Do you feel it in the air?
Sure, there's the joy of the season, but there is also a yearning. An unease. We're on the edge of massive change - a quantum shift in who we are.
But as we go through that change there is an uncertainty. A feeling of discomfort. I feel it in my family. In my job. In my service of you. That which has always been will not always be. But to shed the old and embrace the new is the very definition of change - and since we're humans, we don't like that.
As we steamroll in to a new decade, it is my hope that we will get back to what is real. For years we have lived our life with our face in a screen; consuming that which is vapid and having a difficult time discerning the truth.
What we're feeling as we shed this old decade is simply the result of consuming a decade of falsity and fallacy. We must have a commitment to what is real. We must have a commitment to the truth. Not a narrative. Not what one side wants you to believe over the other. The TRUTH! HIS truth. Regardless of how uncomfortable it may be and regardless of whether it fits your world view, we must rediscover truth.
I can't help but feel like "THEY" are coming for what I hold dear. (Whoever THEY are.) My job. My principles. My core beliefs. All are under attack. Do you feel the same way? Last night, I even considered throwing in the towel. Screw it. THEY can have it. It would be easier.
But that's not why I'm here. That's not why you are where you are. Maybe we are the rocks. The shelters in this storm. We have all been equipped with a certain skillset - the EXACT skillset we need - to accomplish HIS goals for our lives in exactly the right time. We just need to stop fighting it. If we are where God wants us, ain't a person or a thing or a trick or a scheme that will remove us. And if God wants us elsewhere, well, ain't no way we're staying - and where HE wants us to be is so much better than where we are, right?!
Before I went to bed last night, I shared my inner struggle - my yearning - my unease - with my perfect and lovely wife. After I fell asleep, she texted me this...
There it is. The TRUTH. I hope you find comfort in it, too.
Back to what I wanted for Christmas. She keeps asking me. "What do I want?" Really expensive toys. To finish the basement. To pay off the house. But right now, those are unobtainable.
So I guess what I want is to keep doing my job. To keep my voice. To have it heard. To seek and offer THE TRUTH. To confide and convince and collude with truly good friends, whether they are numbered two or ten thousand. To make a difference. To matter.
This morning I woke to Julie's meme on my phone. Then I came downstairs at 2:00 a.m. to discover this on the counter...
You see, my 13-year old son, Jack, fights and argues and causes us headache and heartache. That's his job - he's a teenage boy. Yet there's something in his soul that will not allow him to walk by one of those giving trees without grabbing a name. He wants to get a toy for a kid who may not get a toy this Christmas. Not of his parents' suggestion - of his own volition. My son's heart is good.
And THAT'S what I wanted for Christmas!
It is a season of joy and great change, but you are the rock, and so am I. I love you. I'm here if you need me. Merry Christmas.
And #PleaseDoGoodStuff!
(Photo Credit: Getty Images and ME)