Surviving COVID Christmas After Hours

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This is the Truth Network. Coming to you from an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours, a time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast. So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours, and we are talking about surviving a COVID Christmas. And if you didn't listen to the first part of the first episode of this, we were talking in the radio show about what we're going to do to try to keep the joy from being stolen. Because really, that's what's happened to a lot of people over 2020. COVID has been a big piece of that, is the joy has been stolen from them. And, you know, typically, for most people, not everyone, but for most people, Christmas is the one shining time when you get joy back, you know, throughout the year.

I know that's not everyone's story, but I think it's most people's story that you have at least hope and other things that come with that. And this year, that's kind of at risk, you know, because we can't do the things that we would normally do if we're going to go by, you know, the things that's been laid in front of us, you can't gather with large parties, there's no office parties going on, really, you know, for most companies, there's no anything like that, you can't take 20 people out to eat. You know, you can't go with a big family out to eat, you can't do those things, you can't, if you're in North Carolina, you can't be out past 10 at night, you know, until January sometime, right, you know, there's a there's a curfew going on.

Just all the things that come with it. And it can start to weigh down and rob that joy. And so what we've been talking about is, what are we going to do to not let that happen? Right, and some of us have already shared, but Danny, we haven't had an opportunity for you to share yet, we'd love to hear what your plan is to keep the joy of Christmas. Well, we have, we usually have large family gatherings.

And, but obviously, that's not going to happen for several different reasons. Both sets of our parents have health issues. So we've kind of had to be cautious with the COVID-19. For lots of reasons, my father-in-law has a heart condition that they're beginning to process through Christmas, some procedures. But what we begin to talk about, how can we do things differently to, you know, obviously enjoy Christmas. And I think my son and his wife are coming up Christmas Eve, and we're going to probably, I like the fire pit and the steak idea, honestly.

But I just may go outside and have a steak. But, you know, doing those things because, yeah, there is an environment you have to navigate. And yeah, there is the misinformation and all that kind of stuff that that comes with all this and my wife is a school teacher. So she has been bombarded with information. And I have seen the fear in her eyes. But I've also watched her overcome a lot that, you know, just getting up in the morning sometimes, because she suffered from anxiety for years and everything. But just getting up in the morning and saying, OK, we have to get dressed and go to work because they're in the classroom, they're out of the classroom, they're remote, they're not remote.

They're going to come back 75 percent, 25, 33 percent, whatever it is. And so that steals joy. But but she has discovered the joy of teaching again because she's creative and I think so. I think we'll have a joyous Christmas just simply because we're grateful for the year that we have had despite all of this. You know, we did buy a house, move to King and all the other stuff. And we've had some family and some neat stuff going on.

So thank you, Andy. I want to ask you a question. So I know you can't, as we talked about on the first show, you're not going to be able to go spend Christmas with your mom and things you've traditionally done. But doesn't it give you an opportunity potentially to start a new tradition with your daughter, you know, at least for this year to do something different?

Maybe. I just I really don't know what it's going to look like yet with me and her mom and everything going on there. But, yeah, the one I guess the tradition will definitely start with is I wasn't really hip on it.

I'm sorry. I was just like, OK, if we can't be together, then we'll just talk on the phone and all. But my mom's had an idea of like she'll come and give us the gifts and kind of look through the wind.

I'm not sure we'll do that, but it'll probably be something with FaceTime or something. You know, why not do Christmas with Zoom? I've done the rest of the year with Zoom, right? Yeah. But, you know, I really respect you and the fact that you you always you've you've always talked about these Christmas traditions, and yet you've got something unique for this year. And I need to be more intentional and actually look for an opportunity to to do something different to make it unique, because I'm telling you, we will never forget 2020 and we might as well remember the Christmas with it. Yeah. And, you know, and there's no promise that 2021 will be different at Christmas.

We hope that it will be. But we don't know what that's going to look like. You know, and and I don't I just think that something fresh can help.

Yeah, it can. You're doing something different or a project. I mean, it could be whatever that looks like for you.

And that would be what I would encourage people out there to say, what can I go do differently in these circumstances that I'm in? Right. Right. Keeping, you know, with with the law of the land, so to speak. Right.

You know, and keeping everybody safe. But, you know, that doesn't keep you from doing maybe pick up an art project. You never thought you'd try or doing something different along those lines. Jim, you have something you'd like to add? Write a song or something like that? Yeah, Jim, you could write a song, right?

