The Battle For the Human Soul

There are those Christians - me being one of them - who believe there is a cosmic battle being waged between the forces of light and dark, good and evil, God and satan if you will. They call it the Warfare Worldview. There have been many scholarly books written on the subject and obviously plenty of the entertainment variety books and movies dished up for our pleasure. Clearly the concept is familiar to all of us.

Given the state of the world and the perpetual inability of science and reason to explain the problem of evil it must at least cross your mind from time to time. Some things are so vile that there is no rational explanation for the depravity we see in mankind other than evil itself. This is not a rejection of science at all, rather it's an admission that there are some things that can't be explained mathematically or molecular-ly. In my view it was when the intellectuals dismissed evil as a phenomenon made-up by "religious nuts" that the world came off it's tracks. Science is great and all, it just doesn't tie up everything into a nice knowable bow for us.

I don't advocate for "religion" either. Religion is more often itself a vessel for evil in the name of good. The difference maker is love. Not romantic love, or even brotherly love, but agape love. The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice. It is the exact opposite of evil. When you hear the answer God is love to the question of what is God think of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of sin, all sin - that's love, agape love. God is love.

So, you don't buy all that he died for your sins business, okay, that's your prerogative. Sometimes I think Jesus is for those who need him. I'm one of them, you may not be, your love may be strong and unshakable. But please don't dismiss agape love out of hand. If you have children, you have given over to agape love... Yes, you do understand...

In the battle for the human soul you have the two conduits that feed into it. One is the spirit the other the body, one ethereal and one earthly. What comes into the soul is projected out into the world through your thoughts, words and deeds. The innate part of you that knows what's good and right, fair and just comes from your spirit. Your lusts and base desires, like greed, gluttony, envy and violence is fed by your body. Uncontrolled this conduit is ripe for the invasion of evil.

Only practicing agape love and controlling your body's desires keep us from falling into perpetual darkness. Study this simple graphic to lock this concept into your psyche. It may be the difference in the war of light vs dark.

[click on the picture to enlarge]

Ugh

I see smart people

Modern Man knows everything except himself...

The shame of our schools not teaching history through the eyes of the brilliant thinkers of antiquity is that students come to think John Stewart and Stephen Colbert are smartest people that ever lived. This is not to say Colbert and Stewart aren't wickedly smart people, but they are not thinkers. They are mockers. They make fun of the reasoned notions and the time worn conclusions of everything and everyone that came before them. Whatever value they may add to the culture is meager and fleeting. So be it, they're entertainers.

To single out Stewart and Colbert is unfair, there are multitudes of sharp minds in the modern culture. A sharp mind like Howard Stern's in my eyes has been completely wasted on self aggrandizement and pornography. You can say he's an entertainer and he's just doing his job, besides people like pornography. That doesn't mean it isn't a waste. So too with Chelsea Handler. Clearly this woman is sharp, but like Stern she wallows in put downs and lowest common denominator observations. She appeals to basest parts of our psyche, and because she is a woman it's interesting, but no less a waste. Again these two are just entertainers doing their part to lower discourse and encourage thoughtlessness. Besides, they are cool, and cool is all that matters. Being a Mr. Smartypants is so uncool.

This is as much an indictment of the greater culture, particularly parenting and the educational system as it is anything else. It's entertainers not parents and teachers who inform and literally shape the minds of the young with their flippant and cynical representations of everything good and decent. Eternal truth and beauty are replaced with degeneracy and mental pornography.

It wasn't always like this. There was a time when striving for knowledge, truth and beauty were cool. Before the advent of electronic mass media people like Edison, Tesla and Einstein were stars. The value to the world these people made is incalculable. Contrast and compare to the Kardashian's or JayZ and Beyonce of today. Even just narrowing on entertainment, consider that Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to name a few were as revered for their contribution to the intellect of the young mind as much as for the entertainment value of their work. One would hope they are still teaching about these great minds in schools.

People today want to think that we are so intellectually superior to the generations that came before that it's pointless to even consider the value of  past genius. We are not superior, not by a long stretch. Our technology is but our thinkers are not.

