GOD Is...(What it is-Part 5: final definition)

The power of Words.
This is the final installment of attempting to grasp some of the most important Words in our lives by investigating their meaning. Words like Life, Love, Story, & Christmas were selected because I believe that one’s perspective on this short list shapes the lens of how much of the rest of life is interpreted, particularly as a Christian. Hopefully you have gained insight from this series and will pass along what you have learned. The final term is the single most important one that provides shape for the previous ones. If you are just now joining, I can’t think of a better place to end or begin....GOD.
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Leo Tolstoy once wrote that “God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part.”
Additionally, “god” (noun)as defined in Webster’s dictionary is “the supreme or ultimate reality; the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe”.

And in the fictional story of NARNIA :The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, when a character is asked to define who they are, the conversation goes as follows:
“ ‘I am a star at rest, my daughter,’ answered Ramandu.
‘In our world,’ said Eustace, ‘a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.’
‘Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.’ ”

So, below is a collection of quotes that provide a glimpse about the character of God from various perspectives. I hope these ideas help to clarify or challenge your working DEFINITION of who GOD is, whether through agreement or disagreement. At best, the list is utilizing some thoughts from finite minds to glimpse into the infinite one, probably only understanding what God “is made of” and not completely what He is. This, as in the case of the other definitions, will I believe in turn ReDefine how you Live one way or another...
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“If God had a name, what would it be? And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with him in all his glory,what would you ask if you had just one question?
Yeah, Yeah, God is great.Yeah, Yeah, God is good...
What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us, Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home...”
- Joan Osbourne song “What if God was one of Us”

“Man ... has an inborn religious sentiment that whispers of a God to his inmost soul, as a shell taken from the deep, yet echoes forever the ocean's roar.” - HORACE MANN, Thoughts

“They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.”
- Emily Dickinson

“There is a God and He is good, and his love, while free, has a self imposed cost: We must be good to one another.” - GEORGE H.W. BUSH, RNC acceptance speech, August 18, 1988

“If there were no God, it would have been necessary to invent him.”
- Voltaire

“God enters by a private door into each individual.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“After God created the world, He made man and woman. Then, to keep the whole thing from collapsing, He invented humor.”
- Guillermo Mordillo

“After 9/11, there were a lot of things being said about how the God of Islam and the God of the Christian faith were one and the same, but that's simply not true ... The God that I worship does not require me to kill other people. The God that I worship tells me I am to love my enemy, to give him food when he's hungry and water when he's thirsty.”
- FRANKLIN GRAHAM, Newsweek, Aug. 14, 2006

“There is a God-shaped vacuum in every heart.”
- Blaise Pascal

“We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them.” - Charles C. West

“We are but a point, a single comma, and God is the literature of eternity...We need not fear shipwreck when God is the pilot.”
- HENRY WARD BEECHER, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

“God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight.”
- Reggie White

“Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
- Garth Brooks

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”
- St. Augustine

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. The way we learn those lessons is not to deny the feelings but to find the meanings underlying them.”
- Stanley Lindquist

“Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He’s going to be up all night anyway.”
- Mary C. Crowley

“God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.”
- Jean Paul Richter

“We can never escape God’s lovely essence.”
- Sonnett Branche

“Life is God’s novel. Let him write it.”
- Isaac Bashevis Singer

“God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things done.”
- Harry Emerson Fosdick

“A lot of people are willing to give God credit, but so few ever give Him cash.”
- Robert E. Harris

“We always keep God waiting while we admit more importunate suitors.”
- Malcolm de Chazal

“People see God every day, they just don’t recognize him.”
- Pearl Bailey

“God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way.”
- Leighton Ford

“God’s will is not an itinerary, but an attitude.”
- Andrew Dhuse

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.”
- Mother Teresa

“When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God.”
- Charles L. Allen

“Of all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the borrower, not the owner.”
- Samuel Rutherford

“A man with God is always in the majority.”
- John Knox

“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him ” - 1 JOHN 4:15-16
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LOVE Is...(What it is-Part 4)

For this installment of Defining some of life’s most important terms, I have simply selected the word LOVE. And, yes, I waited post-valentines day intentionally so both your chocolate “high” and possibly skewed view of love during that time could be over and done with in the month of February.
So, what is love? Cue, the song and image from the Saturday Night Live skit/movie “Night at the Roxbury”...Right? Not so much. Let’s see if the dictionary can get us somewhere.

