The Love of Christmas

The Love of Christmas

Why is there such importance associated with Christmas? What do we see in Christmas?
What do we see in Christmas that moves and inspires us so much? Makes us look forward to it all year, although we sometimes dread many aspects of it.

We often talk of healing: individuals healing and the Healing of all man kind.
…a time when we see in the future where those things will get better.

We call it a Time of Hope. Hope that our long nights will go away and more light will fill our lives.

Quite literally, I am ready for the sun to stop beginning to hide at 4 pm. But figuratively I am ready for this economy to turn around, and also many personal things in my life to improve.

We look to begin prospering, we want our pains to subside, the…

Pain of Shopping for Christmas (for some anyway),
Pain of work,
Pain of the economy,
Pain of loved ones living: of friends and family,
Pain of loved ones lost,
Lost to arguments,
Lost to broken promises,
Lost to misunderstandings,
Lost to over whelming personal pains…

Pain of those close to us that are spending time else where, whether or not by choice,
(First, thank you to all service personnel for your commitment to keep us safe and be there when we get hurt. Second, pop culture break: Movie: Four Christmases)

Ok now are you ready for the serious stuff:

Pain of Lives lost, Time lost, Love lost… Wait Love Lost??? Least we forget:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
– John 3:16 (KJV)
Lets take a sec to review some obvious background information. God gave us His son. He gave us His son because He loved us. The day His son was given to us was His son’s birthday. We call His son’s birthday Christmas. So Christmas is all about love. And each year we celebrate Christmas as a reminder of His gift of Love. So Love is never lost, especially at Christmas; it is renewed. So Love is the root of all that we look forward to about Christmas. (For those that don’t read so literally into the story of Christmas, the gift of Love is no less. For Love is what it is, all the same, no matter the story.)

Ok then, so why is Love so important to us?

If I speak in the languages of humans and angels but have no love, I have become a reverberating gong or a clashing cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing.
Even if I give away everything that I have and sacrifice myself, but have no love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 131-:3 (ISV)

So without it we have little more than noisy lives. And we all have felt that. Even without being told. Even with power, skill, and knowledge we are empty with out it. Even if we do the right things, but we don’t do them out of Love we will not grow but still be empty.

Ok, if it is so important to us because it brings fulfillment and also happiness and satisfaction, then what is love? What is this thing that brings us fulfillment, making our actions meaningful, and that grows us?

Love is always patient; love is always kind; love is never envious or arrogant with pride. Nor is she conceited,
and she is never rude; she never thinks just of herself or ever gets annoyed. She never is resentful;
is never glad with sin; she's always glad to side with truth, and pleased that truth shall win.
She bears up under everything, believes the best in all, there is no limit to her hope, and she will never fall
Love never fails. Now if there are prophecies, they will be done away with. If there are languages, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (ISV)

So Love is this patient, comforting, sensitive, selfless, understanding, honest, truthful, optimistic, and never failing. Why wouldn’t we want to fill ourselves up with Love. And it empowers us, builds us and grows us: I am sold. Where can I get some? (Where love is would take a whole other posting.)

What else do we know about love?

For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete
But when what is complete comes, then what is incomplete will be done away with. 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 (ISV)

So our knowledge, our understanding, and our ability to tell the future are incomplete. We all knew that. Although at moments we sometimes forget. Does that mean love is complete? Does that mean that we will never know if love is complete because our knowledge and understanding (of love) is incomplete? Does that mean we can never tell if we will be able to know in the future that love is complete? Is this where faith once again fills in the short comings of our minds and so we have faith that love is complete?

So can we grow, become more complete in our understanding (of love)?

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up my childish ways.
Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face.
Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:11-12 (ISV)

Of course, like all things our understanding of love will grow. And so also will our abilities to engage life. So why do we need to understand love better? Why would we want to understand love better? Do we even need or want to understand love better? What is there to gain from this understanding? Can love ever be understood completely? …

These questions could go on for ever and be disheartening in the implications of their shear number. So what do we have left

Right now three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 (ISV)

In many ways Love breads faith and hope. Is that why it is the greatest? Why is love the greatest of all the things that remain after we realize that our knowledge is incomplete?

What do we do from here?

Keep on pursuing love, and keep on desiring spiritual gifts, especially the ability to prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 (ISV)

So we keep Loving, and there by growing, and moving toward the future!

All told, we look forward to Christmas because we are hopeful of change. It is a time when we have Hope and often deal with things that bring pain in our lives. And it is hard to confront many of those pains, but we can because at Christmas we were given the tool to fix our pains: Love. Love is never failing, never lost, and with Love we can have Faith that there is Hope.

I wrote this posting because I am dealing with many pains this year, as we all our, and I wanted to remind myself why I look forward to Christmas: Love. And even though my understanding is incomplete, I wanted to remind myself what Love truly-truly is, and not fall into the misconceptions of love. I also wrote this because I hoped that I could share with all my friends and it could help them work through their pains, and help them remember what Love Really-Really is. Also that they might share this with their loved ones so it could do the same, and on and on…

Remember to take time with those that Love you, because Love is one of the few things in life that when you share it you get more not less.

So this is Christmas, it is Love; and this is our Love of Christmas…

To all that I Really-Really Love this Christmas this is for you: "The Love of Christmas"
…all the way down the road.

Jacksonville

A little trip to visit an old friend turned into a fun filled weekend in Jacksonville. I started off my weekend on Friday afternoon at Joe's Crab Shack in Jacksonville Beach. Reminded me a lot of Paradise here in Tallahassee, except that it was right off the beach. It's kind of a little dive with a nice outside deck overlooking the sand and the waves. With plenty of sun to soak up I just chilled out with a nice cold Corona, caught up with my friend Ilyssa and made new acquaintances with her friends Diane and Allison.
Traveling that Friday was nice. Sun was out in the sky was full of clouds dotting around with no place to be. Although the air was a bit hot for most of the trip, I saw a nice 10° change while I was on Butler Rd headed to the beach from I95, it was just after I crossed over some of the inlet waters.
That evening, I ate with my friend Virginia and Adina at the Cheesecake Factory off the Gateway exit. That reminds me just the other day, someone told me that we were getting a Cheesecake Factory in Tallahassee. And they didn't put a timeframe on it, so as most things in Tallahassee I expect to see at about five years. But if anybody from Cheese Factory is reading this, you're well branded in Tallahassee and everybody's licking their chops waiting for you to open here.
After dinner, Virginia gave us a tour of the University of North Florida, then we went to a Dave and Busters, and met a few of Adina's friends. You know, I want to recall that someone said something about Dave and busters as well, but I think we'd be better off starting with the Cheesecake Factory.
Saturday afternoon I took a trip north through Jacksonville up to Yulee to see an old friend from Wakulla High School. Heather and her husband just finished building a house, and were having a housewarming party. It was a beautiful home in the third phase of the development off of A1A. Sadly, only two houses in this phase were finished before the builder pulled out of the development. A couple hundred acres had been cleared, and now were left without any foliage. Her beautiful little house, sat like an oasis on their nicely manicured lawn. Like so many places all over the nation, the building slow down and obviously left its mark. Nonetheless, about 20 friends all gathered to help Heather and Mitch began building memories in their new home.
Later that night I met my friend Ilyssa and Adina at The Landing downtown in Jacksonville. We had planned to eat dinner there and later go to the beaches to take a look at the nightlife. As we entered the Landing, a strip mall curved to look like an old Greek theater, we found ourselves in the middle of a Hooters bikini contest. Quickly, we discovered from the announcer that many of the girls in the contest had traveled from Tallahassee. I thought it ironic that I came all the way to Jacksonville just to end up seeing a little Tallahassee, well a lot actually they were small bikini’s. The Landing reminded me a little bit of Channelside in Tampa. On one hand, Channelside was much more aesthetically pleasing and had more stores and bars; on the other hand, the Landing had a better view of the water.
We ate at Koja Sushi, and the Landing directly overlooking the river and one of Jacksonville's beautiful bridges lit in blue lights. The honest, the sushi was okay not the best I ever had, but I have to note that we waited 20 minutes before I had to get up and notify the hostess that we had not been attended to. After dinner we cruised by the only local honky-tonk bar in downtown Jacksonville, Mavericks. It looked like a fun place to hang out the next time in Jacksonville and plan to go.
As we left the Landing, which is directly downtown Jacksonville, I worried that my car was still going to be parked in a paid parking lot just around the corner. Earlier, as I was headed towards Landing, I took about 20 minutes to look for a metered parking spot downtown. I think I covered about five square blocks. On either side of the street wherever I went, there were plenty of metered parking spots, but they were all taken. Tallahassee’s downtown is little more than the same area I covered, just looking for a parking spot in Jax. Of course, I never spent more than five minutes looking for parking spot downtown in Tallahassee. One thing I like about traveling it reminds you of how good I have it home.
I hope that in the Tallahassee, we make sure that there is plenty of parking downtown as we grow. Something that we should all consider is to require that any building being built downtown have several floors of built-in parking. We can easily do this by mentioning it when we talked to our commissioners, as we see them out the community.
That evening we went to back to Jacksonville Beach and cruised the nightlife as we checked out the Atlantic, the Ritz, and Brix,. local bars/clubs. We first went to The Atlantic expecting to have the 80s night and some dancing, but instead found a art show of various bands. Dishearten, we started up the block to go to the Ritz, only to find the line waiting to get in that reached around the building. I know this is a problem that the club owners in Tallahassee would love to have, since we have seasonal nightlife. As a consumer accustomed to walking into places, this was quite an obstacle to our fun since there is limited entertainment standing in line. We settled on going to Brix, which itself had a line but not nearly as long as the Ritz. After about 10 minutes we were inside with new acquaintances, ordering drinks. It wasn't long before he found ourselves on the small yet packed dance floor having a good time moving to popular dance music.

Saturday night I spent with friends in Ponte Vitra beach, which is an upscale community very similar to call on in Tallahassee. The next morning, my friends and I went to a little café diner in Ponte Vitra, I think it was called The Diner, and had a nice brunch. After brunch we went technology shopping and then I went back to Joe's Crab Shack two end my little trip as it began.

If you make to Jacksonville and definitely recommend going to Joe’s Crab Shack, The Cheesecake Factory, the Landing, and Jacksonville Beach.

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