Thoughts In The Light Of Our Current Holiday Season

Once again we are in the end of the calendar year holiday season.  Thanksgiving was very quiet here. I worked my normal shift at my job. My wife made an excellent, albeit small, Thanksgiving dinner for the family members that were here. Our oldest was spending the holiday in his chosen hometown. Our 2^nd and 3^rd oldest are still visiting relatives in Missouri. So it was just our two youngest, my wife, and I.  Our dog quivered with anticipation at the prospect of sampling tasty morsels of the left overs.

The Advent season starts a week later this year due to when Thanksgiving fell this year. I have nearly always enjoyed the Christmas season.  Especially when my wife and l lived in southwest Missouri. At that time, we both worked in the tourist industry in Branson and had free access to Silver Dollar City, which would be so beautifully decorated for the season. We were dirt poor, but we loved just walking around the place, seeing the sights, smelling the wonderful smells, and enjoying the music playing everywhere. Then when I was stationed in Germany, the local Christmas markets were full of great food, drink, and experiences for us and the children.

However, I grow troubled by the extreme commercialization of the holidays. I was intrigued by the article that has been circulating recently about a Catholic priest in Ireland who is positing that this extreme commercialization of Christmas and Easter must be rejected. I tend to agree with him. How many people here in the US are still paying off their Christmas present purchases even now, without a regard to how they will pay for their purchases for this year.

I will admit, this year is going to be a bit sparse in our family, AND THAT IS OKAY. Not only is it okay, it is also probably for the best.

One of my fondest memories growing up was a Christmas in which my brother and I each received two gifts each from our parents. Both were homemade. Our mother made us sweat suits that where the same colors, but sewn in different patterns to discern whose was which. Our father made us wooden rifles that had wood burned details and our initials in the buttstock. Times were tight, but our brother and I didn’t realize it so much. Sure we had friends that had more toys than we did, but we survived just fine. We were grateful for what we had and for what the gifts really meant.

Another more recent Christmas was after our oldest son was born, my wife and I exchanged one gift for each other. Our oldest, barely four months old, got three.

Too many times we get caught up in the fervor of the latest toy, gadget, doodad, or desire. How much do we really need? Need versus want right?

It is hard looking at all of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals going on, especially in the firearm/tactical gear corner of the market. Without a doubt, there are some incredible deals to be had out there. However, do I NEED more things that right now I do not have space to store, or the location or ability to work on? No. I do not. So, I try to content myself with dry fire practice and designing new ideas on Gunstruction.

Look around you. Are people really focusing on the meaning of the Christmas season?

Maybe it is just the area of the country that I am in. Maybe I have been away from my old home state for far too long. But, I have a suspicion that what I see is actually happening everywhere. So what does that say about us as a culture?

Let us be the new counter culture. The young people in our country today are looking for the right path on which to follow and pattern their lives after. They see the incredible hypocrisy that is rampant in the lives of those they have been told to follow and imitate. I sense a very big reset possible in our culture right now. Let us show in thoughts, words, and deeds the Courage of Our Convictions. To borrow a phrase from the Army, “Be, Know, and Do.” Know what you believe. Know how to articulate its values and philosophies without emotional attacks . Be the person your belief requires of you to be. Do the actions daily. Exercise the daily discipline it requires. Look, I am not perfect in this either. It is a constant action of doing. There is no pedestal to stand on to be praised about. It is a challenging daily struggle in the dirty trenches of daily life and faith.

Exercise your body with your mind.  This one is a hard one for me when I am not doing it. I desire a particular set of circumstance to exercise my body. It is easy to find myself outside of these circumstances. THIS is one of my top two struggles.

The other of my top two struggles is following my faith in more meaningful way. I have been going through a longer than usual desert journey in my faith. I am making the small steps to pull my family and me out of the power dive that we have been in. Pray for me in this regard.

Surround yourself with men of like mind. You will not agree about everything, but find those common grounds, develop the relationships that will help us in the days ahead, be they dark or bright. Look, I enjoyed Lone Wolf McQuade, but to be a lone wolf in the future is a dangerous proposition. You have to sleep at some time. Find those shield-brothers to form the wall of protection.

These are the things I think on. I wanted to write about them. They are not new or unique. They echo the beliefs and thoughts of many others in our community at large. The hard part is putting them into practice in our everyday lives.

Know that all of you, known and unknown, are in my prayers. May this Christmas season bless you in unexpected ways. Be grateful for every day and every experience, regardless of the circumstance.