Do all kinds of things. You just pushed one of my buttons. Keeping safe.

What does that mean even? I mean, we're not safe. Any of us could have anything happen to us at any time. There's this there's this perception that we're being safe.

But we're on my Facebook, which I need to go on and say thank you for my happy birthdays five, six days, seven, eight days ago. I don't go on Facebook very often, but it was something I heard that I sort of re-quoted and love the thought. The most dangerous place you'll ever be safe is in the middle of God's will. How safe are the disciples by our standards?

Not particularly. Jesus didn't really have a safe life. So if that's what you're pursuing, you're really chasing death when you're trying to be safe. I understand. I don't go jab a fork in my eye just because I want to see if it feels good.

I wouldn't either. And there is a difference between not doing things that are risky. But that was anyway, you pushed one of my buttons. I love to push your buttons, Jim.

I've noticed that this week. No, you're right. I think the definition is safe. I guess what I was just trying to say is, you know, to go out and not put others at risk. You know, and that's really how I look at this. Yeah, I don't want to contract COVID. But last thing I want to do is give it to somebody I care about that it's going to affect them. Well, that's what I do it as much for people's perception of being safe as anything else, because I don't really think masks are helping us that much.

But other people do. And that's OK to deal with that. Oh, yes, I'm wearing my mask now as we speak on my wrist. While I got it, I'll go ahead and throw out mine because it hit me while we were talking earlier. Carolyn and I, anybody knows us, love to go on cruises. And on Sunday, I got reminders that were set back in August that we were supposed to fly out and head to a cruise yesterday morning. And Carolyn said, OK, let's we had while we're moving, we had found a DVD of a trip we took like seven years ago. And so we watched that as a substitute for our trip. And that was a lot of fun. And then it hit me tonight that God took care of us on that, because if I had that cruise, I would have lost a fair chunk of money because I never buy the silly insurance. And it got canceled for me.

And not only did I not get all my money back, I got a 25 percent bonus. Now, we may may get to go in March. We may not. But that'll keep pushing forward till I die or till we finally cruise. But God is going to take care of everybody out there, whatever their circumstance, if they're relying on him.

And this has been a blessed year for us, as I pointed out in the first show and I think last week. And it doesn't have to be a disaster. God will see you through the even those that have lost people.

There will be something that comes out of that that will be for your good and for his glory. Yeah. I wonder how many kids are going to have the name Zoom as we move into future years. We down the road. Zoom.

Are you here today? Yeah. Teams. Yeah.

Teams is here and Zoom's here with us and social. So, Harold, we are working our way towards you on what you're going to do to keep the Christmas joy alive in your home, because I'm sure Christmas may look a little different for you. I don't know. We haven't talked about it. But is it going to be a different year for you?

Yeah. It's always different. But this is more different. But neither the Grinch nor Scrooge can really steal my Christmas. Because really I look at Christmas and whereas the majority of people see the baby in the manger, I see Christ on the cross.

The baby in the manger was a necessary thing, but the real purpose was the cross. And I'm not trying to steal anybody's joy from the manger scene, but it's just not the major thing for me. And so Christmas is not going to be all that much different for me because it's never been about the gifts and so forth for me. I mean, I like giving gifts, but I don't particularly care whether I get a piece of paper or a pencil to write on it or what. It's just, if somebody wants to give me something wonderful, if not, I'm good with it.

And I'm not being, you know, trying to be ugly or Scrooge or whatever or a downer. But it's just the major thing for me about Christmas is the fact that my Savior came and lived a very ordinary life. It amazes me that He did that. He had a birth that was different because He did not have an earthly father.

So it's very unique in that regard. But look how He lived His life. I mean, most of His time on earth we know nothing about, but that was His purpose those last three years as we think it was three.

How much ever it was because it gets debated back and forth. But those last years that He was here and then the final time when He met His purpose, which was the only reason that He came. So Christmas is wonderful. Thank you Harold. Andy, you speaking across, we can get to your clip, the crossing.

Go ahead and set that up a little bit and then we'll come back and talk about why you chose that. Sure. It's from Christmas Eve when Washington crossed the Delaware. And he's already conversed with his main general, Gates, and kind of told him what the plan was to attack the Hessians to really get all the things they needed. Food, ammo, clothing, all the stuff. And he basically says, you know, they're really going to be partying up.

