Belated Christmas Thought

So by this point in time, most of us are done celebrating Christmas.
Sure, people technically leave their decorations up till New Years without feeling guilty, buy the carols are put up on the shelf for another year, gifts are mostly done being exchanged, and candy canes and cookies begin to lose their luster.
I hope everyone bothering to read this post had a lovely Christmas.
Mine was pretty good...spent most of the day with Josh and was delighted by the unexpected gifts he gave me. Plus we started watching the first couple of episodes on the dvd of Count Duckula (season One) I recently picked up from Amoeba. Both of us dug the cartoon as kids, and as we recently finished watching all 3 seasons Josh had on dvd of Arrested Development, it was time to begin a new chapter...so to speak.
But I digress.
I wanted to talk Christmas.
Perhaps its not a surprise that the most meaningful thing about Christmas to me is that we're celebrating God coming to earth as a human to redeem us from our sin.
Possibly my favorite Christmas (advent?) carol is "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." Hugely significant.
Most of this Christmas season though, I was admittedly not in the mood.
Josh and I did watch The Nativity Story at the end of November, and that was great. But on the whole, I was too busy with work, visitors, and Christmas cards to allow the time for silent reflection and listening to God's voice.
My loss.
But the cool turn in the story here is that yesterday (?) when I was reading my daily bible devotion, something stuck out to me. Often I feel like little revelations/deeper insights are a gift from God...so maybe I can think of this as my Christmas present...
And here it is:
From Luke 2:8-12
"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'"

See, the thing that caught my attention from this familiar passage was the footnote at the bottom of the page. It mentions the fact that "The Christ" in Greek, or "The Messiah" in Hebrew both mean "The Anointed One."
Often times, people who don't necessarily claim to follow Jesus, praise him for being a good man; a wise teacher...perhaps even a prophet.
I once got into an online conversation with someone who challenged me to point out where Jesus ever claimed to BE the Messiah that the Jewish people were waiting for.
Obviously, as Christians, this is the claim we stake our faith on. Jesus WAS a good man. He WAS a wise teacher. He WAS a prophet. But he was also SO much more!
And in case anyone might think he simply had delusions of grandeur, let's re-examine the fact--Angels were the first to proclaim Jesus to BE the Messiah!
Shepherds were the first to be told about the much-anticipated fulfillment of God's most precious promise to his people--and what's more for ALL the people, not just the Jews.
I guess the thing that hit me this Christmas was just how awesome it must've been to hear that news. Your whole culture is groaning under the oppression of the Roman Empire, let alone sin, and the only hope you have really is that God promised to send the Messiah to break that yoke of oppression. When? Who was to say...but it was something to hope in.
So for the shepherds to be told that the Messiah had come must have been incredible! The proclamation of all of history being redeemed and brought into the present moment. Wow!
And though our Jewish brothers and sisters still wait in expectation for the Messiah to arrive, we Christians identify ourselves with proclaiming the Christ already has come...
And even in a holiday that has become as commercialized as Christmas, His name is still proclaimed.

Guy in a Movie Theatre

So yesterday afternoon Josh and I went to see a movie at a cheap theatre here in LA. There was a guy in the theatre that was really rather interesting. ...humorously, intriguingly interesting.

There was music playing before the movie started and he was playing his harmonica along with the different songs. Honest! He stayed silent during Fiona Apple's "Paper Bag" (great song!), but that cut out anyway to have the previews start.

The funniest thing was when a promo/commercial came on that featured about 30 seconds on this guy walking along to "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin. Harmonica Guy went for it and jammed like part of the band for half a minute.

Wow, sometimes real life can be real amusing!

God bless ya, sir!

:)

"Art"

So this past weekend my Mom and her boyfriend have been visiting me out here in LA (which is a long way from Wisconsin!). Friday we went to Knott's Berry Farm, which probably would've been a lot more fun if we had more time to spend there (in the four hours we were there, we went on 3 rides, saw one performance, and looked through one exhibit). Anyway, to me the highlight of the trip was when we watched a Native American guy perform a traditional hoop dance. The above pic should give you some idea... He started out with picking up one hoop, and by the end, he was probably handling a dozen or so. REALLY impressive!
What's more, afterwards he spoke for a minute.
He mentioned that in Native American culture (I'm not positive if this extends to all tribes, but its the impression that I got), there is no word for "Art". All the singing, dancing, etc. are seen as a form of prayer. I really like that idea...

My First 10K!

So about 2 years back, I ran my first ever official race with my good Pal, Foxx back in Minneapolis. It was Lifetime Fitness' 5K Reindeer run around Lake Harriet...in the nasty cold. It was a great experience though, and certainly has remained a noteworthy page in my life.
Today I officially moved onto Chapter 2 in my racing career (ha!). I undertook a 10K run in Santa Monica with my good friends Kim and Matt F. Here's a shot of Kim and me after the race:

Kim told me once that her parents know me as 'the girl from Wisconsin who wears flannel', and so I had to grin on the car-ride to the race when I realized I was fitting the mold once again.
And how was the race?
Mile 2 felt GREAT to me. Mile 5 was a push. By Mile 6 I was pretty sure I was going to die.
The three of us ran together most of the way, but Matt (who had been pacing himself) shot ahead when he saw the finish line. I told Kim it was ok if she wanted to smoke me too. She encouraged me to sprint, but I know my limits and kindly declined. Kim's a trooper and stuck by me till the end. We finished with a time of 1 hour, 1 minute and about 20 seconds. If you take off the time it took us to get to the starting line, that's actually closer to about 1 hour. I feel great about that! I think it's the fastest I've ever run for that long of a distance!
Yay!
And here's one more photo that Kim snapped of me stretching out by Matt's car at the end...she and Matt both found it funny, and I guess I'm willing to look like a dork if it could make someone else smile too: