Warning Warning: There is only 99 days 13 hours 28 minutes and 12 seconds until Christmas

     I saw something disturbing on Facebook yesterday. I seen it in a few places but I still didn't believe it. I decided to Google it today to see if it was true. I was saddened to find there was truth to the post. That means there is less than 100 days until Christmas. In fact, there is 99 days 13 hours 27 minutes and 2 seconds. It seems to be getting closer by the second. My wife will be asking any day

now if we can put our tree up. I look for Christmas music to hit the stores at any time. From my years of retail I know that in a lot of stores there is Christmas merchandise in the back rooms ready to be stocked. I wouldn't be surprised if some hasn't leaked out onto the sales floor some where. It is coming even if we are not ready for it.
     To be honest I did not calculate the days, hours, minutes, and seconds till Christmas. (Which currently stands at 99 days 13 hours 23 minutes 45 seconds.) From my Google search I found lots of Christmas countdown sites. Some of these site are nothing more than a countdown. Other than an advertisement that randomly pops up there is nothing but a big timer and some links to let you post the countdown to social media. Some people are serious about wanting to know how long until they get to eat fruit cake. (I am not a fruit cake fan. I don't think bacon could even help it.)
     We are all like that about something. I will admit I did my own countdown for the start of football season. That is always my stress relief. Nothing like watching grown men getting paid millions of dollars to run up and down a field knocking the snot out of each other to make you relax. Then to help the relaxation there is Fantasy Football. That way you can relax all week long and not just when the games are on. I am a Panther fan but win or lose, if they are playing or not playing watching football relaxes me. For whatever time I have to watch I can forget about the stress and worries of the world and just watch a linebacker break a quarterback in half. Or I can take my mind off my ever growing never ending to do list and enjoy watching a wide receiver make an awesome one hand catch while keeping his feet in bounds. That is right nothing is more relaxing than watching football. That is up until this year.
     I watch football and other sports to forget about the world. I don't want to hear about politics or world issues during a game. I want to see how many tackles a running back can break. I don't want to here statistics about what is going on in the world. I only want to know the offenses 3rd down efficiency. Fill the news programs with that stuff and not my sports. That is the way it used to be but not anymore. You can't watch any sport without somebody bringing up those who are kneeling or sitting during the national anthem. You can't watch a sports talk show without someone talking about where people in North Carolina can go to the bathroom. It seems like everything some athletes get in front of a camera they have to talk about police brutality or some other hot topic. Now before you start thinking I don't care about these issues, I do. Don't assume I don't think they are important or that people can't use their platforms to addresses things they are passionate about. They can do that anytime they want to, just not during my sports.
     Once again something I have waited for disappointed me. I was looking forward to some time away from all of the intense subjects only to find my safety zone was the newest launching pad for them. It isn't the first time I have been disappointed in something I have waited on for a long time. The bacon bowel didn't make me jump for joy once I got it. (Much smaller in real life and takes more bacon than advertised to make a bowel.) I am sure out of the millions of people counting down till Christmas (99 days 13 hours 8 minutes 12 seconds) most will be disappointed. They will not get the gift they wanted or the gift will not live up to the hype. Their party or family gathering will not go as they imagined. It will not snow. Somebody else will get a better gift then them. There are many factors that will disappoint them.
     So to avoid all this disappointment maybe we should never look forward to anything, have low expectations and always be prepared for the worse. I don't like that idea. Where is the joy? I think a better idea is to look forward to things that will not disappoint us. We need to stop looking forward to what man has for us and start looking forward to what God has for us. He will never disappoint us. He will always give us more than we deserve. What He gives us will not be broken. (Like the ten

speed bike Santa got me one year. It worked as long as I didn't use the brakes.) We would be happier if we looked for the treasures of heaven vs the treasures of the world. Man made means man broken. Jesus says thieves, moths, rust, and nothing else can harm the treasures in heaven. That means no disappointment.
     Oh yea, Jesus said something else. He said where your treasures are that is where your heart will be also. That is the key to us being disappointed. When our heart is in worldly things it will be broken. No man is perfect therefore nothing man made can be perfect either. (Remember the perfect ship, I think it was named the Titanic.) What God makes will always be perfect. (Remember the perfect ark?) So the key to not being disappointed is not making better choices on what man has for us but making the choice that the desires of our heart will be heavenly. So keep counting down to Christmas (99 days 12 hours 48 minutes 11 seconds) but do not do so for the gifts that will be coming but for the Savior that came.


Parting Thought: Men you have 98 days 12 hours 44 minutes 27 seconds left to procrastinate your Christmas shopping.