Is "#socialmedia" #ruining #your #Holiday #season?

Sleigh bells ring….are you listening?

In the Lane… snow is glistening….

(Unless you live in Austin, Texas like myself where it's 74 today.)

(photo credit Guy Wulf)

Back to the song….

A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight….

Happy?  HAPPY?

I'll have time to be happy after the shopping list is done, Christmas cards are out, school parties are wrapped up, bus driver gift purchased, pine needles from dried-out Christmas tree are vacuumed (again!) holiday baking complete, church craft supplies bought, and biggest-light-display-ever is in place outside in my front yard.

And…

I've successfully recorded it all on my Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat page.
(Don't forget to tweet it out…)

I mean… c'mon!  You gotta show the world how "organized" you are.  How "busy" you are.  How "involved" you are.  How "Merry" you are.

Don't misunderstand my heart… there is joy…it's just a little suppressed and choked off right now….

Do you know that I was so tired on Saturday morning that I actually took the wild advice out of some "beauty secret" column?  I probably read it during my Birthday pedicure appointment; no joke, I put hemorrhoid cream under my eyes to reduce the bags that had formed from a week of staying up way too late to finish way too many things!

(For the record… it works!)

But that's not the point, people!  The point is… we've become so fixated on all of the extras in the holiday season… and having to broadcast it out to the world…. and watch everyone else's holiday session unfold via photos scrolling down our screen…that we don't even notice if there is snow glistening down a lane.  We're too exhausted to see the "beautiful sight" and "be happy tonight."

I'm not writing today to suggest a "Mary spirit" in a Martha season.  (For those that have NO idea what I'm talking about a great passage in the Bible about 2 sisters…one's a worker and one appears to be slacking off while her sister is prepping food in the kitchen.  You can read about it here… great story to pop over to for context.)  I'll wait…..

Okay, good, we are all on the same page.  Okay, so I'm not pointing fingers at the Martha.  Fellow fan-club President of Martha…right here… I empathize with all of us who are losing hair every December. I mean, you could choose to not send out Christmas cards, do any holiday baking, stiff your nieces and nephews and skip the shopping.

Yeah, right!!!  Okay, so not very realistic… and that's why I'm not asking you to just sit at Jesus's feet for the next 8 days.

BUT…..

This time of year gets noisy.  Media is noisy.  It can be bombarding.

We see around 247 images a day.  NOT including Social Media.

And since I know you are reading this via social media of some-sort… let me land the plane and make this short…..

We'll never see if the lane is glistening… or see the beautiful sights of the season if we've got our nose buried in our phone looking at what OTHER people are doing during the holiday season.  The season is a fixed time… it only lasts a short while… it's (despite what culture has turned it into) Jesus's birthday… the Savior… the King… came to earth as a child to save us and restore us to God!!!!

Rejoice… dear friends… rejoice!!

Don't "like" what your friends are doing… get together with them!
Stop scrolling… and start enjoying.
Don't compare; share…. yourself… with others… not as a "selfie" but share your time, your resources with those in need…with those you love….

Go walk in a winter wonderland…. get quiet… keep your phone in the car…. and just soak it in.  God created a beautiful world…with beautiful people…. and a beautiful Son…. for us.

I challenge you to do something "off the grid" this week… tell me… post…what will it be?  (Ironic to post it…yes… but hopefully you'll inspire other readers to do the same!)

In honor of Thanksgiving past: stretched out yoga pants and bad ingredients

So I have an admission to make.

I've never seen Restaurant Impossible.

Until after church on Sunday.  My Pastor at Expression Church mentioned it in one of his opening stories.  You know, the ones a Pastor uses in the beginning to get you all relaxed, engaged and in your seats… the one that you are so engrossed in and following and then wha'baam… you're sucked in to whatever he wants to say next.

He's brilliant.

Mostly because God's made our pastor brilliant and partly because I have ADHD at church and the minute you pull out an organ, some responsive ritual that I don't know (and subsequently won't pay attention because I don't want to talk at the wrong time) or something that sounds very ominous or huilt-inducing… I'm out.  Surfing my phone, doodling on the announcements… out.  I would probably post on Facebook something like #countingminutestilStarbucks

So back to Restaurant Impossible.  The basic gist of the program is that the host, Robert Irvine, helps rescue flailing restaurants by coming in and consulting… giving feedback and a plan to help the restaurant succeed.  All in the timing of one show.  (Talk about your chances of being cut on the editing room floor… I bet they have HOURS of footage that gets driven down to a precise air time.)

In most episodes, Robert asks the chef to cook up all of his favorite dishes so that he could sample them.  Needless to say, all of them were inedible by Robert's standards.  I mean… bad.

Consistently, one particular piece of advice is given to the owner of the restaurant:

"You need to use different ingredients."

Now I want to give credit where credit is due… Pastor Ryan did a great job at laying out a quick analogy for this restaurant but it got me chewing on it for awhile…

Modern culture needs different ingredients.  

Today's culture isn't going to be fixed with a fancier car, a new diet plan or a "20 days to a better marriage" conference.  And, when I mean today's culture… I'm talking about what we see when we turn on the TV… read the web or the news… watch "E!" or buy "In Style" magazine.  (I refuse to hyperlink those!)  It's what we see our neighbor wearing, doing, saying, dressing like.  Culture.  The majority.  You know, "go with the flow?"  You know….

The #Kardashians?

#MileyCyrus?

The Biebs?

#snapchat?

(Yes.  I just typed with hashtags.)  And you can "humpf" all you want about the people I mentioned up above… but the reality is we all know who those people are… which means we all know a bit about pop culture.  Which means it starts to become part of our background… normal.  Can I suggest we turn this notion of "go with the flow" on it's head?

Cuz, friends, "goin' with the flow" ain't workin!

This notion of believing in a God, or Jesus.. like it's an accessory that we can just add or take off when it works for us.. isn't working.  We need to START with Jesus and add on from there.  

Here's the amazing thing… if we start with the Big Man (that would be Jesus, stay with me!) then HE actually provides the rest of the recipe.  He provides the ingredients (including you!) He even provides the "salt" that makes everything better…. 

Crickey, you don't even need cooking skills!  (PREACH!)

So as you are wearing your stretchy yoga pants for the 4th day in a row… may I offer up a suggestion as we roll into the holiday season?  May we consider what ingredients are going into our minds… our hearts… our souls?  Especially as we jump in waist-deep to a season filled with joy and awe…but also a "culture" of materialism, hurriedness and competition.  

Take a moment or two and reflect on this new "main" ingredient for your life.

What did you come up with?

Share…. what's one "bad" ingredient you can omit in your life this month?  

Tell me… post it…share and don't forget to sign up for blog posts right into your inbox (right side your screen)…especially if you are omitting FB this next month!