Everyone else has weighed in on Tebow. Why not me? Some of these are the beginnings of blogposts unto themselves. And they may show up someday. But for now, ten thoughts on Tebow and all the criticism.

1. If you are a believer, any discussion of Tebow should be colored by an understanding that he is our brother. This doesn’t preclude criticism but it should color it differently.

2. Tebow has the jaw line of a cartoon Batman.

3. Am I the only one who gets the feeling this is the the cool kids not liking the not-cool kids?

4. What does Tebow now have to do to earn the respect of the commentators who were/are his critics? My guess? Stop talking about his faith and/or win a Superbowl.

5. The only player who has a better winning percentage than him is Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Freakingundefeatedhalloffamebound Rodgers.

6. I just assume this is all about our culture’s desire for edgy heroes. You want edgy? You can have Alec Baldwin, Xavier and Cincinnati’s basketball team and Miley Cyrus.

7. One of the criticisms of Tebow is he will not be able to keep up this kind of winning and will eventually not do well. Of course, those who say this do not think he will not keep up this kind of wining and get better.

8. We now live in a culture where Christians get all excited because of a vaguely spiritual line from unbelieving musicians and recoil at the overt faith of a professed believer in the gospel.

9. Respect of players > opinion of commentators.

10. I actually thought that after the Sandusky/Paterno revelations, people would long for heroes like Tebow. Silly me.

1. Wife brought home Zaxby’s last night and I felt like we were cheating on Chick-fil-a.

2. For all of you who think Christmas is too materialistic, can I have your presents?

3. I’m thinking about starting a new blog detailing all my meals. It will be called “Awesome.”

4. I need to just get over it. I’ll never look as good as I want to in a leotard.

5. One of my favorite parts of the season is curling up by the fire and skipping “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” on Pandora.

6. Zaxby’s sauce is also known as “1/6 of a Big Mac”.

7. My greatest weakness as a writer is remembering what punctuation goes inside the quotation marks and which are outside. So I just do it both ways and then I’m happy to have gotten half right.

8. Just how Pagan is the Winter Solstice? Cause I need an excuse to keep our tree up till March.

9. So far the best part of working in a bank is someone always has change for a dollar.

10. Not being able to remember the last time you had bacon is kinda like a meat specific amnesia.

Finally I get to blog about something I love dearly. My iPad 2. I’ve now had her…it since October 27th at approximately 6:45 AM. And I’ve no idea how I lived…breathed without her. I mean it.

Since we met…I mean since I got it, I’ve tried out a number of apps. The following are 10 that are nothing but awesome. I’m sure this list will change a little over time. But for now these are the favorites and how much they cost.

1. Pages. Easily my favorite, Pages is Apple’s answer to the train wreck that is Word. This is a gorgeous and easy to use app for word processing. Worth all $9.99 and then some.

2. Flipboard. I’ve no idea how to describe this one except it makes blog reading very enjoyable. The aesthetics are wonderful and again like all the best apps it is easy to use. I still can’t believe this one is free.

3. Angry Birds Seasons HD. So awesome, awesome, awesome. $1.99 for Seasons HD.

4. iBooks. I love reading on the iPad. I like real books as much as anyone but I also like reading on something as beautiful as her. It…the iPad. Free.

5. Kindle. This one just popped up into my favorites list. A couple nights ago I checked out an ebook through Amazon from my local library. Within minutes it was on my iPad and ready for me to devour. I cannot even get my head around how awesome this is. Free.

6. Lyrics Finder. Sometimes I cannot understand what Dylan, The Boss or Van the Man are singing. Pull this app up while listening and the lyrics are right there. Easy and seamless. $.99

7. Monet HD. Exactly what you would expect, Monet’s work in all their beauty. A breathtaking app full of masterpiece after masterpiece. It all comes with museum worthy music. And from the same folks there are apps for Van Gogh, Carvaggio, Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci and more. $.99.

8. Shakespeare. Seriously. Sometimes I just read parts of one of his plays at random. With many writers – even the best – you have to dig for the treasures. But with the Bard, they just sit there in the wide open ready to be scooped up. This app has some amazing features including a glossary and quotations. And it was free.

9. Freecell. I’m a gamer. I game. Especially with free games.

10. Life for iPad. Reminding us that not everyone who has a camera is a photographer. And also reminding us why so many want to be one. Free.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Jesus

That was our call to worship yesterday. And with the world swirling around me, it’s all I needed. Though I did not chafe against any of it, the rest of the service wasn’t really needed.

The offer of rest was a welcome one.

Living in the unpredictable wake of moving into a job in which I do not yet feel comfortable has left me feeling the thinness of my own skin. Corporate culture is different from what I’m used to. Not bad, just different.

