December 10, 2009 11:00 a.m.

Today is our Jersey Village Baptist Church staff Christmas party.  We will all gather in D-101 and let Ed fix his world famous panini sandwiches.  We will have our traditional white elephant gift exchange.  There are lots of fun stories shared and laughing about memories of past Christmas parties.  Today reminds me of how blessed I am to be a part of this staff and how blessed we are to be a part of this church family.  As in any family, sometimes we have family members who need our help.

There are some in our own church family who are struggling to get by this Christmas.  I usually have a tree that is called the Giving Tree set up in our church foyer.  It has ornaments that have needs written on them from families.  I had not heard of any needs this Christmas.  That is until this morning.  I have three families that need help.  It is too late to try to put up the Giving Tree.  If you are willing to take a boy or girl from one of these families and take some of the ideas they have sent to me, please email me and I will send their “wish list” to you.  Right now I have a total of 5 children that I need to help.  The list might grow to eight children.

The need came up this morning and I have told the families that I am confident that our church family will be able to help. 

Thank you for always being there for our JVBC family.

December 8, 2009 1:25 p.m.

December 7, 2009 9:35 a.m.

It stands along side the tomb of the unknown soldier as one of the most moving events of my life.

I will never forget going to Hawaii and standing over the U.S.S. Arizona. Our youth choir at church had prepared patriotic music for our choir tour. Our music minister was disappointed that we could not sing there. As a teenager I didn’t understand that. I do now.

That memorial is a large grave. It seemed that the grave sight was still very fresh then. At the time there was gasoline and oil that continued to seep out. It was and still is treated as sacred ground. It should not be a place where just anyone can come and give a concert. It is an should remain a place to be quiet and contemplate the enormous loss of life that occurred.

All of that occurred in 1975, thirty four years ago. Thirty four years have doubled and become sixty eight years.

I did the funeral for a veteran of World War II the day before Thanksgiving. A person in the family said that there uncle was a part of the greatest generation. Members of the fraternity that fought in World War II are leaving us at the rate of 2,000 per week. The numbers are staggering.

One of my favorite songs at this time of year is a simple chorus:

Dona Nobis Pacem Pacem 

It is a simple prayer which humbly asks: Give us peace.

As we live in our relative peace and comfort, there are men and women preparing to leave their families and head to Afghanistan. I pray for these wives and children. How hard must it be to wake up on Christmas Day and know that your family member is on patrol in harm’s way?

This week I will travel to the V. A. Cemetery here in Houston and say words over a man and woman who lost their lives in a car wreck. They both faithfully served their country and are deserving of this honor. I will look down those long rows of white tomb stones and give thanks for those who fought and died for our freedom.

Very soon the Houstons will head to Virginia and lay their son Joe to rest in the national cemetery. They will pass the graves of the famous and the forgotten and the unknown and they will pause to grieve a son and give thanks for a life well lived.

Today we remember a day that will live in infamy. We pray for a world that would know peace at sometime’ especially in a season like this.

December 3, 2009 12:30 p.m.

The weather stations are reporting that we have a chance to have snow flurries this weekend. I think it is a good time to review our church’s snow policy.

We all need to take a deep breath and have a little historic perspective. For anyone who has lived in Houston for the last 21 years you have seen snow IN Houston only once. That happened to be on Christmas Eve and it was a wonderful gift. This would be the earliest snow in recorded history in Houston. As our hearts yearn for snow we have to remember…it just doesn’t snow here.

We also need to run the information we are getting through a filter. Our weathermen are good guys. This has been a dismal year for them. First there was the drought. It is hard to justify those high dollar Doppler units when there is barely a cloud in the sky.

Then came the long hot summer. El Nino patterns made sure that not one named storm entered the gulf until November. That one fizzled before it started and headed straight to Florida. This is only a rumor, but I understand that weathermen support group attendance is at an all time high.

Who could blame them if they get a little giddy about snow flurries? We just have to realize that weather men are human after all.

For just a moment, let’s pretend that is does snow. How will we know that church services have been cancelled? We will install a camera and point it toward our fifty five foot concrete cross out front. The cross arm is about forty feet above ground level and some fifty feet above street level. If snow rises above the level of the cross arm, then church will be cancelled. If not, we expect to see your smiling face in our building. The heat will be on.

See you Sunday!

December 2, 2009 10:35 a.m.

Have you ever had one of those serendipitous moments at Christmas time that just completely catches you off guard?

I went to a meeting this morning. I HAVE MEETINGS ALL WEEK. It is like everyone that could meet has to meet before Christmas and this is the week to get that done.

I went to a meeting this morning of the Cy Fair Education Foundation. It is a big board and community and intimacy are hard to come by. The chair is a wonderful woman named Debbie Blackshear. She began by having us introduce ourselves and share our best Christmas stories. It was amazing. The stories were engaging and funny. It allowed me to see beyond the business side to the more personal side of people I greatly respect.

I hope you can find some of those moments this Christmas season. We are in a lean year this year. Many of the stories revolved around the joy of family and friends. Some involved the birth of a child at Christmas or the announcement of an impending pregnancy. No one’s stories involved extravagant gifts.

We worry and fret over how much to spend and what to buy that we consistently miss the main point. Christmas is a time of year for sharing. We share ourselves and our tie and our love.

Take a minute and come have a bowl of chili tonight at church. It’s on me. [It is actually free every year I just thought that sounded good.] It could be a great time to visit with family or catch up with friends you haven’t seen in awhile. We are putting an extra pot on this year. The cold weather seems perfect.

See you tonight!