While usually a source of insightful definitions, Webster’s cheaply defines Love as a noun: (luv) “Deep affection and warm feeling for another”. Hmmm. Still not getting anywhere.

Oddly enough, this post will be dated March 9th, 2011 and on this date and calendar year a religious holiday called “Ash Wednesday” is emphasized.
Ash Wednesday simply put is the 7th Wednesday before Easter and the 1st day of Lent. It is emphasized as a time for a variety of well-intentioned Christian denominations to fast, repent, and live in moderation due to spiritual discipline. For example, no chocolate during lent is a huge “sacrifice” for some participants. I feel your pain. And I completely understand the reasoning behind the emphasis. 2 Corinthians 5:15 admonishes all believers with this truth, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again”. Lent is correct conceptually but is quite often and unfortunately abused practically.

Irish rock band, U2, and their frontman, Bono, once had a press release in a New York City Kmart on Ash Wednesday. When asked if their was any connection to this particular day amidst the flashing blue lights, lead singer Bono slyly replied, “Ash Wednesday and Kmart—that about wraps us up.”
Hmmm. Thanks Bono for the amusement. Still not completely where we need to be on this definition of love.

So, if love is more than a noun or a holiday for giving cheap gifts (and expressing cheap sentiment not consistent with behavior the other days of the year), nor a religious emphasis time to “sacrifice” from your lifestyle something temporarily to show at best a seasonal devotion, what exactly and where exactly can we find the truest definition of Love?

Love for Christians is defined in a variety of ways. However, the Apostle John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, understood firsthand what Love was all about as he was graced with spending time with the only full embodiment of Love that has ever lived on planet earth.
1 John 4:7-21 provides us with one of the most amazing definitions of what authentic and consistent Love actually is. So here goes:

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
   God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
 We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”


Love and Ash Wednesday--that about wraps this up!

STORY Is...(What it is-Part 3)

G.K. Chesterton once wrote said “I had always felt life first as a STORY---and if there is a STORY there is a STORY TELLER”.

We often dismiss the term “STORY” as pertaining to myth, legend, fairy-tales, or playing make-believe as a child, as if to infer that those things are not “real”. And in doing so, we have often dismissed one of the key ingredients necessary for following and being taught by Christ daily in faith - to have “childlike faith”. This, however, must not to be confused with childish ways. We all know deep within us that STORY is an essential God-designed teaching method for communicating eternal truths about life.
Jesus Himself quite often used the STORY form of Parables to TEACH eternal truths about the one true Kingdom we are all invited to be a part of and the grand STORY unfolding.
Here is a collection of 25 quotes that TEACH about the God breathed power of STORY through insight from various perspectives. I hope these truths help you better DEFINE what STORY is, which can in turn, if you apply that “childlike faith”, redefine how you Live your Story...
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“If you are a Dreamer, come in; If you are a Dreamer, a wisher, a liar; a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire; For we have some flax-golden TALES to spin. Come In! Come In!”.
Shel Silverstein “Invitation” poem from book Where the Sidewalk Ends

“Sam: It’s like in the great STORIES, Mr Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were...those were the STORIES that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those STORIES had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding onto something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo...and it’s worth fighting for...

