Christmas And I - Why I Celebrate
By Al Cronkrite The Covenant News ~ December 22, 2005
Yes, I celebrate Christmas. Although I know it isn’t, I celebrate it as the birthday of Christ. I know it was a pagan holiday and is still largely pagan but that doesn’t stop me. It is the only day for celebrating the birth of Christ. To me it is most significant. On Christmas, I celebrate His birth and on Easter, I celebrate His death and resurrection.
It was God’s own decision to bless my family and me. Yes, many years ago I made a decision for Christ but long before that decision He had begun to draw me to Himself and to open my mind to His direction. I was not a likely candidate for this highest honor. I was, in fact, a most unlikely disciple.
Born in Chicago I was raised in a small town in central Illinois that became a permanent home for my parents when the evil birds of the recently formed Federal Reserve came to roost over the Great Depression. Dad lost his job selling furniture in Florida for a company in Michigan and joined 25% of America’s workers who were permanently unemployed. My maternal Grandmother owned a home in this small community, she was getting on in years and since it could accommodate Mom, Dad, my yet unborn sister, and me, the move seemed proper.
Growing up, of the 1800 souls that lived there I knew most of them, not personally but I knew something of their family and their reputation. There were many farmers who had retired and moved into town. We had our share of characters with nicknames like Billy the Greek, Backhander, The Nasty Nasal, Tinny, Ueke, Toy, Hick, & Hogjaw.
The businesses consisted of hardware stores, farm equipment dealers, car dealers, taverns, grocery stores, one small department store, restaurants, and banks. We had lawyers, doctors, dentists, two Catholic Churches and a variety of Protestants. There were one policeman, one Sheriff and two jail cells. There were five taverns. Citizens settled most conflicts and official police action was reserved for extreme cases.
Roosevelt’s Socialist programs resulting from the contrived depression had invaded our town and the jobs and meager incomes they provided were received with gratitude. Otherwise, government had scant interface with our lives. The restraining elements of law and religion had found a balance and individual freedom was at a temporary apogee.
One building housed eight grades and high school. We walked to it in the morning, home and back for dinner at noon, and home again in mid to late afternoon. Mental inertia was overcome by mild corporal punishment, intimidation and keeping recalcitrant students in the classroom after school hours. It was expected that every student would learn and only a small percentage failed.
There were bullies and there were athletes, there was intimidation and fighting but it was all educational and beneficial for the journey through life. The smart athletes were popular and destined for success, so were the smart bullies. The dumb athletes and the dumb bullies learned but were not marked to achieve. Those that got bullied learned to protect themselves.
I was smart but not athletic. I read a lot but was not bookish. I passed all my subjects but did not excel. My test scores were high and it was always thought that I had considerably more potential than I was using.
In1942, during the Second World War, when I was thirteen, teenagers were the closest thing to grown men available. Wars fertilize vice and push young men into adulthood quickly. All physically capable men had either been drafted or had enlisted in some branch of the armed services. The war was popular and patriotism was pervasive.
At thirteen I smoked, at sixteen I drank, and at sixteen and half I was an occasional companion to married war wives.
Illinois was a vice divided state. The Capone factions in Chicago controlled Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois was the domain of the Shelton mob in St. Louis. There were Las Vegas type casinos in LaSalle, brothels were numerous, there were slot machines at every soda fountain, and many of the bars served liquor to minors.
I began college in 1947 along with hosts of returning war veterans. Again, I survived but did not excel. However, survival at that point was a small triumph since about a third of the freshman class was purposely flunked out. I graduated, married a girl I had been dating, and within a few short months was drafted into the army. My army test scores were high and I was selected along with five others from our Battalion to attend Army Counter Intelligence Corps (C.I.C.) classes in Dundalk, Maryland.
For about eighteen months as a Special Agent in C.I.C., living in an apartment with my wife, driving a black sedan, and dressing in civilian clothes, I conducted background investigations on army personnel being considered for sensitive positions. It was heady stuff; C.I.C personnel knew they were special.
Following the military service, I began a career in sales and sales management that consumed the remainder of my working life.
Over the years, I have been twice married with the current union at thirty years and counting. I have produced three children, two by the first marriage and one by the second. I have five grandchildren but they are siblings of an estranged family.
In 1963, when God choose me I had abused the privilege of drinking alcoholic beverages for almost twenty years. I had lost good jobs and contributed heavily to the break up of my first marriage. My life was directionless, out of control, and hopeless.
For years, I had been unable to maintain a righteous decision. Not that I had not made them. Hundreds of times I had sworn to myself and others that I would never drink again only to falter within days or even hours. My “decision for Christ” took the form of a plea for help from God, if He was there.
He was there and He made me to know it. I was not a Christian but I knew I had a partner. Progress was slow. There was Grace to stop drinking and then Grace to understand the redeeming work of Jesus Christ and to make it my own.
It has been a long Grace encrusted journey, with slow but steady progress in wisdom and sound doctrine. Closely following the advent of Jesus in my life came the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the often-crazed emotionalism, turmoil, competition, phoniness, and self-absorption that went along with it.
I believed it, was involved in it, and promoted it for close to thirty years. There was entertainment, the ineffable presence of the Holy Spirit, and more conversions to Christ. The unsuccessful effort to perfect human nature continued relentlessly with an idolatrous affinity for Charismatic leaders. America’s moral standards continued to plummet.
With all the ballyhoo, the mega churches, the multimillion-dollar television empires, the fancy cars and million dollar homes there was no fruit, no progress in God’s dominion and no evidence that Christians were impacting society - in short, there was no revival.
It seemed to me that God had become the servant of His people rather than His people being His servant. This realization sent me on a search for where we had gone wrong.
When I was directed to Chalcedon and the ministry of Rousas Rushdoony, I began to find some of the reasons for the thirty years of sterility. I learned that the development of Christianity in America had been maligned by the heresy of Dispensationalism and that the orthodox theology we had inherited from previous Christian scholars had been discarded in favor of a pragmatic individualism. Dr. Rushdoony’s writings taught me that Christianity without Law is not only a paper tiger but without these mandates is unable to bring Godly righteousness to His creation.
Goodness and sobriety have followed me through all the years and though at the time I did not always know it, all things have worked together for good. I am indeed greatly blest.
All of this, the conversion, the blessing, and the faithfulness is a result of the birth of my Savior which I celebrate at Christmas. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 4:11
Al Cronkrite is a free-lance writer from Florida. He can be reached at fmsinfla@hotmail.com