12th Day of Christmas

ON THE TWELFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, twelve drummers drummers.

These gifts are weird. I'm glad I'm not this guy's friend.

The twelfth day resembles the apostle's creed:

1) I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. 2) I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. 3) He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. 4) He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell [the grave]. 5) On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 6) He will come again to judge the living and the dead. 7) I believe in the Holy Spirit, 8) the holy catholic Church, 9) the communion of saints, 10) the forgiveness of sins, 11) the resurrection of the body, 12) and life everlasting.

Got all that? It is the end of the song and symbolizes the completion of Christ's ministry on earth. But the song is missing something. I think it's on purpose.

Where's Jesus' birth?

Doesn't it strike you as odd that a song about the birth of Christ never talks about the actual birth of Christ? If so, then doesn't it strike you as odd that a holiday symbolizing the birth of Christ never talks about the actual birth of Christ, even in our own homes? We get caught up in the swing of the holiday, we overlook it. Far be it from me to turn this blog into a cliche' e-mail forward. But I think we celebrate it all wrong though. The fact the Jesus was born means something big to me- it means he was human!

My point in bringing it up is to challenge you to celebrate his birthday by doing something extraordinary. Throw a birthday party instead of a Christmas party! If celebrating Jesus' birth isn't your "religious preference," then I'm sorry, but I'm going to ask you to bite the wall. We Protestants and even the Catholics made this holiday about Christ, and we'll be darned if it is about anything but Christ. Why am I so touchy about this? It's because it's Jesus' birthday. It is not a time to give a yearly donation or have a church service made up of taking offerings. It's a birthday party. It's not a guilt trip holiday where we beat ourselves up over the issues in our life- what a terrible party. For one day in the year, it is a time where EVERYBODY is invited to celebrate the birthday of a great guy, a wonderful Savior, and God in the flesh. So for one day in the year, every person you see, treat them like you were invited to the same birthday party and you just wanna have fun. That's what Christ would have wanted- a bunch of people genuinely loving each other. So give Christ the gift he wanted you to give in the first place- loving to live life!

I pray you may be ACTIVE in sharing your faith so that you might know all the great things we have in Christ Jesus. -Philemon 6

KB

Merry Christmas!

11th Day of Christmas

ON THE ELEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, eleven pipers piping.

I am not extremely musically inclined, at least I think not. I understand those who are not so inclined probably didn't like the day about worship. That's fine. Not only do I understand that some people don't like to sing, I think there are some people who shouldn't sing at all. Throughout the history of sports, the national anthem has been butchered in so many ways it isn't funny- those are the kind of people who shouldn't think so highly of their talent. As for me, I have played a few instruments in my day, but I don't consider myself extremely talented. These eleven guys play music, pipe music to be exactly. They jingle and tingle their flutes all day long, alongside a bunch of birds and angry ladies in the Twelve Days of Christmas. They can actually play music and sound good, which is better than I could say I do. However, I have tried to learn a variety of instruments.

I once played in a fife band. Don't know what a fife band is? Me either. I just know it involved an angry, drunk Irishman and a lot of home schooled nerds like myself playing dorky instruments like the snare drum and the flute. It was cool for a while, but playing the snare drum doesn't always impress the ladies. I played the piano for years and have only lately begun to play it well at all. I play the guitar and actually have a few of them that are actually worth something. However, by no means do I claim to know all there is about the instruments I play. I can actually hardly fine tune the instruments. But I enjoy playing them; they help me zone out during a long and stressful day, so naturally I play them all the time!

The eleventh day stands for the eleven faithful disciples. They were the guys who followed Jesus through thick and thin and no matter what, they stood in faith that Jesus wasn't a crazy guy talking a whole lot of bologna. That would be a tough thing to deal with. I am sure they had moments during their journey with Jesus when doubts rose up about the validity of what the man did, as they enemy would have loved for them to think. However, they remained faithful, and for that, they were heavily rewarded.

We are all called unto God's kingdom, to follow his will. When we start that journey, we naturally have feelings of apprehension, of doubt. We aren't sure that what we got ourselves into was actually the real deal. When I started playing instruments, I had to be faithful. No Mozart is born the first time they are placed behind the keys. Overtime, they develop an ability to float along the keys and compose incredible works of art at the drop of a hat. It takes time though. Same with our relationship with Christ. I have seen too many people fall by the wayside early on because they didn't get past their doubts and trust fully. Doubt stood in the way. Maybe the eleventh day is about just that- overcoming doubt. Indeed, overcoming doubt is a component of faith, but it involves something that faith doesn't. Doubt reminds us that we are human, that we aren't in total control and have a hard time thinking anybody is in control of anything. But that's the call of the eleventh day, the same call of the disciples- the eleventh day is about overcoming doubt.

