Christmas Tree Wrap Up

Okay.  I promised an update to close out the story of the Ellis family Christmas tree for 2008.  We do finally have it out of the house and the majority of the 55,208 pine needles have been vacuumed up off of the floors.  BUT……..we didn’t get out of the ‘tear down and removal’ without a hitch.  Let me explain.

 When the tree finally left the house, there were so many needles on the floor we literally scooped them up by the handfuls.  The tree was extremely dry and crispy.  Crumbling would be the best word to describe it.  After scooping, we used the vacuum to remove the remaining needles.  This normally would have concluded the clean up but the plethora of needles clogged the vacuum and eventually broke it.  The problem was that I didn’t realize quick enough that the vacuum was in fact, ineffective.  The vacuum was old anyway so it was no big loss.  However, the free spinning of the beater bar with no suction to remove the accumulating needles in addition to the heat generated from the equipment turned the broken vacuum into a large crayon that colored parts of our carpet a nice subtle shade of green.

Good news:  we got a new vacuum.  Bad news:  now we have to have the carpet cleaned.  Lesson learned in all of this:  buy an artificial tree.  For dramatic effect, I’ve posted some photos to help further illustrate the whole story.

Our tree on it’s best day - and on it’s last day.

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday.  The Ellis family was truly blessed this year.  However, it was a rude awakening to reality to be back at work at 6 am this morning.  Yikes!!!

Check back soon.  I’ll have some updates on the tree, stories about Jacob, and other personal observations from the long weekend.

Give Until There’s Nothing Left

This is one of my favorite songs on the radio right now.  It’s by Relient K, a favorite band of mine as well.  I’ve heard it for some time but just focused on the lyrics here recently.  It’s got a pretty cool message.  Check the lyrics out here.  Listen to the music here.

 Just wanted to share that today.  Especially in this season, be a giver.

Tree Watch Update

The Christmas Tree is still upright.  However, we believe it was D.O.A.  Yes, dead on arrival to the Ellis house.  For the week and a half that we have had it now, it has not absorbed any water.  None whatsoever.  It’s very dry and the needles are falling off with the faintest disturbance.  The positive note in all of this is that our cat will be able to drink more of the water.

More tree posts to come.  To bring you up to speed click here for the first post.

Perception Is Reality

2 Corinthians 5:16 - So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

Conviction of the day.

How do we really perceive others?  And by others I mean anybody.  People who are selfish, giving, pretty, unattractive, helpful, annoying, pushy…people you work with, people you go to church with, people in your family…homeless, addicts, criminals…democrats, republicans…you name it.  The list could go on and on including any category of people you can think of.  

Do we really let our perception control our actions?  Absolutely we do, admit it.

The title of today’s post is true.  (I apologize if you hate cliches.)  All of us have done this at one time or another.  We have allowed our perception to control our actions.  Jesus did this too, however His perception was more accurate and consistant than ours.  He hung out with the sinners, he touched the sick, he had compassion for the lowest of the low.  His perception was that everyone is worthy…yes, EVERYONE.  In many biblical instances, Jesus gravitated to the people that no one liked.

So, thy this.  I especially encourage you to force yourself to hang out with the people you don’t like.  Be nice to that mean person.  Get out of your comfort zone.  Give it a shot and see what happens. 

BUT….

Don’t let your focus be on how you treat others.  Instead, focus on your perception.  A perception of ‘everyone is worthy…yes, EVERYONE’.  Let your perception be the catalyst for your actions, not the other way around.

What’s Up With This Weather?

Two weeks until Christmas and it’s 76 degrees and sunny.  In the Midwest, it’s freezing and almost completely iced over.  The weather has gone mad, I tell you!

For you true southerners, if a blackberry winter is a cold snap when it’s warm, what is a warm snap when it’s supposed to be cold?

Volunteer and Help Save a Life

Wow!!!  What a story.  I can’t get over the shootings that occurred in Colorado over this past weekend.  We always know that in life, bad things happen to good people.  Also, it’s always easy to find people making general comments regarding how ‘any good can come out of all this’.  We’re always quick to ask ‘why’ and doubt God for any negative event that occurs this side of heaven.

This morning as I watched the news, Jeanne Assam, the volunteer security guard at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, described how ‘the Holy Spirit guided her hand’ as she defended the defenseless on Sunday morning.  Wow!!!  Here is a modern day hero giving all the credit of her selfless and courageous act to God himself.  She saved lives and God gets glorified.  I was standing there thinking to myself that millions of people are watching this.  Millions!!!  Millions of people right then and there were hearing the most recent testimony of a Christ follower.  God, you are so cool!!!

The events that unfolded over the weekend with the multiple shootings were without a doubt a horrific tragedy.  My prayers go out to the families of those killed and wounded and yes, the gunman and his family, too.  However, it is evident to me here in middle Tennessee, from hundreds of miles away that God is already using this for His own good.

Now switch gears for me.

