The Holiday Season

I’m a little tired this week. Everyone knows the holidays can be stressful and we bear it the best we can while trying to enjoy the family and friends and traditions that make this the best time of the year. I’m getting ready for our annual Christmas program and hoping that by week’s end I will have learned the last few songs well enough to put aside the music and just sing.

But I’m tired. Partly it’s age and just the physical reality of getting older, but I know that’s not all. It’s the mental part, the stress, that I’m feeling today. I tend to compartmentalize and I have a calendar in my head that tells me there are more days left to be marked off and more arbitrary deadlines to meet. Let me see, Halloween, check. Thanksgiving, check. Choir program, not yet. Christmas, New Year, still ahead.

So, I’m tired, but I’m hanging on and trying not to look too far ahead. Practice tonight? Maybe. Dress rehearsal, Wednesday night for sure. Performances Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My mental calendar stops there. That’s enough for now. Vaguely ahead I can see putting up the tree, hanging lights outside this year? Logistics of at least a few shopping trips still to be managed. And travel plans to visit family at some point.

But maybe I just need to hang on to Thanksgiving a bit longer. And remember to be thankful in ALL circumstances. In Sunday School this week, we talked about giving God praise daily. Continuously. So often, we look at the negatives and focus on our troubles and we forget that God is in control. I may get tired, but He never does. So I thank Him and praise Him for all the blessings in my life. And 

I look forward to the promise of Isaiah 40:31

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (KJV)

Today I’m tired, but I know it won’t last forever. One day, I’ll renew my strength (mind and body!) and it will be glorious! Until then, I pray you have a wonderful holiday season!

Giving Thanks

(From last year, but I don't know that I can express it any better!)

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is here already! Or will be this week anyway. Such a wonderful time of year! The cooler weather, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year. Just a string of big events that come one after another in rapid succession. No wonder people get so stressed.

So, how do we deal with all this extra anxiety? I suggest we try and focus on the positives in our lives and not the negative. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18a (NIV), Paul says “give thanks in all circumstances.” What a great statement! Like most people, there are times when I find it easy to be thankful. But like most people, there are also many times when I find it extremely difficult to be thankful. Or to be more honest, I forget to be thankful.

Thanksgiving is a good time to be conscious and conscientious about recognizing our blessings. (A little off the subject, but as much as I love contemporary Christian music, I often long for the old hymns like Count Your Blessings.) This month alone, I could easily rattle off a list of my trials and troubles, some of those circumstances that make me want to scream and complain. And when I get bogged down in worrying about my problems, I do forget to be thankful.

So, let me focus on the good and not the bad for now. I am thankful for family and friends. I am thankful for my health. I am thankful for a long and somewhat successful career. I am thankful to live in a free country. And I am thankful for a God who watches over me and mine.

I won’t bore you with a long list of family and friends, but I will say that I am truly thankful most for the people in my life. Many of them have passed, but I still treasure their memories and value the lessons they imparted and the legacies they left behind. I am thankful for my wife and children and I pray that I can always be a good husband and father. For the many friends, former colleagues, and others, I have probably not said enough how much I appreciate the love and support and encouragement! If you want to reduce your stress over the next few months, enjoy the people around you. Time invested in people is rarely wasted.

I’ll be honest and say that I wish I had the body of my twenty-year-old self! Lord knows I don’t want to be twenty again, but I often miss the energy and vitality of that age. Nevertheless, I am thankful for the generally good health I enjoy. I often jokingly say that I wish I had taken better care of myself when I was younger, but honestly, many people my age are much less fortunate when it comes to health issues. I’m no spring chicken, but I’ll gladly accept the aches and pains that come with my age. And I will do my best to stay in shape in the years ahead.

One of the joys of Facebook (there are some to go along with all the frustrations!) is the ability to connect with former students! I am thankful for the years spent with young students and athletes whom I will never forget. I thank God for allowing me to be a teacher, coach and principal and I pray that my impact on the lives of my students was positive. There are few pleasures in life greater than watching your kids grow up and become successful, even if they aren’t really your kids! I am so incredibly proud of the fine adults you have become, even though you will forever be teens in my mind! If not younger!

If you are a frequent reader, you know I have fairly strong political views. Despite the recent ugliness of the midterm elections, and the ongoing negativity of the mainstream media, I am proud of my country and thankful to live in a free society. Obviously, we live in an imperfect world, but when you consider the living conditions in much of the world, we should be thankful to live in the USA. I am.

Finally, and most importantly, I thank God for all the many blessings in my life. Everything above I credit to a good God who loves His people and watches over us. I am thankful for a Heavenly Father who not only promises an eternity with Him, but also provides for us while we await that final blessing!

So, whatever your circumstances today, count your many blessings and give thanks!

In My Own Words

I am a conservative Christian. The things I write come from my own occasionally warped opinions, but what I believe is based on my own upbringing and experiences. I don’t hate anyone. (There are some people I don’t like, but that’s different!) I have my own view of the world, heavily influenced by the Bible, which I truly believe to be the inspired word of God.

When I am critical or judgmental or come across that way, I hope that I am not hateful. But I also hope that I am not dishonest. You may not agree with my opinions. That’s okay. I have FB friends and Twitter followers who have vastly different opinions than me. I take the time to read their postings even though I often disagree with them. But again, that’s okay.