Sam: I wonder if we’ll ever be put into songs or TALES...I wonder if people will ever say, ‘Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring’. And they’ll say ‘Yes, that’s one of my favorite STORIES, Frodo really was courageous, wasn’t he Dad?’
Frodo: You’ve left out one of the chief characters - Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam’.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The TWO TOWERS movie

“In a STORY, the character wants something. Rudy wants to play football at Notre Dame, Harry wants Sally, Frodo wants to destroy the ring and so on. It’s true in every story, or else a story doesn’t make sense. If we don’t want something in our lives, our stories feel boring, long, meaningless and tired. We feel this way because we are sitting in the theater of our mind watching a story that isn’t getting started. Or worse, we are praying and asking God to give us a story while the entire time God is handing us a pen, telling us to write it ourselves. That’s why he gave us a will. So spend some time thinking about what you want with the year. Do you want to pay down the house, get into shape, deepen a relationship? Make your ambition clear and focussed. Choose two or three dominant desires and write them down...The idea is to create scenes this year you’ll remember for the rest of your life, and to invite others into the thrill of being alive. I often think of it as worship in the sense that God created this beautiful expanse as an exposition within which to live remarkable stories, and it’s our job to match the STORY to the expanse, to make use of it, to fill it with memorable scenes”.
Donald Miller Blog (1/1/10 and 1/5/10)

“You tell a STORY because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell him to read the story”.
Flannery 0‘Connor

“Myths are not by definition lies. The STORY of Christ is a ‘true myth, a myth that works on us the same way as the others, but a myth that really happened’.”
-Mark Eddy Smith

“God did not give Joseph any special information about how to get from being the son of a nomad in Palestine to being Pharaoh's right hand man in Egypt. What he did give Joseph was eleven jealous brothers, the attention of a loose and vengeful woman, the ability to do the service of interpreting dreams and managing people’s affairs, and the grace to do that faithfully wherever he was.”
"We do not find happiness by being assertive. We don't find happiness by running over people because we see what we want and they are in the way of that happiness so we either abandon them or we smash them. The Scriptures don't teach us to be assertive. The Scriptures teach us—and this is remarkable—the Scriptures teach us to be submissive. This is not a popular idea.”
- Rich Mullins on Joseph’s STORY and our Story too

“I believe that being successful means having a balance of success STORIES across the many areas of your life. You can't truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.”
- Zig Ziglar

“People have forgotten how to tell a STORY. Stories don't have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.”
Steven Spielberg

“If I’m gonna be a preacher one day, I gotta know the Bible front to back. I mean, you can’t help nobody if you can’t tell ‘em the right STORY”.
- Johnny Cash’s brother, Jack, in the movie WALK THE LINE

“Why does anybody tell a STORY? It does indeed have something to do with faith, faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically”.
Madeleine L’Engle

“STORY is the primary way we impart what really matters to the next generation...Story is one of the most powerful ways we pattern our world and discover its meaningfulness. It goes beyond mere embellishment of a spiritual point to providing a nurturing form or substance for the God-hungry imagination, one that helps young people inhabit a narratable world”.
Sarah Arthur book The God-Hungry Imagination

“Since all the World is but a STORY, it were well for thee to buy the more enduring story, rather than the story that is less enduring”.
- Columba of Iona

“When people ask how we are doing, the first thing I always say is, ‘I want Maria back. I want my son Will Franklin not to have this as a chapter in his STORY. I want my children to be healthy, my family secure. I don't really care whose life has been touched or changed because of our loss’...It has been agonizing to choose to see God at work through the tears of losing my daughter. I have, however, experienced the kindness, sweetness, faithfulness, and redemptive heart of God. I believe none of my tears have been wasted”.
- Mary Beth Chapman commenting on the 2008 death of their adopted daughter Maria

“Don't tell fish STORIES where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.”
Mark Twain

“All my STORIES are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal...There is a certain embarrassment about being a storyteller in these times when stories are considered not quite as satisfying as statements and statements not quite as satisfying as statistics; but in the long run, a people is known, not by its statements or its statistics, but by the STORIES it tells”.
- Flannery O’Connor

