Advent Calendar Post #2

Each year I do a daily "Advent Calendar" on my Burbania Posts Facebook Page.  This year I will be re-posting some of them here as well.  If you want the full collection, though, you might as well "like" BP on Facebook.  I believe there is a link on my sidebar...

This one is from December 3, 2015

I know we are all a bit jumpy and wondering what the day will bring. At least I am. The "new normal" is truly bizarre, isn't it? Well, if I am going to rant about the state of the world and the availability of guns, I will do it on another FB page. It is Advent, after all, and even as we acknowledge all the crap in the world, we need to keep a place for the season, right? If only for our own sanity.

So I am sharing an old post that made it's debut a couple of years ago on this day. My son Conor and I were practicing a song for church and--like we do in the Ukestra--recorded ourselves so we could see what needed tightening and what needed loosening. The performance in church was...OK. However we developed a fondness for this version.

It is weird to look back. I appear to be just the same (though I don't feel it). However Con clearly has changed. He is now less than a year away from college and recently shaved off his respectable "Movember beard". In addition, the Ukestra was going by another name and I was in my "Canadian Tuning" phase. Good times.

So here is to Advents past. Sometimes better. Sometimes not. But always, always different.

Advent Sermon #1 2015

So I realize it has been a looong time since I posted last and there is much to catch up with.  However, for right now I thought I would post the first of my Advent sermons of the year.  It is about the competing emotions we sometimes feel when the festive aura of the season clashes with the rather difficult world we live in.  the readings are Luke 2:1-7 and "Mark the Time" by Max Coots.  Here's hoping your holiday season is off to a great start!