Let's take advantage of this. And so this clip is really the rebuttal of Gates about talking about all the risk. You know, Washington saw an opportunity whereas Gates saw an excessive risk.

And really he saw defeat. So for people like me that didn't know what the Hessians are, could you explain? So they're the higher German soldiers that the British had. And they were really professional. They were like, what do they call them, mercenaries basically to come in. And they were, you know, well provided for.

And really they were. They were professional soldiers. And here you got guys, you got farmers and stuff getting ready to attack them. And Washington makes this point, I think it's in this clip. He makes the point that basically this is their opportunity because it's a surprise attack and they're going to be off the guard. And Gates is really taking a different position. And really when you think about it, this is really the clip that we've set up.

I will talk a little bit later about, you know, where I see it. But it really just goes into COVID can be either an opportunity or something that we fear risk of or taking on or whatever in dealing with Christmas. But the Christmas tie-in of course is they chose to do this on Christmas Eve in a time of what would normally be celebration.

Merry Christmas. Sorry, I guess I got to look at the right thing here. There we go. Now we got it.

Okay, let's go for a third time and see if we can get it that three times a charm. It is. That's what they say. Your troops always go in one direction. To attack requires the other direction. Shall I continue?

By all means. In 11 days time the enlistments run out. Your men will not attack a fly before then and why should they?

They need only sit tight and go home. Next, there is no way to cross the river and keep such a plan from the Hessians. They have spies everywhere. The crossing will take hours and long before you reach the other shore the Hessians will have their artillery on your boats. Those big Durham boats of yours make damn good targets.

Even a Yankee gunner couldn't miss them. And finally, you will not defeat Hessians. They are European soldiers. The most disciplined, the most rigorously trained, the best soldiers on earth and you bloody well know that by their superiority. Their superiority will be their undoing.

Oh my dear sir, please. Their training has not prepared them for an attack of this nature. They will be roused from their beds and we will not give them time to achieve the formations with which they are comfortable. I fear for your sanity, General. I fear that you are no longer fit for command. How dare you!

No sir, how dare you! I am sick to death of your looking down that long nose of yours and equally sick of the pretense of military competence that you and your colonial cronies display. You are no soldiers and you sir are a damned poor leader. You can't face defeat and so you seek annihilation.

Have you finished? Surrender. This revolution is over. So we surrender. We weigh the pros and cons and reason prevails. But you see sir, I am an unreasonable man as well as a poor soldier.

But you are right. My men are not soldiers. They are lads.

Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. They run away. They fear the Hessians as they fear death.

All this is true. They have put their trust in me. They could have deserted. Thousands have. But these lads have not. They remain with me.

And I, not you, General Gates, I command this army. And if I, a bumbling Virginia farmer, should decide to lead them into hell, they will follow me into hell. Well, you just hear a lot of negativity there. Just everything that can't go. And it seems like a lot of what we are hearing about, you know, COVID wins almost sometimes. And it's like, you know, people are giving their prognostications of when things are going to be. Oh, I'm Porky Pig too.

We all have the same mother today. I think that's the most, uh, I can't even say it. Easy for you to say.

It's the microphone. But, you know, it's just, again, this is a virus, and then we're talking about a war here. But it's, there is a mentality of what will you believe. Will you believe that God is going to see us through, or are we going to always take the negative?

You know, I don't want to get into political stuff, but when you talk about the, I think Jim was talking about it, you get in the difference of, you know, are you harming people more by just shutting everything down or letting them make the decisions of whether they feel comfortable with, you know, social distancing or whatever. You have that rub because life goes on. And I think God wants us. I mean, one of the things that somebody pointed out recently, God really, if you look through the Bible, he appreciates love, he appreciates all the fruits of the Spirit, all those things. But you know one thing, when you look back, particularly in the Old Testament, really in the New Testament too, he's always calling people out to be courageous and to put their trust in him. And whenever you get a world event like we're going through now, it's going to take a certain amount of courage to get us through.

Now, what does that have to do with Christmas? I think it has to do with courage to do whatever he's leading you into to however you celebrate, however you would come into, you know, interaction with your family to where you can get joy out of it and you're not just allowing that joy to be stolen from you. Yeah, as I listened to that clip, I was thinking about, you know, that aspect of it being I can let what other people say, I can let what the edicts, you know, from the state are or whatever affect me in a negative way. Okay, and I'm not talking about obedience, right? I can be obedient to something, right? That's a choice, right? If I choose to be obedient to it, I'm not saying go out and not be obedient. What I'm saying is don't let it rob your joy, right?

