Parents, make the most of time. In middle school, my mother decided she needed to be very intentional about family time together. We all had our evening meals together and Sunday after church family lunches when my father didn’t have hospital rounds, but that was about to change with our rehearsals and practices and all the things that begin to require time away from home about that age. Mom enrolled us all in weekly snow ski lessons through a local community college. The lessons, equipment, and lift tickets were all much cheaper than what the ski mountains charged and so it was not too expensive for a family of four. So, for 6-8 weeks each winter for 4 winters we took off Tuesday nights after school and put on our warm clothes. In the beginning, we felt like Ralphie’s little brother Randy in the movie “A Christmas Story,” overstuffed into too many layers of warm clothes…”I can’t put my arms down..” Though we soon learned how warm you can get while wrestling a pair of skis, gripping a tow rope and trying to avoid the ankle biters that point their little skis down hill and take a straight line down with Kamikaze abandon. We went to the Rolf Lanz Ski School in Gatlinburg the first year. Rolf wanted more and more people to enjoy his favorite sport even in the South. He would come out and say something funny in his Swiss broken English and we would all laugh, pretending we actually understood him. He encouraged us and sent us out with his Ski School instructors. The college changed the classes to Cataloochee Ski Mountain the next few years. It was less than 2 hours drive each way and we skied the night session from 6-10. You definitely didn’t want to fall near the snow making machines or you would be flash frozen like meat and coated in wet ice. One year we added some cousins from Morristown to our snow family. We carpooled with them from a stop on the interstate. This was Southern Appalachian mountain skiing at its best, with man-made snow, lots of icy patches and long lift lines, but we had a blast… we all eagerly learned a new sport together as a family. This was an “US” experience that we got to enjoy together, making lifelong memories of what it meant to be a part of our family. We talked excitedly on the way about what we hoped to learn that night, spoke about how many inches the base snow may be, and teased each other about who would fall first. My mom always had a great sandwich dinner, snacks and hot chocolate for the trip, though we still all got a little hungry when the instructor told us to put our skis in the “pizza slice” position so we could turn and stop easier, later we learned the “French fry” position when we learned to turn with our skis parallel. When we arrived on the mountain we got some equipment and learned to put on our boots and skis… they wisely gave us no poles for fear of impalement of self and shish kebobbing of other skiers in uncontrolled falls. Skis could also be feared projectiles if they came off in this pre-ski-brake era of the 1970’s; my sister was a victim of a runaway ski and had to be taken to the ski patrol first aid room for evaluation… she was fine, more scared than scarred. After skiing, in tired amusement, we drove home and laughed with each other about falling as we got our glove pulled off on the tow rope, or experienced the T-bar that hit you in the butt and dragged you up the hill as you sat on it and hoped you got off before being whipped around the pole at the top and dragged back down the hill, or when we locked our skis with someone in line, falling into a frozen game of Twister, which other beginners often joined as they were unable to avoid the human avalanche that moved at a glacier pace down the bunny hill. We arrived home very late, fell into bed happily exhausted, and had no trouble sleeping a little before the school bus arrived the next morning. By the end of the first season, we had become novice skiers, we had graduated from beginners and were on our way next year toward intermediate and the actual ski lift. We also learned a little more about each other on the rides back and forth. The next day at school we were a little tired, but it was all worth it for some fun and intentional family time.
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Parents, Make the Most of Time!* Words From COVID 19 quarantine
Monday, November 23, 2020
Parents, Good Tidings of Great Joy!* Words From COVID 19 quarantine
Parents, Good tidings of Great Joy. I was reminded of a wonderful childhood Christmas season memory, as I was preparing to lead a responsive reading from Luke 2 in a pre-Christmas event at my church last night. At the event, called A Family Adventure: One Christmas, our international pastors read some Christmas scripture in two languages and pastor J.D. Davis explained many of the traditions of Christmas and how these symbols point us to the Gospel of Christ. Every year my family eagerly awaited the announcement about when the Charlie Brown Christmas would air. We would take our bath earlier than usual that night, put on our red footed pajamas and gather around the tiny black and white TV that Dad had built a shelf for in the kitchen. (Why it was in the kitchen, I don’t know, but it was a place we liked to gather together for a meal, the day’s news, and shows like Ed Sullivan, Carol Burnett, Lawrence Welk, or Andy Williams that entertained us before bed). The 4 of us would congregate in the breakfast area around the white round formica table and sit in the mid-mod, black vinyl “spinny” chairs (that we would sometimes spin round and round in until we were so dizzy we couldn’t walk). For the Peanut Special, Mom would pop some popcorn and make some hot chocolate with marshmallows and we would watch intently. Charlie Brown was tasked with doing a Christmas play about the true meaning of Christmas as well as finding a Christmas Tree to decorate the stage. As all the peanuts characters revealed their reasons for Christmas, Charlie Brown, depressed as he was, though he couldn’t put his finger on it, knew something just wasn’t right. As he looked for a tree, all he could find was a pitiful, scraggly little hopeless looking live tree that was losing its needles and it could only hold one little ornament that he took from