Josiah Smith, Author at S. D. Smith

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Good one, brother John. #johnchrysostom #sdsmith

Good one, brother John.

#johnchrysostom #sdsmithdopequotescuration

We are living in a material world, and I am a mate

We are living in a material world, and I am a material boy. We’re not only material (physical bodies), but we are certainly not merely spirits trapped in bodies. The oft-attributed C. S. Lewis quotation that, “You do not have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body,” is not only not from Lewis, but it’s also not true.

We don’t have bodies. We are bodies.

We are embodied spirits.

We had a good Christmastide in the Smith home. As

We had a good Christmastide in the Smith home. As always, the highlights were at church and at home. We all genuinely love going to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We Smiths, as fouled up as we so often are in our hearts and minds, really need it.

Our youngest daughter observed how the holy-day services kindly center our focus on Christ, at a time when we most need it—when there are so many other things to see and enjoy. Like presents.

Note, I didn’t call the gift-giving part of Christmas celebrations a distraction on purpose. Because it doesn’t need to be.

I love that very Christian practice of considering others and investing in loving them in a material way. Yes, we aren’t gnostics! We are living in a material world, and I am a material boy. We’re not only material (physical bodies), but we are certainly not merely spirits trapped in bodies.

Christmas, on the contrary, is all about embodiment. So, hooray and hurrah and *yee-haw for the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus! And for the invitation to enter into his story and celebrate. I know that many folks experience a lot of grief at Christmas, and that’s part of the story, for sure, but it’s also a time to see that the one who will put all things right, and make all things new, has come to be with us and will be with us forever someday. Immanuel has come and is coming again. So, if you can, be happy. Be as happy as you can.

I am happy to have you in my life, and our last few months were busy and fulfilling as many of you guys bought presents from our store. Thank you! My sincere prayer is that your families, and your precious kids in particular, are blessed and built up by engaging these imaginative adventures. (And I hope you enjoyed the free book! See, I love presents.)

I’m honored to be your ally in this work.
Sam

*God Rest Yee-haw Merry Gentlemen?

The real world is complex. We all need confidence

The real world is complex. We all need confidence in God’s sovereignty over the world as it is, and bravery to share faithful, complex, honest stories. More in the Green Writer Show episode.

Be happy, if you can and will, Remember, It is Chr

Be happy, if you can and will,
Remember,
It is Christmas, still,
It’s Christmas till,
January 6,
And we’ll have, again,
An Epiphany, then,
An Epiphany, friends.
But it’s Christmas now, remember.
So be happy, though it’s not December,
One day it will be, remember,
Always Christmas,
And never winter.

#flashgrampoemsbysam

#GKChesterton #sdsmithdopequotescuration

Advent is over soon, and we’ll dance into Christ

Advent is over soon, and we’ll dance into Christmas and enjoy the celebration! We will leave behind the minor key, shed lamenting purple and trade it in for white. Advent is the winter lent, a fast that warns of judgement and invites us to prepare for the feast of Christmas-where the minor keys are over and it’s time for major keys and major parties!

Well, kind of.

Christmas Day is bright. Light the big white candle in the middle of the wreath, and go to church and sing for joy. White, bright, and happy. Joyously, the Christian Year lays out twelve days of this exuberant celebration. Twelve! Not one. You can relax a little, and extend the parties. You can engage kids each day with some new joy, and feast and share gifts across the days. (Though, I recommend avoiding giving a bunch of birds, like in the song.) It’s grand. And they all lived happily ever after.

Well, kind of.

Because guess what the second day of Christmas is? It’s often called Boxing Day in countries that speak English, but that’s not on the Christian Calendar. It’s a mystery why that name came along, but many believe it had to do with well-off folks giving boxes to less well-off folks with charitable gifts inside. It’s definitely not about the sport, but boxing is less bloody than the day’s true meaning. The 26th is Saint Stephen’s Day. Oh, nice. What happened to him? Well, he was brutally murdered by stoning for bearing witness to Christ. He was a martyr, in will and deed. We have the first splatter of red on our holiday white. Things get a little more merry with the next day, Saint John’s Day. He was a martyr, church fathers said, not in deed, but in will. Wait, I thought the twelve days of Christmas were all happy feasts and fun, but we’ve been kind of bummed out so far. Surely the fourth day will be about little children and have deep meaning and goodness for us, right?

Well, kind of.

I must tell you that the fourth day of Christmas, December 28th, is Holy Innocents Day...

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