KB

10th Day of Christmas

ON THE TENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, ten lords a' leaping.

Super weird.

Men who wear leotards cannot escape the stereotype of feminism in this day and age as they shouldn't. Men who wear tights are not considered manly. The expection is football. Those guys are tough, but I still admit, wearing leotard pants three sizes too small that make your backside look like cottage cheese is not a manly thing to do. They can beat each other up, just do it in jeans. I suppose some men find it fashionable. There is a whole following who likes to wear pants so tight, they risk a blod clot on a daily basis. If you ask me, I think it is dorky.

The tenth day resembled the ten commandments. These are the ones that Moses was divinely inspired to write by God on Mount Carmel, but the older readers will identify with Charlton Heston's commandments better. (By the way, a good way to tell if you are an old person- if you understood my pun, you are old. Sorry.) I am not downsizing the ten commandments, but often, in the secular realm, they are considered to be the "Thou shalt nots" of Christianity. AndI'm not saying God got anything wrong, I'm just going to say that the 11th commandment could have easily been "thou shalt wear pants." But no matter what the discrepancy is the commandments should be adhered to, including the 11th one, in my opinion.

Most of these Christmas days have hopefully made you all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm going to throw a curveball on this one. Hopefully today will challenge you as much as it challenged me. To me, the tenth day is about us following the voice of God, no matter what. It may not be fun but we need to. The Bible isn't a book of rules, but every command of God is commanded for a reason. They are there to help us, to make sure our lives don't get too chaotic. It would be better that we don't sleep around, committing adultry. It would be better that we don't hate and kill each other. It would be FAR better that men don't wear leotards in public. It is a good reminder for all of us. When God says something, we should do it simply because he knows more about our situation than we know about it. The tenth day is about following God's commands.

KB

9th Day of Christmas

ON THE NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, nine ladies dancing.

Broadway is not my thing. I hate musicals. The truth is, I have seen one musical and liked it- it was Spamalot. Spamalot, for those of you who don't know, is a farce of King Arthur based on the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Beyond that, I hate musicals for a couple of reasons. 1) The amount of jazz hands and spirited springs in their dancing is far from okay with me. 2) They get caught in your head. After Mama Mia came out at the movies, showtunes fans were singing ABBA like stagehands in a cheap Broadway theater. There is no way you can sing these songs and sound manly either. If you don't believe me, try singing something from West Side Story without snapping your fingers and trusting your hips.

These nine ladies are essentially their own broadway show. It's ironic that the author of the song wanted to give his love something that dances. Why? Because most people hate dancing. Dances today contain far too many wallflowers and dorks who don't want to be caught dead cutting a rug. The ones that do make it to the dance floor in this day in age perform what is called "B & G" (bumping and grinding- you can figure it out). Critics of this dance have called it "sex with your clothes on," which isn't far from the truth. The intentions of the dance are far from actually dancing. Every so often you will see a mosh pit. Real mosh pits look less like dancing and more like summoning rain from the heavens. The love of dancing for the sake of dancing is virtually lost.

There is a rogue group of us who still like it for what it is, though. Whether we can dance well is beside the point. It is that we love to dance. Music can make or break a day; you can tell a lot from the day by what music you hear throughout it. And for those of us who love to cut a rug and don't care what we look like, music is life. That is why worship is such an important part of our relationship to God. It expresses what is going on inside us better than words ever could. So if you hate dancing, then I urge you this week to try it. Your assignment is to dance in public at least once. Why? Because you will feel more alive than you ever have. The nine ladies dancing really resembled the nine fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). Maybe the ninth day is asking us to show off our fruit via dance. The ninth day is about dancing. The ninth day is about worship.

KB

8th Day of Christmas

ON THE EIGHTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, eight maids a' milking.

I remember when I was in junior high school, my sister was a cheerleader. Her cheer team would band together and once a year, they would make tamales for the community as a fund raiser. Hundreds of tamales. Hundreds and hundreds of them. They would start in the wee hours of the morning, say 6:30, and work until 6:30 that night. Take it from me, it was the most horrifying process as women covered in flour would saunter out of the kitchen, their eyes turned demon-red from the hot chilis they were working with and their hair rising on end as the bun in their hair sagged down by their shoulders. It was one of the most unpleasant of memories in my childhood, one that will come up later in therapy. So when I hear eight maids were milking hundreds of cows, I laugh, because it reminds me of the scary, downturned faces of the women in that group.