You know, because we could debate both sides of the equation, you know, whether this should be that way or that way, and we're not going to win. But what we all are facing is a potential for our joy to be stolen at this Christmas time. And what I hear in that Washington clip is when he says, I'm an unreasonable man. We need to be unreasonable men right now for our families. We need to be unreasonable men for our own hearts and say, no, I'm not going to let whatever the situation is steal this from me. This season, this focus on God, I'm going to renew my focus on God.

I'm going to do something that's going to take my focus to where it needs to be. We love in this ministry pointing out that we are in a world at war. Gates was a good general, and where he excelled was on defense, but you don't win wars defensively.

Washington was ready to risk everything, basically, to win a victory that changed the outcome of the war. And that's what we need to do as Christians, and it isn't fighting against people. It's fighting against our true enemy. And honestly, during this season, I've had far more opportunity to talk to people that are fearful and point out, you know, fear is showing you have a lack of faith in God covering you during this time. And we have the opportunity to really go on the offensive as Christians. Yeah, what the enemy plans to rob doesn't often work.

It only works if we allow it to work, right? That's the whole thing. And I'm going to get back to our buddy, the Grinch, because I want to go back to this clip, because he thinks his plan worked, right? He really does. He stole Christmas. He stole all their presents.

He stole all their stuff, stole their trees. And when we pick up this clip, he's literally trying to push it all into the dump. And he's laughing. He's mocking, saying, oh, you know, I'm going to really hear it now. And then something happens he doesn't expect.

And we'll come back and talk about it. But the sound wasn't sad, why this sounded merry, but it was merry, very. Every who down in Whoville, the tall and the small, was singing without any presents at all. He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming. It came somehow or other, it came just the same. And the Grinch, with his Grinch feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling.

How could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags.

It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.

Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more. You know, Andy, you pointed out initially he sounds like Sean Connery. It's Jim Carrey doing the Grinch as Sean Connery. Then part of that sounds like actually William Shatner listening to it.

Gosh, it's like out there. At the end, I don't know who that is. But I think it's every one of Jim Carrey's impressions, he's just done the Grinch voice with it. But as you listen to that clip, for me anyway, it's not about the presents. Jim, as you said earlier on the show with the tea, it's about the presents. You know, the presents with God. God dwelling with us, Emmanuel, right? That God with us. That's the answer to the joy. Yeah, and I wanted to get this in before. I wasn't sure how much time we had.

But I love this quote. I think we've said it before. About the Incarnation. The Son of God became the Son of Man so the sons of men could become the sons of God.

And really that's really why he came. You know, you guys have heard me talk all year, really the last couple of years, about the sonship of God and really why Jesus came. And again, I know we're talking about COVID here and stuff, but really it is about getting that focus back on Jesus, why he came.

And it was really truly to reconcile us with the Father. Yeah, and I think that along with the focus on Jesus, step into a new adventure. Let this be an opportunity to do something different.

If you've had something stolen from you, okay, in your heart, in your mind, it feels like you had it stolen, replace it with something new. The enemy can't defeat that. Yeah, like a hubilation.

A hubilation, yeah. Watch a great movie, do something, I don't know. But Robby, you have something you want to say, so please say it. I will. I heard it on the podcast from Wild at Heart this week where they said, you know, whenever God shows, you know, you end up with a fast, not getting something, he always provides a feast. And so while you're looking at the fast, start asking in prayer, where's the feast? Because, you know, that's going to be something to eat, I'll tell you. Yeah. Wow, two big quotes at the end.

My mind's blowing. Go out and enjoy your Christmas. It's five, six Eves away. It's almost there.

So go listen to the podcast if you didn't listen to the first section at masculinejourney.org. Next week, we're going to have a special thing. We're going to be talking about our Word of the Year. That's coming up, so we're going to be doing that.

So guys, be prepared. We're going to be talking about our Word for the Year next week on the show. It's been a joy being with you.

We hope you have a great holiday season. And if you'd like to reach out to us, you can do it from our website. You can do it from Twitter. Gosh, Facebook, all sorts of different places, Masculine Journey. This is the Truth Network.