Today's Features

All that one hears these days is a doom and gloom tale of woe, from Wall Street to Main Street and back again.

The market is dropping, sales are down, money is scarce, foreclosures are rampant, and retirement funds are racing downward. Crisis is the word of the day and the power that fuels nightmares. Henny Penny is having a field day.

As a result, some choose the path of avoidance and denial. They sit before a television set watching football games or soap operas, or “reality shows” that have little to do with the reality around them.

You walk down any aisle of a grocery store and you will see products labeled “no cholesterol” or “low cholesterol.” What does this mean?

In some respects, it is a marketing gimmick. In fact, stores could put a sign above the entire produce section that says, “Cholesterol Free” because cholesterol is only found in products that originate from animals. Plant-based products have no cholesterol.

Just after Thanksgiving and for the next two weekends, it will be the busiest time to purchase a Christmas tree. Early shoppers will pick from the best available trees on lots or in fields.

Locally, it is difficult to find a choose and cut operation. For our area, it usually means going to a tree lot to select a tree that has already been cut and shipped into our area.

Advent has come again. The four-week spiritual preparation time for Christmas is often lost in the frenzy of commercial preparedness.

Many fall prey to a hectic countdown against a sales clock that marks the birthday of the Prince of Peace as an ending, rather than a beginning.

We become people holding all kinds of expectation instead of being people of expectancy. As a result, we are more often disappointed than excited, discontent rather than enthusiastic.

We lose our sense and commission to be People of Peace.