It is so hard to believe that the winter holidays are
here. Sometimes this season is real hard on people. Others
really come to life as it is their favorite time of the year. I can
fully understand the challenge especially for those who have lost loved ones
during this time of the year.
I am writing from the passenger seat as my 18 year old son drives us through
the state of Illinois toward my real roots of rural Oklahoma. The first
Christmas I remember was there. I was seven years old and in the first
grade. My mom and stepdad went to Florida to get a place and get settled
and my younger brother and I were living with grandma until the end of the
school year. My mom sent us a whole huge box of toys that were dollar
store level. I remember opening this big huge box of toys with my brother
a couple of weeks early because we missed my mom so much. But then
Christmas came. I remember waking up and there were no more toys.
My uncles and grandma told me that Santa must have delivered them to
Florida by mistake and they would be there in a couple of days. I was
shocked. I still remember being bummed out Christmas morning. And
then I remember a couple of days later getting my gifts and being so happy.
I was only seven but had a feeling they were not from Santa but from my
mom. One of my top ways of feeling loved is through gifts and it always
means so much to me when I receive a gift.
As I head to Oklahoma for only the third time since I was at my grandma's
funeral when I was in about the fifth grade....
As I head back to my humble roots here is what is on my heart:
1. I am proud of and grateful for my family! Now that I am an adult
and pay the bills I really see the sacrifice of my grandma and uncles giving
their time and money to take care of my brother and I two separate years. (1st
grade and 3rd grade!). Now that I have kids of my own I know they are a ton of
work and money.
2. My grandma would send me to church every week and those were the
first seeds sown into my spiritual life! I remember my aunt getting
baptized. I remember someone bringing my grandma an audio bible and we
would listening to it often. Even though I became a little delinquent in
Miami, FL, those seeds did not come back void and those prayers did not go unanswered!
3. I am glad I was born in Oklahoma! Whenever I am asked where I am
from, I usually answer Miami, FL. I was proud of growing up in a cool,
tough urban neighborhood. But my family in Oklahoma gave me so much when
by some American standards they might not have been up there on ladder of
sucess. But they have so much more in love for family, hospitality, and a
slower paced life (for the most part :).
It is cool to go to a part of America where being a pastor is highly respected
and up there with being a doctor or a lawyer. I was shocked when one of
my cousins thought it was cool that someone in our family had made it. I
didn't tell him that a "garbage truck driver" makes at least twice as
much as a youth pastor in urban Chicago. I love serving God though and
look forward to seeing family. Spending quality time with them is why I love
the holidays!
Changing the way we think
Pastor Decrease Dwayne