Yesterday, in my Men’s Sunday School class, we had an interesting discussion about forgiveness. While on the subject, our teacher related a recent incident in which he had offended a friend, unintentionally and without even realizing it at the time by something he had said. I shared that I had recently (and also entirely unintentionally) offended an old friend with a recent blog posting. It was a good reminder to ourselves that our words are powerful and sometimes hurtful even when that is not our intent.

Having said all that, I am truly sorry if I have ever offended or hurt others by my words. My purpose is always to use the power of language to teach and inform, to build and strengthen the base of knowledge in others. To provoke thought, to stir ideas, to shine a light on issues that affect us all. In no way do I believe my opinions carry any more weight than others. (I’ve never claimed to be perfect or smarter than anyone else.) They are simply the words of one man.

The problem today is that too many people refuse to admit that not everyone sees the world the way they do. And way too many people are “offended” when others challenge their opinions and beliefs. I choose to not be offended. I am perfectly willing to admit that I could be wrong. I am also willing to accept that others who have a different life experience than my own may disagree with me on many things.

Despite the current state of affairs in our world, I believe that people can have different views and still be friends. I believe in civil discourse. I can respect a man who disagrees with me. I can respect the opinions of others, especially when they are willing to respect mine. What I have difficulty accepting are the people who would rather be victims than have an honest discussion. The ones who are happy to be offended and wear it like a badge of honor.

And this is not a new phenomenon. I read something recently that made me aware of that. If you think that there is anything new about the way some people choose to be so easily offended, let me close by sharing a quote from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Russian novel The Brothers Karamazov written in 1880:

A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn’t it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a word and made a mountain out of a pea – that he knows all that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility.

Pretty interesting, right? So, have a wonderful day and feel free to share your thoughts with me. Even if you disagree. I promise not to be offended!

Book Review: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King

For the longest time, I have proudly proclaimed Stephen King to be my favorite author. Sadly, his last several efforts have been disappointing to say the least. His Bill Hodges trilogy got mixed reviews from fans, and although I did enjoy those, they were far from his best work, in my opinion. The Outsider was okay, but again, somewhat lacking. With this novel, coauthored by his son Owen, he may have hit a new low.

Here is the book description from his official website https://www.stephenking.com/

In a future so real it might be now, something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and spectacularly violent; and while they sleep, they go to another place.

The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to be studied? Or is she a demon who must be slain?

Set in a small Appalachian town whose primary employer is a woman’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is a wildly provocative, gloriously absorbing father/son collaboration.

First of all, I don’t really know what to think about collaborations. Supposedly, the story idea came from Owen, and he originally suggested to his father that he write the novel. SK countered with the offer that they work together on the book. Having read most, if not all, of his novels, I have to say that this never felt like a SK novel to me. (Maybe Owen wrote the majority and Dad helped by adding his name to the cover. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt my sales to list some best-selling author as my collaborator!)

So, here are my thoughts on the book. I give it a generous 2 stars (out of 5).

•     There were too many characters and none were very well developed. Is it a bad sign when the author provides a list of characters before the first chapter? And if the list runs 4 pages?
•     It was slow and boring. Is it a bad sign when a character is killed and you don’t really remember who they are, but you don’t even care enough to go to the long list at the beginning to see?
•     It was too long. Over 700 pages! (And the events of the book only cover a 5 day period!)
•     It was too political. Keep reading.

If you know anything about Stephen King or if you’ve seen any of his social media posts, you know, he is a huge Trump-hating Liberal. That’s fine. He’s certainly entitled to his opinions, and even though he seems to be dropping more and more of his political views into his works, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’m sure that my conservative Christian views creep into my stories at times, and that’s only natural, but this one is different.

From the dedication (to Sandra Bland) and the quotes on the opening pages (including the infamous “she persisted”), the theme of the novel is definitely feminism. Men are the problem in this world and you are reminded constantly. Unfortunately, even the women are not particularly likeable in this book, but I suppose they are meant to be the heroes. Only two outrageously Liberal men could write such a man-hating book!

Oops, I may have given away the plot. Men are bad. Men are awful. Everything would be great if there were no men around. (For example, that women’s prison in the story, would it surprise you to know that every single woman inmate is there because of some man who ruined her life and is ultimately responsible for all those crimes she committed?)

Even to non-horror readers, I have always defended SK as a great narrative storyteller. In his best works, it is almost impossible to find a stopping place. As each chapter ends, you are so caught up in the story, that you can’t help but want to keep right on going into the next one. Not so with this book. At some points, it was all I could do to get to the end of the chapter before stopping to find a bookmark. And there were a few days when I couldn’t even force myself to pick it up. But I persisted.

Apparently, and sadly, the trend toward pushing his Liberal agenda in his books will continue with his new novel Elevation which features a lesbian married couple as major characters. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (sorry, couldn’t resist), but I’m not a big fan of books that try to normalize alternative lifestyles whether we agree with them or not. Guess I’ll just have to go back and re-read his older works that told a good story without trying to force his political views down people’s throats.

In conclusion, you might want to skip this one.