Wrapping

It's one of my favorite parts of pre-Christmas prep. Throw some Christmas tunes on the radio (LIFE is non-stop Christmas now... just sayin...), grab some tape and pick out some nice paper. Then, get wrapping.

It's really too bad I'm terrible at it.

O.K, not terrible... just not great.

I used to be really bad. It was more of a ball of paper with a gift in it when I was a kid. Now it's a box with suspiciously rounded edges.

This year I discovered double sided wrapping paper. I'm not kidding! It's really a thing! I'm way more excited about this then I should be. I probably need a hobby...

Christmas Time

Is one of my favourite times of the year. It's awesome! Bright, colourful and the music has it's on special charm to it too.

There's only one thing that bugs me about it. People discussing it.

Every year beginning in November, the conversation begins. Should we be celebrating? Isn't it pagan? Santa!

It's starting to fell like beating a dead horse. Most of the stuff that is worth saying has been said. The internet is loaded with articles about the subject... Can't we leave it at that? Maybe I'm just a fan boy...

For me the lights, trees, bells, green, red, songs, tinsel, holly, turkey and gifts aren't distractions. They're reminders.

Reminders of what we are getting ready for on the 25th of December. The celebration of the birth of Jesus, but that's not where it ends. He was born to die.
Think about that!
It's like a pre-Easter celebration. What happens in a peaceful manger culminates at Calvary and concludes with the resurrection. It's this awesome (and life changing) series of events that all begin... with Christmas.

At least, that's how I feel about it.

Happy Christmas!

Unashamed Tour

Last night a crew from LIFE jumped aboard a moving vehicular device that took us to downtown Toronto for one thing... The Unashamed Tour. Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashii, Pro, KB all under one roof. The question is, how was it?

Andy Mineo was the first act. Really cool guy. It was more of an urban pop sound.
KB, Pro and Tedashii all hit the stage afterward. Pro had a guy in a monkey suit join him on stage. Yes, that was as awesome as it sounds.

One of the great things about rap artists is that they are not ashamed to represent Jesus. Very vocally. All of them gave great messages about redemption, faith, love, missions and just general life stuff.
Trip Lee followed that up with songs like Hero and I'm Good. I'm Good was better than hoped.
Lecrae followed that up with songs like Don't Waste Your Life, I Know and his biggest, Background.

One thing Crae said, that I thought was awesome, was that for every 10 people you influence, there will be one hater. That's so true. It doesn't seem to matter how "good" we are, there will always be someone that finds fault. He then went on to make the point that we can't be worried about what people think, but have to focus on what God thinks.

Now for the pictures that I took on my phone.... ya.... they prove that pictures and phones should not be legally allowed to coexist...

 Tedashii on stage!

Trip Lee bringing his flows

This is KB doing a hand stand

Wait... this looks familiar...

Hmmmm.... must have been the lighting

Christmas Banquet

It was tricky coming up with something interesting to do at my churches' Christmas Banquet this year. The last few years have been great, but not about the nativity. They've focused on giving, the reason for the season or (last year) a variety night, but no babe in a manger. This year however, the goal was to do The Christmas Story. That's harder then it sounds. Everything has been done. Church Christmas plays can get into the "cliche rut" so easily - we didn't want that to happen.
So instead of a musical or a play... we mixed 'em! A guy was pretending to be Luke writing his Gospel, every time he'd hit an important part in the story (Angels appearing to the shepherds) we'd get someone to do their version of a relevant carol (for the angel example it would be While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night). It worked!
A Buddy of mine and I kicked things off with "O Come O Come Emmanuel." Great song. I've always liked it, though I'm not sure why...

The night continued with "We Three Kings," "Away In A Manger" and an instrumental version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentle Men."
Between the lights, music and food (and of course the over aching message) I'm officially read for Christmas!