There is no need to feel sorry for me. Actually I’m appreciative in the midst of this. I can get pretty wrapped up in my world but I’m aware there are many who did not really have the choice I did. I moved toward the things I’m struggling to understand and do well.

I drive approximately 5 minutes to a job I lunged for. But I pass so many each morning mired in their cubicles and positions. You can see the fire flickering out at traffic lights everywhere. Hurrying to a place they have very little desire to occupy, they sigh in so many words…

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,…”

So, I know. I know there are others who are laboring under heavier yokes than me. But I love Jesus’ words as one who has the world swirling around him and wants it all to slow down. A moment for a peaceful soul is the order of the day.

As we inch – speed closer to Christmas day I feel the tug of the rest promised. A rest promised for restless hearts and worried minds. A rest for the tired and weary. And a double rest for the confused and languishing.

As I type this I sit under the stars, everyone a sermon. Every one is a reminder of the One announced by a star. The Gentle One for all those who have been banged up by life. And death. The One with a lowly heart for restless ones.

Though the world swirls around us all.

1. The media doesn’t really like Lady Gaga or her music. They just like the way she shocks middle America.

2. I keep buying and returning iPad cases. I may have a problem.

3. My buddy Sean has been out of the office all week. So we have not been able to chat through lotus notes. It’s been a long week.

4. Most people who have as little money as we do, do not get to live in their dream house as we do.

5. When you get an iPad for your birthday in late October, it is easy to not be materialistic about the Holidays. Think about it.

6. I mentally makes notes in my head about how things remind me of Harry Potter.

7. For some reason I’ve gotten a lot done at work this week.

8. Bought an app this week which doesn’t work too well. I blame liberals and El Niño.

9. Pretty excited about being able to watch Antiques Roadshow on the iPad. Boom.

10. People keep giving me bacon-flavored everything except…bacon.

I wrote the following a couple of years ago. Thanks to my friend, Collin Hansen over at The Gospel Coalition, for making it available to a wider audience last year.

We are now accustomed to hearing how Christmas is difficult for many people. The story of Scrooge and his – ehem – problems with the season is no longer anecdotal. It is now par for the course. Maybe this has always been the case. Maybe the joy of the season has always been a thorn in the side of those who can scarcely imagine joy.

Not too long ago, I heard from one of these people about how difficult Christmas would be because of some heartbreak in their family. There was utter hopelessness and devastation. Christmas would be impossible to enjoy because of the freshness of the pain. It’s been a story hard to forget.

I get it. I mean, it makes sense. Christmas is a time in which there is a lot of heavily concentrated family time. The holidays can be tense in even the best of circumstances. Maneuvering through the landmines of various personalities can be hard even if there is no cancer, divorce or empty seat at the table. What makes it the most wonderful time of the year for one is also what makes it the most brutal time of the year for another. My own family has not been immune to this phenomenon.

I’d like to push back against this idea a little. Gently. I think we have it all backwards. We have it sunk deep into our collective cultural consciousness that Christmas is for the happy people. You know, those with idyllic family situations enjoyed around stocking-strewn hearth dreams. Christmas is for healthy people who laugh easily and at all the right times, right? The successful and the beautiful, who live in suburban bliss, can easily enjoy the holidays. They are beaming after watching a Christmas classic curled up on the couch as a family in front of their ginormous flat-screen drinking perfectly mixed hot cocoa. We live and act as if this is who should be enjoying Christmas.

But this is so damnably backwards. Christmas – the great story of the incarnation of the Rescuer – is for everyone, especially those who need a rescue. Jesus was born as a baby to know the pain and sympathize with our weaknesses. Jesus was made to be like us so that in his resurrection we can be made like him; free from the fear of death and the pain of loss. Jesus’ first recorded worshippers were not of the beautiful class. They were poor, most-likely ugly shepherds; beat down by life and labor. They had been looked down on over many a nose.

Jesus came for those who look in the mirror and see ugliness. Jesus came for daughters whose fathers never told them they were beautiful. Christmas is for those who go to “wing night” alone. Christmas is for those whose lives have been wrecked by cancer and the thought of another Christmas seems like an impossible dream. Christmas is for those who would be nothing but lonely if not for social media. Christmas is for those whose marriages have careened against the retaining wall and are threatening to flip over the edge. Christmas is for the son, whose father keeps giving him hunting gear when the son wants art materials. Christmas is for smokers who cannot quit even in the face of a death sentence. Christmas is for whores, adulterers and porn stars who long for love in every wrong place. Christmas is for college students who are sitting in the midst of family and already cannot wait to get out for another drink. Christmas is for those who traffic in failed dreams. Christmas is for those who have squandered the family name and fortune – they want ‘home’ but cannot imagine a gracious reception. Christmas is for parents watching their children’s marriage fall into disarray.

