gift

Till the Season Comes Round Again

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“May the new year be blessed with good tidings
’til the next time I see you again
And we’ll all join hands and remember this moment
And we’ll love and we’ll laugh in the time that we have
’til the season comes ’round again
’til the season comes ’round again” (Randy Goodrum/John Barlow Jarvis).

I got a bit nostalgic this Christmas. Not in a sad or morbid way. I just had the thought that it will never again be like it was this Christmas. My niece won’t ever be three years old again. My nephews will soon enough be teenagers and not nearly as excited about Christmas and presents.

In fact, there will never be another day like today ever again. There will certainly be more good days, even possibly some great ones that you will spend the rest of your life remembering fondly. But none like this day.

That’s why it’s important to make this one count. There’s a saying from a TV show I saw recently that I like a lot. It says, “One today is worth two tomorrows.”

That means don’t be so concerned about the future that you forget to live in the present. Don’t get so caught up in the past that you forget to be in the now. Take the chances you’re afraid to take. Do the thing you’ve been putting off.

Tell the ones you love that you love them. Don’t ever for a moment think that you’ll always have a tomorrow to tell them. Tomorrow’s never promised and the present is a gift.

I may be descending into cliches, but they’re true. I wish I could go back and say the words “I love you” to some of my relatives that aren’t around anymore. I wish I could sit down with each of them one more time for one last conversation.

Maybe I can do that with the ones who are in my life right now while I still can. I think I’ll do that.

The Last Christmas

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I had an unusual question pop into my head today. It’s not something I think about too much and I tend not to be morbid, but I thought I’d pose this question anyway: if you knew this was the last Christmas you’d spend with someone, what gift would you buy him or her?

Again, I don’t mean to be morbid, but I’ve thought about this a bit.

Maybe the best last gift you’d ever buy someone is the gift of you. More specifically, I mean you taking your time and spending it with that person. Taking about what they want to talk about. Going through old photo albums.

It doesn’t have to be your 88-year old grandmother. It could be anyone. After all, no one is guaranteed a tomorrow, much less a next Christmas.

So who would it be? And what would it be?

Maybe that’s what you should get that person for Christmas. In case you’re stuck for what to buy him or her.

 

I’m Offically As Old As Elvis

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Well, ok. The secret’s out. I’m really not 39 (again). I’m 42, the same age as Elvis was when he passed (no pun intended).

I had a great birthday. It started out with a fantastic lunch at Loveless Cafe with my mother. I even got in a nap (one of the few perks of being unemployed). I even got my taxes done. It was a great day.

It was another day where I chose to focus on the positives instead of the negatives. I chose to be thankful for all that I have instead of lamenting all that I lack. Like a job. Or money.

But I still have my wonderful family. I still have some truly amazing friends (to which I say thank you for all the Facebook birthday well-wishes). I have good health and a good God who always takes care of me.

I have the laziest (and most companionable) cat in the world. She celebrated my birthday the way she celebrates most days– with a marathon nap.

As I’ve mentioned before, a birthday is a way of celebrating survival, of making it through another year. I know I’ve talked about knowing too many people who won’t get to see their 42nd birthday, but it’s true.

Life isn’t something you should ever take for granted. It is a gift. Every day of it is a precious, once-in-a-lifetime gift that will never come again. So live it well.

By the way, I’m still accepting all forms of payment and gifts for said birthday. Just kidding. Sort of.

Learning to Listen Well

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I love serving at Room in the Inn at my church during the colder months of the year. It helps more than anything to get me out of myself and into a more others-centered mind frame.

Tonight, I went to a dinner where Dr. Ken Corr, Congregational Care Minister at Brentwood Baptist Church, spoke about how to effectively minister to the homeless. One of the takeaways for me was empathetic listening.

Empathetic listening seeks to understand what the person speaking is feeling. It’s where you step into that person’s shoes and hear the story from their side.

It’s not about giving advice or trying to fix their story to make it better. It’s not even about offering to give their story a better outcome. It’s certainly not about formulating your response (as I have so often done) so that you will come across as wiser and kinder than you really are.

For someone to tell you their story is a rare and precious gift. They are inviting you into their private world, letting you in to a place that few people have been allowed. You should value that trust and respect the gift.

But also, the gift of truly listening is equally a special gift to someone. You’re saying to that person, “You are not invisible, because I see you in your struggles and triumphs, joys and pains. You are not alone, because I am a witness to your story and I know where you’ve been and what you’ve been through.”

You earn the right to speak life and blessing into a person’s life by listening to not just their words, but the feelings behind those words. Many times, the person will be unable to understand their own feelings related to their story. You can share what their story made you feel and in that way help them understand their own emotions.

I want to be a better listener. I want to learn to listen to what you have to say, for that is one of the ways God often speaks to me. May we all learn to listen well.

I Have T-Shirts Older Than You

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It’s a humbling thing to realize that you’re old. I came to that realization when I found my old t-shirt from high school in the back of my closet. This t-shirt dates back to 1991, my senior year. It’s old enough to vote. I feel old.

But I’m also thankful. I made it this far. A lot of people didn’t. I can’t complain about my age because some people didn’t get the chance to experience their 40’s. Or even 30’s.

It really is all about perspective. I’m not thinking about how much longer I have left. I’m taking each day as a gift and being thankful that I woke up today with all my hair and most of my senses.

Life is good because God is good and God is life.

 

December 23 . . . Two Days After My Supposed Last Day on Earth

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It turns out that the Mayans were off a bit. More likely, the people who stay up late at night thinking about ancient Mayan calendars were off a bit.

The world didn’t end on December 21. There was no apocalypse. Nothing changed all that much.

There have been days when I’ve felt like my world was ending. Some days, I wished the world would end.

But today, I am thankful for another day to be alive and healthy and blessed. I realize more and more how each day is a gift, pure and simple. I don’t deserve it, I’m not entitled to it, and I’m not guaranteed the next one.

You wouldn’t know it sometimes by the way I gripe and complain about my slow internet or my lousy work hours. I’ve focused on what I don’t have for so long, it’s hard to retrain my thinking to what I do have.

We as a culture are obsessed with everything that we don’t have, everything we’re supposed to have, and how we can spend all our time and energy and money getting those things.

One of the most counter-cultural things anybody can do is to say, “No thanks, I have enough,” and be content. To be satisfied with what you have and not always striving for more.

So at least for today I am content. I have all my Christmas shopping done. I have things like food, clean water, shelter, transportation, and health that so many don’t have and work so hard to get.

I am blessed.

I still love what my pastor said. It goes like this. If God came to me today and said, “Greg, you’ve used up all your blessings I had for you and I have nothing left to give you for the rest of your life,” I could honestly say, “I’m good.” That’s contentment.

I’m not there yet, but I’m a whole lot closer than I used to be.

How about you?