Joy and Peace?

Wow. I'm sitting here at my desk feeling more drained than I ever remember during a Christmas season. Debbie said something very similar this morning. And we got a phone call from an officer friend who was marveling about their tiredness this year. Must be something going around.

I'm not sure why this year would be so different. We've been doing this "kettle thing" for the last 25 years (with a short break during our 3 years at DHQ). We've got lots of good help here in Bangor that handle the majority of the kettle driving, application process and basket/toy/clothing distribution. But there's a whole lot more to this season for the Corps Officer than "just" kettles and baskets, so there's still plenty work to go around.

I think the long days are the hardest. Deb's up and out of the house before I even get up and I usually find her asleep when return at night. I think I remember what she looks like. I guess that's what pictures are for.

Today is our last distribution day (except for those who always come in at the last minute) and already I've heard of 2 people who are irate at us for various reasons. One was stealing from our Family Store and instead of being embarrassed, "goes off" on our employees! So she's ranting in the background while a cameraman is filming an informational item for the evening news.

Only 1 day left after today! Then we can pack everything up in the boiler room for another year and try to recuperate. The sound of bells and the phone ringing are not on my list of favorite things right about now!

[1 hour later . . .]

I'm just getting back from changing kettle workers at one of our stands. The worker we put there this morning called to tell us she "was cold." She's been a worker for us a few years, so she knows what it's like standing kettles in Maine. Quite simply, for those of you who don't know: it's cold! That's no secret.

The whole "kettle thing" wouldn't be so bad if you could put people out in the morning then just pick them up at night. But it's never like that. Every day is an exercise in creativity, trying to fill in for people who don't show up in the AM and figure out what to do when they call in telling you they want to go home. NOW. Linus (of Peanuts comic strip fame) once said: "I love mankind. It's people I can't stand!" He must have managed a Salvation Army kettle drive once or twice.

All of the above is a minor rant about some of my season so far. It's too bad we salvos have allowed ourselves to get so overworked and drained during the special season that exists to remind us of Joy and Peace. We say we do it so that others may experience Joy and Peace. But I wonder. Shouldn't there be a way to bring Joy and Peace without sacrificing the very same for ourselves?

That may sound a bit selfish, but it's not what I'm getting at. During the hustle and bustle and the commercialization of Christmas (which we so deplore), we salvos are the most hustled and bustled of them all. We should be better examples of what Christmas is really about.

One of these days I'm going to figure out a way to raise all the money we need and help others with things they need without sacrificing our health and sanity.

One of these days.

FREE Music (Does that Get your Attention?)!

For those of you who are regularly blessed by Phil Laeger's music, you'll want to get right over to his website and download his latest FREE(!) album, Pride & Glory, Truth & Beauty.

http://www.phillaeger.com/home.html

There are 4 cuts, each named after the album's title. I haven't had the chance to listen critically yet, but I have no doubt I will be blessed and challenged as usual. You will too, I'm sure.

So what are you waiting for? Click! Download!

I Wonder . . .

Ever since the long discussion about holiness a few posts ago, I have been thinking and wrestling a lot with . . . well, actually many things. I'm in one of those stages where my mind goes off on tangent after tangent and there are so many of them, I can't quite make sense of them all! I'm sure this is just one of the things that defines me as a thinking person, but through it all this time, I've been feeling almost as if I shouldn't be thinking as hard as I am. There must be something more- above my understanding and beyond my attempts to corral it into my tiny brain.

I'm almost finished reading Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller. This is a book that's hard to read straight through, because he gets you off on tangent after tangent thinking about very deep spiritual things. But it doesn't read like a "deep" book. His writing style is incredibly fun- I love it!

Anyway, I just finished reading chapter 17, in which he talks about worship and wonder. As I was highlighting most of his words (I should have saved money by buying the yellow paged book and a white highlighter!), I was particularly taken by his comment:

"Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder."

Then he goes on to say:

"the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one"

and:

"All the wonder of God happens right above our arithmetic and formula. The more I climb outside my pat answers, the more invigorating the view, the more my heart enters into worship."

As intelligent as I think I am and as right as I believe I am on my theology, one thing I am sure of: I expect to find each one of us way off on some of our understanding of spirituality and God. No one has it all right (I just wonder how far off we all are?).

There are times when I MUST drop all my theology, all my thinking, all my attempts to understand God and just simply worship him in wonder.

I hope I figure out all the things I'm thinking about recently. In them, I believe God is trying to get some big things through to me.

But I can't forget to just drop it all every now and then (more often than not?) and bask in the mystery that is God.

Target a Snowflake!

Interested in making snowflakes? Or how about helping The Salvation Army? Well you can do both by visiting the following web site:

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/ You can look for MY snowflake by searching for Doug in Maine.

Nice.

Merry Christmas!

If Only The Salvation Army Had Been there for Anakin

Truth: Now THIS is Christmas!

I need some help (yeah, yeah- I know- opened myself up to this one! No comments Howie!).

I used to have an old Christmas album by the Christian music group Truth, titled "Truth: Now THIS is Christmas!" For the life of me, I can't find it. Not even the cassette tape I made to listen to the "LP" in the car (yeah- the olden days). It's an awesome Christmas album.

I've done a few Internet searches and all I've come up with is that the group disbanded a few years ago. Rats!

Can anyone out there help me find it again? I'd prefer a cassette tape, but I guess the 33 record would do. I can then get it into mp3 format. I'm fairly certain they never produced it on CD or I'd have found it out there by now.

Let me know.