Christmas is really about the gospel of grace for those who need it. Because of all that Christ has done on the cross, the manger becomes the most hopeful place in a Universe darkened with hopelessness. In the irony of all ironies, Christmas is for those who will find it the hardest to enjoy. It really is for those who hate it the most.

(Art: Blue Christmas Candle from Stushie’s Art)

There are a lot of reasons to like Christmas. Especially if you are still young like me. I can’t list them all on a Tuesday without the risk of ripping a hole in the atmosphere. If I do that Christmas might get cancelled and then I will not get the rocket launcher and jet pack I asked for. So here are just 10 awesomer then awesome things about Christmas.

1. Driving around town looking at lights. We will do this a number of times and yell “Christmas Lights” every time we see some…even if they look like street lights.

2. Not listening to Mariah Carey Christmas music. Sometimes I do this with hot chocolate.

3. Eating those weenies slow cooked in BBQ sauce in a crock pot someone usually brings to the Christmas party. I love you, whoever you are.

4. Buying my wife gifts and spending more money than allowed. I get this from my Dad.

5. Not listening to Christmas songs by Wham. Easy and fun!

6. Watching my kids open presents. Finally we can play with the toys which have been sitting in the top of my wife’s closet for weeks.

7. Sitting by the tree with the iPad. This is a very important new tradition which requires we put other parts of our life on hold.

8. Explaining to our kids that Christmas does not equal snow. This is tricky now because last year for the first time ever it snowed on Christmas day.

9. Opening presents. We youngsters still enjoy it.

10. Singing Ox and Ass in church. I’ll never grow out of enjoying this. Great lesson on context.

We all have these parts of our lives we ought to be thankful for but often overlook. They are specific to us and we are tempted to call them “small” even though their peculiar shine glows for us on dark days. Every single one is an echo of light from a brighter Star. Today I’ll list ten.

1. The large windows in our den looking northward from the top of Shades Mountain. I’m enjoying them now as I do every morning. Many have to vacation to enjoy something like this.

2. My wife working on a meal. Her enjoyment of cooking and my enjoyment of what she cooks is a matrix of awesome.

3. We live in the same town with almost all of our immediate family. We were away for almost 10 years. 

4. It’s cool to talk bad about Facebook. But I love watching the progress in life of my former students. Some are getting married, having babies and some are in Seminary. It’s a beautiful thing.

5. I’ve listened to the piano intro of Backstreets by Springsteen at least 1000 times. And it never ceases to take me into a story full of youthful hope and the challenge of reality.

6. Toys strewn throughout the house. One day this will not happen and I’ll be very sad.

7. My pipe. It cost 7 dollars at an antique store in downtown Wichita, KS. But it helps me think and takes me outside into worlds of impossibilities and unfinished dreams.

8. Words. This may seem strange to some. But I play with them in my head all day. And sit at a computer screen and edit what is in front of me without even thinking about it.

9. Billie Holiday. My love for her is well-documented here. Her voice is like drinking down warmth in the still of a cool star-filled night. Desert island stuff.

10. Our friends. There are a lot of lonely people out there. We couldn’t be even if we wanted to. Our lives are full with them.

I suppose it is understandable for a young man interested in nearly everything to pursue vocational ministry. Serving God – who made it all – as a Pastor is an understandable vocation for one who would spend his days tracing all the streams back to the fountain.

But now I’m no longer spending my days doing this.

At least I don’t get paid to. A couple of months ago I resigned from my position as an Associate Pastor.

Yesterday was my last day as one.

As excited as we are about this next chapter in our story, it’s a bit surreal. All the contradictory emotions are present. Relief and anxiety. Freedom and constriction. Power and fear. All of it melding together in a way that will most likely only be understandable in hindsight. The emotions of a new vocation. The stress of different expectations. The relief in being able to provide for my family. The freedom from the expectations. All the frustrations of the past. The hope for the future.

It’s all present. No regrets, of course. Just a season of moving from one kind of life to another. On the contrary, for all this to happen around Thanksgiving is appropriate. We are thankful to be dealing with all of this in our hometown, surrounded by family and friends. We are thankful for my new job. Thankful for our time at BLC. We are thankful we can now attend the church where Bethany and I met and discovered grace. Thankful for our kids, our home. And we are thankful for promises from this God who has made it all possible and good. And we plan on spending our days tracing it all back to him.

Even though I I don’t get paid to do it any longer.