Random Thoughts on Christmas and Commercialism

I love Christmas. I always have, even as a child, but not the way most kids do. My family wasn't well off; we weren't poor, but Christmas was never about presents. We always had a tree, which my dad let me decorate by myself every year, and sometimes there would be a few things under it, but for me the tree was just a visible symbol of the spirit of the season. I loved the message of new beginnings, forgiveness, redemption, and love, whether it was Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", or the Grinch (Scrooge in green fur!), or Jimmy Stewart in "It's A Wonderful Life", or even Frosty the Snowman, which is quite possibly the silliest of the "classic" Christmas stories.

Most of all, though, I love the original Christmas story, the birth of Jesus, read aloud from the King James Version of the Bible. Here is the ultimate gift, given to all people for all times, the most perfect redemption of all people by God through the birth, death and resurrection of His only Son.

All this comes to mind as I ponder the sad condition of modern society. I was listening to James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" broadcast a few days ago, and he was speaking about retailers and merchants who have removed all references to Christmas from their stores, catalogs, and websites. One particular item that caught my attention was about Lowe's hardware stores, which are selling Christmas trees, only they call them "holiday trees" or "family trees", depending on which store you go to. This borders on absurdity...who needs to be pacified to this extreme, and when did "tolerance" start meaning "don't say anything that hints at Christianity"?

Then, Tuesday night, ABC TV aired the "Charlie Brown Christmas" show, (although why they rushed it in the week after Thanksgiving puzzles me; it isn't even December yet!) and I got to see my favorite scene: Linus, reciting from Scripture, explaining the very meaning of Christmas.



I was refreshed again, even though I noticed the copyright of the show is 1965; it saddens me to think how far out society has drifted. But that was then, and this is now, and I can only wait anxiously for the return of our King, and the glorious world He will bring, when all people will understand what Christmas was all about.

He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22:20, NKJV)

Something to look forward to...NOT!

Ok, so I'm not the most prolific blogger who ever posted...sue me. No, please don't, I don't have any money anyway, and I've got more than enough legal expenses as it is. Let me explain...

Back in early July this year, my wife's son, who now lives with us, was visiting his grandmother across town. A couple of his aunts live nearby, so he got to see a bunch of the family, and it was pretty cool for him. (He's eighteen now, but at this time he was still 17; who knew a kid that age could still LIKE his family?) Anyway, the youngest aunt, who we'll call Poison, (the reasons will become clear shortly) , approached him about doing some make-ready work on a rental property...nothing major, just trash hauling, cutting grass, and the like. She said she had taken the job from the owner but didn't have time to do it, and she would pay him whatever the job paid. So he does the work, and a few days later she brings him 2 checks, made out to him, for $100 each. He takes them, sees a woman's name on them, figures all is good and sticks them in his pocket until he needs the money.

Fast forward thirty days. It's now early August, and he comes to me to see if I will take him to the bank to get his money. He's still 17, has no account, so we go to Amegy Bank, where the checks are drawn on. He hands them over with his ID, and we wait. And wait. And wait. Twenty minutes later a police officer enters the lobby, approaches us, and next thing I know we're in handcuffs! NOW the bank manager appears, telling the cop that this account is closed, these checks were reported stolen, and the signature doesn't match. So guess who's going to jail? Oh yeah, they took both of us; apparently in Texas it's a crime to STAND NEXT TO a crime!

So, here we are: sitting in jail, after 6 on a weeknight, my phone taken away, my wife has no clue what's going on, and nobody is listening to anything we have to say. It takes 2 hours to get a phone call, another 40 hours for them to set a bond so we can get out, and another 24 hours (!) to get through releasing, just to be told to be back Monday at 8:00 for court. Mind you, all we did was try to cash a check! Actually, that's what my son was trying to do; I just drove him there and went inside to get out of the heat. (August in Houston in a car with no a/c is not a thing to be taken lightly!)

Now, here is the best part - my sister-in-law, Poison, wrote the damn checks herself and gave them to her nephew! When she found out we were in jail, her only comment: "I never imagined he'd take them to a bank!" What?!?!?

This all comes up because on Monday we make yet another court appearance (the third one so far), hopefully the last. Under Texas law, a charge of forgery requires a grand jury indictment or a no-bill to move forward, but you can't see a grand jury without an attorney, and I got to choose between dropping a lot of cash for a lawyer (ouch!) or having bond revoked and getting a court-appointed lawyer (OUCH!) So far, my out-of-pocket expenses (bonds, lawyers, lost wages, etc) is over $7,000, which I have no way to recover. Poison has no job, no property, no home, no car...not really anything. I filed a police complaint against her because my lawyer said I should, and because it would be nice to see her suffer the consequences of her choices, but...personally I don't care. I have forgiven her, because that is what God wants me to do; anything else just feels like vengeance, and that's wrong. I would be happy to just walk away from the whole mess with my name cleared, and my son, of course. He isn't guilty of anything worse than poor judgment - we've been telling the kids for years not to trust Aunt Poison over anything to do with money; I guess he had to learn that lesson the hard way, through bitter experience.

I'm not real sure what lesson I was supposed to learn...it's in my prayers for that to be revealed to me. If I had to guess, I would say I needed some practical application of forgiveness, and trusting in God's justice to prevail and not relying on man's. OK, did that, God bless me, amen. No, I'm not that flippant about it, but I'm just ready for all this to be over. Maybe there's some more instruction in this for me in that area too...waiting on God's time, not mine.

I have much growing to do.

Welcome to The Nicky

Hello to all those who will someday be my loyal readers. This blog will serve as my venting space...the place where I release all the stuff that runs around inside my head, all day long, but never had anywhere else to go. It will probably be every bit as boring as that sounds, but I will make every effort to at least not be trite; I enjoy writing, and that joy should show in my work.

A bit about me: I'm a follower of Christ (a much more accurate description than just "Christian", I feel), nearing middle age, married to a wonderful woman who has been my best friend for 2/3 of my life. We have 4 kids between us, my girls and her boys (this is the second time around for both of us), who are all grown, but mostly living at home while they get their lives started. I work a blue-collar job, but I enjoy it; not many have the luxury of being well-paid for doing something they find satisfying. I attend a very good, very small Baptist church,where everyone really loves and cares for each other, and being a member there has been an awesome blessing. My wife and I care-take my 90-year old grandmother, who has Alzheimer's and is fading away from us day by day; it's heart-breaking, but I love her, and I am so grateful for the chance to do for her as she did for me when I was a child. We have 2 dogs, a chow and a German terrier, and a red-eared slider turtle, and they are all more than pets, they are family members too. Like I said, kind of boring; but it's my life and I am fulfilled in all aspects of it.

Not everything is roses and rainbows around here, though. That's the whole reason I need a blog, to help sort out the rougher parts of life and allow myself to vent on stuff that just sucks; also a place to share the positives that come along, because good things happen just as often as bad ones. The tricky part is being able to recognize that both have a place and serve a purpose, and to keep them all in perspective.

I'll develop a little more on all the various themes as we go along. For now, I just wanted a little snapshot to share with you, a starting place to move forward from. Postings will be irregular, but they will come, time and circumstances permitting.

Be warned: you may see anything show up here; I am not afraid to tell the truth as I see it, or to speak my opinions. So if you are offended by or disagree with something I write, that's your problem. Comment on it, ignore it, or start your own blog...it's still a free country, regardless of what that yahoo living at 1600 Pennsylvania might think about it.

OK, that's enough to get me off of zero; more to follow. See ya!