Fishing Report: River is blown out and it was 4 degrees F on Monday the 22^nd and 68 degrees F on the 27^th. No fishing but there will be soon, chrome (steelhead) start running in a few weeks and the Indiana Fly Fishing show is on the 10^th of January. In the mean time I will be sighting in a muzzleloader I am refurbishing.

It is finished. That is what Christ said on the cross many years ago. I think that is what a lot of us say after Christmas each year. That is a shame. My daughter came down Sunday morning and said “”Dad, I hate to see the tree empty with no gifts under it.” Her comment prompted me to think about how we work hard to prepare and it is over in a blink of an eye. The great thing about Christmas in my mind it is the beginning of eternal life for those of us who chose to open the “Christmas Gift”. My daughter was baptized, on Christmas Eve and so starts her journey in this Christian life. Christmas is a great time to reflect on where your walk with the Lord is and where it needs to go. As my family is reflecting this week on the 15 best things that happened this year (3 per person), we will begin to look to 2009 as to what we want to accomplish. Tops on my wife and I’s list is be more focused on others, mostly married couples that need encouragement but along with that we will be doing out reach in the city with our kids coming along so they can live out their faith. We would love to be more open and transparent with others but that takes some courage. Where are you being called? Could it be to give more or maybe just work on your own house? I don’t know what is in store for us this year but I am confident that the Lord has it planned out and as long as we are obedient in our walk the journey should be an adventure that we will talk about for years to come. Happy New Year and by the way I know that my grammar is poor my wife and N.S. have both pointed that out, therefore that is also on the list for 2009.

Christmas is Near and Anticipation is High

Fishing Report is hard water (ice for you non-fisherman) everywhere I look. Big Paul H killed a great buck 23.5 inch inside spread. Awesome deer.

Christmas is near and yet my mind is still chasing what needs to be done and did I forget anything. I have not look forward to Christmas in many years but this year my wife and i have started to enjoy the season again. In the past I have looked forward to the Birth of Christ but the rest of the things associated with the Holiday just brought me down. I had other things on my mind like, where is the next contract coming from and which client was going to hire me for next spring. Now that we have been blessed with a great job and stability like we have never known we are able to relax and share the wonder with the kids. This year we have tried to build the anticipation of the season by doing an Advent reading every night and also helping out in various ways in the community. We had a great opportunity to go and serve at an inner city church here in Indy. What a great experience, I found that people are no different they are just seeking to make it through just like the rest of us. The circumstances maybe different but yet they are still the same struggle to live the Christian life and make it through this life with out pushin'. Christ called us to love one another and to live it out. Have you lived it out this season? If you have great. It is easy to be in the giving spirit this time of the year but live it out in February and in August and every other time of the year when we are in the grind of like.

Barns and a Simplistic Christmas

Fishing Report: Are you kidding 7 degrees yesterday morning and then ice, sleet and snow.

Christmas is close so close I think my kids can taste it. I think it must taste like a fresh, warm, homemade sugar cookie with just a touch of lemon. But the reality is that the first Christmas must of tasted or better yet smelled like a dairy barn in the spring. Thick and musty with the smells of animals but with a touch of sweetness like that of alfalfa. I have always wondered why God chose the stable instead of the inn or better yet a home. I have been reading to my kids every night at dinner an advent devotion. What a good time to talk of God and His Gift as we sup together and share in the bounty that He has provided for us. Last night the focus was to limit distractions, I thought sure we already live pretty simply. The author went on to say that is we God chose the stable not because it was a humble beginning but because there were no distractions there. I thought about that for a good long time and have come to the conclusion that God could have led them to a meager home to give birth, that would have been humble but it could have still be distractful. But to have Christ born in a stable and laid in a manger was the best and here is why I think it is the best. Born in a stable Christ was born in a place where no one is born (he was like no one else), being born in a barn connected him to the least among us, the shepherds, they would not be comfortable in a home or an inn they were at home in a barn. Why were they comfortable in a barn, because that is where there work was, the sheep, that is where they live. The Great Shepherd came into this world in a barn where the sheep live. The shepherds are His sheep, we are His sheep, I think that is we all feel comfortable in a barn and love the sweet smell of hay in the sunshine in the summer. If you have ever been in a barn there are not a lot of distractions, they are a simple affair and they practical not a lot of distractions. That is why Christ was born in a barn it is a place of simplicity and the only focus when they came to see they Christ child was Christ not the surroundings not the beautiful place but the beautiful person of Christ. Not to mention where would a shepherd rather be but in the barn with familiar surroundings and smells and the things that are most dear to His heart. I think that sums it up a barn, the Shepherd and sheep really I guess that is all that was and is needed, just the Shepherd really is all that is needed by His sheep. Keep this in mind when you go and muck Christmas up with all kinds of distractions and busyness, remember a barn, sheep and the Shepherd.