Christmas Eve

I once wrote in a Facebook update: "looks like I am working another Christmas Eve this year." One of my wife's friends replied to my update with "My pastor growing up worked every Christmas Eve. Don't they teach you that in Seminary?" Not able to control myself I replied, "Not in any class I took."

Being a Pastor you learn quickly that you have a different relationship with traditional Christian holidays like Christmas & Easter than some other folks. Taking Christmas Eve & Christmas off was always second nature & as a student the winter vacations made spending time as a family easy if not expected. Yet as my student days have faded away and I am "pastoring", being home for Christmas is indeed only happening in my dreams. My brother, sister-in-law and father are spending the holiday together in Oklahoma (where my brother lives), my mother is spending Christmas with her husband in California, and my wife and I are here in Ohio. Family spread far and wide plus Clergy will always equal separation for Christmas Eve. This is one of the lessons you learn early (some of my friends in seminary were required to be at their internship congregations for Christmas Eve) and though I still get the odd question here and there about my plans for Christmas Eve, most everyone knows that Christmas Eve is a working day for your local Pastor.

I don't want to give you the impression that I resent being away from my family during the holidays. Being able to serve this congregation & community here at Boulevard is a privilege that I am honored to have. Other than a brief foray into wanting to be a Dentist, I have always wanted to be a Pastor and now that I am able to help celebrate the birth of Christ with my church family I feel blessed that it was seen fit for me to answer God's Call into ministry.

Christmas Eve & Easter illustrate something that my sarcastic assertion on Facebook might obscure: following your Call, your dreams means that there will be sacrifice. Like my brother, a pilot in the US Air Force who has missed all but one of his anniversaries, my wedding, and other milestone events, it takes sacrifice in order to follow the call/dream that God places upon each of us. I know deep inside that he would have loved to been at my wedding & certainly his anniversaries yet we are all happy to go without his presence because the US Air Force with all their demands and requirements allows him to do what he wants to do more than anything else: fly.

(By the way, the photo is of my brother's plane, a C-17 Globemaster. This is the only photo the family has of him flying. The photo appeared on Stars and Stripes website.)

Like my brother who flies, or my many pastor friends, the things that we feel called to do will require something from us. For some it is their free time, for others it will be being home for the holidays, and for others they give up more than many of us could imagine. At the end of the day we all do so willingly, and thank God for the support of our loved ones, so that we can be the people we were created to be.

So to Mom, Dad, Reese & Laura, I, once again, miss you this Christmas Holiday but thank you for your support as I follow my call. Merry Christmas!