Christmas Blues?
One of my kids mentioned yesterday, “It has not felt like Christmas this year for some reason”. Typically a joyful child, I was surprised to hear this. We talked a bit about why this happens as you grow older, and as life, real life sets in. It was a good conversation ultimately.
What is Christmas? Fundamentally, its not about the tinsel, not about the gifts, not about the food, not about the music, not about the get-togethers, and not about the bliss. As good as all those things are, and as many know all too keenly, those things are temporary, and fleeting. On a good year, and during a good “season” those things can bring elation, but on a bad year and amidst tough circumstances, the season can leave one with a remarkably deep sense of “blueness”. Where are you this year? Has the season been all you hoped it would be? Does it really matter, really, if you have truly understood Christmas?
Young Jake Olsen, recently featured on ESPN, is a great example of how tough life can become. His Christmases will never be the same after his recent surgery. Jake, a rabid USC fan, who was found to be carrying optical retina tumors in his body, early on in life, just had his second eye removed. He can never see another thing as long as he lives. Tough stuff for a kid and a family. Before his surgery, and after, he lived a dream, he spent time with the USC football team. What is striking about Jake and his demeanor, is his optimism and spirit. He, despite circumstance and through choice, has found the ability to “see” life in a positive way despite the obstacles. All is not lost, never.
Christmas, to get back to our topic, is not about having all of life intact, not even for the holiday itself. Sometimes life is utterly confusing, frustrating, depressing, and messy. Sometimes, its just a bit “off”. For those that have come to know the Christ of Christmas, this should be no surprise. We were promised, by Him actually, that life would bring tribulation. In fact, study the lives of the most devoted in scripture and you will find one thing characterizes the life of them all–life got tough.
Life, and Christmas, must be approached with the fundamental mindset that its all bigger than what we get or feel. Our lives were not made, despite our American Dream craving, for comfort. We were put here for purpose, to live deeply, to process things through a more sure lens, and to know God intimately. Knowing Him is our key to depth, emotional and psychological poise, relational maturity, and circumstance navigation. If we know Him, and if we walk intimately with Him, and if we take the time needed to know Him deeply, even the bluest of episodes offer a chance for greater understanding, growth, and opportunity.
Christmas is merry, and our souls our merry, only when our focus is taken off of the circumstances and stuff, and placed upon the Christ of the season, who desires to be our all in all every day of the year and in every situation we face.
Feeling blue in the post-Christmas haze? Turn you focus away from the mess of your life, away from the nagging sense of what’s missing, away from the lack, even away from your abundance if you have it, and focus on the God who loves you, the Christ who saves you, and the eternal hope to come. The missing parts don’t have to overwhelm you, and the abundance is never good enough to sustain you. Our souls need more.
The hope of the season, sung about, gathered about, shopped about, decorated about, and eaten up, is sooo much bigger than the cultural trappings of a “holiday”. A true holiday of the soul begins in and resides in the reality of a loving God, reaching out to us to save us from our sins, and offering us something we could never find anywhere else. Its a gift always there for us to unwrap. Its a daily and moment by moment present, there for the receiving. What did you have set in place just as you wanted it this season? What was missing from the picture? The grace and love of a giving God is still there. His gifts are always extended to us. His direction is ours for the taking. His peace still remains, and our future, our eternal future, is unshakable. That is a recipe for the blues!
Truly, a proper understanding of Christmas enables us to “see” life in an entirely new way. May we see Him for who He is, and may we see Christmas, the real Christmas, amidst all the fanfare of this amazing season. And may the peace, joy, and resounding hope of the gospel fill us even as the blues threaten to sink in and steal our rest.
Merry Christmas, on this day “after” Christmas. Keep singing, keep listening, keep Christmas front and center, always.
Bruce Smith
optimuslife.org
28. December 2009 at 09:38
Amen!