What's In a Name?!

So where did we come up with the name Lane?  Read on (and no skipping!, we want to share this with you).

First let's ask an important question; does God speak to us in our dreams?  In the "old days," people certainly relied upon dreams to be a tool God would use to speak to his people.  Today, not so much.  Dreams are the stuff of psychology, our subconsciousness trying to tell us something, or our hearts dealing with an uncomfortable truth.  But are dreams a vehicle of which God can still use?  Maybe...if we had the sense to remember them.  In our family, dreams are a big deal.  They have led us to make the two most important decisions in our lives.  We now share them with you for you to enjoy (and for the first time).

Technically this was after we were married, so it's not a dating picture,
but we are taking a Mediterranean cruise leaving Barcelona here, and had only
been married a couple of years, so it kind of counts...

Dream #1:  In the summer of 2005 I went out on a limb and asked my sister's hot roommate Renee out on a date.  Good lord I was too shy and awkward for my own good but did my best.  She was gracious and sweet, and so SO pretty.  But little did I know, I was a summer fling for Renee.  She'll freely admit this today, but yeah, I was to be a friendly relationship to fill up the summer.  Yeah, that sucks for me.  Then halfway through the summer, Renee had a dream.  In this dream she saw that we were a happy married couple.  That morning she read her morning devotional which quoted Joel 2:28; "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."  After much prayer and reflection Renee discerned that God was telling her to give me a chance.  So the next day I received an email (we were a few months away from the Texting Revolution) and I read those dreaded words, "We need to talk."  She followed up with the words, "Don't worry, it's good news!"  Still I spent the day in a fuss, worried, because, who knows what this means?  We met for dinner, she told me about her dream, showed me her notes from her devotional, and we kept dating.  Even though we still have very little in common, we've been inseparable ever since!

This is Renee telling the tale of her dream in worship today.  As you can see,
I still have a big crush on her

Here is my Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man, I mean Lane

Dream #2:  A few years after Will was born (and I'm pretty sure this was around the time we were testing him regarding his developmental struggles), we were discussing and debating if we wanted to have another child.  Well one night, I had a dream.  Now I dream all the time.  Most of the time I'm dreaming about hostile aliens, zombies, monsters, and I'm a super hero blowing them away.  They're fun dreams, sometimes tense, but I enjoy them!  This time was different.  I was in a room that I would describe as a fellowship hall with Renee and a group of friendly strangers.  I'm not sure where Will is, maybe he's at grandmom's house.  In my arms is my new cute baby boy.  Well everyone in the room is giving the happy congratulations, we're so happy for you, blah blah blah, and then someone asked, "So what's his name?"  I freeze.  Oh, crap.

My #1 weakness, the thing that scares me, that has always plagued me, is remembering people's names.  I completely suck at it.  It's embarrassing.  That's why I often hang near Renee, as she's a genius at this and will often bail me out.

So in my dream I look to Renee, trying not to betray the fact that I have forgotten my own son's name, and she gives THE LOOK.  The Look is saying, "Go ahead, tell them," and, "Are, you, serious?!"  So I think really REALLY hard and the words slip out my lips without thinking, "His name, is, ...Lane?"  Yeah, I almost ask it.  Renee gives THE SECOND LOOK, saying, "You KNOW it's Lane, why are you looking at me?!"  I sigh in sweet relief.  I wake up, tell Renee, we have a great laugh, and it's decided.  God is giving us another message through our dreams.

Lane Smith Cunningham being baptized by Dr. Jeff Patterson.
Here we are all laying hands on him, and even Will did his part.

So today my son, Lane Smith Cunningham was baptized by Dr. Jeff Patterson.  Dr. Patterson was awesome, and it's so amazing to witness this sign of God's grace.  God knew Lane before I did.  And I first met Lane in my dreams, even as I forgot his name BRIEFLY!

Don't ignore your dreams.  They can be fun, or scary, or creative.  They can also speak great truths to us.  In our case, twice now, God was trying to tell us something, and we had the good sense to listen.

PS, Lane's middle name, Smith, comes from Renee's family.  Smith was the middle name of her grandfather.  We are southerners, we have to put some family name in there or Lane would be an outcast.

War on Christmas? Forget That, Let's Wage a War Against Whinny!

I've had enough.  This is stupid.  What's stupid?  Whining about Christmas, it's stupid.  Venting about a "War on Christmas."  Lamenting 1st world problems about November and December.  It's reached it's peak, and I'm here to tell you, as your friend, to get over yourself.  It's stupid.  Okay, you hate that Christmas comes earlier every year.  I want my turkey before I want Santa.  I want thanksgiving before Frosty.  I want my pumpkin pie before I see the baby Jesus.  Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were so repulsed by the promise of Jesus.  It must be horrible, seeing manger scene inflatables and kids getting shepherd costumes on Nov. 3rd.  Shocking!  Having the promise of Jesus coming 2 months early, it's horrible!  I mean, think of Mary, she had a whole 9 months to freak out over it!  The horror!  Oh, wait, you actually like baby Jesus?  THEN WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?!!!

Oh, it's the music.  Hearing the Christmas music before Thanksgiving, what an assault on the ears.  You can only hear Jingle Bells sung by preschoolers so much until it reaches levels of torture.  Yeah, kids should stop singing Christmas songs.  The idiots.  They should know better.  They should be singing Thanksgiving songs.  Wait, there are no Thanksgiving songs?  Well that's Christmas' fault isn't it?  What a shallow holiday, with radio stations playing Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, Holy Night, Joy to the World, talking about the coming of Christ, it's just anti-Gospel isn't it?  Wait, these songs are telling the story of the Gospels?  THEN WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?!!!

