Soul Set Free

  Dear 2022,      We haven't met yet, but everyone has heard of you. I hope you'll write back and tell me a bit about yourself! Are you gentle or are you wild? Will we even like each other?  I must admit, I've got some misgivings about ya. See, your two older siblings kind of taught us all to look at a new year differently; since nothing has been 'normal' for quite some time, it feels like we all eye the horizon in a sort of battered dejection. "What wretched thing is going to happen next?" Not a great welcome, I know.  But I want to change that for you. I want greet you with something deeper than the froth of a bubbly hope anticipating its pleasant fulfillment like other years. No, I want to welcome you in tonight with a quiet confidence; knowing that whether you come bearing even more upheaval or a reprieve from the pressure that continues to mount, the One who made you holds us.  I told your brother, 2021, that I would get to gain more Christ during...

    It's Christmas time folks!  We all have traditions at this time of year that are peculiar to each household: traditions that are eagerly anticipated and kept close. One of my family's favorites began in 2009 with the release of Disney's motion capture rendition of "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carrey.   I'll never forget the  first time we watched it together in our dear friends' living room; friends who were more like chosen family than anything else. It may sound silly, but the memory is so vivid that I can still taste the popcorn and candy canes we munched, and even feel the texture of their couch!  It was the first "scary movie" I'd been allowed to see, and 11 year-old me couldn't have felt more grown up. There was one problem though: it was  scary. So, while I understood the point of the story, the rich goodness of Dickens' genius was a bit overshadowed by how much I'd trembled while I watched Scrooge's ghostly encount...