“People create STORIES create people; or rather stories create people create stories”.
- Chinua Achebe

“STORY is the language of the Heart. After all, what’s the world’s favorite way to spend a Friday night? with a Story--a book, a favorite show, a movie...It goes far deeper than entertainment, by the way. Stories nourish us. They provide a kind of food that the soul craves...What if all the great Stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears--what if they are telling you something about the TRUE STORY into which you were born, the Epic into which you have been cast? We won’t begin to understand our lives, or what this so-called gospel is that Christianity speaks of, until we understand the Story in which we found ourselves. For when you were born, you were born into an Epic, that has already been under way for quite some time. It is a STORY of beauty and intimacy and adventure, a Story of danger and loss and heroism and betrayal”.
John Eldredge book EPIC

“If history were taught in the form of STORIES, it would never be forgotten”.
Rudyard Kipling

“My STORY is this: I’ve fallen in love again with the hero of the story, and I’ll never be the same . Sometimes though, I must confess, I still love the storytelling more than I love story itself”.
Jimmy Davis

“Our Songs and our STORIES do more than persuade others that an order exists: they build the house; they weave a world; they companion our listeners into the experience of such ordered cosmos”.
- Walter Wangerin, Jr.

“Our basic struggle, on a Sunday morning, revolves around the questions: Who gets to name the world? Who is authorized to tell the STORY of what is going on among us?”.
William Willimon

“How do I happen to believe in God?...Writing novels, I got into the habit of looking for plots. After awhile, I began to suspect that my own life had a PLOT. And after awhile more, I began to suspect that life itself had a plot”.
- Frederick Buechner

“So here is my question: Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling STORIES about? Maybe it is time to quit running and time to start chasing. Try something new. Take some risks. Start doing some things that are worth recounting in jaw-dropping detail. I think we owe it to our kids and grandkids...Too many of us pray as if God’s primary objective is to keep us from getting scared. But the goal of life is not the elimination of fear. the goal is to muster the moral courage to chase lions...Soren Kierkegaard went so far as to say that ‘boredom is the root of all evil’ because it means we’re refusing to be who God made us to be. If you’re bored, one thing is for sure: You’re not following in the footsteps of Christ”.
Mark Batterson book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day

“Fix these WORDS of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. TEACH them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up”.
Deuteronomy 11:18-19

“I will open my mouth in PARABLES, I will utter hidden things, things from of old--what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done”.
PSALM 78:1-4

LIFE is...(What it is-Part 2)

A new year is almost upon us all. Life moves pretty fast. Take some time to let the lessons learned by others instruct you on your journey. Here is a collection of quotes from people who've had the guts enough to say truths that the rest of us know deep inside of us but we have struggled for the means of expression.
Through both humor and insight, I hope that these quotes help you better define what LIFE is, which can in turn redefine how you Live in this upcoming new year...

“Life is just one darn thing after another” Mark Twain

“And they Lived happily ever after” any old Fairy tale

“Everything is funny as long as it is happening to someone else” Will Rogers

“You’re not the man I knew ten years ago...It’s not the years Honey, it’s the Mileage” Marion Ravenwood to Indiana Jones

“A survey stated that the average person’s greatest fear is having to give a speech in public. Somehow this ranked even higher than Death which was third on the list. So, you’re telling me that at a funeral, most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than have to stand up and give a eulogy” Jerry Seinfeld

“I had always felt Life first as a story--and if there is a story there is a story teller” G.K. Chesterton

“You could not Live or love or laugh or cry had God not given you a heart” John Eldredge

“The difference between school and Life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In Life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson” Tom Bodett

“Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that Life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.”
Bill Cosby

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." John Lennon

“I fight really hard to remain unjaded—to keep believing that you can actually walk into a studio and write a song that breathes Life..I know music can’t change the world, but who says God can’t speak through a song...Life is serious, but I do think that God wants us to enjoy the things He's given us, like music” TobyMac