The irony here is that the eighth day stands for the beatitudes, which are kind and holy attitudes which Christians were called to live by. Under normal conditions, eight ladies pulling on the udders of cows for hours on end would not only make them extremely cranky, it is kinda creepy to me. Who on earth looked at a cow and said, "You know, I think I'm going to suck on that thing and drink whatever comes out. There's no way it would taste totally nasty." I bet one guy looked at the wrong cow and thought he was drinking sour milk. I got news for that guy- it wasn't sour milk and it wasn't an udder and that cow had horns. Oops. Point is, there is only so much milking a maid can do before a maid goes mad- do the math.

The beatitudes are a call for us to live upright lives in the eyes of the Lord, to rise above carnal, evil desires and show God's love practically. But we don't always fulfill that call. I know that where I work, things can get a tad bit hairy and as a result, I get a tad bit cranky. I become agitated and irritated. I look nothing like the beatitudes found in Matthew 5:3-10. But these maids seem to like their job despite the cons of the job. They do it every day and they do it with joy. So maybe the eighth day is a call that we love what we do, no matter what we do, even if it isn't a fun job. The eighth day is about work.

KB

7th Day of Christmas

ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, seven swans a' swimming.

You know those carnivals with the love boat rides made of giant swans? That was my first thought about this day. Swans are a regal animal, often associated with love and marriage. They form monogonous bonds with each other which is a fancy way of saying they tie the knot with a single partner for their lifetime. Translated into the song, the swans symbolize the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (prophesy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and compassion as seen in I Chorinthians 12:8-11). So what does a bird associated with love have to do with Holy Spirit gifts?

The idea that we use this gifts was what God intended for us. That we fulfill their purpose was the reason they were given in the first place- why would you give a gift to someone without the intentions of them using it? Whatever your religious convictions are about the extent of these gifts, may they be what they be. I am not trying to define them, I'm trying to encourage us to use them. That may sound like a contradiction, but if we at least start using them, it is better than not using them at all. Thus, the swan is simply a symbol of us using God's gift for the better. That we complete his love by using the gift he supplied us with. But this day isn't that simple.

If you look up the behaviors of a swan, you'll find something interesting. Lately, scientists have watched swans begin "divorcing" each other. They break their eternal bond with one another on purpose. Also, they have noticed that the swans that don't speak are prone to homosexual tendencies. This is a new thing for scientists and they are baffled by it because it goes against the laws of nature that have been the norm for thousands of years. The same applies with our gifts. When we don't use them or we simply abandon them, we find those gifts become a thing of the past, totally useless to anybody. It is not how Christians were intended to live. We were inteneded to use these gifts to the fullest. So the seventh day shows us something important, that we were given many gifts. So here's to the seventh day- using our gifts.

KB

6th Day of Christmas

ON THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, six geese a'laying.

I have never and never will have the extreme pain of childbirth. Thank the Lord for the Y chromosome. I have seen my fair share of births on the Discovery Channel, but they are usually only 5 minutes longs and word on the street is that birth usually takes hours, if not days. I'm hoping that when my future wife gives birth to our child, TiVo-for-life will be invented and I could fast forward the event and go straight to when we are driving home. I'll keep my hopes up. I once saw a lamb give birth up close. All I remember of the the event was a lot of blood and a lot of screaming. I was pretty scared for a 3rd grade kid. That is my experience with pregnancy.
Now, let us multiply the event by six and have them giving birth around the clock. Granted, a bird lays an egg, but I'm sure it's not a pleasant process all the time, especially when we come by and fry the egg to make delicious omelets. Mmmmm, eggs. Some may think it's cruel, I think it's delicious. Anyways, these birds are on a 24 hour loop of giving birth. They constantly lay eggs rich with life supplying nutrients.

The sixth day symbolizes the six days of Creation found in Genesis. It accounts for how God gave six days dedicated solely to creation and making of life. And each day, we see life giving nutrients supplied by God instead of a goose. That creation has at times left scars from it's painful mistakes. However, God still loves his creation and dedicates all his time to watching over his creation, day in and day out. That is the purpose of the sixth day. To remind us that creation is constantly in motion and constantly watched over. So here's to the sixth day being about being creation. Here's to being loved by a Creator who loves creating.

KB

5th Day of Christmas

ON THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, fiiiiiivveeee gooolllddeenn riiinnnggssss. Finally, something that doesn't have feathers. We assume the rings are pure gold or at least 14K otherwise this lover is looking pretty stingy. Although, he got his love something that doesn't have to be fed and cleaned up after. He got his love something she'd actually appreciate. Or does she?

