Category : Pilgrim’s Chronicles

Let me challenge you to do something really important!  I was sorting through our Christmas movies on DVD over this weekend and found a copy of Christmas Vacation.  It’s a really funny film, but my favorite scene is when Chevy Chase is locked up in attic and he find the box of old 8mm films and starts watching his times at Christmas when he was a young boy.   The last time I had all my family together at home back in late July we planned an evening of looking at old slides and videos from when they were all young.  My oldest son Scott is 41, my middle son Wesley is 38 and my youngest, Catherine is 35, and  we have six grandchildren ranging form 14 to 3.  Everyone loved that evening, everyone laughing at how we all used to look in years past.  It may have been one of the most enjoyable evenings we’ve had as a family!

As you gather with your family this Christmas season, dig out the old films, pictures and videos and spend a little time remembering together the history of your family.  I will be privileged again this Christmas to have everyone home again for the holidays.  We will plan a lot of activities that will have us all down in the floor, around the fire, celebrating the other great gift, each other.

I will also take time to read the Christmas story to my grandchildren and we will attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church.  I plan to take every individual aside during that week and thank them for all that I appreciate about them.  Some day I will not be here to do that, so I will do it while I can.

Here’s my suggestion; take time this Christmas to share your love with everyone you come in contact with, because in sharing your love, you are sharing His love!

Sherelene and I have been getting our Christmas decorations up over this weekend and with every wreath we hang and when we lit the Christmas tree last night, I’m more filled with that warmth and excitement that I’ve had ever since childhood about this wonderful magical season.  Share that magic with others.  When shopping, open a door for some one wish people a Merry Christmas, find countless ways to share the love that He brought into the world!

My friend, Scott Diussa, introduced me to a great Christmas song a couple of years ago, let me share the words with you now.

“I Celebrate The Day” by Relient K

My first Merry Christmas wish for you!

the pilgrim

I hope your planning to eat with moderation and get some home projects done instead of laying on the couch watching football all weekend!  Don’t worry I’ll take care of that for you!!!   All joking aside, I hope you are truly getting ready for a glorious Thanksgiving!  May I make a ten suggestions that will make it one of the best ever??

1.   If your parents are still living and you get to see them, tell them how much you appreciate all they sacrificed for you!  

2.  If you have a living relative that knows all about your family tree, ask them to tell you about everyone they can remember and record it or at least write it all down!

3.  Tell your children, or grandchildren, or nephews and nieces how much you love them, and take the time talk to them and listen to what they want to share with you.

4.  Sometime Thursday, go off alone and get down on your knees and thank God properly for all He has done for you!  Asking him to help you become the man or woman He wants you to be!

5.  Call a friend you haven’t talked to in while and catch up!

6.   Take a few minutes to count your blessings, write them down, and look at them for a while, and rediscover how wealthy you are! 

7.  Donate some food or money to a local church or shelter that will feed the homeless.  If you really want a blessing serve some food to them or deliver some thanksgiving food baskets.

8.  Watch at least an hours worth of the Macy’s Parade and remember the joy of your Christmas seasons as a child.

9.  Sometime over the weekend watch one of the many great versions of  A Christmas Carol, and remember what the spirit of Christmas giving is about.  *The best one is the 1951 version with Scrooge played by Alastair Sim.  My opinion……  For the kids try The Muppet’s Christmas Carol, great music!

10.  Pray for all those less fortunate than yourself this holiday.

And lastly,  have a wonderful time with your family and friends.  As for me, I’m thankful for having you out there coming here day after day,  to visit with me!  O.K. have a second and third helping!!!!

the pilgrim

Before I start this story let me be clear, I don’t consider this a tragedy.  Things happen….. such is life.  I want to concentrate on our response, not the ramifications.  Sunday night I left Corbin to drive down to Nashville for an early morning meeting with an important new commercial photography client for Nikon NPS.  Sherelene had the day off at the clinic Monday so she went with me.  She did some Christmas shopping while I called on the client.  When we arrived back home about 9:00 p.m. last night, we discovered that one whole wall of our kitchen cabinets had simply fallen off the wall smashing most of our dishes and glasses and some other stuff.

