A church I served always adopted a Salvation Army site during the holiday season. Volunteers stood outside a nearby grocery store, collecting money for the Red Kettle.

The experience of ringing the Salvation Army bell grants deep insights into human nature. Most adults avoid eye contact altogether, pretending they cannot see or hear you. However, the cling-clang of the bell fascinates children as they gaze at the berry-red kettle.

I witnessed a bejeweled woman in a high-end sports car stalk past without a glance. A biker in dirty jeans and leather jacket stuffed $20 into the slot. Others gave nothing as they shrugged with varying degrees of indifference or embarrassment.

If you encounter someone ringing the Salvation Army this year, here’s my advice.

• Make eye contact
• Smile
• Thank the volunteers for their service
• Wish them a “Merry Christmas”
• Make sure children have coins to drop in the kettle
• Make sure you donate some cash that folds
• Do unto others as . . . well, you know.

Our Advent Worship Series at Northside Church is entitled Classic Christmas Movies. Last Sunday’s feature film was A Christmas Carol, starring Patrick Stewart.

In Charles Dickens’ novella, the fearsome ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future visited Ebenezer Scrooge. He awoke on Christmas morning a transformed man.

Dickens reminds believers that we celebrate Christmas in three tenses. PAST: We remember how the Son of God became incarnate as a tiny babe. PRESENT: We recognize Christ’s Spirit present in our daily lives. FUTURE: We anticipate the day our Lord will return again in glory.

It’s telling that Charles Dickens entitled his story A Christmas Carol. Ebenezer Scrooge discovered the true meaning of Christmas that terrible, wonderful night. Faced with the reality of his life, he also discovered God’s power to change.

Christmas reminds us that it’s never too late to become the people that we always hoped to be.

“God bless us, every one.”

An attitude of gratitude begins and ends each day with the question, “What am I grateful for today?” Then thanksgiving directs our eyes from the gift to the Giver. It prompts us in a variety of ways to say “Thank you” to the Author of all good and perfect gifts.

Gratefulness begins with God and overflows to others. The Lord graces us with life-giving relationships with family, friends, and others. Our human nature leads us to take people for granted. A focus on gratitude inspires us to both experience and express our appreciation for those around me.

Gratitude also helps inoculate our souls against whining, complaining, and grumbling. Gratefulness leads us to focus on blessings rather than inconveniences. It is difficult to moan and groan while praising God and loving others.

We tend to be a forgetful people, so seed each day with small reminders. Use daily routines to instill habitual moments of thanksgiving and praise.

Throughout the year, cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

“Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.”

Ascribed to John Wesley

So,

get those “cans” to work!

Gary Chapman published The 5 Love Languages in 1992. After five editions, ten million copies, and numerous companion books, Chapman has made a cottage industry out of the original manuscript.

Chapman asserts we experience and express love through five love languages, including:

• Words of Affirmation
• Quality Time
• Receiving Gifts
• Acts of Service
• Physical Touch

Most people speak a primary and secondary language.

Miscommunication occurs when couples assume they speak the same language. Learning and speaking your partner’s love language revitalizes relationships.

During premarital counseling, I present couples with a copy of The 5 Love Languages. The concepts provide crucial strategies for healthy relationships.

To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, “If I speak in the tongues of humans and angels, but do not speak my partner’s love language, then I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Love others by speaking their love language.

We moved to Buckhead in 2017. After living outside-the perimeter since my teens, I envisioned an area of high-rise buildings and high-density neighborhoods. Certainly both exist, but Buckhead also features rolling hills, mature forests, and crooked creeks.

The church parsonage on West Wesley is a bit like a mullet hairdo—business in the front and party in the back! The front yard faces a busy, metro street. The backyard borders acres of woods. The patio could be located in Highlands, well, except for the constant drone of traffic and planes.

During our tenure in the house, I have seen opossums, deer, hawks, owls, snakes, squirrels, chipmunks, and foxes. Two years ago a church member even photographed a brown bear 75 yards away from our backdoor.

Last month I glanced out a window to see a buck emerging from the woods. A few moments later another buck joined him. After meandering around the back yard, they walked down the stairs to the creek.

Several stories account for our community’s name. I now have my own theory!

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

This oft-repeated mantra of paranoia still makes me smile. The statement both recognizes the mental aberration and affirms its existence.

But are we paranoid ENOUGH? Consider recent, technological “advances.”

• Cell phones track our physical location.
• Cellular companies promote thumbprint and facial recognition technology.
• After searching for a purchase on the Internet, ads for the same product suddenly appear on multiple electronic platforms.
• Cars’ GPS document our driving patterns.
• Doorbell cameras share video with parent companies and law enforcement.
• Security and traffic cameras along with license tag readers record our movement.
• Alexa, Siri, and their sisters record home conversations.
• Social media accumulates gigabytes of personal information.
• Credit companies gather extensive financial information.

In 1984, people would have revolted against governments and businesses that wanted to track our location, record our words, video our actions, and monitor our lives. Today we willfully volunteer this information without a second thought.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

A stomach virus viciously ambushed me Saturday evening. A high fever accompanied bouts of DELETED BY CENSOR. I took it like a man, moaning and groaning while praying for death.

My wife alerted the other pastors leading worship on Sunday morning. While I spent the night preparing my funeral, the Reverends Catherine Boothe Olson and Jeff Rogers divided the responsibilities. With only 12 hours’ notice, they gracefully led the three services. Other staff members fluidly shifted and shared duties as well.

In my early appointments, I WAS the church staff. Over the years, I’ve un-learned some lessons about self-reliance and independence. In return, the Holy Spirit has taught some lessons about collegiality and community.

Thank God for the amazing staff family at Northside Church. There’s no “I” in “Team,” and I am glad to be one member of Christ’s body in this time and place.

I do have an unused funeral outline available for anyone suffering from a similar, life-threatening ailment.

I could have DIED, you know.

A possum tried to cross West Wesley Road and died messily in front of our mailbox. In the past, I would have used a shovel to reverently dispose of the remains. However, I was delighted to discover the City of Atlanta has a dead animal removal service.

I completed the form and waited. And waited. And waited. And, well you get the idea.

After four weeks in 95+ degree temperatures, the carcass sorta melted into the asphalt. Other than the interim stink and mess, I suppose the city’s dead animal removal service works!

Everyone has some sort of possum problem. You can hope someone else will remove it. You can hold your nose until the stink goes away. Or you can grab a shovel and solve the problem yourself.

The good news is I’m SURE the city will fill the potholes on our street any day now.

I’m publishing this blog on September 25, which means Christmas is only three months away! Hobby Lobby decorated it’s aisles in July, and most retail stores are not far behind. Deck the halls, make a list, and check it twice, December 25^th is on its way.

Perhaps you’ve somehow avoided the Christmas Spirit to date. September weather and fall leaves hardly evoke images of a wintry wonderland with sleigh rides, jingle bells, and roasting chestnuts.

However, Christmas is not a day, season, or feeling. Instead, it’s the celebration of divine grace in our human lives. God so loved the world that the divine became incarnate, the Word became flesh.

The bookends of Jesus life at the manger and the cross reveal the height, width, and depth of God’s love for each of us. God so loved the world—so loved each of us—that God GAVE. The empty tomb declares that our Lord is with us both now and forever more.

Christmas is only three months away.

Christmas was almost 2,000 years ago.

Christmas is when we know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.