What is Christmas?

What is Christmas?

Is it the getting and giving of gifts?

Is it having fun and food with friends and family?

Is it an excuse to tolerate snow?

Is it about the decorations?

Is this really a time of peace and love?

Are we really celebrating the birth of a baby who was born over 2000 years ago and probably not on Dec. 25?

If Christmas is a time of holiday bliss, then why do a lot of the songs that we cherish are songs that deal with hardships, loss, and separations?

Is it possible that the greatest, attribute of Christmas is that no matter what hardships, losses, or separations that you are now enduring, there is a hope and love that can sustain you through these things?

Vertical and Horizontal

It seems to me that people these days are either into vertical or horizontal, but very seldom both.  I believe that this makes for a sad situation.  People who are only into vertical, are only fooling themselves into believing that they have something when they really do not have it.  Horizontal people find themselves in empty and shallow lives and are constantly looking for an escape or for a quick fix to  the emptiness that they feel inside.

It is the few who are really both vertical and horizontal, who have the best of both worlds.  I have found that the horizontal finds its meaning from vertical and vertical finds its expression through horizontal.

For you see it is not vertical or horizontal.  It is either both or nothing.

Living In Eden

They spend time playing with the animals as all the wild animals are as tame as our house pets.  They go find the fruit of their choice to eat.  Maybe a peach or a mango.  After eating the fruit they decide to plant the seeds so they go to the edge of the garden to a clearing and plant the seeds.  As they plant, they start slinging dirt at each other and that leads to wrestling with each other.  As they roll on the ground, staring in each other's eyes, their hearts are full of love and so they make love right there and God is pleased with all of this.  

You see that is the life that we were created to live.  Everything else in our lives is there because we have added it.  

So, when any of us looks and see a glimpse of paradise, we see a glimpse of Eden and the longing that we have to be there is a reminder of what we were created for.  

When someone talks about being married to their soulmate, they have a glimpse of Eden and they are experiencing the relationship that we were created to experience.  

When we can understand what life was like in Eden, then we can understand the relationships that causes God to smile now.  We can also start to understand how things will be in the next kingdom.

Those are the thoughts that I have been pondering about these past few months.

My Review of the CD, "Back To Basics" by Jeff Pike

Along with the CD that Jeff put out with Hugo Durate, he has also put out a new CD of his own stuff.  This CD is a little different than most CD's as it is just one man and one instrument.  Sometimes that instrument was a piano and sometimes it was a guitar.  The music on the CD is a combination of older songs as well as new and never released before songs.

Of all the times that I have heard Jeff play, there has only been one time that I have seen him play with a full band.  Most of the time his gigs have been him and Hugo and maybe a couple of other guitarists who are also soloists.  The sound of those concerts mirror what Jeff has done on this CD.  It is not every musician that can sound good,  playing and singing by themselves but Jeff does good.

The sound of this Cd is a lot like the solo artists that I grew with in the 70's and I really love it.

Review of the CD, "Chill Before Use" by The Frozen Gringos

The Frozen Gringos are Hugo Durate and Jeff Pike.  Each of them are successful musicians who are the lead singer in their own bands.  They have come together for a couple of successful musical tours that have taken to areas where they do not get to travel to with their full bans too often.  The success of those tours have led to this CD.

Now the music of this CD was completely done by Jeff and Hugo, with Henry Jordan filling in the missing gaps.  All of the music on this CD is original music that was written by Hugo, and Hugo sings the lead on 12 of the 13 songs, with Jeff singing the lead on The Music Box.

Now my opinion of the CD is probably skewed because I really like both artists as musicians as well as friends, but I really like the CD and I rate it higher than some famous musicians who have released CD's this year with a lot of fanfare.

Outside looking in

I have been off this week on vacation, and how did I spend my vacation you ask?  I spent the week watching music venues that my friends were attending in Key West Fl.  There was this event down there called Meeting Of The Minds (MOTM for short).  Many of my friends went down there for this event.  One of the main things that goes on during this time is that a lot of musicians that play in the musical sub-genre called Trop Rock, will pack the town with concerts.  Some the places where these musicians perform, put the concerts on web cam where you can watch them for free.  Watching these free concerts is how I spent my vacation.  So this week, I have been on the outside looking inside all week.