Oh, you feel that hearing these songs over and over, they get old, lose their meaning, become less special.  It's like if we celebrated Holy Communion every Sunday, the sacraments would get stale on the tongue and heart, wouldn't it?  Yeah, getting too much God in your life is horrible.  Same with the music.  It's the price we pay when TVs and radios can't turn off.  Oh wait, they can turn off?  You have other music or TV to watch via Pandora, Netflix, or an old fashioned DVD collection?  THEN WHAT'S YOUR STINKING PROBLEM?!!!  Oh, there's those ads on the internet; emails and flash ads.  You actually pay attention to them?  Does anyone?  Oh, you do?  That's YOUR problem, seriously get over yourself.  Oh, they play Christmas music over the speakers at work?  Okay, I gotcha now.  You can't help yourself and take notice, just like you do when they play soft-rock and elevator music the other 10 months of the year.  I'm sure you give the rest of the music equal attention.  Seriously, GIVE ME A BREAK.  Eat some cheese with your whine.  Besides, I have an autistic son who sang Merry Christmas to You all the way to Valentine's Day last year, and it was glorious, so take your whinny ears and plug them up if they bleed too much.

Then there's the War on Christmas, oh wow, the horror.  I remember those days where we could sing Christmas carols at school in November, talk about baby Jesus in homeroom, see manger scenes in front of schools and courthouses, that was so sweet.  I'm serious, I did live in such a time, the glorious 1980s.  It's sweet when the government does all the hard work of preparing Advent for us.  Now that's a luxury!  What great days to be a Christian, when we had the choice of not having to do anything Christian.  It was done for us!  But now, oh the blasphemy!  Who knew that other religions did other religious stuff in December.  Did you say, Han-uk-kah?  Ram-a-dan?  Do you speak A-mer-i-can?!  And now we have to be, in-clu-sive in public places.  Gag me.  Forget those Jewish or Muslim kids, us Christians should just shove baby Jesus down their ungrateful throats until they learn to like it, just like Brussels sprouts!  But now we can't.  Stupid US Constitution and 1st Amendment.  So now we have to do all the work.  We have put up our own Christmas trees, our own manger scenes, and proclaim the good news.  Makes me cringe.  Next we'll have to decorate our own churches too, to make up for it!  I don't know if my lazy butt can handle the stress.  See I'm with you, I miss the days when the government (which we all hate) did all the religious stuff for us.  Of course, now businesses are putting up the Christmas stuff up instead, religious and otherwise.  So we won't find baby Jesus at our courthouses but inside Target and Walmart, for SALE (where more people go to anyway), but forget that, you're right.  A war is being waged on our laziness, and it's not fair!  Oh, you think I'm being sarcastic?  Really?  Puulease, I'm neeeever sarcastic.  OF COURSE I'M BEING SARCASTIC!  STOP YOUR WHINING AND GET OVER YOURSELF!

The final horror, that you're so tired during and after Christmas.  Everything is so so busy.  The list of places to go, things to see, people to greet, it's so much, I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT!  I mean, all those darn family members who love you and want to see you, how dare they for wanting to see you!  DON'T THEY KNOW I DON'T HAVE FREAKING TIME?!  I'll love them later, so I'll just see them later.  Maybe at their funeral, that will work.  Till then, I HAVE to organize the office Christmas hootenanny, or sew those three costumes for the Christmas pageant at school or church where my kid has one line!  "Oh look, what is that, a star?!"  THAT'S MY KID!  TELL ME YOU GOT VIDEO OF THAT!  See, I feel for you there.  Having a disorder of where it's impossible to say no, that's got to be hard.  Oh wait, you can say no?  THEN WHY ARE YOU RAGING AGAINST CHRISTMAS?!!!  IT'S YOUR OWN STUPID FAULT!  TAKE SOME FREAKING RESPONSIBILITY!!!

So in conclusion, here's what my family is doing, to prepare for this War Against Whinny.  We are singing Christmas songs right now, and it's the chorus of angels, and if your fingers are in your ears I genuinely feel sorry for you.  We are putting up our Christmas decorations in about a week, and will eat our Thanksgiving spread at a big table surrounded by family with a thanksgiving table cloth and Christmas tree glowing bright.  If we can't give thanks for God answering our prayers of 'O Come O Come Emmanuel,' then seriously we're a sorry bunch indeed.  If all we see in the "secular" world is Santa (who gives gifts to children, it's not like he's an arsonist), big freaking whoop.  It's not making me less Christian, and I don't need the government to reinforce my faith.  It's not that weak.  We are still preparing the way of the coming of Christ, and it's not diminished in anyway by the overrated power of secularism.  And we are going to prioritize what we do, where we go, and be happy about it and not fret.

Here's the thing, stop whining and acting like some victim.  It's shallow and pathetic.  If you shared your serious Christmas complaints with the refugees Mary and Joseph and their little defenseless toddler, or Syrian refugees living on the streets in unfriendly countries, or to poor hungry children living in your neighborhood of whom Christmas is a stranger, just take a wild guess as to the look you'll receive.  Time to get real people.  Prioritize.  Pray.  Get humble and get over yourself.  And for God's sake (and I mean God's sake), shut, up.  Start listening instead.  You just might hear that chorus of angels that hasn't stopped singing.