My father is involved with the jewelry business. Around the holiday, business picks up significantly. We see a number of lost men fall through the doors on the verge of a breakdown because he has no idea what to get his wife. In general, wives like things that sparkle. In order for a man to mess up a jewelry gift, he would have had to pick something so far from her liking it would be nearly impossible to get it wrong. The male species has been able to trump the odds, such as putting a man on the moon, and buying his wife a bad gift is no exception. And sure enough, December 26th sees men returning with their wives to get what they really wanted- they returned a toaster oven and got a diamond necklace. At least the wife gives him some slack since he at least attempted to get the right thing!

Symbolically, the five rings supposedly represent the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Genesis is cool because it accounts for Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, and even the great Joseph and the technicolor dream coat, but the stories get old. Exodus is cool because it accounts for Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. But after the 20th chapter, we find that all Israel is is a bunch of Jewish people in the middle of a hot desert, so they complain. The other three books are straight up boring. They have laws, accounts, a census or two. I would rather read Great Expectations backwards that read those three books in a day. In retrospect, these five books are anything but golden to the average reader.

But beneath them, we see a series of stories that are commonly overlooked. They are stories that, when put in context, are mind boggling. We just don't have the patience for them. We don't have the patients for a lot of things. There are things in this world we hate waiting for, like food and standing in line at the theater. But they are good things, we just choose not to see the beauty beneath them. So maybe the fifth day of five golden rings is just that. We must see the beauty of this world beneath its crusty outer layer and see the beauty that lies beneath. I think when we do, we won't see a world of muck and mire, but five golden rings. Here's to the fifth day being about the beauty beneath.

KB

4th Day of Christmas

ON THE FOURTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, four calling birds. Keeping in the tradition of birds, our lover here is starting to look like Alfred Hitchcock more and more. These are four calling birds. They call. A lot. They are loud. Very loud. And in all honesty, the amount of noise these small animals make is astounding.

If you have ever been around a parrot who talks, you know they sound like a politician. They say only what they've been taught and when they open their mouths, it is annoying and shrill. Four of these birds is more than enough to push the boundary of sanity. Bird names are always deceiving too. Whenever I had a friend who owned a bird, they called it "Sweetheart" or "Baby." Far from the truth. They acted more like "Squaker" or, in keeping with the politician idea, "Nancy Poloski."

If I got these specific four birds as a gift though, I would name them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The fifth would be named Horatio but that is irrelavent. The original four stand for the gospels of the Bible- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They are "calling" birds because they proclaim the name of the gospels. Normally, I would cringe at the warm feelings and church-y sound of this because when something is "churchy," it seems to diminish and water down the impact of something so powerful. But this time, I'll allow the church-y feel. It's Christmas.

In all honesty, these four books are shouted from the mountain tops all over the place. Churches have TV shows, outreach programs in colleges, youth groups for teens and tweens, Bible tracks- oh my gosh it is everywhere! As far as America is concerned, there is not a street corner that doesn't know something about the Bible or heard about Jesus. Heck, they same his name all the time, even if it's not in such a holy way. But they know about it at least. The reality of the situation is that nobody really knows the reality of how real it is. Lamen's Terms: Nobody really grasps all that Jesus did on this earth. These four books are a testament to what he did, but they aren't all he did. They cannot display his facial express or record his voice. They are only a small picture. But they call out every day. So, it is our duty to try and understand that magnitude. It is our job to grasp the reality of how great it is and was by living it every day. We must learn to be his facial expressions and his voice, or as the Bible says, his ambassadors (2 Chor. 5:20).

Philemon 6 says, "I pray you be active in sharing your faith so that you may have an understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." Being his ambassadors is a call to be a light in the things we do, not just the things we say. It is about trying to understand our Savior, our light. The fourth day is about understanding Light.

KB

3rd Day of Christmas

ON THE THIRD DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, three French hens. As noted twice before, the number of birds in the song is astonishing. However, much to the man's credit, hens are a practical gift. They lay eggs and provide good food, granted the lover in the song doesn't have a problem scraping up bird poo and decapitating a chicken. I have seen this practice on National Geographic a number of times and trust me, it takes a strong kind of woman to deal with that. The feathers, the blood, the crying, and that is coming from me just watching the chicken die!


As always, there is significance in the gift. The three hens in the song resemble that of faith, hope, and love- three principles found in the Bible under I Chorinthians 13. "And these three remain, faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love." I won't pull this translation apart simply because it is a good translation. Faith and hope and love are vital parts of the way we live in this world and they are three things we lack in this world.


