Christmas

Merry Christmas From Conan and The Boss

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi9kvO2zL2E

(Click Here if you can’t see the video above)

You thought I’d go all Christmas season without writing about Bruce Springsteen?

Did someone ring your Jingle Bells too hard?

Here’s “Merry Christmas Baby” from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with an assist from Conan O’Brien on guitar.

Yes. Conan O’Brien playing guitar with the E Street Band. If that doesn’t say Christmas, I don’t know what does.

Christmas is a time of celebration. It’s a time of gathering and singing together with everyone around. It’s about inviting people who wouldn’t normally be there into the joy.

Think about it – it wasn’t just Jesus, Mary and Joseph who made the Christmas story possible. God invited three wise men to come out of the East and play a part. He invited an ordinary innkeeper to play a role. He invited the manager of a lowly manger to provide a home for the newborn king.

Ordinary people invited into the extraordinary celebration of the newborn king. Now that’s something to sing about.

If you’re having a humbug kind of day – stop. Breathe. Watch the video. Or find your favorite Christmas song.

Sing along. Take a few minutes to take it all in and consider all the reasons you have to celebrate. Remember God is inviting you to come off the sidelines today and join an incredible story.

Happy Friday.

Merry Friday.

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The Gospel Of Buddy The Elf

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

159580-elf_6“Elf” is the best.

That’s not a controversial statement, is it? I mean, all these blog-writing sites I read tell me to write controversial posts to get more traffic.

Since “Elf” is more universally beloved than the World’s Best Cup Of Coffee, I tried to come up with an angle to tear the movie apart.

I’ve got nothing. It can’t be done. “Elf” is pretty much perfect.

Seriously – I took a girl to see “Elf” when it first came out in theaters. She didn’t like the movie. Right there I knew things would not work between us. We broke up a month later.

I watched Elf with my current girlfriend the other night. Thank God she likes it, alhough she did fall asleep watching it.

As she slept through the last 30 minutes I really took to heart the end of the movie. Continue reading →

Are You Ignoring The Gifts Right In Front Of You?

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

I’ve never been the most observant person. I will swear up and down I’ve lost my keys or wallet or favorite hat forever before realizing they’re on the floor right next to me.

Never have I been more oblivious than I was Christmas morning in the 4th Grade.

After all the unwrapping was complete, my parents tasked me with taking the trash outside to the garbage can.

Now, I wasn’t completely oblivious to the giant covered object in the center of the garage as I walked toward the garbage can. I did notice a some strange blob where one had never been before. But I wasn’t assuming this mysterious object was for me. Perhaps it was just a lawnmower under repair?

My parents were waiting for me back in the living room. I calmly came back inside and sat down to examine my gifts. The eager smiles on my parents’ faces turned to confusion.

“Did you notice anything unusual in the garage?” they questioned me. I mentioned the mystery mound I passed by on the way to the trash. My parents laughed and suggested I look under the sheet.

What I found was perhaps the best Christmas present ever. It looked something like this: Continue reading →

How To Give The Best Kind Of Gift

/ Alex Doriot / 3 Comments

GUEST POST: Today’s contributor to POP GOD Christmas is my friend Sean Taylor. Sean is the Pastor of Chandler Baptist Church of Missouri. Sean was also a mentor to me when I first began pursuing ministry. I always said we should write a book together and blogging together is getting pretty close to that. Sean is one my favorite writers and blogs at Plunge47.org. Check him out, subscribe to his blog, and enjoy his contribution to POP GOD:

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We celebrated my daughter Darcy’s second birthday this week. The first gift she opened was a Disney mobile phone and purse.

She was so excited she did not want to open other presents. Instead, she screamed until we opened up the box and got out her plastic treasures. Eventually we coaxed her to tear open the other gifts… Continue reading →

What To Remember When It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

What is Christmas supposed to feel like?

Living in Georgia the past 20-some-odd years, I’m beginning to wonder.

Growing up I’ve always thought Christmas was supposed to be feel like winter, interchangeable with snowflakes and hot chocolate and wool sweaters.

So how come it’s December 9 and still 75 degrees outside? Continue reading →

Finding Your Home For The Holidays

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

(Click Here if you can’t see the video above.)

Christmas is a time of celebration. Bright lights. Shiny presents. Milk and cookies.

It’s also the time for a new Christmas single from The Killers.

The Killers have long been one of my favorite bands. Back in 2006 they started a tradition of releasing an original Christmas single each year to benefit (RED), a charity which distributes life-saving medicines to those with HIV and AIDS in Africa.

Some of the singles sounds like classic Christmas tunes. Some are quirky and stylish. Some, like this year’s “Christmas In L.A.” featuring another of my favorite bands Dawes, are thoughtful and introspective and a little sad.

“Christmas In L.A.” is the tale of a struggling actor (played in the video by Owen Wilson) stuck in the doldrums of Los Angeles who can’t afford to make it back home for December 25.

