Uphill idealist

During the Christmas season I was asked and asked my friends and family that all time material based question, "What do you want for Christmas?" While it is a joy to receive thoughtful gifts from friends, loved ones and family during this time of year, the number of times that this question is asked makes me wonder, " What are we all searching for?" Saturday afternoon I had the time and opportunity to go to the movies with my family to see, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." The premise of the film centers on a family's worldwide treasure hunt to find the historical evidence to clear their recently marred name. The story is filled with adventure, excitement, mystery and a great story line that pulls you in. You join in on the adventure, the mystery and search for the treasure that will make everything good again. Movies have a way of taking us out of real life, as do holidays – but the scripture in Matthew 2 remind us of the harsh reality of life

Maybe it's the fact that I'm wrapping up my final assignments for my BA program, maybe it's the fact that New Years is only a few days away, or maybe its the fact that another birthday is swiftly coming to the surface; but I keep pondering the direction of the year to come. So many things that I've always wanted to accomplish will be wrapped up in 2007: My BA, writing and performing music, working in a ministry that I love and get excited about. But I find myself uncomfortable with the idea of officially no longer being a student. I keep thinking about Pittsburgh Seminary's distance program, NNU's online Master's in Missional Leadership degree and possibly the Commissioned Lay Pastor's program though the Presbytery. Again then there is the additional cost of going back again. Anyone have a grant in their pocket that they'd like to give me? Can I swing the pressure of a more dictated study program? Should I jump into the M-div, or take the baby step o

Christmas Eve holds many picture memories: toddlers wearing brand new footed pajamas staring with excitement at the sparkling tree on Christmas Eve, family and friends sitting close over a holiday meal, baking cookies to place on a special visitor's plate later in the night, gazing out the windows of a cozy Christmas tree lighted living room at the fluffy snowflakes gracefully falling to the cold ground. The pictures in our memories are the lenses that we look though and see the holiday season. These memories help to frame the heart and mind and the perspective that this year's holiday experience will hold. Some of the pictures memories may not be the warm, fuzzy examples of a Currier and Ives Christmas card or a thirty-minute Christmas television special. But our minds hold these internal pictures, both light and dark, as our eyes look to see and capture this advent's addition to our memory banks. So in the perspective of both the light and darkness, what will become our p