If I reduced the story of my life into one catch phrase it would be "Outside looking inside".  Whenever I have been in group situations, this tends to be the case.  People tend want to be around me only until someone "cooler" comes along.  From the time that I was a kid, this has been the case.  Even my date life could be described that way as most of the girls that I dated in High School would go out with me (usually only once) and then find that someone who was a better match (one or two are still married to those guys even after all these years and I think that is great).  It makes no difference what venue that I am in, whether it is work, church, family or whatever it tends to play out this way and I find that I spend my time looking at couples and small groups and wonder if they are doing as well as it appears to me that they are.

Now I am not complaining.  Life has been this way for so long, that I have problems being on the inside in group situations.  I just don't know how to conduct myself and so I usually do or say something that will put people off.   Although I really do enjoy it the times people go out of their way to make sure that I am included.

The problem with this type of life is that you spend your life being disconnected.  I believe that loving relationships is what makes a life complete and you don't get that when you live outside looking inside. I find myself being like Casper the ghost at times as I look for people who will be my friend.  Other times I tend to feel like the Beast in "Beauty and The Beast"  as I feel like people will take one look at me and decide that they do not want to associate with me.

These are not good places to be.  The irony of this blog is that I feel like I have found a few people who want to be friends with me at this time and that makes all the difference in the world.  And by the way, as I type this blog, I have a concert from Koz's Green World Gallery on in another window and now back to the music.

What is marriage?

What is marriage if is not enjoying each other's company?

What is marriage if it is not sharing thoughts with each other?

What is marriage if it is not being totally honest with each other?

 What is marriage if it is not being a safe place for the each other?

What is marriage if there is never any touching, hand holding, or hugging?

What is marriage if there is never any intimacy?

Is it really marriage when it is just two people sharing a house, bank account and bills?

Just questions to ponder.

A safe place - Friends

There are times that I still miss my grandparents - Papa and Dodo.  One of things that I really miss, is that I could always go there when I felt overwhelmed, and just being there with them just seemed to make it better.  I did not even have to talk about what was overwhelming me.  There was just something about being in their presence that would calm my feelings and hope would replace the hopelessness that had dwelt within me.

This was something that my Aunt Dot noticed.  She once told me before she passed away that she knew that the biggest thing that I lost with the death of my grandparents was that I could no longer go there to feel safe.  There are some relationships that will do that for a person, but ever since then, those types of relationships for me, have been few and far between.

That brings me to this morning.  This morning I felt like I had been hit from several things at one time.  I was overwhelmed with emotion.  Now to be honest, I have a lot of friends out there who are going through "worst"things, but that still does not changed the way that I was overwhelmed.

Now while being overwhelmed, I also was gathering with friends to celebrate the "birthday" of the LSPHC during the afternoon.  Now this event was in Grapevine, so I had about a hour's worth of driving to get my emotions in check.  So, I spent the drive in thought, meditation, prayer, and I really got into music.  I put my Ipod on shuffle and just let it randomly pick from the 847 songs that I have programed on it.  Every song that came up spoke to what I was going through.  By the time that I got to the event, I had calmed down a lot.

Now no one there knew what I was going through and I doubt if any of them even realized that something was wrong with me.  I did not share any of this with them, because I did not feel the need to do so. But, an amazing thing still took place.  Just being around this group of friends, I felt better.  By the end of the afternoon, I felt a 100% better.  My soul received a strengthening and calming like it did when visiting my grandparents as a kid.  By the time that I got home this evening,  I was a different person than one who had left a few hours before. It is amazing what friendships can do for a person.

When home becomes a prison.

It seems to me that for home life to flourish, then everyone who lives there must be able to enjoy being there.  I'm not saying that everything will be enjoyable to everyone at all times, but everyone there must have something there that they can enjoy.  From what I have seen and experienced, I have concluded that when people are prevented from all enjoyment at home, they start seeking to find it elsewhere.

