end, and never know when the end will be.  Much sooner than they thought when they were 9 instead of 90.

I love these times.  Their lives have been lived in ways that I can emulate – and so I watch them closely and find out what to imitate.

And that is the mark of a well lived life – when you stare through your eyes you find others whose eyes have been awakened by what you have seen.

May you have a day of seeing as you look to those around you.