Never Forget

Nev­er For­get. In the past 9 years, this short phrase has become the mar­ket­ing and brand­ing for ⁹⁄₁₁. It is very effec­tive, and I am 100% sup­port­ive of the effort. Like many of you, I will nev­er for­get. But today, I want to talk about how these pow­er­ful two words relate to this hol­i­day sea­son. My con­vic­tions and beliefs are who I am, and they influ­ence every part of my life, includ­ing my busi­ness. I want to use this space today to open up some of what is in my heart this time of year. Nev­er for­get! What is my hope this Christ­mas sea­son? That you will nev­er for­get the true mean­ing of Christ­mas. What start­ed as the sto­ry and cel­e­bra­tion of the Christ child has now become the most mar­ket­ed event in his­to­ry. It’s an indus­try in itself, and the in many ways the antic­i­pa­tion and prepa­ra­tion for Christ­mas takes up almost 10% of the year — all for one day! 24 hours! 1440 min­utes, and all the hus­tle and bus­tle of shop­ping, eat­ing, dec­o­rat­ing and gift giv­ing will pass away. Dom­i­nat­ed by images of San­ta, elves and snowflakes, Christ­mas is less reli­gious than ever before — it’s a fam­i­ly hol­i­day event. Now, before you label me a reli­gious Grinch, know this: I dec­o­rate my house, sport a San­ta hat, dec­o­rate a Christ­mas tree, give gifts and host a ​“Rein­deer Antler Par­ty” each year. But every year, I also stop and reflect on the true mean­ing of Christ­mas. As a Chris­t­ian I can get lost in the bus­tle of the hol­i­days, and I must pause to ask myself, ​“Why am I doing all these things? What is the pur­pose? Back­ing away from all the fes­tive and fun Christ­mas activ­i­ties, I need to reflect on how this day actu­al­ly start­ed. Christ­mas is ulti­mate­ly about one major event: the most con­tro­ver­sial event in his­to­ry and the most mind bog­gling idea to ever enter the hearts of mankind. The Christ­mas Sto­ry, The Event is this: God became man. That’s it. That one thing has baf­fled the minds of schol­ars and sim­ple folks for cen­turies. How could God become man, and why all the excite­ment? This Sun­day, our pas­tor preached on Luke 1:39 – 56, which is the sto­ry of Mary vis­it­ing her cousin Elis­a­beth, who was preg­nant with John the Bap­tist. Our pas­tor dis­cussed all the extra­or­di­nary events that took place at the first Christ­mas. Angels appear to priests and shep­herds, vir­gins and car­pen­ters. A young woman becomes preg­nant while remain­ing a vir­gin, Elizabeth’s baby leaps in the womb when the he hears the voice of Jesus’ moth­er, Zachari­ah is not able to speak for 9 months until his promised son, John, is born, and kings show up out of nowhere bring­ing king­ly gifts because of a new star. None of these super­nat­ur­al and extra­or­di­nary events were com­mon two thou­sand years ago. This was all weird and unbe­liev­able then, and it is still just as much so today! Many peo­ple thought the sto­ry was the stu­pid­est fairy tale ever told in those days, and many con­tin­ue to say so now. How on earth can God become man! Impos­si­ble. Well, as God’s angel said to Mary, ​“With God, noth­ing is impos­si­ble” (Luke 1:37). I guess it tru­ly is a sto­ry received by faith. So my hope and prayer for all who might stum­ble upon this blog is this: That you will stop and reflect on your life. Why are you doing social media, blog­ging, or grow­ing a busi­ness? Why are you run­ning a busi­ness or work­ing for some­one? Why do you strive to be the best in your field of work? Why do you cel­e­brate Christ­mas — or why don’t you? What do you believe about God? Read the Christ­mas sto­ry slow­ly this week…slow down and nev­er for­get! If you don’t believe in God, read the sto­ry in the Gospel of Luke 1 and 2 any­ways. Maybe you’ll under­stand a lit­tle more about God and what HIS­to­ry is all about. As I stop and reflect this day, all I can do is thank God for His pro­vi­sion. He has blessed me with a great busi­ness, awe­some cus­tomers and a won­der­ful fam­i­ly! I am thank­ful for all the sup­port I’ve received since start­ing my own busi­ness in 2009. God is good, and I’m so excit­ed to cel­e­brate the day when Christ was born — that he came for the sole pur­pose of res­cu­ing sin­ners like me from their sins. Social Media Christ­mas — Mary and Joseph on Facebook