Snoopy’s award winning decorations. Charlie’s sister Lucy would say, “you’re such a blockhead Charlie Brown.” Charlie Brown raises his voice and asks in exasperation, “does anyone know what Christmas is all about?” And Linus says he does and he recites the Christmas narrative from Luke 2, then uses his blanket to prop up the hopeless little tree as the other Peanuts characters, whose hearts are also changed, come together around the tree, that miraculously emerges as a new beautiful tree. The kids sing “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.” What a picture this is of Christ's work in our lives, we are hopeless and pitiful, incapable of bringing much joy to anyone and Jesus’ Advent into this world brings “Good tidings of Great Joy” as He moves into our lives and changes us and makes us whole spiritually. How joyful to know that God loves us so much and wants to be with us so much that He sent Immanuel, God-with-us, God Incarnate, to earth to connect with us and make us a new creation so we can share His great joy back to Him and with others.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Parents, What to Say on Election Day: Words from COVID 19 quarantine
Parents, what to say on election day. In middle school one year there was a great presidential election. Each candidate campaigned hard and it was on every TV ad and radio program. Our teachers decided that it would be a good exercise for the students to participate in our own campaign and voting process the week before the national election to gain perspectives and insights on some of the ways democracy worked. It included some explanation of the Electoral College, but none of us really understood the reason for it in our early adolescent brains. This apparently was a good exercise for me, because I only knew one viewpoint, one perspective, one candidate whom I knew would make the best president. I thought who could possibly vote for the other candidate. My friends on my bus were all aligned on the side of my favorite candidate, and so I assumed every other kid on every other bus would vote the way I did. I thought, this should be a landslide victory. When the day came to vote, we all voted, and I was shocked to learn, at the end of the day, that the other guy had won… not only won but it was not even close. Classroom friends whose candidate had won, learned how I had voted and taunted me and others who voted as I did. The winners even sang the old elementary school playground victory song, “I’m better than you, nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo doo!” I wanted to sit in sackcloth and put ashes on my head… mourning and grieving, incredulous that my candidate had lost big… okay maybe a bit of overdrama, but we were greatly filled with angst as middle schoolers sometimes get when things don’t go their way. Our bus ride home was relatively quiet that day except for one emotionally charged neighbor kid who refused to believe that it was a fair election. His rant included name calling, and questioning the teachers who ran the election and he demanded a recount. We all knew that this kind of landslide victory was not a simple miscount, unless... as he argued, that it was a system corrupt from the core. The candidate by the way, did win the real election the next week. In my middle school mind, when I wasn’t trying to figure out girls, how not to stink with the wrong deodorant, remember to brush my teeth and somehow hide the stench of my smelly vinyl tennis shoes by sitting on them, I thought that president was a total disaster for our country. All the markers that I thought were most important had absolutely tanked, taxes went up, inflation went up, foreign diplomacy tanked and U.S. positions were compromised, however, apparently there were also some really good things that happened too.But, I can’t remember them, because they didn’t fit my narrative of what I thought our country should look like. It wasn’t until later, when I was learning about other oppressive forms of government in the world, that I realized, “wow, what an amazing gift we have to be able to vote for our own leadership.” Sure, it has its own challenges and ways it can be manipulated, but what a wonderful concept… to trust people to make wise choices about whom they choose to lead them. I pray that democracy will continue so that people are valued and that we have a voice and a vote in how things happen. Ultimately, there is a Divine Hand in what happens in our world. God always led His people, when they followed Him or when they rebelled. He is always in control, even when His people were overrun, taken into slavery and persecuted, so that, BTW they would seek His face and return to Him from their rebellion.
Our God, who is the creator of the universe, has a plan for all people, bigger than any country or government. Daniel, who was in exile when God’s people were taken captive to Babylon because of their rebellion, was in the service of King Nebuchadnezzar. King Neb had a disturbing dream about the future of not only his reign, but the future of the world. Daniel asked God to show him the dream and the interpretation. When God had given Daniel Neb’s dream and the answer, he responded to Nebuchadnezzar with praise for God and the meaning of his dream. Part of his answer is an encouragement to all of us as we navigate any election season. We read, “Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: ‘Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are His. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.’” Daniel 2:19-21 (NIV) Anita, is always quick to remind me of this passage when I get all worked up over politics, that all “wisdom and power are(God’s)” and that “(Our God) sets up kings (and presidents, senators, congressmen, etc...) and deposes them.” Regardless of the outcome of this or any other election, we gotta remember the FIRST thing to do, according to Paul, is to pray for “everyone... and ALL those in authority,”even if we do not agree with them. Paul says to young Timothy and the Ephesian church, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:1-6 (NIV) So, the best thing to say on election day is “God has a plan and I’m praying.”
Hang in there people! God is with us! I’m praying for us all!