Two of our very dear friends from California, Justin & Lauren, visited last week and we had a blast. Played frisbee golf, tons of games, laser tag, went shopping, out to eat, watched movies and visited family for new years. Thanks for coming guys! We’re planning an August vacation out their way next.

Things I’m thinking about:

• How important it is to be intentional about everything in the church. Do things just get thrown together without a clear purpose? I’m all about moving quickly when someone’s been convicted and inspired. But how much damage do we cause in the long run because their isn’t a sense of intentionality behind it?
• Still thinking about how important it is to be 100% in the moment. Such a gift to people.
• Why I believe church marketing is important but is often the substitute/excuse for building real relationships and inviting someone because something indescribable is happening.

Things I’m excited about:

• Going to Jacksonville for the Living the United Methodist Way Quadrennial Training event later this month. Will get to hang out with lots of great leaders, see my dad (!!), and enjoy Florida weather.
• Co-leading a Digital Media workshop with my husband. Our segment will be on the Expecations of 20 Somethings regarding digital media in worship. If you’re on Facebook, answer some research questions for us here.
• VERY excited the 13 people signed up to journey with me the next 12 weeks through Living Simply. CANNOT WAIT to see how God works in us as a group!!
• Really excited to take Sue Nilson Kibbey’s Leadership for Ministry class starting in February.
• Some great things stirring in the Young Clergy department. Lots of people getting excited about a national young clergy gathering of some kind. We’re focused on what kind of measureable outcome there would be. We don’t want to waste money and time just to gather and say we did it. How will it actually make a difference?
• Wedding planning with my sister - well she’s doing most of the planning but I get lots of consulting phone calls.
• My husband turning 27 this month!!

I’ve encountered thousands (it might be tens of thousands) of people walking around with great ideas. Some of the ideas really are great; some are merely pretty good. There doesn’t seem to be a shortage of ideas. Ordinary folks can dream up remarkable stuff fairly easily.

What’s missing is the will to make the ideas happen.

The difference are people who actively talk themselves out of the fear. The fear is still there, but it’s drowned out by a different story. It’s the story of success, of drive, of doing something that matters.

Are you hiding from the fear of leading?

Ideas the spread, win. Boring ideas don’t spread.

Actually…

What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticism.

We choose not to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism. Watch a few people get criticized for being innovative, and it’s pretty easy to convince yourself that the very same thing will happen to you if you’re not careful.

But if you get criticized, it means you did something worth remarking on.

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I’m fascinated when some ideas thrive and others crash and burn. I often analyze them to figure out the factor that made the difference. I agree with Seth’s observations about our fear of criticism. How many of us have ideas that would create significant positive change? Something that excites us beyond belief?

Why aren’t we working on them?

We’re afraid. Terrified. Mortified that we’ll fail.

At some point, something clicks inside our soul that won’t allow the excuses anymore. I love that moment.

When we are with our children, spouse, at work or at play, what good are we if our minds are somewhere else? It’s so easy to take the most important people in our lives for granted.

I want to be a person who’s with my husband and completely focused on him and our conversation. I want to be with friends and not think about other things. Just simply enjoy their friendship. I want to be at school or church and focused entirely on how I can best serve and learn.

It’s really hard though. I’m amazed at how easily we blame things on our “ADD personalities.” I have trouble sitting through a 3 hour class without surfing the internet. I love to dream about the future and that distracts me from being present in the moment. When I’m hanging out with friends, I tend to think about what we’ll do next instead of enjoying the moment. I’m robbing others around me of the real me.

No one gets all of my attention.

I’m so far from the person I want to be.

And isn’t that the tension of life? The unfathomable distance between what we are and what we want.

I’m thankful that God makes a way between those two points. Otherwise, I’d be screwed.

Some of the highlights:

• Gratitude Box from my parents, husband & siblings (we all wrote things we appreciated about each other)
• World Vision chickens from Kerri (she put tons of feathers in a box, I thought there was a dead chicken in the shoe box!)
• HIV/AIDS Caregiver Kit from Jason & Brooke
• Sister necklace from my siblings
• UMCOR gift donated by my parents
• My new amazingly comfortable recliner (my husband went WAY over our agreed upon spending limit but I LOVE it!)
• Year subscription to Rev Magazine (love this magazine!)
• Lots of gift cards to shop with!!
• Spending time with my aunt, uncle & cousins, my husband’s family and seeing my family open some of their presents on webcam in Alaska (jealous of all their snow!)

I hope your Christmas & New Years are filled with moments that catch you off guard. Moments you internalize how much love, family and faith matter in our lives.

“I hope you’re surprised by joy tonight.”

It struck me how we try to manufacture the perfect Christmas moments. If we get the perfect gift, the best food, the right people around the table, then Christmas will be meaningful. We’re blind to a million moments that could fill us with joy because we’re too busy creating moments.

Are you too busy to be surprised by joy?

