CHRISTMAS EVE MEDITATION

Another year has gone by and once again I find myself sitting on my couch just before midnight enjoying the quiet before the storm.  I love this time on Christmas Eve and look forward to it every year. Both Karen and the Wonder Dog are asleep and one of them is snoring. For the record I think it’s the dog since I’ve been told that proper southern ladies do NOT snore. Izzy the cat is curled up next to me sleeping as well. The lights on the Christmas tree glow with an intensity only found on Christmas Eve. By this time tomorrow the lights and ornaments will have lost some of their luster.

As always, Karen and I attended the candle light service at Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church. I look forward to this service every year, and not just because of the warm Christmas ambience.  You see, every year on Christmas Eve I get to spend time with my sainted grandmother Alice. When I was young, Alice would accompany us to church on Christmas Eve. Every year I would stand with her while she sang O Come All Ye Faithful as the choir processed into the sanctuary, her voice strong and vibrant in the early years but becoming less so over time. Now, years after her death, I leave room for her in the pew next to me on Christmas Eve. Without fail, she joins me to sing that timeless hymn. Tonight, I felt her presence next to me again and, at least for a little while, i was transformed into that little boy holding my grandmother’s hand and singing along with her.

Lately I’ve noticed that time appears to be speeding up.  The years that once dragged on when I was young now flash by. And with each passing year I get a little slower, I have a little less stamina, my eyesight is a little less acute, and sometimes familiar words and names elude me. Such is the way of things I guess. But I no longer fear the passing of my time on this Earth.

This coming year is going to be a year of changes for Karen and me. We have a lot of balls in the air and really don’t know where they’re all going to land. But regardless of life’s uncertainties, I can look forward to next Christmas Eve and spending another evening with Alice. Her faithful presence reminds me that I will be reunited with her again one day, along with family and friends who have passed on over the years. And this is the hope and promise of Christmas, a hope born into this world on a winter night long ago and far away.

So merry Christmas my friends! Keep the gift of Christmas in your hearts and lives throughout the coming year.

Your friend always,

Chris

LISTS

One Saturday morning a man is sitting on his couch drinking coffee and reading the news on his iPad. His wife walks into the room dressed for the day and announces that she will be gone for the next eight hours or so. Before leaving she hands her husband a long list of chores that need to be done, preferably that day.

True to her word, she returns early that evening and sees the list of chores on the kitchen counter. She’s pleased to see that most of the items have been crossed off the list. She looks for her husband and finds him sitting on the patio in the back yard and thanks him for finishing all the chores while she was gone. To which he replies “oh, I didn’t do anything. I just crossed the chores I didn’t want to do off the list.”

Like I’ve always said, if a man says he will do something, he will. You don’t have to remind him every six months.

I hate lists. Lists are an Albatross hanging from my neck. They stare me down every morning and force me to organize my day. Unfortunately, making lists is also the only way I can remember the things I need to do. Sometimes I forget to look at my lists (Karen will testify to this). I don’t know how to fix that.

I used to make paper lists but that’s not good enough in our modern technological age. Now I have a “list app” to categorize, prioritize, and track progress against my tasks. Where I used to have a simple list scrawled on a sheet of old notebook paper, I now have a numbing array of lists, all available at a moment’s notice, with headings like home groceries, Target, Sam’s/Costco, Home Depot/Lowes, farm groceries, meals, vacation plans, farm projects, etc.  I even have a meta-list, a list of lists that categorizes all my lists. And there is no limit to how many lists I can create.

My failure to complete tasks is now highlighted in yellow or red. To make matters worse, I share my list with Karen, which gives her the ability to add to my lists at will. While I’m in the middle of checking some task off my list, new ones appear like magic.

One item you will not find on any of my lists is “spend silent time listening to God”. Spending time with God is not a chore to check off when complete. Thomas Kelley, a Quaker mystic, asks us:

“Do you want to live in such a divine presence that life is transformed and transmuted into peace and power and glory and miracle”.

If your answer is yes, Kelly says “if you do, you can. But if you say you don’t have time, then you really don’t want to, because we always manage to find the time for the things we truly want to do”.

Is your desire to spend silent time with God on your “to do” list or on your “want to do list”. If the latter, you will find the time.