Enjoyment can have many forms.  It can be creating a garden paradise to relax, meditate, and recharge in.  It can be listening to music, watching tv, reading or some athletic activity.  Anything or anyplace to personally recharge.

Along with personal enjoyment there should be a communal enjoyment also.  I believe that there also needs to be a connection with others in the household.  A home that has the residents living separate lives is not really a home.  A couple that doesn't have a connection and common enjoyment, will start looking for fulfillment elsewhere away from each other.  Home life becomes a prison that the soul yearns to escape from.

It seems to me that home really becomes a home when everyone there desires it to be and then pursues it through love, grace, forgiveness, & long suffering.

Hugo Duarte and A1A

I just recently had a weekend so awesome that I am still feeling the effects of it a week later.  When I go through something like that, I want to try and put words down to describe it.  If I am somewhat successful, then this will be a type of monument to bring back the memories of that weekend.

It starts on Saturday, July 13, 2013, after an Alumni Lunch (which is always special itself).  After I left the luncheon, I went straight to The Dallas Zoo for their Safari Nights Concert Series.  Jeff Pike and A1A was performing that night. I met some friends from The Lone Star Parrot Head Club plus a couple of others, who were already there.  We went to a couple of exhibits before heading to the concert area to make sure that we were front and center for the concert.

Now one thing that you might need to know is that Hugo and Jeff are both friends and a couple of my favorite musicians.  That Saturday I was surrounded by friends who know me and liked me anyway,  and they made sure that I knew that I was a part of the group.  You see, I have spent most of my life being an outcast when it comes to being with a group of my peers, and even though I should know better, I still have this expectation that when people know me, I will be excluded.  This evening my friends made sure that this did not happen.

Every-time that I have seen Hugo or Jeff, I have always felt like they were very happy to see me.  They are this way for everyone that they know.  It is a great part of their personality.  That weekend was no different.  Jeff even introduced us to a friend who had came up from Houston.  She is now a friend of mine as well.  That is always great also.  It seems every time that Hugo and Jeff come around, I make new friends and that also made that weekend great.

Now the A1A concert was a great concert.  Music was so good, that people started dancing without a dance floor anywhere around them.  I did not want to leave that place that night.  In fact I didn't leave until they turned off the lights in the park.

Now Sunday the 14 was a house concert with Hugo.  Now to be fair, Brian Burns and Don Burke were there and played also.  They were great also and I really like them, but Hugo was the Headliner in my book.  I was surrounded by the same friends that I had met at the Zoo a few hours before plus several more.  They were still friends too.  :)   Now the week that led up to these concerts was a week of roller-coaster emotions.  They had every right to be very emotional and distraught, and even though they were a bit more subdued than normal, they seemed to be ready for some music to soothe the soul like only music can.

The concert was still going strong when I left, but it had been one of the best weekends that I had had in a long time.  For the first time in a very long time my smile came back.  I had forgotten that I could even smile like that.  I mean I smiled and laughed and had a great time.

Now I do not know what will happen in the future, but for one weekend, I could and did smile and smiled a lot.  That makes for a great experience.

A Hero

 Lleweyn Swint was a true "Jekyll & Hyde" person.  I have been told that he would give the shirt off his back to help someone in need before he drank the elixir that would forever change him.  He was also a Chemist of sorts, a type of Scientist,  whose lab was not in some back room but out in the woods, what most people call a still.

You see Lleweyn's expertise was in making moonshine.  Although he may have been good at it, what gave others pleasure, proved to be the elixir that would turn him into "Mr. Hyde".  He became a very violent abusive alcoholic. This was the legacy of my grandfather, the father of my Dad.

My Dad left this lifestyle and married at age 20 and at the age of 21 on Father's Day 1957 - became a father himself.  He came into the roles of both marriage and parenthood, with very little if any positive role models.  The Pastor of the church that married my parents would run the whole family off from the congregation because the Pastor did not think that my Dad was good enough and that anything coming from that marriage would not be fit for God to use.  (Papa, my Mom's dad saw my Dad differently because he himself grew up in an abusive home, but that is another story).

