JRMITCH85 Faith, Hope

32

Today the world sees me as a thirty-two year old. Gone are the glory days of thirty-one.  Now I must…

I know there aren’t too many things that are expected of me, other than the expectations that I place upon myself. Birthdays and New Years are filled with I am going to do this or that in the next year, and I think that if you are driven by “resolutions” then good for you, however that is not how I am wired. There are goals and resolutions I have set for myself, which have put me on a certain trajectory, but if I were to define myself based on whether or not I met my goals, I would be an utter failure!

However, I am not a failure. I am a beloved child of God. While I am not where I thought I would be 10 years ago, God has been by my side and I need to choose to follow the Almighty wherever I am led. I can lose sight of God’s direction if I am too fixated upon being this or that by the age of thirty-two, upon doing this or that in this next year. Losing God’s direction would be true failure in this year.

As I step back and get to fill in a different number in the age box, I choose to be the man God desires me to be this year. I am not setting a goal of being a different weight, I am not setting a goal of doing this or that, I simply want to be more humble, and rely more upon God in everything in my life.

“Here am I Lord, send me!”

JRMITCH85 Faith, Hope, Ramblings

Even Greater Gifts

Now that the holiday season is past and the gift giving has ended for a while, I looked back at one of my deepest joys was getting the opportunity to look at the face of my son as he opened his birthday gifts earlier in the season, and Christmas gifts. For his birthday I decided to give him a skateboard (with a helmet and pads), and I was filled with so much glee that he wanted to go out and immediately put on the pads and go ride his skateboard. That feeling was only to be topped by “Christmas” morning, and he woke me up to tell me, “I got a kitchen daddy, I got a kitchen!”, when the night before I was up until 2 AM putting it together, but his excitement made the sleep deprivation worth it.

Although I am not always the most astute person when it comes to getting people gifts, I knew what it was that would bring him a great deal of joy. Certainly, the excitement of getting gifts is enough to bring joy, no matter what the gift might be, but there is a certain gleam in his eye when he gets some particular gifts. I was overjoyed that the gifts I picked out for him were those special gifts. Even when “Santa” gets the credit for bringing the gifts.

However, no matter how good I was at picking out gifts, God is better at getting us just what we need at the right time. At the same time, God is pleased to give us what we need, and sometimes we also get those wants. We are blessed, we are bestowed with gifts, and God expresses love to us in diverse ways. God wants a relationship with us no matter what, and has gone to the cross to show us the extent of that love.

Jesus teaches us about God’s gift giving in Luke’s Gospel,

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks fore a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13)

One of those great gifts God blessed me with after Christmas was snow. On Sunday after church the snow started coming down, and it kept going until the next morning. I was just in awe of the beauty with which God has blessed us. Although I never would have thought to ask God for snow, I hope that the worship filled response I had toward the snow, allowed God the same joy I had when I saw the excitement in my son’s face.

 

JRMITCH85 Hope

Happy New Year

I want to thank my readers, my friends, my loved ones, and all those who have touched my life this past year. There is so much for which to be thankful. I have a family that loves me, friends that offer me so much support. I pray that this year is marvelous, and prosperous for everyone of you.

With every new year we think of new beginnings, but I pray that we not forget where we have been because those things help shape us into the people we are, and help guide us and instruct our path as we move forward.

With much love, hope, and wishes for peace and wholeness, I wish you all a Happy New Year!

JRMITCH85 Decisions, Ramblings

Dear Starbucks

Dear Starbucks,

Christmas is not over, so why have you taken down all of your festive decorations and your “holiday” menu already? I thought that I could walk in and still see your red colors, but the brown and green of “ordinary time” has already returned.  The gift of Christmas is 12 days long beginning on the 25th. Therefore, I wished that you would keep up your decorations up until at least the first of January, if not the full Christmas until January 6th on Epiphany, or maybe even until the Sunday after the 6th.

I fully recognize that you, Starbucks, are not interested in maintaining the church traditions about Christmas, and that it is true most people are not going to buy that extra pound of “Christmas Blend” after the 25th of December, I don’t fully understand the need to revert so quickly. I walked into your friend, Target, the other day and they were already trying to get me to buy into the Valentine’s Day hype. I understand this is the commercial aspect of our Western holiday structure, but I don’t go into Target for the experience, I do go into Starbucks for the experience.

If we let the 25th of December be the end of the “Commercial” Christmas, and spent the rest of Christmas resting in the fact that it is Christmas, maybe we would all have a better perspective on what it is we should all be focusing upon during Christmas. Maybe we should all take a lesson from “A Miracle on 34th Street”, when we begin to understand that we all benefit when we work together and strive for a common goal of meeting the “needs” of the world.

Oh well, I guess I will have to settle for leaving my tree up until Christmas is over.

Wishing you a warm and merry Christmas,

ELPISANDSHALOM.COM

JRMITCH85 Uncategorized

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas! Allow the Grace of the Season to wash over you over these next twelve days, and resist the stress. May this be a blessed time for you and your family!

JRMITCH85 Decisions, Hope, Ramblings

So Many Things To Do, So Little Time (Christmas Eve Edition)

It is here.

It has come like the kid playing hide-and-seek who has just finished counting, and has begun the search for those hiding, proclaiming, “ready or not, here I come!”

“Oh no, I never finished putting the decorations up!”

“I’ve got to get to the mall and finish my Christmas shopping.”

“This house is a mess, I have to get it clean!”

“Those presents aren’t going to wrap themselves.”

“There is so much to do, and I have so little time to accomplish it!”