In this age of enlightenment that began in the last half of the 18th century it was the separation of science from natural theology that has lead inexorably to this cultural phenomenon. How many know that the field of "science" was only professionalized within the last 150 years? Natural sciences had been the realm of theologians in the Western world since long before the dark ages. Theology was the most professionalized field in existence for centuries. Every scientific truth uncovered in antiquity that we still recognize today was brought forth by theists and theologians. These facts are no less valuable today. It was theists like Galileo, Copernicus and Issac Newton who set the foundations for astronomy that we still rely on today to send men into space.

There were countless great minds of the past like Blaise Pascal and John Locke and others, theologians and believers whose contribution to modern philosophy is immense. If they are taught in schools at all their Christianity is suppressed. Great thinkers like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas are shunned completely in public schools. Even the modern saint Rev. Martin Luther King (named after the great Christian reformer Martin Luther) has his pastor title stripped in all public discourse. More modern thinkers and Christians like CS Lewis, Walker Percy and Peter Kreeft are merely lost in the cosmos - so to speak - as far as younger generations are concerned.

The old phrase throwing the baby out with the bath water comes to mind. In the all out effort to secularize the culture all the societal and moral value of the Christian era is being systematically wiped out. As if no redeeming societal significance comes from Christianity itself or the great minds of it's believers, past or present. As if washing the hands of the crimes committed by the overarching Christendom that proceeded the historical figure of Jesus Christ is justified, it is the height of insanity to erase the greatest single influence of the Western world. The Jesus of the Gospels never condoned many of things done in his name.  

As such it's one thing to downplay or suppress "God" or "Jesus" in every aspect of modern life, it's quite another to be openly hostile to the point of making laws against it - which is where we are heading. There are school districts that are planning to ban Jesus Christ - the historical figure - from the curriculum. The Jesus of the Gospels is probably the greatest cultural teacher that ever lived. Whether one believes in the deity of Christ or not to pretend he or his legacy never existed is a crime perpetrated on children.

The question is why is this happening? Well... Do we really not know?

Anyway, as the natural sciences separated and emerged as a distinct profession outside of theology the false narrative emerged that Christianity was somehow always at odds with reason and rationalism. It is now a given that there is a warfare between "religion and science". It's not true now and it has never been true. Even the battle over Darwinism is a false narrative spoon fed by intransigent atheists on one side and equally intransigent Christians on the other. Most of Christianity sees no real conflict between evolutionary concepts and the providence of God - yes, and especially the Catholic Church.

Modern man thinks he knows so much, but he doesn't or won't know himself; an unexamined soul sees no sin and therefore rejects it. He lives in a culture based on moral relativism, where nothing is more true than anything else, it only matters where you are seeing it from, and more importantly how you feel about it. Therefore nothing can really be known, especially about the self. With his mind steeped in relativism he rejects sin and the existence of evil. He can't draw the line between what is good and righteous and what is vile and disgusting.

For all the smart people alive today do any of them bother to question why the culture is adrift in a sea of turmoil with nothing to guide it to safe shores? I thought not.


Ugh

A new Jesus?

A while back I was talking with my brother, someone I respect enormously, about religion and so forth. Something he said really got me thinking and I've been ruminating on it ever since. My brother is no fan of religion to say the least. Me, I am a Christian, or rather a follower of Jesus (the label Christian has a few connotations that showcase hypocrisy, wickedness, inspiration and righteousness all at the same time). My brother advocates for a humanist approach to the question of ultimate morality, citing the need for mankind to adhere to the concept of true respect and genuine human rights for all people everywhere, no exceptions. I said something to effect that it's all right there in the Gospels of Jesus Christ. To that he declared that the world needs a new Jesus.

I was at a loss to even respond and we left it at that.

Now that I've had time to consider what he said I declare no, the world doesn't need a new Jesus what the world needs is new Christians. It isn't Jesus who has steered us so wrong. There is nothing in the Gospels that justifies the way many Christians act or some of the things they believe. Christianity is polluted and it began over 1500 years ago and is only now at the very beginning of clearing the air.

There was a time when Christians were indistinguishable from the modern radical Muslims of today. Again, nowhere in Gospels does Jesus ever ask for vengeance or encourage violence in any way. Quite the contrary, what we get from the New Testament is the real "New Deal", a deal free from an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth of the Old Testament.

Jesus said: You have heard it said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other cheek also. 

And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.