“The doors we open and close each day decide the Lives we Live” Flora Whittemore

“When I stand before God at the end of my Life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’.” Erma Bombeck

“I think I’ve discovered the secret of Life - you just hang around until you get used to it” Charles Schulz

“You see things and say ‘why?’ but I dream things and say ‘Why not?’ ” George Bernard Shaw

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer” Jim Carrey

“to Live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else” Emily Dickinson

“There are only two tragedies in Life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it” Oscar Wilde

“A simple rule of thumb: God leads us one step at a time...with God there is no wasted time. We will be surprised by how the threads of our Lives are woven together” Gordon T. Smith

“I wonder if some of us are living such safe Lives that not only are we bored, but so are our guardian angels” Mark Batterson

“The soul Lives by that which it loves” St. John of the Cross

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” Helen Keller

“we are inclined to be so mathematical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing...Certainty is the mark of the common-sense Life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation." Oswald Chambers

“Life’s most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your Life that count. It’s the Life in your years”
Abraham Lincoln

"When you sing, you make people vulnerable to change in their lives. You make yourself vulnerable to change in your Life. But in the end, you've got to become the change you want to see in the world." BONO

“God puts us in positions, all the time, for a reason...You can say, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ But you have to understand that it’s happening for a reason, and God is doing it to strengthen you” Drew Brees

“The most glorious reason you exist is for the proclamation of the glory of God to the ends of the world. And it's more than having a nice Life.” David Platt

“Never forget what Jesus did for you. Never take lightly what it cost him. And never assume that if it cost him his very Life, that it won’t also cost you yours” Rich Mullins

“All their Life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before” C.S. Lewis

“If you cling to your Life, you will lose it; but if you give up your Life for me, you will find it.” Jesus (Matthew 10:39)

CHRISTMAS Is... (What it is-Part 1)

Christmas time is...here. Cue the "Charlie Brown Christmas" show intro song and a smile breaks across your face and maybe, just maybe you even stop in your tracks for a moment. You hope of having a peaceful holiday that will lead you into a better new year.
But without understanding the meaning or definition of the season, your life will look no different as another holiday and year comes to a close. You may even want to scream out loud, just like good ole' Charlie Brown, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?".
Through both humor and insight, I hope that these quotes help you better define what Christmas is, which can in turn redefine how you live...

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.”
Dale Evans Rogers

“Christmas is the day that holds all time together” Alexander Smith

“Nothing makes me lose my cool like Toy Packaging. Ask the kids to leave the room for toy packaging. I have no choice the money’s spent, I’ve worked for hours to make dent. I guess it’s anger management, toy packaging” Sara Groves song “Toy Packaging”

“That’s the true spirit of Christmas; people being helped by people...other than me” Jerry Seinfeld

“This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone."
~ Taylor Caldwell

“Christmas is the season when you buy this year's gifts with next year's money.”  ~Author Unknown

“A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together."
~ Garrison Keillor

“Roses are reddish, Violets are bluish. If it weren't for Christmas, We'd all be Jewish.”
~Benny Hill

“I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.”  ~Dick Gregory

“Christmas is for children.  But it is for grown-ups too.  Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts. “ ~Lenora Mattingly Weber

“Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive."
~ Robert Lynd

“Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it.” Richard Lamm

“There has been only one Christmas -- the rest are anniversaries.” W.J. Cameron

“Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home.”  ~Carol Nelson

“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”  ~Roy L. Smith

“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:  the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”  ~Burton Hillis

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth;
that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!”  ~Charles Dickens

“One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly.”  ~Andy Rooney

“Christmas is a necessity.  There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves.”  ~Eric Sevareid

“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree.  In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”  ~Larry Wilde

“Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for - I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times.”  ~Kate L. Bosher

“Christmas is perhaps the only time in the year when people can obey their natural impulses and express their true sentiments without feeling self-conscious and, perhaps, foolish.  Christmas, in short, is about the only chance a man has to be himself.”  ~Francis C. Farley

“Nothing's as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.”  ~Kin Hubbard

“And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. He was a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as hollyberries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest. Everyone knew him because, though you see people of his sort only in Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our world—the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you really see them in Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still”
C.S. Lewis NARNIA-The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests’.”
Luke 2:10-14 (NIV)

Merry Christmas to you and Happy New Year!

