Values change over time, both in society and within ourselves. Things we once seemed to focus so much on end up being things that hardly ever cross our minds. 

Isn’t it funny how life works like that? It’s the same with people too. Relationships change as people come and go in our lives. Sometimes someone who used to be nothing more than an acquaintance becomes one of your closest friends, and sadly, the reverse is also often true. 

So what matters in the end? What values do we keep? What really matters in life?

Those are hard questions and I don’t even pretend to know the answers to such inquisitions. What I do know is this: that it’s your life and it’s really up for you to decide what you hold near and dear to your heart. 

I think if you really take some time with those questions and live your life walking together with God and your faith community, you will come up with an answer that you can stand behind.

For my part, all I can do is share a little of my own heart with you each month and maybe the chords of my own music will find their way into your own song. 

Above all else, I value life and the love that we share as living beings. It’s the substance of the soul: love. I can’t describe it in any way but “magical.” 

Have you ever seen the movie "It’s a Wonderful Life" with James Stewart?  The classic 1946 movie stars Jimmy Stewart as a man who always wanted to do something extravagant with his life but ends up working a lowly job with “no future” at the Bailey Building and Loan Association. 

At the end of the movie, he discovers just how important it was for him to have lived such a “lowly life” and how many people he touched by his small acts of love. 

It really is a good message for all of us. It’s about life and love. The quality time we spend with others is fundamentally the most important thing we can do with our lives. You have no idea how far a simple act of kindness can go until you get to heaven and see as the angels see.

So what does this mean about the holiday season for me? Family time! We don’t have to go special places or get special gifts or anything like that. I just like getting to play board games with my sisters, helping my parents, and staying up late at night talking to my brothers. I think that that is the most important thing I can do with my whole life. 

When you really look back on the time you spent doing service, hanging with friends, working, and going to school, what is it you remember?

What remains are feelings you shared with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Amen to that.