This is what Jesus taught us: violence and vengeance in kind is not the answer to violence and vengeance. If only Christians through the centuries had actually practiced what Jesus taught, what a different world this would be. This is the truth of Jesus, that if we actually lived like Jesus lived and loved like Jesus loved then the world would see mankind living with true respect and genuine human rights for all people everywhere. Jesus is the ultimate humanist!

I have learned at lot in the past two years having left the Catholic Church for a bible-based "teaching" church. This modern mega-church is headed by the most passionate Jesus follower I have ever known. For the first time I understand that the Holy Bible is a family story that culminates with Jesus Christ. Much of it is awful, cringe worthy, but it is a story with a beautiful ending. This story is told in the traditions of first century Jews and was never meant to be taken literally. It is not a reference book where you can pull a passage out of anywhere in the text and declare it truth, it's a novel where the order of things has relevance. You can't just jump over Jesus and cite the violence of the Old Testament as a definitive view of God. Jesus came to offer a new covenant, based on self sacrificial love and forgiveness, not the vengeful law of the Old Testament.

My brother is wise and instinctively right about a lot of things. He is right about religion in general, it is a problem and quite possibly even a cancer for mankind. There are good people practicing "religion" and this not to impune them. To be a follower of Jesus one must practice faith not just declare it. Faith is a verb. One practices it by living like Jesus lived and loving like Jesus loved. There is no litmus test for faith, having the right beliefs or jumping through the right hoops like the Catholics do cannot buy salvation. Living your faith and accepting the grace of God will lead you to good works, not the other way around.

The pastor of this mega-church is an influential American theologian who has written over 18 books, including a best seller popular in the secular world. He has written a book that he often cites on Sundays called "Repenting of Religion". He is Gregory A. Boyd. Another book that was published in 2013 by Bruxy Cavey called "The End of Religion" echos some of what Boyd says in his book.

Christendom, which is the melding of Church and State, was brought forth when the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the fourth century. He then declared the whole Roman Empire to be Christian.This in essence Romanized the Church. This unholy pairing of Church and State became drunk with power and started on a course of that can only be described of as evil. Jesus stopped being about love and forgiveness, and became a Warrior God - or He was shoved aside altogether.

Through the fall of the Roman Empire and the Protestant reformation the Church/State ruled for centuries by cultivating the fear of God rather than the love of Christ. Every ugly picture of Christianity can be traced to Christendom. It still rules the Church today in many ways, but it is slowly becoming extinct. This is exactly what these two books are about - the end of Christendom and the return of a Jesus-centered faith - and it is a beautiful thing.

The rise of non-denominational mega-churches (churches with thousands and thousands of congregants) all over the world are purposely separating themselves from the churches of Christendom. They focus on teaching and interpreting the Bible rather than dithering on rote traditions. The old line churches look down on these institutions as scripturally deficient and inauthentic. In my eyes the sermons in the mega-churches are actually sermons whereas the sermons in the traditional churches are more often than not pitches for money. These churches may not have the Magisterium of the Church, but they also don't have the baggage. They are fresh and exciting and people love being a part of it. Contrast a mega-church (this can be done just by looking at the parking lot on Sundays) to a Catholic parish or a Lutheran congregation where the young leave the church at 16 never to return. The pews are half-full the old who truly love their church, but they will never renew it. The Jesus-centered mega-churches have people of all ages and backgrounds and the 16 years-olds drive themselves to the service every Sunday - because they want to be there.

They are learning to reject violence and grotesque consumerism. They are learning that every person they meet - friendly or not - has unsurpassable worth and is precious enough for Jesus to have died for on Calvary two thousand years ago. They are learning that everyone is welcome in the Kingdom, sinners and saints, blacks and whites, gays and straights. They are learning to live within their means and to be generous with their extras. They are learning that living like Jesus lived and loving like Jesus loved leads to better world here and now and to the glory of the Kingdom to come.

These are the new Christians.




Ugh

Saving the world... On your dime

I am constantly amazed at the parallels between socialism/liberalism and Christian religiosity. It's all the more curious since hard core socialists and liberals seek to destroy religiosity (and Christianity in particular). As if Christians haven't done a good enough job all by themselves.