There is a Bible verse that talks about the consequences of a man's wrong doing would be handed down for 4 or 5 generations.  I understand that very well, but I do not see that as a negative.  I see it as a positive.  For you see, my Dad made a decision back when I was born, that he would be a different father to me and my siblings than his father was to him, and to me that makes him a hero.

Don't get me wrong my Dad made a lot of wrong decisions and actions towards me, but that never changed the way that I respected and looked up to him because of what he tried to do.  That love and respect that I had for him has made it possible for me to forgive him of those shortcomings.  It would also help me during some tough times in my life when I encountered some Seminary graduates that used their "counseling techniques" to find and exploit people in order to build up their following and ministry.  

While these Seminary graduates exploited my family & turned them against me, they uncovered the strained relationship that I had with my father.  They tried those same techniques with me, but I would not share with them anything that they could use against anyone else.  They could not turn me against me Dad, because of the respect that I had for my Dad trying to be different from his father.  They could not undo the forgiveness that I had already given him.

You see, my grandfather had a terrible relationship with my Dad, but my dad took steps to have a better relationship with me, and even though I have made many mistakes myself with the upbringing of my kids, my relationship with them while they were growing up was better than the one that I had with my dad.  And it doesn't stop there, for I see in my oldest son that he has taken another step in the right direction with his child, and that has been a cause for happiness within my heart.  All of these right steps are the result of my dad making first step toward change back over 56 years ago.

Church

This is a hard blog for me to write about because I don't know, if people can put aside their scars and walls so they understand what I'm saying.  The word "church" will almost always send people into their own opinions where they can't understand or accept anything - other than someone repeating those same thoughts and opinions.  Well, I feel in my heart that I need to try and tackle this anyway.

I spent the first 50 years of my life in active membership in Baptist churches.  I was so involved in those churches that I was a teacher before I stopped being a teenager.  I was ordained a Deacon when I turned 25.  As a Deacon and "lay" minister, I was in a position to see behind the scenes as "leadership" led those churches.  You could say that I saw the image that was projected out to people as well as who actually sat behind the curtains.  As a result, I do not look up to anyone who is in a church leadership position.

When I left the last church that I attended, I left with their blessing as I sought to reach out to people who had no desire to be part of those churches and wouldn't be welcome if they did show up.  People who were forced out of those fellowships have always had a special place in my heart.  I have been treated the same way myself.

An interesting thing happened to me after I left the "traditional" church though.  I discovered a closeness to God that I had not felt in several years.  I had always known that God loved me but I had never experienced it like I started experiencing it.  As I experienced love, I started to trust God to do His part.  I gave up all of the manipulating sales pitches that church evangelism taught everyone to use. I didn't need to use them.  God would lead and I would let the overflow of love that I had experienced onto them.  I also did not need to coerce or manipulate people into behaving a certain way.  God changes people, including me, from the inside out and anything that would try to do would only hamper God.

After all of that, I get to this point.  What kind of "church", if any,  would be attractive to me?  It would not be a "traditional church".  It would not have traditional church leadership positions.

It would be a small informal gathering of friends.  All believers are connected to God the same way that Jesus was connected to God The Father as he walked upon this Earth.  We have this connection through Jesus and His sacrifice of his body.  So God would be the leader.

Our get togethers would be simply friends gathering together to encourage each other, and to love, and to spur that love forward revealing good works, that always comes from love.

To me, this is what the early believers did and this is where my heart is at.

Easter beliefs

As I have said before, Easter was always a big letdown for me growing up.  The day never lived up to the hype that surrounded it. Aside for a few songs like "Up From The Grave He Arose" that were only sung that time of year, nothing else was really different about the day from any other Sunday.

Over the past few years, that has started to change.  Not that I plan to go to any special services, because I don't.  What has changed is my viewpoint of Easter itself.  This different viewpoint is one that stays with me throughout the year.  This viewpoint is what Easter is all about.  

My beliefs about what happened that day has not changed, but my thoughts about why has.  You see, I no longer believe in a angry God who is looking to strike everyone down and used Good Friday just to take it out on His only begotten Son, who let Himself get tortured to death so we would not have too. 