So we start the 5pm service and everytime I looked at the Jesus figurine on the altar, tears stream down my face. I can’t believe we get to do this. I can’t believe Jesus loves me that much that he would leave heaven and choose to get involved in our mess. I’ve never felt so close to God. Singing David Crowder’s O Praise Him rocked!

After worship, I hopped in my car to get to the YMCA service at 7pm and worshipped along with the radio all the way there. It’s been a great evening!

For those of us that work in the church, we’re often in danger of missing the point. We’re around everything so much that we get used to it.

I’m so thankful for moments I’m surprised and amazed all over again. Merry Christmas!!

www.jennyandaaronsmith.com

Christ didn’t walk into Jerusalem – he fulfilled prophecy by riding in on a donkey. It was outrageous. He wasn’t born in a nice home with all kinds of assurances he would be okay – he was born in a barn, with a feeding trough for a crib. It was outrageous. John the Baptist baptized the Son of God. Outrageous. Jesus raised people from the dead. Called the religious authority of the day “sons of the Devil.” Told people he was God. Outrageous, outrageous, outrageous.

Why does God use the outrageous? Because he needs our attention.

Any why, when using the outrageous, does he use guys like Simon Peter? Peter was the same guy who rebuked Jesus openly, cut off a guy’s ear, and denied Christ three times. I mean, come on! And with all that, Christ still told Peter, “On this rock I will build my church” (Matt 16:18). Does any of this make sense?

Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost the ability to act outrageously in the name of Christ. If we decided to do a Walk on Water Outreach on Lake Erie, the first people to complain would be Christians. We are very willing to drive outreach from the backseat, but when the hands must get dirty, when the rubber hits the road, we have no opinion and nothing to say.

The church has lost its outrageous edge. Period.

Outrageous acts of faith are not in our best interest anymore, because they require us to talk to other human beings, and communication with people might mean that our precious comfort zone gets breached. Today, outreach is safe, with nicely contained events, controlled by the politically correct. We have become a church chained to itself.

What if you decided to call sin out? What if tomorrow you got up and decided to help? Anyone? What if you just shut your mouth, got up, chucked this book in the trash, and did something, anything short of sin, to end someone’s pain and misery?

It will stay with me for the rest of my life. I will cherish this forever.

I felt very sorry for the kids & very thankful. I also felt very sorta spoiled.

I felt like I was actually in Africa, and I felt like I wanted to help ALL of the people in Africa. I even forget I was in a church!

I felt so sad. How could you lose your parents and not have anywhere to live or nothing to eat? I almost started crying. It’s so sad to see this and some spoiled kids who may not be grateful just might say ‘oh boo hoo’ that’s not our fault. But with our help we can help them. That’s the sad part. We all know we can help them so why don’t we?

I felt so sorry for myself. When I figured out that I had HIV AIDS, I about cried my eyes out! I was so so devasted! I couldn’t believe it.


We asked them how they could help…

I will definitely tell other people about those kids and try to get them to donate.

I could have a garage sale and sell all my junk and give the money made to a child in need.

This week, instead of spending lots of money on clothes, I could sponsor a child in need who has AIDS. With this information, I can, no I WILL think of others.

I could sell 2 of the computers we have and some of our furniture and things we don’t use and would put all the money together and sponsor a child in Africa.

I could get rid of some of my stuffed animals, I could get rid of some of my clothes or I could get rid of all of my shoes, but one pair. I could make something out of what I don’t need.

I am going to ask my parents if we can donate anything to Africa. I’m going to be MORE thankful for what I have.

When I’m acting spoiled, I will think about what it would be like if I had AIDS.

Maybe on Christmas I’ll give away all my old stuff or things I don’t even touch.

I will donate all of the extra money to help kill HIV/AIDS.

I am going to care about HIV/AIDS more than what I was!

I will save my allowance and donate that money to help feed the kids in Africa with HIV/AIDS.

For the last couple years, we’ve put our wedding cake topper on the top of our tree. It’s a Precious Moments one. Got through that just fine.

Then I started pulling out ornaments from 1982 and I could feel the tears welling up. Then the “Breath of Heaven” song came on and I just lost it.

It took me instantly back to the many times my friends and I did a dance to that song on Christmas Eve at St. John in Anchorage. I LOVED Christmas Eve at St. John. I would go to all 5 services with my dad and play piano or dance at some of them. My heart always overflowed with love & beauty as we raised our candle on the last verse of Silent Night. We would lock up the church around midnight and walk outside as snow was lightly falling.

It catches me off guard when certain memories are so strong & vivid.

I cried tonight for the awkwardness of growing up.

The difficulty of making new memories & traditions.

The tension of spending 22 years with family, doing everything together, depending on each other for fun, arguing, laughing and memories. Then marrying the most amazing guy and figuring out how to start a new family.

I thank God I married a guy who’s patient with me while we continue to figure out how to do this. It’s hard sometimes.

How do we live in the tension of remembering the past & appreciating it, but not waste our present trying to recreate the past?