All good theologians, priests and pastors should be reminding the flock that we, the children of the Kingdom of Heaven, are in this world but not of this world. We are of God, children of God, whose job it is to bring to this world, here and now, as much of the Kingdom as we can - to do his will on Earth as it is in Heaven. So too for the progressives, so alienated from America as to feel themselves in it but not of it. Politically their sensibilities lay with European or Canadian socialists much more than with middle America. In their hearts they believe America can be redeemed, not by Jesus mind you, but by socialism via a nanny-state government.

So convinced of their mission, seeing themselves as saintly, pious and anointed they alone stand between all that is righteous and the very nexus of evil - the conservatives, the patriots and the capitalists in Red State America. Since ordinary people cannot be allowed to think and act in their own best interest it is up to the progressives to lay out (and insist on) the course for your life. In order to complete the progressive kingdom of heaven on earth they, the progressive elites, must control where you live, what you do, what you eat, what you drive, what you earn and particularly what you say, lest you say something politically incorrect. Remember, they do this all for your own good.

On top of all that they absolutely need to control what you think. Honestly it's just best that you don't think - let them do the thinking for you it's easier that way. Because if you stopped to think about what they "do" for you then you might start to realize that what they actually do is destroy what is good. Good intentions aside, their solutions, their antidotes, their plans don't work. They never work. And that's the rub, it doesn't matter what the results are. Results are in the past, the past doesn't matter - only the future matters!

Reasonable people have known for eons, that humanity consists of dual natured beings, with good and evil coexisting in each of us. The progressives, however, believe that society with its individualism, capitalism, class-ism, sexism and racism is what's evil and the people by nature are inherently good. When they start with this faulty premise they are denying human nature itself. All their good intentions and righteousness fall flat when the results of their "works" destroy what is good and leave wreckage in its wake. What it means is that they end up hurting the very people they claim to be helping. As if by making society and the culture perfectly equal people will be equal too.

Religion or Christianity if you will, knows that mankind is flawed, fallen, consisting of dual natures. It also wants people to fly right, just like the progressives do. Full of good intentions as well, the Church offers help, spiritual as well as physical help. The Church knows what you should do and how you should act for a good life here on Earth and more importantly for your eternal salvation. The Church also screws up to be sure, however, religion is wholly voluntary and voluntarily funded (in America). Not so for the progressive utopia. It is funded by you and me and a ton of debt. It is also not in the least bit voluntary. We are forced by the power of the state - which they control - to comply with the progressive vision of utopia regardless if it works or not.

Oh, it's not as bad as all that, you say. Oh, but it is. Just look at two areas dominated by liberal/progressive ideology - education K through university and social welfare.

No one can possibly argue that progressives do not control every aspect of the education landscape in the U.S. They have a literal stranglehold on funding and mandates. It dominates all local budgets. In the case of post-secondary education and the complete and utter take-over of the student loan program by the federal government the debt being piled on the next generation is soul crushing - and unsustainable.

Public education in America is in terrible shape, almost no one argues with that. Public school teachers send their own kids to private schools at a far higher rate than the average parent. Why? They know public schools fail children. And it's not the lack of money - it's a lack of real education. Self esteem, ecology and social justice issues dominate the classes were history and critical thinking are taught. At university liberal ideology dominates everything. Any ideas not straight down the socialist line are shouted down, often by the students themselves, so indoctrinated by this stage in their education. An open forum for differing ideas is not welcome on most campuses.


However the most damaging aspect of the public schools is not necessarily the curriculum, as bad as that is, it's that the kids and their parents are held accountable to nothing - not much is expected of them. Not even that they graduate. This is the crux of the problem as well with social welfare and public aid. Nothing what so ever is expected of them. Yet the recipients of social welfare expect that check, that EBT card the rent subsidy etc etc without them having to lift a finger. In the 90's welfare reform swept the nation and for a while things got better. It has now slid back. The real issue is the generation over generation trap such government welfare programs set. By extending it to the children of the children of the children it creates a perpetual dependency that ultimately serves society very poorly.

What drives socialism and the liberally minded? Is it the desire to help the less fortunate, save people from poverty, further social justice? Perhaps, for some of them. The fact of the matter it's about control and power. For 1400 years it was about control and power for the Christian religion too. For the last few hundred years there has been a changing of the guard. The Church is slowly returning to a pre-Constantine Jesus centered paradigm. Socialism is gradually grabbing control of every consequential organization and bending it to serve it's cause - a cause of simple domination.

