Santa and religion

Recently I was watching Mickey's Once upon a Christmas with my daughters. As much as I enjoyed it, I was struck by a thought that I have never had before.

Religious people must love Santa.

If you haven't seen the movie, it is a series of shorts about different Christmas situations. One of them is centered around Goofy and his son Max. In the beginning, Max is talking to the neighbor, Pete, about what he wants for Christmas. Pete, the perpetual jerk of the Disney universe tells Max that Santa doesn't exist. This creates a scary moment for Max, who has to reevaluate everything that he believes about Christmas. In the end Goofy (the true Santa believer) tries to prove that Santa exists after he finds that not only does Max not believe anymore, but he is actively trying to tell others that there is no Santa. In the end Santa shows that he was there all along.

Just picture him in a Grinch outfit

When Santa finally comes, Max gets the snowboard he always wanted, Goofy gets a happy family (His grown up Christmas wish) and Pete gets nothing.

This is why I say religious people must love Santa.

1. If you are good, you will be rewarded. The question that always arises is "How good is good enough?" Forget that Max was actively pursuing leading people astray. He still got his snowboard.
2. There is always someone that is worse than you that won't get rewarded. Religious people love to point out that, "At lease I'm not that guy." In this movie it was Pete, the Pharisees had the tax collectors. We can say, "at least I'm not bin Laden." Nope, you're not bin Laden. But one thing that you do have in common with him is that all of your righteous deeds are like filthy rags. You need Jesus to pay for your sins. 
3. In the end the true believers gift seems a little lame. Family time? Really, Goofy? Check me out, I got a snowboard! Heaven, really? That was what you wanted? Check me out, I got (fill in the blank)

May we preach, teach and live in a way to see less religious people and more followers (of Jesus, not Santa)

Merry Christmas!

Thanking God for Steve

Dear Steve,

First off, I want to apologize for the informality. Mr. Jobs sounds more appropriate, but from what I can tell of a picture that the media has painted of you, you seemed to be a stickler for informality. Walt Disney was the same way.

Most people would blush at being mentioned in the same breath as good ole Walt, but you made the list. Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs.

I don't know if you have ever thought of this, but God has used you in tremendous ways. Right now as I type this I am listening to a sermon from Kentucky that was downloaded and played on iTunes. Every week I tell people to open their Bibles so that they could read along as I read the text that I am going to preach or teach on. Over the course of the last few years people are starting to open their Bibles on iPhones and iPads. You have been used to usher in some amazing changes in the church even though (as far as I know) you believed very differently than we did.

Barack Obama probably said it best yesterday. "And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

I just wanted to say thanks to the God that created you for using you in ways that you may never had imagined. No sarcasm, no snarkiness, just thank you Lord for the legacy of Steve Jobs.

God uses a bird to encourage

It is a cold, gray day.

I have to confess that  I love these days. Now that I have moved offices and I have a window that can see outside I can see a tree that is right on the outside area of our church. On that tree there is a woodpecker that is continually (and intentionally) smashing his beak into the tree.

I couldn't help but wonder why he does that. Why do all woodpeckers constantly beat their heads against a hard surface when there is little to no evidence that they have ever been there once they have left? I realized that those little indentations that the woodpecker leaves in the tree, over time, can bring the entire tree down.

For those in ministry right now have you hit a season where it just feels like you are beating your head against a brick wall? Be encouraged by my friend Woody. The progress may be slow, painful and difficult but God may just be using you do something so much bigger than you can possible imagine.

I got a lovely surprise today. It's National Coffee Day. How do you celebrate?

Typically, I am pretty orthodox in the way that I approach this day. I usually prefer to worship alone. As I was about to grab a skinny Pumpkin Spice Latte to celebrate the occasion, I ran into a friend at Peet's he was in the full spirit of the season. He not only bought me my latte, but he also ended up giving me a quarter pound of Italian Roast (MMM...I can already smell it).

The reason that I bring all this up is that I was thinking about the reverence for the Sabbath that we so easily lose. I couldn't help but to think do we really celebrate National Coffee Day more closely than the Sabbath?

Divorcing Pat Robertson

As many of you know, yesterday there was a statement that made it's way around the interweb about how Pat Robertson made a statement of how it's ok to divorce your spouse because of Alzheimer's Disease. (long slow sigh)

Even my friends that don't worship Jesus are saying what a foolish statement this is. I am performing a couple of weddings in the next few months and I now want to revise the vows in light of Pat's statements.

