Merry Christmas!

I'm off to see the family a little later today. Very excited! My devo's the past week or so have prompted a lot of thoughts so I thought I'd share a few quotes with y'all. Brennan Manning will do that to you. Consider this my way of saying Merry Christmas to all...and to all--you are blessed.

"Because the question no longer is: Can I do it? Am I able? Can I overcome my moodiness, my laziness, my sensuality, my grudges, and resentments? The only question is: Is Jesus Christ able? Can my Savior, the Lord of my life, revive my drooping spirit and transform me at Christmas as he transformed the world through his birth in Bethlehem?"

"When Jesus Christ is born in me, hope burns brightly and everything else fades into twilight. The roof can collapse, winter heat become unavailable, fair-weather friends shift their allegiance, popularity wane. The Kingdom of Christ Jesus remain alight within me."

"The God we encounter in Jesus is free from preoccupation with his own glory, free to be for us, free to be gracious, free to love and let be."

"Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come in glory....Nothing can harm you permanently, no suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting, no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Jesus did not deny the reality of suffering, discouragement, disappointment, frustrations, and death; he simplelly stated that the Kingdom of God would conquer all of those horrors, that the Father's love is so prodigal that no evil could possibly resist it."

All Caught Up

It's that time of year. The time were people in the office set goals, slow down their meeting schedule, have planning meetings and the like. It means I finally get to get caught up. It's very exciting. The filing is all done, the letters are typed, and phone calls have been made. Clients aren't really worrying about much other than family, especially when Christmas is seven days away.

It's an odd place to be really. I struggle all year to get to this point and now that I am...its not the usual everyday. I've been learning that the hardest part of living in the freedom that we're given is the everyday--the ordinary days where nothing tragic or exceptionally good happens. The days you work your 8-5, go home, do laundry or whatever it is you do in the evening, go to bed and get up to start all over again. It's in the routine of life where freedom can be lost.

So on this non-ordinary day at the office, I stop and wonder if I have been living in freedom or in spite of it.

17 more days

until Christmas...are you busy yet?

I went on vacation for Thanksgiving this year. I look at it as a perk of being single and your family wanting you home longer at Christmas since you can only make one holiday or the other. But I digress. I've been crazy busy since getting back and most of my days up until I leave to see the family...and even then...well Happy Holidays everyone! It's a sad commentary, but I am more at ease this season....there is just something about seeking intentional time with God that eases a spirit. I'm thankful for my mornings.

So...there are some of pics from the Thanksgiving vaca....it was fantastic, and maybe that bit of rest has something to do with the easiness of this season? I'm not sure. I AM sure of the fact that I CANNOT WAIT to see my 3 best friends from high school!!! We desperately need each other this year.