nightmare

by

Another Christmas Eve Nightmare

I had said that I would not shop on Christmas Eve again, but there I was going from store to store.

This year Christmas has been particularly busy for me. There were many things I didn’t get to that I should have or really wanted to.

I just couldn’t fit it all in. Each day I had plans to do more than could possibly be done in a day so there was always some carry over.

And in that list of things, shopping for Christmas presents seemed to get bumped the most.

It’s okay to put it off from one day to the next to the next, but you eventually run out of days. And there I was staring at Christmas Eve and still needing some presents for the family.

I know people who complete their Christmas shopping in August. I don’t know how they do it. I can’t think Christmas when I’m sitting on a beach with the water lapping at my feet.

I’ve also had a bad experience with early Christmas shopping … but it wasn’t me doing the shopping; it was my mother.

She got way ahead of herself one year, and bought presents for my brother and me. But by the time Christmas came, she had forgotten all about them.

Those presents showed up mid-Christmas morning unwrapped, while my brother and I were wandering around the house thinking, “Is that it? Is that all we get?”

I don’t want to be doing that. I also don’t like wandering around stores in a daze or trance-like state, looking for the perfect present which I will only know what it is when I see it.

That’s not a good feeling.

There was one Christmas – it seems like a hundred years ago now – that I had thought of getting Lily a sweater for Christmas.

This was in the days before we had children. We were living in Edmonton, a city with more than a few big shopping malls.

I had scouted out all the women’s clothing stores in all the malls and had seen a sweater that I liked in one of them.

The only problem was I couldn’t remember which store or which mall I saw it in.

Christmas Eve became a little frantic for me. It was Lily’s main gift and I couldn’t locate it.

To make matters worse, the sweaters were starting to all look the same and I couldn’t remember exactly which sweater was the one.

I literally flew from one store to the next, from mall to mall in search of a sweater I hoped I would recognize when I saw it in a store I had been in over the last few weeks.

I was in a panic at 4 pm, dragging myself through West Edmonton Mall like I was in the middle of the desert without water.

I went in to one store and literally had to convince myself that this was the sweater and that it would fit her.

It all worked out back then. But it was deja-vu all over again this year … I’m never doing this again – for real!

Here’s the thing: We sometimes get so caught up in details that we miss the big picture. Christmas is about celebrating Christ but we get all stressed about having the right present. Often in life we are so detail focussed that we bump our relationship with Christ to the next day and the next, thinking we have time. The details will always pressure us, but you can run out of time with Christ. Don’t let that happen; make Christ a priority today.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What kept you too busy this Christmas? Leave your comments below.

by

I Had a Sleeping Bag Nightmare

Last night I slept in a sleeping bag … and I remembered why I don’t like them very much.

featured

We were on our board retreat at a cottage and I got the chance to try out one of our sleeping bags that has been kicking around our house for more than a few years.

I don’t remember this one from before, so I may have never slept in it, or it’s been so long since I have that I don’t remember it.

What I do remember now, after spending a night in and out of it, is how twisted they get.

The guy who came up with the idea must have slept very still – they’re great if you sleep on your back with your legs straight.

A mummy would do very well in a sleeping bag.

The problem is when you move … and I must move around when I sleep more than I used to.

At one point in the night I couldn’t turn because I was caught up in the sleeping bag. I was lying on a part of it that was constricting my movement.

I felt like I was in the shape of a pretzel and I know the sleeping bag had somehow become twisted into a knot.

I ended up unzipping the bag for most of the night, but that created its own problems.

On a bed, two independent blankets work together just as described – independently. But in an unzipped sleeping bag you are in a fold … I liken it to a taco.

You get all that meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato bits in the fold of the taco shell; it looks good until you take a bite. Then all that stuff starts squirming out of the fold of your taco and making a mess.

Well, there I was all night long squirming out of my taco – uh, sleeping bag.

The good thing about it was that the cottage was warm so I didn’t really need much covering. But boy, when that bag constricted around me like a python, it was like I was fighting for my life!

Here’s something the sleeping bag manufacturer could consider: They should make different widths of sleeping bags.

For young people the sleeping bag can be narrower, but for people who have lived a little, have a few more dreams that they wrestle with when they sleep, they should make the sleeping bags double wide.

I’m just saying I need a little more wiggle room than these things give me.

Sometimes when my alarm goes off in the morning I am so comfortable in my bed that I have to convince myself that I need to get up.

Not this morning! I was up right away, quite happy to get out of my tangled mess. It was like I won the battle with the snake.

He had me in his grip, he was squeezing the life out of me, but I stretched and pulled and moved and fought my way free to live another day.

Well, maybe that was just what I dreamt last night.

Here’s the thing: Have you ever struggled with God on something? Maybe it was a big issue in your life and you needed Him to come through for you. Maybe you’re struggling with Christ just about whether you will trust Him. Keep struggling to the end because, in the end, you will find the freedom that only God can provide.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s the thing you are wrestling with right now? Leave your comments below.

by

It Was A Multitasking Nightmare

I proved to myself today that I’m not a very good multitasker. It’s not the end of the world for me because they say men aren’t good at it anyway.

man-suffering-from-a-toothache-video-id481932171

Apparently, the way the female brain is set up, women are much better at multitasking. Yet there was a time when multitasking was something everyone was trying to master.

But just like margarine was supposed to be better for you than butter, it turned out not to be true.

The same mantra has been proclaimed about multitasking. It doesn’t work; you don’t get more done, and you certainly don’t get more done faster.

I proved that today.

I was in a hurry trying to get out the door for a few errands on my day off. I just needed to brush my teeth … something I’m pretty good at since I’ve been polishing those chiclets for many years.

But when I put the toothpaste on my electric toothbrush there was just enough for that cleaning. The tube was finished so I threw it in the garbage.

With my toothbrush in one hand, putting it into my mouth, I though with my other hand I could get the next tube out of its box and ready for my next cleaning.

So I brushed with one hand, and picked up the box with my other. I was just going to leverage the box against the counter to open it and pull out the tube, but they had some kind of sealing mechanism on the box.

I couldn’t see very well because by now I was brushing my teeth and, if I looked down, the toothpaste would probably drip out of my mouth.

Turned out that the sealing mechanism was tape – very strong tape, I might add – because I was really struggling to continue my brushing and, at the same time, fight with the box.

I ended up having to let go of the toothbrush, so that it was whirling away in my mouth with only the strength of my lips providing the counter balance from the heavy handle that was dangling from my mouth.

With two hands I was literally ripping the box, tearing it limb from limb (if it had any).

Finally the tube was free and the box fell into the sink. I tossed the box in the garbage can and placed the tube in my teeth cleaning container. … Back to brushing my teeth while actually holding the brush.

When I finished up, I felt like I needed to sit down and calm down – I was all riled up after my multitasking disaster.

I’m way better off sticking to one thing at a time! … That’s why there are laws against texting and driving, putting on your makeup while driving, or doing pretty much anything while driving.

For those out there who still think multitasking is a good thing, I just have one piece of advice: Stick to one thing at a time.

Here’s the thing: Multitasking gets you moving at a frantic pace; you live hurried. Life is not a race but a journey we are on. God would rather you take time to enjoy the moments than to hurry through them so that they are a blur. Take time throughout your day to just breathe, take in  your surroundings, and thank God for those moments of calm.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you take breaks through your day? Leave your comments below.