Assorted thoughts from the last week

Here's a list of random thoughts/events/comments since my last post.

1. If you're looking for a fantastic Christmas production on Christmas Sunday morning, don't attend a church plant. Our experience at holidays has been that everyone goes to their parents' houses and no one comes back in time for church. Christmas Sunday was no exception. We had a whopping 10 people in church that day (counting the 4 people in my family!) And yet we had a wonderful time of reflection, taking advantage of the expected small numbers. The opportunity for a few people who didn't know each other at all to hear stories and encourage one another was unexpectedly sweet.
   
2. We spent the week after Christmas in Grinnell, Iowa visiting my parents and sister and niece. It was really nice, but a little weird. My parents just moved to Grinnell after 20+ years in a town called Osage. Somewhat surprisingly, having Christmas in a new house in a new town did not really change much. The things that I value about our time together (time with family, pinochle games, 4 foot long stockings, and homemade truffles) all were still a part of our Christmas experience. Except the stockings. This year mom bought too much stuff to fit in them so our stocking stuffers were stuffed in Target bags. Not complaining (thanks Mom!)
   
3. New Year's Resolutions only work for people with an incredible amount of self-discipline, and these are the people who least need to make them.
4. Some questions about being a disciple that I probably need to consider before preaching about it. Feel free to leave comments if you have any good answers:

• Who teaches you? Whose disciple are you really? Honestly.
• Can you be a Christian without being a disciple?
• Do we really intend to do and be all of the high things we profess to believe in? Have we decided to do them? When did we decide it? And how did we implement that decision?

And a quote or two...

And if you will here stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance, nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.
- William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

In the last analysis, we fail to be disciples only because we do not decide to be.
- Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy