My Christmas Wishes………..

When you get to be my age you either have most of what you want, or know it was never meant to be, or maybe you really never needed it anyway!  As we finally get the house and family shopping finished,  I’ve had time to think of a few things I would love to have this Christmas!  Bear with me, some of my list may seem like criticism, but it’s not!  I’ve passed every wish through one filter, my only filter;  “Would Jesus Wish For This?”

Wish Number One:  One of my first jobs was being a newpaper photographer, now they call them photojournalists.  I had an editor who was a straight arrow, a right down the middle provider of the news, not opinion, but the news.  He was so fair that even if his own mother had shown up on the local police arrest list he would have published it.  He believed that journalists don’t take side, they keep the pubic informed so they can draw      their own conclusions.  I wish we could get back to that.

Wish Number Two:  Wouldn’t be wonderful if we could get rid of political correctness, micro- aggressions, safe spaces and all that stuff.  And by-the-way when I say you guys, and women are involved, it’s not meant to be demaning, honest!!!  If we spoke to one another in love, Christ’s love, we wouldn’t be questioning what people “meant” by what they said.  If we didn’t like the way a person talked, we could try to be around them less, but then we might loose the opportunity to help them (or us) change! That’s not on your agenda???  Maybe it should be, just saying……

Wish Number Three:  Maybe we could stop awarding everyone that competes, win or loose.  It seems like the ultimate act of kindness to not make anyone feel bad, but it sets us up for something much worse than the pain of loosing, it steals the opporutnity for us to learn that loosing is part of life and we need to know how to deal with it, with strength and character.  My High School football coach insisted, in fact made us, get on our normal face and walk down the line and shake the hands of every player on the opposing team, even when we lost.  By the time you got to the end of that line you realized why you played the game and that’s why they played it to, and there can only be one winner. Everyone who gives everything they have is a winner, no matter what the scoreboard says, but still there is only one winner according to the scoreboard, just learn how to live with it.    

Wish Number Four:   That people would respect each other’s beliefs.  I saw a segment on Fox News this morning about a billboard sponsored by atheists that said,; Make Christmas Great Again – Skip Church.  O.K. My first reaction was anger, then I thought about it, God gives us free will.  We need pray for those that don’t believe, not in judgement, but because we love them (“Christ made that a requirement”)!  I wish that people that don’t believe would just not believe and not broadcast it, but then in all honesty,  I guess  they wish I would shut up too!  Fat chance of that, so I guess freedom of speech works both ways!

Wish Number Five:  As much as I deeply believe that we need to put Christ back in Christmas, I even more deeply  believe we need to put Christ back in our hearts, to stop the hate, the anger, the failure to believe that all lives matter, that black folks and yellow folks, and red folk and white folks an any other color you can imagin, all matter!!!  God loves all of us, and the way we treat each other, the ugly things we say, the lies we tell, the resentment we let build up in our hearts, it grieves him.  So my wish is simply this, Let us fill our hearts with the love and aceptance and kindness that the Savior of the world gave us over two thousand years ago.  Let us remember, every day of the year, that the forgiveness he gave us, the pardon, the release from all our sinful past, is available for everyone.  If He offers this as a free gift, can we refuse to offer to forgive.

Merry Christmas.

Blessings,

the pilgrim