Christmas Break! Time to BREATHE....

Hi Friends!

I am finally on Christmas Break.  Whew! Made it through a busy semester. Habits weren't great, and I pulled more all-nighters than I care to admit, but the semester is done, and now I am in the lovely season of Christmas Break, where there is rest from the busy school routine, ambition to read everything I cannot during the school year, opportunities to reconnect with friends that I haven't talked to in months (some years!), and many other things.

Yet most important, I feel, is the chance to simply breathe. To just sit, and be.

To be fair, there is still a decent amount of busyness, as I'm always "that guy" that saves his Christmas shopping to the December 20's, as well as learning music and the many rehearsals for Christmas Eve services at church, extended family Christmases, and even a fun skiing trip with the family. (And I've already spent 5 days out west with my sister visiting extended family, skiing, and visiting a seminary!)

Then, you add on preparing for next semester, planning my new routine with a new class schedule, and beginning to think about how I am going to fit seminary visits, applications, and scholarship essays into all of that. Oh yeah, and the Immersion trip I'm co-leading for Spring Break.

Hmm.  Almost seems like breathing is the last thing I'm going to be able to do.

And yet, up to this point, Break has been so good in terms of rest and breathing. And within the space to just breathe, I've begun to finally start reflecting on a lot of things that I haven't been able to do in a long time (...hence the whole super inactive blog thing).  It has been really good to have space to simply sit, think, and just be, and finally reflect on a pretty ridiculous year. Seriously...SO much has happened in 2011, it's insane. I mean, that's true every year...but the more I have been thinking about this last year, the more I realize that so much has happened, a lot of which has had a pretty significant impact on me.

So, here is my commitment to continue this reflection...to take thoughts that have been swirling round and round, and to put them down into paragraphs, sentences, words, characters...to organize what is chaotic and disordered, and to straighten them out into something that flows, that someone logical could follow, and in a way that I can start making even more connections.  To Reflect.

Hopefully, this will help me stay semi-consistent with this blog too, which is good. :-)

Here are the goals for topics (in no particular order):
- 2011: God's goodness and faithfulness through brokenness, infection, healing and restoration
- The tendency toward criticism as opposed to gratitude, and what God desires of us
- A reflection on what it means to enter a completely new year.
- How Christians should react to "Happy Holidays" and "Holiday Trees"

Maybe I'll have more ideas as we go, but for now, I'll stick with that.  Hah, as mentioned above, I do have a good amount going on the next two and a half weeks.

So, for the 9 of you that follow this blog, and any others that may stumble upon it (figuratively speaking, not the literal Stumble Upon procrastination method), know that there are more posts coming.  I feel it in my bones, it is time to reflect...it is time to breathe...to simply be.

It is my prayer for you all that in the midst of busy schedules, routines, and holiday functions, you all will find space to take in a deep breath, to rest, to reflect, and perhaps even to do something inefficient. Be interrupted, so that you may reflect and focus on what is truly most important.

Christmas is a good opportunity for this too...if we were to really think about this, Jesus coming to the world as a baby should provide an adequate interruption, and move us to prayer, reflection, and worship.  :-)

Tom