These thoughts are the thoughts of a frantic person that has probably procrastinated on getting their Christmas tasks completed, and is now stressing out over their inability to complete the task list. This person is me. Maybe I am continuing the procrastination by taking time to write this blog, since I have not written any since the month began. (Another thing on the list that got pushed to the side.)

This stress level is proof positive that I have failed to keep perspective on the season. A season that started so promising, as we got the tree up the week after Thanksgiving. My son’s help was fantastic, as he made sure the candy canes were placed perfectly, and all of his favorite ornaments were in the same place. This was fun and helped me focus on the fact that I have been blessed with a marvelous 3-year-old, and watching the Christmas excitement in his eyes has been marvelous.

However, that was where the peace and time to just be in the season started to fade, as one thing led to another, and stress and to do lists began to take over. I don’t think it is unique to the time around Christmas, but it seems to be amplified by the fact that there is one day where everything happens, and judging by the way stores look the week after x-mas, the season ends, off to the next holiday.

Well here I am, trying to gain more perspective. This season is about the eager anticipation of the coming of the savior of the world: A savior who has come to us first as a vulnerable baby, a savior that remains with us to guide us through the Holy Spirit, and a savior who promised to come again! It isn’t about lists or calendars, it is about breathing in deep the breath of God, and allowing our hearts to let go of hustle and bustle, and rest in the fact that the Creator of the Universe loves you, and provides more joys, more presents, and more love than any man in a Red Suit.

So I wish you all a Merry Christmas, let us celebrate, and I encourage you to take a deep breath today!

JRMITCH85 Faith, Hope, Ramblings

Thankfulness

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

Many people like to refer to this day as “Black Friday”, because of all the shopping that goes on, and stores go into “the black” for the year, but I really wish we would just focus on the things that we have to be thankful for this year.

I am thankful for my family, for the friends that are so close that they are family, and for the people that have impacted my life in special ways. I am thankful for a job, and a roof over my head. I am thankful for all sorts of provision that has guided and guarded me in the past year. I am thankful that I live in this country, and I am free to speak my mind, and free to move, and free from many of the world’s vulnerabilities. Most of all, I am thankful that I have a relationship with a loving God that loves me more than I will ever know.

I appreciate Advent as we enter after thanksgiving. Let us prepare for the arrival of the King of Kings, by being thankful that the Lord of Lords has given us so much for which to be thankful. Let us think about those things as we enter into this season.

JRMITCH85 Uncategorized

Happy Birthday

Three years ago, I became a father to a little boy, therefore I want to wish him a very happy birthday! As I woke up this morning I listened to him singing, “Happy Birthday”, and I was overjoyed, as I joined in. I asked him about his birthday, and what he was going to do, and he responded with “party” and “presents”.

Today there is a party, as today we celebrate and mark the passage of a year, and we remember that we all have been blessed by his life. We celebrate also by giving gifts, where we further are blessed by watching the exuberant joy that he exudes by the prospect of all of the fun he is going to have with his new toys.

I am blessed, and on this day as we mark another year, and we give presents, I am reminded that the one, triune God, gives us greater gifts. My son is a wonderful blessing that reminds me on a daily basis that God loved me enough to give me life, and he loved me enough to grant me the responsibility of being a parent. Thank you, I will try and worship you through this day, seeking to glorify You by being the best dad I can through the power of the Holy Spirit!

JRMITCH85 Ramblings

Big Game Friday!

The overcast weather reminds me of living in Berkeley, chilly, but not cold. It’s shorts and sweatshirt weather! I love it! It couldn’t happen on a better day either, it is Big Game Friday! (Is he talking about sports?) Yes it is a football game, but on the UC Berkeley and stanfurd campuses, this is more than just a game. This game embodies the rivalry between the two prestigious institutions of higher learning. Every year the two teams compete for “The Axe”.

I can’t speak about the mood on “the farm”, but the Berkeley campus is buzzing during the week, as many of the Fall Athletic teams schedule their games with stanfurd during Big Game week and they have their own nicknames, Big Spike, Big Splash, Big (fill-in-the-blank). With so many of the teams they measure the success or failure of their season based on the results from these games.

Similarly, as academic institutions, the programs care about where they are ranked overall, but they especially care about where they are ranked with respect to one another. The competition drives each other to achieve more and become better than they were. The competition helps each side from falling into complacent behaviors. Thus in that way, rivalry helps make each other than we might have been.

There  are unhealthy aspects to rivalry as well. I admit I have been involved in a few situations where property damage occurred, and I have not always been the greatest witness to the transforming power of Christ during times when the Bears were facing off against the cardinal. In such instances, rivalry brings us down to our lowest level and we spew the ugliest parts of ourselves to bring the other down.

Hopefully, we can accentuate the best parts of rivalry, and minimize the effects of worst parts.

I am excited that I get to go up to Berkeley this weekend and watch the Big Game this year. I will root on the Mighty Golden Bears to pull off an upset. Go Bears!

JRMITCH85 Uncategorized

Is he still talking about sports?

I realize that much of the time, when I look for a sermon illustration, my default is usually in the world of sports. This is probably because most of my free time is spent following or watching some form of athletic endeavor. This isn’t understood by everyone, nor is it even remotely a universal experience. In fact I remember many times when I was younger my grandmother would ask me why I was always sitting watching basketball or football or SportsCenter, and I could only respond, “I like sports!”

However, there is a lot more to life than sports, and especially in a group of diverse interests, going to the sports well again and again is ill advised. In order to reach the largest number of people, a more accessible illustration is probably the better option. It’s not that I will never use “the sports”, but I know I will work hard to find an alternative connection point. I think that is what God requires of me. Teach the Word, and teach it in the most accessible manner possible!