In the wake of all this so-called care for social justice is human destruction. Many public schools as previously mentioned are terrible, pouring out millions of uneducated pre-adults. The urban black community is in shambles as a result of the very welfare state created to "help" them. City, state and federal budgets are busted by social spending (including corporate welfare). The baby boom generation set to retire will drain every dime of the nation's wealth because the social security systems were poorly handled and the money spent faster than it came in. The causes of environmentalism, unionism, incentivism, crony capitalism and over-regulation - all backed by liberals and socialists - have helped drive the wealth builders overseas depriving Americans decent jobs and driving them right into the arms of socialism's handout parade.

Unlike the Church's works of charity and it's voluntary social welfare system, government socialism pays for it by taking from those who earn it, filtering through government systems that are designed to perpetuate the poverty and then hand out the rest to those who do nothing - whether or not they can work.

Socialism is a religion where the elites are the gods. Having such a low opinion of the masses forces them to take control for the good of society. Some are actually sincere, they actually care, but don't trust the rubes enough to make good decisions. Others just want the power to control and find it easier through the avenues of government than the world of business. The multinational capitalists with their Cheshire grins play both sides against the middle, placating each just enough to rake in their billions.

In the end there seems to be no escape from socialist domination of the world. The Church is retreating, for better or for worse. The real blame is laid on the loyal opposition in every country socialism dominates, in particular here in America. The Republicans and conservatives cannot seem to articulate, well, well, anything. As Michael Walsh said in a recent article over at Unexplained Premises on PJMedia.com:

Any party that cannot successfully sell freedom and personal liberty doesn’t deserve power. The trick will be to explain — by word and deed — that the Democrats’ Manichean choice (Big Brother or the orphanage) is a false one, that less can be more, and that the restoration of a Republic of self-reliant citizens will benefit all Americans — not simply the government class and its clients.

That pretty much sums it up.



Ugh

I am nothing...

Sometimes you read something that just stops you in your tracks.

Those of us who do a routine self evaluation - you know who you are - often question your decisions, your opinions, your station in life and most of all your worth. Some people don't ponder anything large, ever. This is not to say they are bad people or anything like that. They just don't think like that. They go through life as is and don't waste the brain cycles on the esoteric. Some of us are just more introspective, questioning or fascinated by what we don't know. Some of us are called daydreamers or fools. (The ones who are sure of themselves and know it all will fancy themselves intellectuals.)

When we get on in years many men will question what they've accomplished and more profoundly what they've missed. This often leads to the proverbial mid-life crisis. For others a health scare will do the same thing. We start to ponder what and who we are and more poignantly what is really important. In some cases we consider what will we leave behind.

I can relate to the later. I think about the immediate well being of my wife and kids. Financially, materially they should be alright. Emotionally we've mended most of the hot messes created through the "growing up" years in our little family as the kids are now adults. So, I guess I worry a little about the wider perception of "me" when I pass from this plane of existence. I fancy myself a musician and an artist and I feverishly paint pictures and give them away while I busy myself in the recording studio writing and producing my own original music (that I intend to give away) and try to work as hard as I can for my employer and all my good friends at work. I try, not always successful at being a good father, husband, brother and son.

I am so worried about what others will think/feel when they ponder my life I have forgotten the simple truth that I am nothing. Huh, you say:

read on...

excerpted from Love by Peter Kreeft
There is more: nothing else is really yours. Your health, your works, your intelligence, your possessions-these are not what they seem. They are all hostage to fortune, on loan, insubstantial. You discover that when you learn who God is. Face to face with God in prayer, not just a proper concept of God, you find that you are nothing. All the saints say this: you are nothing. The closer you get to God the more you see this, the more you shrink in size. If you scorn God, you think you're a big shot, a cannonball; if you know God, you know you're not even buckshot. Those who scorn God think they're number one. Those who have the popular idea of God think they're "good people". Those who have a merely mental orthodoxy know they're real but finite creatures, made in God's image but flawed by sin. Those who really begin to pray find that compared with God they are motes of dust in the sun. Finally, the saints say they are nothing. Or else (Saint Paul's words) "the chief of sinners". Sinners think they're saints and saints think they're sinners.

Who's right? How shall we evaluate this insight?