Now it’s the week of Thanksgiving, we have family coming in, and the kitchen looks like a war zone.  How do you respond?  Please believe me I’m not bragging, but I’m very pleased with how Sherelene and I dealt with the issue last night and this morning.  A lot of work lies ahead trying to get things cleaned up, repaired and restored, and some of the broken stuff can’t be replaced, but it’s just some cabinets and glasses, and dishes.  One of our first thoughts was what if one of our grandchildren had been standing there when the cabinets fell.  Even and adult would have likely been killed or seriously injured!  We could have come home to the smoldering remains of a home burned to the ground!  No, in the overall scheme of things this is just a hassle, it will soon be cleaned up, (Sherelene has clinic duty today, so after I file some weekly reports, I know what I will be doing.)

After the initial shock of seeing all this “stuff” in the floor we both agreed that it was just “stuff ” and got a good nights sleep.  Here is the simple truth, things happen, and God never promised us that our lives would be free of any stress or disappointment.  I think these kinds of circumstances give  us a great opportunity to see just how much we trust Him, and how grounded we are in our belief that God and family are what’s most important.

So the bottom line is; this is an inconvenience!  Sure it’s ugly, but it’s no big deal.  Everyone is safe, God is still on the throne, Thanksgiving will still be a time of thanksgiving for so much, and we have so much to be thankful for.  Don’t sweat the small stuff, it’s all small stuff…….. (great book title too!)

This is the day that Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Be at peace and be thankful,

the pilgrim

Image by Sherelene Fortney

My pastor delivered a great message this morning and I would love to pull some of his points and share them with you.  As we approach Thanksgiving there are four things that steal your thankfulness and closeness to God.  Here we go:

1.  Don’t let memory fail you!  Never forget how you got to where you are spiritually, physically, and financially.  When Herschel Walker won the Heisman Trophy and was signed to a multi-million dollar deal, he build his mother a big new home and on a large piece of land on the back he had their old home from the dirt poor days moved into the back yard, so they would never forget!  We need to be sure that we don’t forget what God has done for us, what our families have done for us, and all the others that have helped you stand where you are today!

2.  Don’t let vanity possess you!  Avoid the Unholy trinity at all costs, “Me, Myself, and I” .   Remember this life is not about you.

3.  Don’t let prosperity intoxicate you!  Success could just be your biggest enemy.  Look at all the stories of lottery winners that claim they wish they never had won.  Too much can hurt you.

4.  Don’t let security deceive you.  Anything you have can be taken away, anything, except God love.  Real, true security only reside in Him.  Idols are things we worship.  Before you say you don’t worship anything but God,  think carefully.  I certainly can admit to having things in life that I love too much, as much as I don’t want to admit it,  that borders on, or is idolatry!

Choose who you will serve, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

I love a great song by Bob Dylan, You’ve Gotta Serve Somebody……

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls.

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Might be a rock’n’ roll adict prancing on the stage
Might have money and drugs at your commands, women in a cage
You may be a business man or some high degree thief
They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief.

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a state trooper, you might be an young turk
You may be the head of some big TV network
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame
You may be living in another country under another name.

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody’s landlord you might even own banks.

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be working in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir.

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk
You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread
You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed.

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

You may call me Terry, you may call me Jimmy
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray
You may call me anything but no matter what you say.

You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

the pilgrim

*Photo Note:  Shot by my wife Sherelene, after dozens of tripods into the slots, this was her first, he shot is better than anything I ever shot!   Shot with Nikon Coolpix P300.

FLASH:  The comment section is now fixed all you have to do to reveal comments and add your is click on the symbol circled below!  When you click on the number and page symbol it will bring up all comments and allow you to comment or reply to any comment.  Sorry it took so long, but we should be good now!!!!

FLASH 2   If you love airplane photography, I have a site you have to check out!  R.C. Concepcion helped a organization I belong to, re-design there website and it is spectacular.  The organization is the International Society of Aviation Photographers.  This organizations meets once a year in the U.S. and it is where you will se some of the most spectacular aviation work form the best shooters in the world!  O.K. you don’t have to come to a meeting to see the work, check out the website     http://aviationphoto.org/   When you get onto the site go to the heading  “Portfolios”  you can browse through the work of the true masters of this field!  I have a portfolio, but only because I love t his kind of work, I don’t in any way consider myself a master in this field, but I love it!!!!

I’m traveling on Monday in Nashville doing Pro calls, will post again on Tuesday!  Have a great Sunday…….