CityView Magazine

faith Life is a Celebration Call Ethos to Plan Yours Event Planning. Interior Design. Ethos|Creative|Group Owner –Lorna Ricotta, 910.401.3125 | www.EthosCreativeGroup.com Work from home Flexible schedule Spend more time with family Work part-time e New Year brings a fresh perspective, as well as a renowned desire to reach your goals. If you checked any of these, you are looking for the freedom to make these resolutions come true. THE IRONY OF CHRISTMAS By The Rev. Dan Alger T Freedom – find it today with the Arbonne opportunity and make your New Year’s resolution come true. Secure your freedom today by calling me at 910.263.0286 and I’ll introduce you to the Arbonne opportunity. Kimberly Weimer www.kimberlyweimer.myarbonne.com Independent Consultant indycar12@aol.com here is a real irony to Christmas. Once a year we enter into “the most wonderful time of the year” when we celebrate a time of “peace on Earth and good will towards men.” We eagerly embrace themes of joy, family, beauty and serving others. I don’t know what a sugar plum is, but apparently they are so excited about Christmas that they dance this time of year. Christmas always seems to creep up out of nowhere. Somehow the months fly by and all of a sudden it is once again time to be cheerful and drum up some compassion for our fellow man. The irony in Christmas is that it is a celebration of Jesus, who came to change our entire lives – not just to change a season. The themes that we get excited about during this season are what Christ brings to us every day. He brings the joy of forgiveness and new life. He brings the family of people who have been brought together in his name to love and support one another and to change the world. And he brings the beauty of life lived abundantly and with a new attitude of graciously serving others. This is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to bring to every moment of every day. It is ironic that while most of us deeply love Christmas and have many romantic images of peace and harmony, we lament that it only comes once a year. We love Christmas and wish the world was like this all the time. A deep look at the teachings of Jesus and the Bible show that this same Christmas feeling that people love during the Holiday season can be experienced much more deeply and much more frequently. Jesus came to make the things we love at Christmas a daily reality. Jesus’ gift was never meant to be constrained to a season. He came to shine a light on the world that reaches far beyond the light put off by the little ones we keep stapled to our front porch all year and turn on only in December. Jesus came to change the themes of this world – except he came to do it for real, not in a manipulative marketing campaign. My encouragement to you this year is to go deeper than being inspired to joy and compassion by animatronic elves and over-priced greeting cards. Can we dream that the world would truly know peace? That families really would have harmony? That giving truly would be something we enjoy? That people really could experience the joy of a new life? These things are not miraculously born from Christmas lights and material things – these things are offered to us and are only possible through the transforming work of Jesus Christ in our lives. Let’s pray that Jesus will work in our hearts so that we move beyond a manufactured temporary hope and joy and start to experience real joy in our lives all year long. Maybe we should pray for Christmas everyday…and perhaps without the materialism and gluttony.CV Dan is the Pastor of The Church of the Apostles www.tcota.org and can be reached at ecs@tcota.org. 16 | Winter • 2010/2011

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