Reflections on a Holiday season

The holidays of 09 are done; onto a bleak cold winter.  Some themes that have been repetitive for me in the last few weeks.

Background

During the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, we basically got a new kitchen. We needed and bought a new fridge. The old won, while working, was held together by duck tape and was fading. The oven stopped heating above 350 so we got a new oven. And then the cook top developed a short. So we got a new cooktop. All of this was very stressful for me as I supervised the installs of all three pieces.

I am blessed

In the midst of the craziest time of the year, with work just going off and all of the kitchen repairs (tracking down when everything would show up and making do without a cook top for almost a month), God faithfully reminded me of my blessings. 

I saw parents with children who had illnesses and long term disabilities repeatedly to remind me of my three healthy children. 

I was reminded that we had the money in hand to buy the appliances we needed, and buy nice replacements, as my people we know could not.

I was able to return gifts as we over bought for our kids. And our kids were grateful for a few meaningful gifts.

Time and how I spend it is immensely precious

I kept holding one hand up with 5 fingers, then after Christmas with 4. Anna now has only 4 more Christmases at home as ours. In 5 years she will come home from college, with one foot firmly out the door.

Huck turns 6 on Thursday. Six years ago I was mentoring 4 young men. In 4 years, they have all moved on in life, back to school, married, bought homes, changed jobs and all have children of their own now. I am reminded that the young man that I mentor today was a junior in high school when Huck was born. Six years for me is not a huge leap, although looking at the pictures we took of the three of them when Huck came home it is amazing to see how they have grown.

Six years from now Huck is in middle school, Ruth a senior in high school and Anna sophomore at college. The young man I mentor today will likely be married, with a child or more of his own.

Although this is melancholy is some ways to write, it is a reminder of three very concrete things that I can never forget:

1. Despite all of the devices I own and use to manage my time well, i can not event time. In fact the productivity gains of today become the normal expectations of tomorrow.  But time marches on.

2. How I invest my time then becomes the question of each day, with whom and how.  How will I spend the next 6 years and how will it impact the Kingdom. What am I doing today and tomorrow.

3. The worries of today (like paying for all of these appliances) are temporary. They are important in the moment but I can not let them overwhelm the longer term.