GREENSide Update
  • reflecting a bit
    • Easter 2019: Four ‘D’ Words of The Passion Week
    • Spring 2019: ‘Kingdom of God’ Reflections a Week After
    • Early Winter 2018: Taking a Closer Look at The Advents
    • Late summer 2018: Impressions from the Incapacitated
    • Summer 2018... Confronting Fears
    • Happy New Year 2018 Wishes
    • Christmas 2017 - Reconstructing the Christmas Story
    • Fall 2017... Returning, Rest, Quietness & Trust
    • Summer 2017... Reflecting Pools Matter
    • Spring 2017... The Singularity of God's Kingdom Purposes
    • Winter 4th qtr. 2016... One Foot, Two Feet, Three
    • Fall 2016... Personal Confessions of Mistaken Political Thinking
    • Summer, 2016... Waiting and Listening
    • Resurrection Sunday, 2016
    • Winter 1st qtr, 2016... The Marrakesh Declaration
    • Christmas 2015 Greeting
    • End of Year, 2015... Are We To Care?
    • Spring 2015... What are you and I doing about it?
    • New Year's Day 2015... New Mercies Never End!
    • Christmas/New Year 2014/15... Holiday, Holiday, What have you done?
    • Fall 2014... On Kingdoms... Past, Present and Ethereal
    • Spring 2014... Didascalicon: Man, God and Greatness
    • Christmas 2013... Even in the Air and Space
    • Winter 2013/14... Callings
    • Christmas 2012... 'Jumping Beans' in old age
    • Spring 2012... New Beginnings
    • Fall 2011... People of Promise
  • a look behind
    • Spring 2019: ...Off the Starting Blocks
    • Early Winter 2018: Sabbatical Results and First Furlough Leg
    • Summer 2018... "Come and See"
    • Summer 2017... Making Full Circle
    • Spring 2017... Completing Pre-furlough Commitments
    • Fall 2016, JJ's New California Home!
    • Summer 2016... Accomplishing Significant Milestones
    • End of year, 2015: Building God's Kingdom Among the Middle East Unengaged Muslims
    • Summer 2015... Building Deeply in Small Ways
    • Christmas 2013 photos
    • Winter 2013/14... Up and Running!
    • Winter 2012... 'Global Impact 29', first steps
    • Fall 2011... A great school; A promising alliance
  • a look ahead
    • Spring 2019: Finishing Touches to a Special Furlough
    • Early Winter 2018: Expanding to New Beginnings
    • Summer 2018... Winding Around the Country
    • Summer 2017... Three Decades and Counting
    • Spring 2017... My Upcoming Two Greatest Decades
    • Winter 4th qtr. 2016... Our Upcoming Furlough, Part Two
    • Summer 2016... Our Upcoming Furlough, Part One
    • Early Winter 2016
    • Summer 2015... Looking to Remember the Middle East
    • Winter 2013/14... The West heads East
    • Winter 2012... Coming out, going deeper
    • Fall 2011... Getting and Giving 'Perspectives'
  • prayer
    • Spring 2019
    • Early Winter 2018
    • Late summer 2018
    • Summer 2018
    • Fall 2017
    • Spring, 2017
    • Winter 4th qtr. 2016
    • Fall, 2016
    • End of year, 2015
    • Summer 2015
    • Why pray?
    • Winter 2013/14
    • Winter 2012
    • Fall 2011
  • finances
    • Spring 2019
    • Early Winter 2018
    • Summer 2018
    • Winter 4th qtr. 2016... Year-end giving
    • Fall, 2016
    • End of year, 2015
    • Summer 2015
    • Winter 2013/14
    • Winter 2012
    • Fall 2011
  • get involved
  • fun
  • more contemplation
  • in case you missed it
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Christmas, 2017
on... Reconstructing the Christmas Story, as we Rest, Reflect and Retool
I love Christmas. It matters little whether it is a Christmas celebrated in Colombia (as has been the case our last twenty years) or in my country of origin, The United States of America (which will be our case this year!)… Christmas holds a dear spot in my heart. I love the joyful spirit one feels in the air, the smells, the lights, the gift-giving and the yummy treats to excite the palate. And then of course I love what our family has customarily chosen to do each year… read Jesus’ birth narrative on Christmas Day, watch The Nativity Story at some point along the way and then, enjoy a time of corporate and individual contemplative introspection during the season whether through Advent devotions or extemporaneous readings. There is no time during the year quite like Christmas. 
In all this I have learned something over the years… what we see as familiar not only seems to get more and more familiar with the passing of time, but can also take on a quasi mythological reality as we grow older. We think we know the story so well we give it little, if any attention at all. We’re sure we can tell it like it happened so we give it a simple ‘nod’ as we go about our Christmas shopping. After all, ‘the fun children programs we’ll see at church, mall or school will be all that we’ll need to help us remember the essence,’ we tell ourselves. And Christmas comes and goes.
This will be my 58th Christmas on planet Earth (I have had no others for the record) and it seems I am encountering the narrative this year in new ways that is calling me to rethink what I have always thought and assumed. I give praise to the Lord as He leads me and my family in a ‘Rest, Reflection and Retooling’ sabbatical that is giving such opportunity to visit the narrative once again and look to recover the historical truth of the greatest birth story ever told. Wow! Really? you might ask. What new things are you really getting out of the Christmas story this year that you’ve not encountered before, sabbatical notwithstanding? I’m glad you asked! If you are serious about the question and serious enough for similar discovery I invite you to join us in listening to four one-half-hour reflections from the late Dr. Kenneth E. Bailey. During these two hours you will not only visit the manger once again, but also the ‘inn’ that was unavailable to the young family. You will relate with the shepherds and magi in a fresh new way while looking at a genealogy you never knew was so key to it all. Along the way you may get a new sense at just how important a man like Joseph was to the story when you thought it was all about Mary. Finally, you will gain a new appreciation for the many incredible circumstances of the historical moment.
Such discovery will cost you something however. It will cost you time away from the usual and typical to ‘ponder and wonder’ with childlike expectancy. So grab some coffee (Colombian) and click away!!!
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6UC1Gzfq1s
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEiwtAKJi-c
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJfdkdm40s
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl8ZPRa8pxg
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
From the GREENside

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First name: KR
Last name: G
Personal account #: 004527
Project account #: 024527

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