What IT Is...

First of all, if you were wondering by this title, no I'm am not trying to get in touch with my "urban" self. Cause it ain't there bro -- tru-dat.

So, anyway, for the next few blogs, I wanted to investigate the definition of a series of all-important words in our lives that I firmly believe in turn define what our lives look like...

It will be a work in progress, and will include a large amount of both humorous and insightful quotes(think "top 25" lists)from various people concerning their experiences with the subject matter in order to encourage and challenge you in your journey. The topics defined will include: Christmas, Life, Love, Story and God.
BTW, soon some of my post-Disney trip do's and dont's will also be shared. Still trying to process that whole experience. If you have taken children, you know of what I speak of...
In the mean time, watch for the first blog this week on defining: "Christmas".
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

P.S. check out this Acrostic written 2 years ago about the Loving's life so far at that point...

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=51189206003

Favorite Christmas Movies quotes

I heard it said once while I was in college, learning to appreciate what great thinkers wrote, that "he who never quotes will never be quoted".
So, for 2 reasons(to help spread Christmas cheer and in hopes of being quoted someday by others!), I share with you some of the most personal memorable quotes of some of my favorite Christmas movies of all time. Note--these are not written in a descending order but rather in random because that's how they were typed flowing out of my random thought process brain. Some movies also have more than one quote, so read carefully as you laugh or feel compelled to contemplate:

#1. "It's Christmas Eve! It's...it's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer,...we smile a little easier,...we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be!"
- Scrooged

#2."Seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing."
- The Santa Clause

#3. "First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat an entire roll of Toll House cookie dough as fast as we can, and then to finish, we'll snuggle!" and "You did it! Congratulations! World's best cup of coffee! Great job, everybody! It's great to be here." and last but not least, "The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear."
- Elf

#4. "You see, Mrs. Walker, this is quite an opportunity for me. For the past 50 years or so I've been getting more and more worried about Christmas. Seems we're all so busy trying to beat the other fellow in making things go faster and look shinier and cost less that Christmas and I are sort of getting lost in the shuffle." and "I'm not just a whimsical figure who wears a charming suit and affects a jolly demeanor. You know, I'm a symbol. I'm a symbol of the human ability to be able to suppress the selfish and hateful tendencies that rule the major part of our lives. If... you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt."
- Miracle on 34th Street

#5. “You've been given a great gift, George: A chance to see what the world would 
be like without you” AND
"Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan!"
- It's a Wonderful Life

#6. "Aunt Clara had for years labored under the delusion that I was not only perpetually 4 years old, but also a girl” and “I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!” and of course, "Deck the harrs with boughs of horry, fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra."
- A Christmas Story

#7 “It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags...Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."
- The Grinch, by Dr. Seuss.

#8. "Charlie Brown: 'Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?'
Linus Van Pelt: 'Lights, please...
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men...That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
- A Charlie Brown Christmas

#9. “Okay, this is extremely important. Will you please tell Santa that instead of presents this year, I just want my family back?"
- HOME ALONE

#10. "We're kicking off our fun old fashion family Christmas by heading out into the country in the old front-wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols...What we're looking for today is the Griswold family Christmas tree." and "Well I'm gonna park the cars and get check the luggage, and well, I'll be outside for the season"
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

#11 “Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart
- Polar Express

#12 "Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" and
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."
- A Christmas Carol

Merry Christmas to you. Go watch a great Christmas movie and "Snuggle" up with your friends and family!