The children are sitting on the floor checking out the presents and learning how to say “please” and share with each other what they have opened (including the presents for the parents!). May Chin is completing her masterpiece. I’ve had a cup of coffee … Anyway, here’s the piece I wrote for our church seasonal newsletter … Hope it’s helpful 🙂 Have a good holiday, and for those who are already back to work … slow and easy, ok? And for those who like me who might take a little more time and space for year end contemplation, let’s be open to His still small whisper!
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HOW DO YOU FEEL THIS CHRISTMAS?
Sivin Kit

I came across this link HOW DO YOU FEEL THIS CHRISTMAS? with a title that grabbed my attention and relevant scriptures to me process through my feelings this Christmas. Indeed as the opening paragraph says,

�Christmas is a time of mixed feelings, or a maybe it’s a time when our feelings catch up with us. Pausing for a day or two and looking back over the past year has a way of making you face where your life has got to, and how you feel about it.�

I�d like to invite you to walk through the year with me, I offer these �confessions�, �testimonies�, �complaints� and �random thoughts� (just a sampling) to encourage you to look back over the past year for you �

� when I sat across the table at a McDonalds with a re-fill-able Coke and heard these words, �I would like to be baptized and follow Jesus, what�s the next step for me?�

� to once again say �Good bye� those whom have been such a blessing to our community in BLC � this years it�s the Berrys. And yet, the Chinese farewell probably would fit better, �See you again!�


� one day sitting with a pen and ready to write in my journal and wondering �is all this worth it ?�� �..am I crazy to think this way?� �

� for May Chin � the Wonder Woman in our family, for Gareth � whose questions keeps me to the ground, for Elysia � the giggles and smiles that warms my heart

� after coming home from a visit and wondered, �Where did I miss it this time? Could I have prevented it from happening?�

� for Malaysia which has so much promise, and yet lately�
I pray even more, �Lord Have mercy!� and sit down and ask, �Speak Lord, your servant is listening, what do you want me to do?�

� when I start getting into a downward spiral of beating myself up �battling with self-condemnation �

� when I heard about a broken marriage and a man in hospital for attempted suicide, � when I read of a father who poisoned his children �when I got news a Christian lawyer got shot in Honduras because of his work for justice .. when people close by are hurting, neglected or in pain�

� after blurting out in anger .. when I see myself being impatient with others .. after saying something stupid or hurtful� because of my inaction �

� physically and emotionally after an intense 27 days in Germany for the teaching/preaching program 🙂
� of seeing �popular� and some �versions� of Christianity distracting us from what is more important for the Gospel, the Church and the World. 🙁

� so I started to pick up a little Origami and was surprised it helped.

� as I was walking through the Mega-Mall jolted to think about the meaning of Christmas � while reading �Christianity for the Rest of Us� � beginning to use the Moravian devotional Scripture texts to allow the words to connect me to God.
� when I heard a little child pray ..�Jesus, help me!�

Walking through these �feelings� allows me to have a clearer picture where I am now, and this is where Christ meets me this season. The feelings whether Hi, low or even mixed does not have to deter us or distract us from allowing us to meet God. In fact, the message of Immanuel, �God with us� during Christmas is his way of saying to us � where we are is especially where he will meet us .. let us receive the King.

� Let every heart prepare Him room,

� No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow

� He rules the world with truth and grace,
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