Actions Speak Louder Than Words.

Actual Conversation while at work.

"Hey, How's it going?"

"I'll take a (food item)"

(Thinking wow do you greet everyone that way or just me the dude making your food.)

Cue evil thought of grinding food on the floor before cooking it is playing in my mind while I say....

"Alright, can I get anything else for you?"

"No"

"Thanks and have a nice day." (Hope you enjoy spit in you food)

Silence....

This scenario happens everyday to me at my part time job. Where I work to help pay bills and most importantly, get health insurance for the family. But this sort of behavior seems to get worse around Christmas. I got a complaint about a shift I was managing the other day and my boss was fairly upset. It WAS noted that this was not the "norm" when I am at the restaurant. But it still bugs me. I do my best to make eye contact, greet customers, and make sure they have a good experience. But this time of year brings out the worst in people. I feel like saying, "Hi, My name is Cory and I am a real boy....or Man with a savage beard." The pressures and stress associated with Christmas and the whole gift giving routine turns people into monsters (cue shameless Skillet plug here). I have noticed that people are more joyful around Halloween, which is an evil holiday. This is exactly how Satan wants it. For us to be so stressed out about getting the perfect gift or getting the last "Monster High Doll" in the entire DFW Metroplex. That we forget the reason we celebrate. We forge the reason we give gifts to each other in the first place. To represent the gift God gave us through Jesus. Nothing we can buy at a retail store will ever be an adequate representation of this love that God has for us.

So don't stress out. Treat people like they are human, like they are our brothers and sisters. Or better yet like they are Jesus! Look at the clerk and remember Jesus was born for them too. In a effort to be fair, I will try to look at the people who are treating me like a robot and remember that they are loved by God too. Let's work together to change the behavior that is infecting the most amazing event in history the birth of our King Jesus.

Merry Christmas Ya'll
CD

Gut Check

1 Peter 1:13-16 (New International Version): "Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

Too many of us want to keep our old lives even after we have learned that there is a better way to live. We want to have our cake and eat it too. I cannot help but read this passage and wonder why we yield to our old desires and keep our old ways even after we know what Christ has done to redeem us. What does it mean to be holy? Does it mean we can continue to live the same life we did before we started believing in Christ Jesus? I cannot help but look at this scripture and wonder how many of us (including me) are conforming to the evil desires that we had while we lived in ignorance. To live in ignorance simply means we didn't know any better. What excuses do we make to fit Christianity into our mold of what we want life to look like? Do we put our desires ahead of what Christ has shown us to do? Are we making our walk with Christ relevant to our lives, rather than making our lives relevant to Christianity?

I wonder if we have prepared our minds to be self-controlled. How do we prepare our minds for action? Preparation starts with meditating on scripture and by defining what holy is and and striving to line up our lives with what God had defined as holy. I am not self-controlled, and it is more difficult than anyone of us can imagine to put away the evil desires of our heart. But in order to fulfill what God has called us to be, we must hide the word of God in our heart, in order that we will not sin against God.

Let me know what you think being holy looks like and how we can put away the evil desires of our hearts.