The why of Easter is that God so loved us that He caused these events to happened so that we could be cured from our sin problem that has separated us from God since the Garden, and has kept us separated just as a deadly disease will separate us from our love ones here on Earth.  Not that our "sin" problem would affect God, but that His holiness would destroy us.  

The physical healing's that Jesus performed were a picture of what his death and resurrection would/will accomplish.  His death & resurrection heals all of the past scares and deformities caused by "sin" and transform us into new creatures as His Spirit would unite with our spirit/soul.  

Since God is love, then His Spirit will fill us with a love like we have never known before.  As His love fills us, it will flow out of us to others.  As it flows out from us, people will know that we are followers of God by the way that we love.

To me, this is the Good news.  God loved us and we can now have that same relationship with God The Father that Jesus had while He lived as a human among us.  And when death comes to us,we will find ourselves with a God who seeks to comfort us like we would a hurt child or other loved one, but even more so.

Mercy over Sacrifice

What does the quote, ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ really mean?  This is what Jesus told the religious leaders of his day and followed that by saying that they needed to learn what this meant.  This verse is a quote from Hosea 6:6.

Jesus uses this quote twice and it is found in Matthew  9:13 and He repeats it again in Matthew 12:7.  Here are the verses in context:

9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth.“Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him. 9:10 As Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Jesus and hisdisciples. 9:11 When the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples, “Why does yourteacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 9:12 When Jesus heard this he said, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. 9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

And:  

12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick heads of wheat and eat them. 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw this they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is against the law to do on the Sabbath.” 12:3 He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and hiscompanions were hungry – 12:4 how he entered the house of God and they ate the sacredbread, which was against the law for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests?12:5 Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath andyet are not guilty? 12:6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 12:7 If you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 12:8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

As I see it, this really points out the difference between religion and relationships.  Religion places a priority on rules, & customs . People need to make sacrifice to make themselves worthy before a relationship can be established. Relationships makes people the priority and mercy is freely given so relationships can be established.  Mercy is unmerited favor toward those who have done wrong without them having to atone for their failures.  Sacrifice is people having to make amends for their failures before the relationship is restored.

So, where do we place our priorities?  Where do we place our highest priorities?  Are our rules and customs, our highest priority; or do we want friendships with all people?

A difference in philosophy

During my lifetime, I have noticed two different philosophies competing for the way that we do things here in the USA.  I do not know what the official designations are for these points of view.  I simply describe them as Childproofing vs Responsibility training.

I first noticed these different philosophies as a kid and later as a parent.  If you store dangerous chemicals under your sink, then Responsibility training will try to teach your child not to go there. This is done by constantly monitoring them and punishing them if they should go there.  Punishment usually was a spanking.  The purpose here was to teach them that bad things will happen if they handle those chemicals  in a way that will not cause permanent damage to them.  Childproofing says that you can't monitor them as you should, so you need to put locks on the doors to prevent them from going there.

You can see a difference between the two philosophies later as the kids grow and start playing in the street.  Responsibility training will teach them to watch for cars and it is their responsibility to get out of the way of traffic.  Childproofing will say that it is the responsibility of the oncoming traffic to avoid the kids.

Also you can see this in schools.  Responsibility training says that it is the students responsibility to learn.  Childproofing places to total responsibility on the teachers.

Again, when someone goes berserk and starts killing others.  Responsibility training says the cure is to see that the criminal is made accountable for their actions.  Childproofing says we need gun control.

It is this last example that I have a problem with both philosophies.  My problem with them here is that neither of them will prevent these tragedies from happening.  History shows us this.  There has been many of a criminal in our history who has been taught responsibility in their actions but still went on and  did terrible things.  History has also shown us that tragedies can and will happen without guns (i.e. Ireland, Oklahoma City, September 11).

I believe that the only thing that will prevent these things from happening is love.  When this world was created, love ruled.  People rebelled against that love and that is why bad things happen now.  However, we now live in a time where it is possible to know that love and to experience that love.  As we experience that love, it will flow through us and will change the way we interact with each other.  As that love changes us, we naturally start loving others with that type of love.  I believe that the only answer that will stop the violence within America is that love.

Here's to living loved and loving others.