Jeanne is a volunteer at her church.  God blessed her with the skills to have a career in law enforcement for fourteen years.  Jeanne is using these very same skills at her church to serve in a very selfless way.  She’s a volunteer, not paid a penny for what she does.  With all of this being said, what skills or abilities has God gifted you with.  What can you do to help serve others through your local church?  No matter how small, there is something you can do to contribute.  The bible simply states this in Romans 12:6-8.  I encourage all who read this blog to find a way to serve.  Not only will serving help others and advance God’s Kingdom, but it I promise that you will be changed for the better as well.  In serving others, you are allowing Christ to live through you (the ultimate goal).  How can one not be changed by that?

In serving together, we’ll help God change and save lives.  Maybe not physically just as Jeanne Assam did, but you too can help save lives eternally by simply and selflessly giving of your time and abilities.

A Potential Christmas Calamity

Okay, so we bought the Christmas Tree for the house this weekend.  It’s big…real big.  Julie decided to make up for the puny tree we bought last year and she did a fine job at that.  (For those of you who don’t know, we moved into our current home last year just a week and a half before Christmas.  At that time, it was slim pickins on the remaining trees.  If it helps illustrate the situation any, we called it our “Charlie Brown” tree.  Get the point?)

Anyway, I am an engineer by trade so let me describe the size of this behemoth evergreen to you through geometrical terms.  It’s approximately 8 to 8 1/2 feet tall with about 5 feet in diameter at its girth.  The total weight is somewhere between fifty and seventy five pounds to boot.  Its wide, conical shape is quite impressive as trees come.  Think about it this way.  Its width is just short of how tall most people are.

Do you have that mental picture yet? 

Now imagine this.  The trunk is not concentric to the base of the tree.  Not even close.  How did we not notice this before?  Well, who honestly looks at the trunk when they buy a tree, especially if you can’t see it for all the branches?  In my brilliance and with a couple of steady hands, we did finally get the tree to ‘appear’ as if it were symmetrical and straight.  However, without the twenty five pound weight sitting on the rear of the tree stand and if it were not full of water for hydration, the tree would probably be on it’s side in the middle of our living room floor.

In all of that, add to the equation a two year old child that is highly fascinated by a tree with lights in his house and a determined cat who thoroughly loves to drink pine flavored water (now matter how tight the tree skirt is) and you have potential for disaster.

All weekend I have been looking at this looming, Christmas calamity and shaking my head.  The only thing that would truly complete this story is that if…yes, you guessed it…it actually did fall over, decorations and all.  Until, then I’ll keep you posted.  I’m counting the days until December 29.  This is the day that I anticipate we’ll take it down.  We always have funny stories that revolve around holidays in our house.  I guess 2007 will be remembered as the year of the cantilever tree!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I Challenge You…

My first challenge to you today is this:  pray for your Pastor. 

Honestly, how often do you pray for your Pastor?  Don’t kid yourself, either.  It seems all too often that we are more quick to criticize them than pray for them.  And no, I am not immune from that mistake.  Been there, done that.  Looking back on my history of being involved in churches, I am ashamed at some of my thoughts and feelings as well as my lack of prayer support for whoever the Pastor was.  Any pastor is human and is prone to making mistakes so go ahead and face the fact that it will happen.  The fact that he is called to be a church leader does not erase his ability to be human.  Pastors carry an incredible burden on their shoulders and over time, it can take it’s toll.  There are many decisions to be made, some tougher than others of course.  If nothing else, just pray that God will help him be the man and leader that he has been called to be. 

My second challenge to you is this:  encourage your Pastor. 

Encouragement is an incredible way to show your support for him and the church.  There are many ups and downs that anyone in the ministry goes through.  Yes, there are great times to celebrate in the life of a church, but there are equally many frustrations and disappointments that will leave him feeling almost all alone.  So with that being said, send him an email or drop a card in the mail.  Get him a small gift or something special.  Especially if God is really working in your life, let him know.  That alone will really pump him up.  For those of you who have done this, I can account for the affect that it actually does have.  We are instructed in the bible to encourage each other, including the dude on the stage who preaches every week.  Let’s not forget about him.

Yes, I know, I’m on staff here at the UpRising Church and I’m supposed to be saying this kind of stuff.  Yes, you are correct, but I believe in what I’m saying and I’m saying what I’m doing.  I love my Pastor and his family.  I believe in him and support them in any way that I can.  

So, whomever your Pastor at whatever church you attend, I challenge you from now on to simply pray and encourage. 

Sleep

Sometimes I easily forget what it was like when Jacob was an infant and not sleeping through the night.  That is an adjustment that no one can prepare you for as a new/expecting parent. 

Since last Wednesday, I’ve been officially reminded.  That was the night that Jacob actually crawled out of his crib and fell to the floor of his bedroom.  I can’t even begin to imagine how he landed.  Since then, it has been a nightly battle to convince, coerce, or even persuade him to go to sleep.  Nonetheless, he is now somewhat afraid of the dark and is going through separation anxiety at bedtime.  Add in the fact that we changed his bed over to a toddler bed (to eliminate the four foot jumps) and added a door gate (by which no toddler likes to be restrained) and you have the recipe for a sleepless night.  It is  finally getting a little better though.  Hopefully we’re clearing this parenting hurdle for now…on to the next one I guess.

Anyway, I don’t need a lot of sleep these days, however, it does need to be somewhat uninterrupted.  Sometimes I can’t believe we’re actually going to have more children considering we’ll have to repeat all of this.