the tindog coffeehouse

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Luke 2:8-14, NKJV

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Merry Christmas!

I began seeing friends on Facebook join a group called I Am Second, and it didn’t really mean anything. Then I saw it mentioned in an article in the Dallas Morning News. Hmm. OK, so what is this about?

That’s the question Plano-based e3 Partners Ministry hopes North Texans will ask as part of “I Am Second,” a multimillion-dollar media campaign intended to promote God as the source of a shared, purposeful life. The initiative – which began this month and is planned to last three years – has attracted professional athletes and Hollywood celebrities and drawn more than 160,000 Web site hits from people in at least 150 countries. …

The mysterious ads list a Web site – iamsecond.com – with provocative testimonial videos by celebrities like movie star Stephen Baldwin, Dallas Cowboys linebacker Greg Ellis and former NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip.

Dallas-area residents also share stories of eating disorders, loneliness, drug abuse and pornography addiction. The intimate clips appear more like the makings of a professional documentary than a homegrown church movement.

Continue reading…

mental_floss has the story behind the class A Charlie Brown Christmas… and why it almost didn’t air.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the gang, so naturally I make it a point to watch the Charlie Brown specials whenever they’re on, especially the Christmas special, and it’s become a holiday tradition for us and the kids. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without Charlie Brown’s sad little Christmas tree.

I’ve always wondered how they could get away with quoting Scripture in prime time, and I wonder every year if this will be the year ABC will edit it out and replace it with some sort of product placement spiel for Disneyworld. In recent years, they’ve followed the original version with a newer Peanuts Christmas cartoon which is more Santa-oriented. While still good, it definitely lacks the heart and soul that Charles Schulz put into his characters which made the original Christmas special so endearing.

And don’t even get me started on Shrek the Halls.

The List Universe has posted the Top 10 Facts about Saint Nicholas, the 3rd-century saint who would later come to symbolize the true meaning of our Savior’s birth: early-bird shop-a-thons, 50%-off sales, and an eternal shortage of Nintendo Wiis. (Wikipedia article here, from which the Top 10 list is derived.)

According to legend, Saint Nicholas became famous for his gift-giving ways after anonymously giving a man bags of gold coins to keep his daughters from prostituting themselves. Seems kind of ironic today, doesn’t it?

Our girls are 6 and 4, so every Christmas there’s the question of what to do about Santa Claus. I don’t want to take away the innocence of childhood by telling them that Santa isn’t real; they’ll figure that out soon enough. But I don’t want to emphasize Santa and presents to the point of diminishing what Christmas is really about: the birth of Jesus. It’s humbling to look around at our Christmas decorations and see so many images of Santa but yet next to nothing about Jesus.

Christy’s approach is a little different, suggesting we go ahead and tell them that Santa isn’t real. She makes the very good point that if they find out later that we lied to them about Santa, will they also think that Jesus is a lie, too?

I don’t know if they fully believe in Santa or not, but for now the Santa decorations are still up and the girls will be leaving cookies for him on Christmas Eve. But we’ll also be reading the story of the birth of Jesus in the Bible and will probably have a birthday cake for him too (as we did last year with their cousins).

We’ve started developing our own family Christmas traditions, and thankfully visiting Santa at the mall has never been one of them. I guess that’s one good thing. If nothing else, at least it’s one less thing we have to worry about.