Sometimes my girlfriend gets onto me for having so much depressing Christmas music on my holiday playlists. But, to quote Sir Elton John, sad songs say so much. Continue reading →

How To Avoid The Worst Christmas Ever

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

Let me tell you about the worst Christmas present I ever opened.

My parents would sometimes allow me the scandalous privilege of opening up one present on Christmas eve. One year when I was 9 or 10 my eyes were drawn to a curious cylindrical package. With approval from my parents, I was able to open this gift early.

Filled with the giddy excitement of getting a head start on Christmas, I made confetti out of the wrapping paper.

Then, my heart sank. Continue reading →

The One Phrase The Church Needs To Retire This Christmas

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

394824_10152361249895427_1009312309_nIf a bell rings and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

If a Salvation Army bell ringer stands outside a department store all day and not a single cent drops into the bucket, was it really worth the ringer’s time and effort?

If a church holds a rally and not a single soul gets saved, was it worth the church’s time and effort?

Many of us have been to a church-sponsored camp, revival or other event where we heard a speaker attempt to rouse a reluctant crowd, saying, “If only one person chooses to follow Christ tonight, then all of our work here will have been worth it.”

But what if no one came forward that night? What if no one chose to give their life to Jesus at that rally? Was the work still worth it? Continue reading →

Can Christmas Lose Its Flavor?

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

photo-6Christmas tastes like Egg Nog.

For some, Christmas has a Peppermint taste. Gingerbread is the flavor of Christmas for others. Still many think Christmas has the flavor of a Chocolate Covered Cherry. (I will refuse to recognize the mentally unstable people who think Christmas tastes like Fruitcake.)

For me, though, Egg Nog is what my holiday palate craves. I wasn’t on the Egg Nog bandwagon until a few years ago. The name, color, and reputation of Nog was off-putting to me. But I decided to be adventurous and give it a shot.

I’ve been an Egg Nog advocate ever since, taking in all the different flavors including the famous Egg Nog Latte from Starbucks. (For the record, I’m not all that big on alcoholic Egg Nog. Just pour me a class of the rich, thick liquid without any add-ins and I’ll happily put it down.)

As the Christmas season wears on and my Egg Nog intake adds up, I begin wondering why the sweet treat isn’t available year-round. Why must my taste buds be deprived 11 months out of the year?

The question then becomes this: Would Egg Nog still be so special if it was available all year? Continue reading →

The Nativity Scene Smackdown

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

slide.001The Doriot Family Nativity Scene was a war zone.

Every year my parents put out a handmade wooden Nativity scene. There’s a swinging fence, hay on the ground in the barn, a reverent recreation of the first Christmas.

And every year I couldn’t help but desecrate it.

The first thing I did when the Nativity Scene came out of the attic was hijack it to use with my wrestling figures. The barn became the backdrop for an epic wrestling match. I called it the annual Christmas Clash.

The Christmas Clash was the centerpiece of my make-believe wrestling federation – the biggest card of the year, my own personal Wrestlemania. For some reason I loved having this beautiful barn as the setpiece for my miniature grapplers to have their most important matches.

The baby Jesus sat in the background and an angel looked down overhead as Shawn Michaels and Diesel wrestled all around. This is what I turned the Christmas story into as a child.

What have we turned Christmas into?

The mission of POP GOD has been to seek God in the present tense of pop culture. You would think it’d be easier than ever to see God’s presence in pop culture during Christmas. But Christmas has become less a celebration of the arrival of a Savior and more of a pagan holiday celebrating generic platitudes like giving and happiness and togetherness.

God has allowed us to redefine our worldly celebration of the birth of His Son in many different ways. Still, if you look closely, you can see the spirit of Christ amongst the masses. Just as the baby Jesus was present in my Nativity Scene Smackdowns, the Lord is present in the pop culture of Christmas.

So this season on POP GOD, I don’t want to ask the question of “Where is God underneath the wrapping paper?”

Instead, I want to ask, “Where is God in the wrapping paper?”

Where is God in the minutiae of this holiday? Where is God in the cheesy Christmas songs and movies? Where is God in egg nog and Christmas Tree Cakes?

I used to think I was being blasphemous with the way I used my wrestling figures. Now I think I was just embodying what Christmas is all about – the presence of the Lord descending into our everyday lives.

As a child though, I relegated the savior to the background as my wrestling figures brawled before His birthplace. This year on POP GOD, we’ll be celebrating the presence of God in the midst of every aspect of Christmas in pop culture.

Stay tuned to POP GOD during the Advent season for a special Christmas countdown. We’ll have a new post every weekday leading up to Christmas including a few Guest Posts and a special Christmas music episode of the POP GOD POPcast.

(If you don’t want to miss anything, enter your email address in the box on the left side of the page to subscribe to POP GOD and have every new post delivered to your inbox.)

Christmas does not mean what it once did. God’s presence is in the background of how the world celebrates the season. But He is still there – if only we will look.

Did you ever misuse your family’s Christmas decorations as a child? What’s an unusual place you’ve seen Jesus at Christmas? Leave a comment below and join the Christmas conversation: