What is tonight for you?<\/p>\n
What is tonight for me?<\/p>\n
If you’ve read my writing for awhile, you will know what to expect as I answer the question for me.\u00a0 But I’ll also share what you may not expect.<\/p>\n
(to be continued shortly)<\/p>\n
I’m back, six hours later, to continue.<\/p>\n
What is tonight for me?<\/p>\n
I<\/p>\n
AM<\/p>\n
BABY<\/p>\n
STORY<\/p>\n
FAMILY<\/p>\n
EMOTION<\/p>\n
ACTIVITIES<\/p>\n
DIFFERENCE?<\/p>\n
I<\/p>\n
AM<\/p>\n
Did you know that God identifies Himself as “I AM” ?<\/p>\n
For me, tonight is about a God who is big enough to become a BABY and still be in charge of all creation.<\/p>\n
Tonight is about the STORY of all history, because it’s all His-story.<\/p>\n
For everyone, tonight is about FAMILY.\u00a0 For this one evening, everybody puts everything else aside to be with family.<\/p>\n
Tonight is EMOTION—indeed.\u00a0 There is a month of buildup and then, tonight.\u00a0 For many tonight meets the expectation and anticipation, and it’s the emotion highlight of the year.\u00a0 Some get blindsided tonight, with less than favorable relationships, or without relationships.\u00a0 It is real.\u00a0 It is real tough.<\/p>\n
So what can you do?\u00a0 ACTIVITIES\u00a0 help, much better than just sitting.\u00a0 But busy-ness comes to a stop on this night, and reality sets in.<\/p>\n
What makes the DIFFERENCE tonight between joy and celebration for some, and loneliness and depression for others?<\/p>\n
I AM is at the beginning and I AM is at the end of everything—the word tree above, this essay of reflection, festivities come and gone, food, fun, and football, full house, empty house, best of times, worst of times, friends and family,\u00a0 or alone.<\/p>\n
Life is full of cycles, and we actually need some of the ups and some of the downs to appreciate life.<\/p>\n
What is tonight for me?\u00a0 I’ll leave you with two thoughts:<\/p>\n
one—–It is my desire to make a difference in your life, in the parts that are for keeps.\u00a0 The broader my range of experiences, and yes, emotions this night, the better I am able to consider how you may feel, and then say something that makes a difference.<\/p>\n
two—–Love never fails, from God.\u00a0 Because He loves you and me, we have Christmas, and Good Friday, and Easter, and our own Resurrection Day if we come to Jesus now.<\/p>\n
I know what it’s like to be alone on Christmas Eve years ago, and cry out to God, “WHY?” from an empty church parking lot five minutes after the service was over.\u00a0 But I also know what it’s like to be alone right now this Christmas Eve, writing to encourage someone like you that<\/p>\n
“. . . life is worth the living, just because He lives.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What is tonight for you? What is tonight for me? If you’ve read my writing for awhile, you will know what to expect as I answer the question for me.\u00a0 But I’ll also share what you may not expect. (to be continued shortly) I’m back, six hours later, to continue. What is tonight for me? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith_based","category-family","category-fun","category-inspire_lifter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1408"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1424,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions\/1424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}