subject: Almost Every Christmas [print this page] Suddenly, the double doors open and in walks Dr. Cooley, followed by a team of surgeons. Dr. Cooley walks up to my friend, You, follow me! He walks into an operating room. This guys going, Oh my goodness. Dear Lord, please be with me. He follows Dr. Cooley. Dr. Cooley opens up the chest cavity of a man, takes his heart and hands a beating heart to my friend first day in the operating room, and hes holding a beating heart for Dr. Denton Cooley as he performs microsurgery on the backside of the heart! And Shawn told me, Ed, Dr. Cooley was leaning on me for support and I was holding this mans heart. It was beating in my hands! For an hour, he said, I held it, then I began to [teeth chatter in nervousness]. He said the operation was a success. He told me when he got back home, the first words he told his dad were, Dad, you wont believe it. I held a live heart in my hands. Dad, I cant describe to you what it feels like to hold a persons heart in your hands.
Fathers, listen to me. You hold in your hands the heart of your son, the heart of your daughter, right there in your hand. Its beating. What a delicate thing. What an awesome thing! What a great thing of potential. You can be used by God to take this heart and to shape it, to identify its needs, its gifts. Are you taking it seriously? There are some men here that God wants to use in a dynamic way. Make sure you take seriously the role, the God-given role, of being a father.
I think i have been home almost every Christmas except for my sophomore year in college. I was fortunate enough to play a little basketball at Florida state. Most of the time, i sat the bench. But i did play some. One year, our football team was playing in the orange bowl for the national title, and our visionary athletic director had enough wherewithal to move our basketball game to Miami beach. So, our basketball team was in Miami beach on Christmas day, holed up in this beautiful hotel. Ed Young Creative Pastor tells us that you would think that i would really have had a great time. But i was miserable. My parents recalling the moment will say, ed, remember the time you were in Miami beach on christmas day, when you called us four or five times?
I would say, Ben, what did you get for christmas? Mom, what did you cook? I even shed a few tears. I was really homesick. I have got to ask you a question. Are you at home for christmas? Are you at home in the true essence of the word? We are going to be talking about it over the next several minutes. Listen up, because i believe the following message can revolutionize your life and christmas will never be the same for you.
