Back in the home state

Here I sit in the wonderful Show-me state, awaiting the onslaught of snow and coldness that looks to provide a wonderful white Christmas. Say what you will about the crazy seasons of the midwest, it's pretty great waking up to a land blanketed with snow on Christmas morning.
Last weekend I was in Columbia, SC to hang out with friends. Thanks to Tom and Nicole for letting me stay with them. The casa de Katona really is a great place. It was fun seeing Jennifer, Leigh, Michael, Andrew, Becca, Ellen, Jay, Allison, Tom, Nicole, and all of the Shandon folk. While I love my seminary friends, I really miss spending time with my Cola peeps. I'm definitely gonna be sad if I end far away from them.
On a related note, girls really can be fickle sometimes. I think I'm going to officially quit trying to understand them and just, "live in the tension."
On a totally unrelated note, Napoleon Dynamite came out on DVD today. I bought it, watched it, and fell in love with it all over again. If you haven't seen it, see it...GOSH!!!
I've been listening to a great sermon by John Lynch lately. John Lynch has a website, and I'll add it into this post at some point. Anyway, he talks about the fact that we can't really handle the amazing grace of God, so we invented Santa Claus. That's right...Santa Claus is comin' to town (kind of like a gangster or something). He's keepin' a list of naughty and nice and he's comin' to town. I hope that anybody who might read this will stop to think about that in relation to God. Our's is not a Santa Claus-type God. YHWH isn't comin' to town to remind us of our naughtiness or niceness. Elohim is comin' to earth in the form of a precious little child...a child who will grow in wisdom and stature...a child who shows us what it means to trust God and to be fully human...a child who will grow up and eventually take the weight of the world on his shoulders. In this Advent season, let's dare to believe in a God who is comin' to earth to save us and show us love. Let's dare to believe that God pursues us, even to the ends of our sin, in order to redeem us. Let's dare to trust God and to let God love us unconditionally.
Well, folks, that's enough preaching for now. I've just really enjoyed that sermon and thought I'd share some thoughts. I pray that everyone has a very merry Christmas and a blessed beginning to the new year.