Time out from Christmas crap

They call it a "Time to Mourn at Christmas" and it's pretty blue if you ask me. But blue is what some of us need just to get through this season which is supposed to be homey, lovely, giving, caring and cheerful if you want to reduce the possibility of purple prose escaping from your mouth at the wrong time. Not everyone likes to be that way. It's tough when you have lost something and can't get it back. But if you still want to mark the season with something, what do you do?
Do you lower your expectations of what the season holds for you? Can you find ways to lower the expectation that others have of you?

Sometimes it is simply a lack of funds to buy any of the stuff advertised in the many flyers that arrive at your door that causes embarrassment. Maybe you remember a lost loved one, lost employment, marriage or something very important to you.

A couple of hours may be helpful in pulling back from the noise of the season long enough to gain a sense of healing and affirmation that your hopes and dreams for your future are important and worthwhile. Take a break here.

____________________

On the longest night of the year, Friday, December 21st, at 7:00 pm, gather in the sanctuary for a time of quiet reflection and holy embrace. In contrast to the pace of the sights and sounds of the frenetic rush toward Christmas, this gathering is an opportunity to get out of the way of the madness, for a time. For some of us, it is important to have the chance to take a deep breath, to acknowledge that this season is difficult at times. Losses in our lives make the societal demands feel like an obscenity in the face of our grief, our poverty, our relational strains or brokenness, our emotional or mental struggles. It is important to be able to be honest about the challenges we face when the rest of the world is celebrating. This is the time and space to do that. God knows we need it. Following the gathering in the sanctuary, all are invited to stay to share in a time of refreshment and conversation.

http://www.baptist.toronto.on.ca/whbc/

Woodbine Heights Baptist Church
1171 Woodbine Avenue (at Sammon)
Toronto ON M4C 4E1
416-467-1462
10 minute walk north of
Woodbine Subway Station
Limited street parking available
416-467-1462

#$@%! The strange things people say

Trees swayed in an ominous breeze that was building strength one hot, humid afternoon on a quiet neighbourhood street. I was delivering flyers announcing welcome to stand on our church's lawn to watch the East York Canada Day Parade.

At one house, a woman standing outside gladly took the flyer and we began a conversation about how people are so different than a generation ago. She bemoaned people's bad manners, violent outbursts and reckless driving. Later, as I prepared to get into my car to go home, I saw the woman talking to her neighbours across the street. A pizza delivery car sped past and the woman called out to me to be careful. The pizza car stopped at the bottom of the street and proceeded to make a right turn. Suddenly a large black van rounded the corner in a left turn the opposite way. His turn was too tight, but he managed to avoid collision with the pizza car. The van driver leaned out and let off a string of obscenities including calling the pizza car driver a "terrorist" who should go back to his own country.

I exchanged astonished glances with the woman and hers confirmed the content of our conversation.

The expected stormy weather never materialised, but the brief storm of violent speech I witnessed still lingers. It is somehow more memorable than any weather disturbance. On the drive home I pondered what brought me to that place. Less than half a block away from this verbal act of terrorism is the church who invites people to stand on its lawn for a parade and advertises itself as "A Safe Place."