Kairos Christmas Menu...Pimento Cheese Phenomenon... The Christmas Rant...

Kairos Christmas Dinner
(See Christmas Menu)

This has been an incredible week at Kairos! To be honest at the start of the week my calendar was so full that had trouble seeing how we would accomplish all the things that were before us! I am so thankful for the lessons I am learning from Jesus about taking things one day at a time, and sometimes even one hour at a time. I am an excessive planner by nature, but being in the food business I’ve learned that everything will not always fit neatly into a little plan, so I’ve studied to be very flexible. My staff and I celebrated our 6^th anniversary at Kairos Kafe Thursday night. Our celebration was very special to me, especially in the light of the past six months. This has truly been the most exciting ride I have ever been on in my life, and I am grateful for all of you who have been with us on this incredible journey that we call “building relationships around food...”

Speaking of food, I made an extra special meal for my staff party, and some of those items are on the Christmas Menu. The old-fashioned cakes were a huge success with everyone who had the privilege of tasting them. My favorite is the chocolate, but after witnessing the reaction to the strawberry old-fashioned cake I may have to reconsider. I took a piece to my friend Tim, who loves strawberry anything... he opened the box and took a bite. The look on his face was worth all the hours I spent in the kitchen that day... Haha. It was a look of pure joy... “I was just gonna take a bite...but now I see that’s not gonna happen” he exclaimed as he devoured his cake. There is nothing that brings me greater happiness than seeing someone enjoy the food that I make! And I appreciate all your comments about the Delicious Goodness that is coming out of Kairos! The Specials this week should make you happy, happy happy!! I made the pimento cheeseburgers at Fox 6 Wednesday Morning, and I have to tell you, they went nuts for these burgers. I’m fond of feeding the crew when I do a cooking segment, but this was the first time I saw them lined up around the corner in joyful anticipation of Kairos Delicious Goodness! If you haven’t tried one I encourage you to do so! And the other specials are off the chain too! I am especially affectionate of the Fish Taco! It is so good that I want to think it’s bad for me but it’s actually a very healthy dish! The Chicken Alfredo is also up this week, and the Chicken Parmesan served over linguine Alfredo is a real taste sensation! The D.G. Express this week will also be filled with some new recipes that I tested out on my staff. I found one of my Granny’s recipes for a Strawberry Pretzel Salad that went over so well I’m going to put it on the buffet! I hope to see you this week in Kairos, and remember to get those Christmas orders in before we run out of space!

I love this time of year. The Christmas Season has always been filled with joyful anticipation for me simply because it is Christmas! Many years ago this time of year became even more special for me because I had a heart transforming experience with Jesus and for the first time in my life I understood His Birth to be the reason for the season! I will never forget that first Christmas of 1996. At a Church service a kid sang “Oh Holy Night” and it really resonated deep in my heart and my soul.  For me that was and is an awesome experience to fathom the birth of Jesus, and the divine occurrence of God being manifest in the flesh of a small helpless infant.

That being said though, in recent years I have been somewhat aggravated and even offended at the “politically correct” reference of Christmas as “Holiday” (You may think you know where I am going with this but keep reading. I may surprise you) I read a Facebook post earlier this month from someone proposing a ban on a certain outlet mall because they referred to the lighting of their “Holiday Tree”. At first I agreed, I even liked the post because you know... enough is enough... but over the next few days I was really surprised at the way that Jesus began to deal with me about my attitude on this subject. I am a follower of Jesus, but I don’t consider myself to be a religious person. Why not? Because for me, and through my experiences, I’ve discovered that Jesus is not a religion. He is a person. And if I take the Person of Jesus and try to fit Him into a box of rules then I’m not following the person, I’m following the rules and what I think. Jesus proved to the folks in the bible (and to me on a regular basis) that He won’t be put into a box. We may think we have Him in the box, but generally as soon as that happens He just jumps out of the box so what’s the point?

Here are a few things I have learned and observed over the past few weeks. One, the Christmas Holiday was not instituted in the Bible. That’s something that we added years and years later. Also, it has been pretty much proven that Jesus was not born on December 25^th. The Shepherds that were the first to hear of His Birth would not have been in the field during the middle of winter... so... what does that mean?? I don’t think it has any significance. We have chosen December 25^th as the day we celebrate the Birth of Jesus, and if the exact date were that important wouldn’t the scriptures tell us the date?? The other thing is the Christmas Tree. I have read that the tree, the wreath, the date, etc. all have roots in pagan practices. What does that mean?? I don’t think that has any significance either. Many of the things that we do today have their roots in pagan practices... even the way we do Church. The early Church simply met in homes, built relationships, and did life together as they followed Jesus. There were Pastors (the biblical word for Pastor is Shepherd... today we have made it to be “Preacher”), Teachers, Evangelists, etc. but the way they “did” Church didn’t look like our modern church. Our Modern Church actually resembles the way the Greeks did things... They had someone get up in front of the crowd to expound on certain things... or ... Preach... So what does all this mean?? The early Church was Jewish. Does Jesus want me to be Jewish?? No! I can read the book of Galatians and see that Jesus wants me to be his child, and who He created me to be. Period. And as far as the days, the trees, the methods, etc. having pagan roots should we throw all that out?? Absolutely not! Even Abraham, the Father of the Jewish Nation, and the Founding Father of my Faith had pagan roots. It is supposed that he was from a group that worshipped the Moon!!! My Point is that Jesus is The Redeemer! He redeems the Day, The Tree, The Food, The Culture...everything!

Here is my point in all this: All that stuff is just a bunch of Stuff. To me, if you wrap lights around a tree, hang shiny balls on it, and plop an angel or a star on top then you have yourself a “Christmas” Tree! Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, How lovely are your branches! That is a given. But if someone comes along and decides they want to call it a Holiday Tree then why should I care? The word “Holiday” actually comes from the Biblical word “Holy Day” anyways. To me, December 25^th is a Holy Day, A Holiday, it is Christmas Day, and that is what I believe. However, getting back to my original point. There was a group who were boycotting a certain Outlet Mall because they lit a “Holiday” Tree...  I went over to the Mall’s Facebook Page and I read some of the posts written there... And it made me very sad. I had a neat time with Jesus as I read this... He began to ask me questions... “Is this what you want to do??” ... “Is this Love??” ... “Is this why I was born? So you could fight over names??” ... I was very convicted and I changed my thoughts on this subject. I also immediately thought about the Gospels, and I tried to come up with just one instance where Jesus fought over stuff like this... I couldn’t find even one. He never did the “Christian Rant” that we Americans seem to be so fond of...However, being a student of History I did think about the Crusades. Many people were massacred during the Crusades because they didn’t believe what the “Christians” believed, and that has gone down in history as one of the bloodiest stains on the Church. Back then we killed each other with swords and spears if we disagreed. Today we kill each other with our mouths, and with the keyboards on our computers. The Question for me is “Should all THAT be the reason for the Season?”

God Bless You! Thank You For Supporting Kairos! And Have a wonderful week!

James K Jones