Mr. Kreeft  talks of the misconceptions of the concept of "Love" with a special focus on agape love - God is Love. When I came to this passage I was struck by the simplicity and the finality of it.

Shortly after a health scare I walked around my house, surveying my belongings. I remember being out in the garage musing on what a disorganized mess it was and that I should toss out this and that - but wait - what if ever need one of those, you know in the future... I was struck by how unimportant these things were.

My possessions are just things. No one is going cherish them or even fight over them. Most of them are going to be discarded or trashed when I'm gone anyway. It is my relationships with family and friends that are important. Right? But when I look around I see that they are also tied to possessions and processes that are material in nature. Sure they like me, or even love me, but in the end their lives will go on - as they should - and I will be a memory. It's my relationship with God that matters - the one who truly loves me.

As Kreeft writes: One of the saints says that Jesus would have done everything he did and suffered everything he suffered even if you were the only person who had sinned, just for you. That's such an incredible thought! God's love is always the concrete individual, not some abstraction called humanity. Love of humanity is easy because humanity does not surprise you with inconvenient demands. You never find humanity on your doorstep, stinking and begging. For Jesus it was personal, it is personal.

Until - I - we - you - fully understand this we will have an emptiness we can never fill.




CW

Hat Tip to Bruce Carlton

Tug of War

I rarely talk about religion in a public forum. It gets you no where unless the ears and hearts of those listening in are receptive. I know this is the eternal paradox facing evangelism which we as Christians are all called to do. Essentially you can't turn hearts and minds unless you talk about it, however, nothing turns hearts and minds away faster than some self-righteous bloviator lecturing to the unreceptive. It's a gift to be able to convey the good news of personal salvation through the grace of Jesus, faith and scripture. Some have the gift, and some do not.

The other main obstacle is that Christianity, Christ himself, is not about harmony and playing nice with the culture in which we find ourselves. Jesus was a reactionary, a radical if you will. Our human nature fights to go along, get along - it's easier - rather than questioning and challenging the status quo.

Born and raised Catholic I had all my life continued "being" Catholic well after most my family and friends had given it up. Partly because I loved the tradition and because I don't change very easily. After the kids grew up we stopped being as regular with our attendance and particularly after all the priest sex abuse cases and coverups came to light. We were disgusted. Still, I maintained that I was Catholic. I would always reconcile the issues within the Roman Catholic Church by convincing myself (rightly so) that evil exists in any institution run by human beings.

Today I find myself in a bit of a tug of war. For a few years I have been following a scholar and a Catholic convert (Othodox), one Mr. Bruce Charlton of the UK. Regulars here have probably seen my many references to his work. His words have made me stop in my tracks more than once. He has a way of making things I never considered suddenly become foundational in my worldview. I am so impressed with his mind.

Lately I've been attending services at a local "mega church" called Woodland Hills in Maplewood Minnesota - a suburb of St. Paul. The founder and pastor, Greg Boyd is what I would consider a Protestant corollary to Mr. Charlton. I have thoroughly enjoyed his messages/lectures. Boyd, like all Reformation based pastors teaches from the Bible exclusively. Like Charlton he has a way of boiling things down to the essence making clear what was once clouded.

While these men would not see eye to eye on everything they are both Christian reactionaries. Both are convincing when they declare that the predominant culture of our time is not in league with our faith. In most cases it's in direct conflict with Christian faith. Charlton struggles out-loud with us over the power of the culture and the Political Correctness that now rules the Western world. Boyd warns us to be careful where we put our allegiance when we feel called by the same culture. If it makes us place faith in anything other than in the grace of Jesus Christ we can cause ourselves great harm. I do not think following both of these thinkers and teachers is in any way detrimental to my own faith. For now I am learning so much.

Am I still Catholic? Good question.



CW

Merry Christmas

If there is ever a good time to set aside life's worries and tribulations it is Christmas Day. Visit with family and friends, eat good food and smile a lot. It is good for your soul whether you're a believer or not.

As commercialized as Christmas has become it is still a time of hope, of grace, of companionship and good will. All these things Jesus wished for us. There will be other days to contemplate repentance, forgiveness and life everlasting.

Christmas itself is not the pinnacle of the Christian tradition, but it is important. More than anything it brings friends and families together. For this one night nearly the world over hearts lighten, children smile and people of the planet Earth take a second to inhale...


CW