Celebrating Birthdays

‘Tis the season… to celebrate birthdays.  We are in the season of Advent, in which we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.  As if that were not enough reason for me to celebrate, today (which will have passed by the time you read this) happens to be my thirty-first birthday.  If you will humor me, then, I will try not to draw too strong of a comparison between the two birthday boys.
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Moving Away from God

In a perfect world, I would be writing about the joys and challenges of Thanksgiving, since that is the holiday of the week.  But this is not a perfect world, and I ran across an article this week that describes something quite significant for us.  Are you concerned by the absence of young people from churches?  Have you ever wondered why “Young Doubters Exit the Church” in great numbers today?  The magazine “Christianity Today” recently published an article by Drew Dyck asking that very question.

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Hunting Season

As many of you know, Tara and I are new to the area, and we are just beginning to learn what mid-November is like in central Michigan.  We are used to hearing gunshots in inner-city Indianapolis, but now we are hearing gunshots with a different purpose.  Regardless of how you feel about hunting animals, I hope we can all agree that this use of gunpower is preferable to the alternative!

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Time Changes

This past weekend, we experienced our annual blessing of an extra hour – perhaps for sleep! – as we turned our clocks back because of the end of Daylight Saving Time.  It’s the yearly payback for that less pleasurable experience in the spring, when we set our clocks ahead and consequently show up an hour late for church on Sunday!  But have you ever stopped to think about the significance of this time change?

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