2. Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much. Franklin Roosevelt
3. Business information is doubling about every three years. In other words, in three years you'll have twice as much noise to sift through just to get your work done. Bill Jensen - Simplicity
4. Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run twice as fast as that. Red Queen – Alice in Wonderland
10. … a continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time, frequently in the face of opposition, real or imagined, from other persons. Meyer Friedman
11. When you go through life at warped speed, your life will begin to get warped.
17. As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed them into her home. Luke 10:38
18. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. Luke 10:39
19. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. Luke 10:40
20. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Luke 10:40
This is the best time of the year. It’s also a crazy time of year as well. Christmas in America epitomizes everything that is great and frustrating about our country. We eat some great food, but eat way too much. We see people’s eyes light up as they open their gift, but we leave the season stressed out wondering how we are going to pay for it all. We catch up with family and have fun with friends, but we feel overwhelmed with adding more to our already packed schedules. Some of us dread having contact with that family member that burned us. Like Charles Dickens other book the Tale of Two City Christmas can be the best of times and the worst of times. If we want this Christmas to just be the best of times and keep that joy beyond the Christmas season, then we need to rethink Christmas and what it has come to symbolize for many of us: speed, stress, chaos, out of control consumption, juggling packed schedules, and dealing with complicated and bothersome relationships. When we rethink Christmas, we need change from our thinking about life to thinking about Christ’s life. I’m not talking about remembering Jesus is the reason for the Season, even though that should be true, but go beyond that and think about how Jesus came into this world and how he lived his awesome life that’s still talked about around this globe two thousand years ago. A life of simplicity, peace, clarity, generosity, centered around restoring bad relationships. And that’s what we are going to do over the next few weeks. We are going to rethink Christmas by thinking about Christ so this can be a great Christmas season, but not just that, so we can have a truly great life beyond the Christmas season. Before we get into how Jesus thinks about life, let’s dive into how we as humanity, especially here in the US think about life. President Roosevelt said almost 70 years ago…
