I don't know about you but I love Christmas season. I'm just so ready to celebrate this month and I didn't grow up with a particular faith.

But I always loved Christmas or something about Christmas that always drew me in.

And I didn't really have a filter between all the different stories and all the different narratives that were involved in Christmas, but I love them all.

I love the stories about Jesus and I love the stories about Santa.

I love the stories about the three Wiseman and I love the story about Rudolph and

for me they were all just a part of the entire Christmas narrative and I know sometimes we can take

ourselves too seriously and say well we shouldn't really be focusing on Rudolph and Santa and we should only talk

about Jesus and angels but to me the whole season is just a reminder that that we were created

for love and for hope to celebrate to live lives filled with joy and meaning.

And I'm grateful for every marker that points us to who we're supposed to be,

which is one of the things I want to talk to you about tonight. Have you ever felt that your life has a destiny, a course, a direction, but you keep losing your

way? It's like forgetting where you're... a direction but you keep losing your way.

It's like forgetting where you left your car in the parking lot.

Or forgetting where you left your children, which becomes a little more difficult. Sometimes in my life I wish I had markers to remind me how I can get back to where I was supposed to be.

Wouldn't it be amazing if we could actually go into the future and put markers down so that when

we got there we would know which way we should go?

Because I'm telling you there are going to be some moments in your life coming that are so critical

and so defining that if you had a marker and

it said no this is where you turn right not left and as appealing as left may

seem as tantalizing it may be because you placed a marker there and there's no one you

trust more than you. And so you signed your marker and you said go this way. It would be an

amazing thing if you could step into your future and leave markers that would guide you into the future you're created to live.

...