Contemplating Life

 It is THAT time – the “holiday season” where we indulge on Thanksgiving and overspend on Christmas. Some people excel this time of year – running on adrenaline as they decorate and bake and buy and just revel in the moment. But I know this isn’t true for everyone – some people travel this time of year in pain and depression. I am trying really hard to pay attention to the people around me and where they are functioning. I truly want to contribute to people’s hope and not add to their despair. I am going to confess something here – for most of my life I was the pain and depression person. I have dreaded this time of year for as long as I can remember. It has always been the “extreme” period when I have always felt the most alienated from family, the most alone, the time when I greatly felt that I wasn’t good enough to belong anywhere. And if I were to dive into the memory vault (which I will not do), I know that it has also been the season where I have experienced the greatest hurtful

  A few years back, I had a good friend sit across from me and ask me, “Do you really believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to God?” My answer was an unequivocal (very politically incorrect) “Yes!” and here is why: First, I believe that there IS a Creator God. The creation itself reveals His existence- everything is too detailed, too “functional” for all of this to be random. There is just too much order in what could and should be chaos – Someone is maintaining that order. Although many people continue to throw their hat in with evolution, a little research reveals that theory has no scientific substance – it doesn’t roll with what is evident around us. Rather, creation itself extols the existence of a Creator. As it says in Romans 1:20 “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” This brings me to