"Do you (man) take (woman) to be your lawful wedded wife? As long as she is lucid, will cook for you and is always there to satisfy every desire that you may have? Will you remember that you don't have to love her if her mind starts to go, gets fat, or if you just find someone else that is better."

Sounds sexy doesn't it? What really makes me upset is that this flies in the face of everything that scripture says about loving your wife and giving yourself up for her like Christ did (does) for the church.

With all this running through my mind, I had a rumination illumination. (new copyright! if you use that phrase pay me 50 cents) I think that America should divorce Pat Robertson. I composed a letter and you can sign it if you want.

Dear Pat Robertson,

Since Jerry Falwell died you haven't been the lone crazy voice in Evangelicalism...but you've been the loudest. Yesterday's comments where the last straw, so we are breaking up with you. It's not you. It's us....We can't stand you.

We pray that you are truly saved, but we are tired of you failed predictions, saying that hurricanes and earthquakes are God's judgement on the wicked, and now disregarding the Bible. But the good news is this. Based on what you said yesterday, we have the ability to break up with you because you have clearly lost your mind. So we have that going for us...which is nice.

When all is said and done, we will be happy to have you back if you could learn to keep your mouth shut.

And we are keeping the dogs!

Who did it best?

Being a celebrity must be exhausting.

 I have always wondered how they store all of the clothes that they have. Never mind, that's a different post. But on the same note have you ever been sitting in the waiting room at a dr.'s office or a beauty salon and pick up one of the magazines that has the "Who wore it best" contest? Let's face it for guys it's not that big of a deal.

"Oh my gosh, Neil Patrick Harris is wearing a black tuxedo at the Emmy's, just like....every. other. guy."

See, told you. It's not that big of a deal for guys. But for the ladies it's humiliating. Because there are polls involved and I always feel bad for the person that only got 8% of the votes, because let's face it, that would be me...if I were a girl...or a celebrity.... or had nice clothes.

But what about nature? When something happens in two places in nature should there be a poll? Case in point; I saw this picture of lightning last week and thought it was so nice I would share it.

I thought that was the end of my fancy lightning pictures until I was watching the embarrassment that was the Notre Dame game,(same. lame. frame. Sorry, I was just thinking about the rhyming game from Princess Bride. Man, I miss Andre the Giant.) and I saw this flash across the screen. 

AND I wanted to ask the question of who did it best? Keep in mind that Notre Dame's lightning isn't a real picture, it is a frame from the TV so it doesn't have the clarity that Paris' lightning had.

I was thinking as I saw both of these pictures Mark 4:39-41 entered my head.


 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
 ⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
 ⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”


And I simply want to ask the question what do you come across in nature that reminds you of the power of God?

Frank and Ollie

Frank and Ollie are dead, and I'm sad.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I sat down to watch a documentary about two of the greatest artists in Disney history.

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. (Don't forget that they are dead, that's important!)

These are two of the animators that made up part of Walt Disney's famed "Nine Old Men." Even if you haven't heard of them before, you grew up watching their life's work and loving the intricacies of their craft.
But what was really interesting about the movie was that it seemed to be less about the work that they did and more about the love that these two men had for each other.

Random facts of closeness

Out of school they shared an apartment together until they got married to their wives.
They lived next store to each other after that.
Every day they drove to work together.
After retirement they continued to teach newer young animators together (no-names like John Lasseter and Tim Burton) and edited 5 books together.

I was saddened as I look for more information on them to find that they both had passed away since the making of the movie. (Hence the whole dead thing. I guess it wasn't that important. Carry on.)

So now the question. So what? They were buddies, what does that have to do with a blog about  religion and culture. Turns out, a lot.

I was struck as I watched this movie that these two men really loved each. And my first thought was, "that's weird."

But why is that so weird? Everyone I know has friends. Good friends. But it seems like I rarely see a friendship as deep as these two men had for each other. There's a lot of different reasons for that. Distance for one. Out of two of my best friends, one lives about 500 miles away, the other over 2000.

After I was thinking on this for a while I thought of two other best friends that were close as well.

1 Samuel 18:1-5


As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. 5 And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.

So I want to ask the question, where have all the good friendships gone? Do you have anyone that your soul is knit together with?