Nobody lives with faith. When I hear people talk about government or politics, it is always with uncertainty and doubt. They have fear, not faith. Nobody lives with hope. There is a lack of hopeful people in this world. When someone has a desire to do something great with their lives, maybe like quit ther job and start their own business or go to work in the ministry, they don't do it because they are afraid to. They have no hope in greater things. Nobody lives with love. This is such a massive topic, but in short people hardly care about anybody but themselves. Nobody has trust in anybody but themselves. So maybe the third day is about living with what we don't have enough of and need more of. The third day is about living.


KB

2nd Day of Christmas

ON THE SECOND DAY OF CHRISTMAS, my true love gave to me two turtle doves. Again, birds are a bad choice for any lover wanted to woo his love into their arms. However, the second day of Christmas offers an interesting animal anomaly- a turtle with a dove? How did that work out? Those are two creatures you don't normally see with one another. A turtle is slow. A bird is fast. A turtle is boring. A dove is schizophrenic. Why would anyone want to intermix those two? They are an odd couple.


It is said that the symbolic meaning of two turtle doves refers to the Old and New Testaments in the Bible. If that is what it means, then they have some very unique personalities. Why? Because the God of the Old Testatment was different than the New Testament God. The change was that he sent his only son to die so that we might have a direct line to God, not a sacrificial one.

As for the birds, they are both turtle doves, but they are different. My point is they are a pair that make up one. They are a couple that despite being odd and despite being far from each other in a lot of ways works out. Turtles and doves. Old and New. Peanut Butter and chocolate. Thing one and thing two. They complement each other. They work out to form one being, one entity. The two animals become a turtledove. Old and new- a Bible. Peanut Butter and chocolate- Reese's. Thing one, thing two- Dr. Seuss. Granted, they are an odd couple no matter how you look at it, but they are 1 gift, not two separate ones.


Relationships are like that. Opposites attract. Possibly, the second day is just that. It is about two radically different things working out. They meld together to create something that is one, but two. They aren't always perfect, in fact they never are. Husband and wives sometimes fight. Best friends can get on each other's nerves. Turtles and doves are nothing alike, but they meld together. But in the end, it all comes back to relationships. We are called to unite. To bind. To be two in one. Many people like to cut relationships off when things get bumpy. They don't like handling the pressure. But the second day is calling us to change that. It is calling us to accept our differences and get along. So here's to the second day- relationships.


And yes, I know that a turtledove has nothing to do with an actual turtle.


KB

1st Day of Christmas

This is a series of 12 stories leading up to Christmas, taken from the infamous Christmas song, 12 Days of Christmas. Be sure to follow them every day leading up to Christmas.

ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, a partridge in a pear tree. Thus starts a series of gifts that not only stink, but ultimately compile the longest song in Christmas history. In fact, anyone who knows the song knows that it contains six days dedicated solely to the bird. That is 23 birds. Now anybody who has had a bird as a pet knows that having a bird is the worst. They gawk, squawk, and poop us into a near suicidal state. That's why people have cats, to get rid of the birds. Dogs get rid of the cats. Owners beat the dogs for being stupid. The cycle continues.

The partridge on a pear tree is usually considered a symbol in this song. Some liken it to the story of Christ (the bird) hanging upon a tree (the pear tree). However, I'm not entirely certain Jesus like pears. I know he didn't like figs as seen in Matthew 21:18-22. I simply assume that he didn't like fruits in general, but that's a debate for another day. Others think that the symbolism was Catholics trying to teach the children a moral lesson through the use

of symbolism, but this is mostly a Protestant holiday, so I rule this out. Sure the Catholics had their share in contributing to the holy holiday, but we Protestants gave Santa a hat, reindeer, and a sled and the rest, they say, is history. Some whack-o's in the world might even think the symbolism has to do with the infamous Partridge Family, a popular family pop band who traveled the US in a colorful van during the 1970's. I'm not sure what Danny Bonaduce has to do with Christmas but I like this theory. It's very American.

In all purposes of writing this, here is my translation of the first day. Whoever is giving these gifts is the worst. I like pears, I'm not too fond of the bird, but at any rate I hardly consider a small tree a gift I want under my Christmas tree. In all good spirits, I think it has to do with how we act when we get those terrible gifts. You know when you get socks from someone, you give them that look that shouts, "Did you keep the receipt?" But it isn't in the gift we find our joy. It is in the giving. It is in the spirit of giving. So here's to the first day of Christmas- love to give.

KB