Joel
Hey everyone, I love you!
Wow, I didn't even realize I missed any of you until right this second! But I do!
Christmas was good. I got two Bibles and a commentary on the NT, plus two Christian t-shirts. Then my Grandma got me a homeless jacket. She told me she got it for me because I would fit in. So my Grandma got me some incarnational clothes. It was interesing how most of the gifts I got were geared toward my minestry.
I became far more aware of the gross commercialism not only of CHristmas, but the world in general. For instance, I walked by a video game store that had a sign for some two for one kind of sale. The sign said "The more you buy, the more you save!" I just burst out laughing. It was such a materialistic lie of society it was funny. Half a year ago it wouldn't have phased me. God's been changing my view.
We need a new way to celebrate. All of our holidays suck. Even Christmas, Christ mas, a blatently Christian holiday, has very little to do with the birth of Christ. Many churches actually shut down this Christmas. What does Santa, the tree, the exchange of gifts, or the eating of turkey/ham/whatever have anything to Jesus' incarnational birth into our world? It's a bit depressing. And the whole thing gets to be so stressful when you worry about wondering if they actually like what you got them and making sure you got everyone something and then faking like you actually like the ugly sweater grandma gave you. It feeds into this commercial and materialistic society we have. You can pull symbolism from the exchange of gifts, like Christ is God's gift to us and even from the tree, because Jesus is a branch of the root of Jesse (I think that's from Isaih) although they're both a stretch and neither the gift exchange or the tree really point to Christ. That all being said, we need a new way to celebrate. Everything. Or maybe we need an old way to celebrate.
On a lighter and far more worldy note
I GOT A LAPTOP!!
Holy moly a laptop! My dad and grandapa spent all day out today shopping for one for me and now I have a laptop computer. Couple of crazies. It's going to be helpful and awesome having it. Sweet..... I've been telling them aobut the carnegie and my limited comptuer/internet access, so they got me a computer. It's nuts.
I showed my family pictures of the DTES and the hotels and stuff. I think they were pretty shocked at some of the stuff I told them.
Hey, you're all awesome. Seriously. And we're all hip young urban missionaries. Doesn't that just sound cool?
Jesus loves you and so do I.
Wow, I didn't even realize I missed any of you until right this second! But I do!
Christmas was good. I got two Bibles and a commentary on the NT, plus two Christian t-shirts. Then my Grandma got me a homeless jacket. She told me she got it for me because I would fit in. So my Grandma got me some incarnational clothes. It was interesing how most of the gifts I got were geared toward my minestry.
I became far more aware of the gross commercialism not only of CHristmas, but the world in general. For instance, I walked by a video game store that had a sign for some two for one kind of sale. The sign said "The more you buy, the more you save!" I just burst out laughing. It was such a materialistic lie of society it was funny. Half a year ago it wouldn't have phased me. God's been changing my view.
We need a new way to celebrate. All of our holidays suck. Even Christmas, Christ mas, a blatently Christian holiday, has very little to do with the birth of Christ. Many churches actually shut down this Christmas. What does Santa, the tree, the exchange of gifts, or the eating of turkey/ham/whatever have anything to Jesus' incarnational birth into our world? It's a bit depressing. And the whole thing gets to be so stressful when you worry about wondering if they actually like what you got them and making sure you got everyone something and then faking like you actually like the ugly sweater grandma gave you. It feeds into this commercial and materialistic society we have. You can pull symbolism from the exchange of gifts, like Christ is God's gift to us and even from the tree, because Jesus is a branch of the root of Jesse (I think that's from Isaih) although they're both a stretch and neither the gift exchange or the tree really point to Christ. That all being said, we need a new way to celebrate. Everything. Or maybe we need an old way to celebrate.
On a lighter and far more worldy note
I GOT A LAPTOP!!
Holy moly a laptop! My dad and grandapa spent all day out today shopping for one for me and now I have a laptop computer. Couple of crazies. It's going to be helpful and awesome having it. Sweet..... I've been telling them aobut the carnegie and my limited comptuer/internet access, so they got me a computer. It's nuts.
I showed my family pictures of the DTES and the hotels and stuff. I think they were pretty shocked at some of the stuff I told them.
Hey, you're all awesome. Seriously. And we're all hip young urban missionaries. Doesn't that just sound cool?
Jesus loves you and so do I.
posted by Holysession at 12:46 a.m.
1 Comments:
now you have no excuse when you don't contact them!!! (hehe)
Looks like you've had a great break. Look forward to seeing you next week.
AS
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