We refer to this time of year as the “Christmas Season.” It begins the night before Thanksgiving and ends the Monday after New Year. It is a stretch of the year when we seem to go from holiday to holiday. Most of us experience this time as a mixed bag. On the one hand there are things we look forward to and enjoy greatly. On the other, most of us have things about the season we dread.
How do we handle that? How do we make our way through this season without losing our sanity? More importantly, how do we honor Jesus?
First, we need to be thankful. We need to find specific things that Jesus has done in our lives and thank him for that. When we do that, I believe it changes our attitude towards this season. Rather than being grumpy and resentful when God and life don’t give us what we want, we celebrate the way God blesses us. What I find in my life is that when I can give thanks, my whole attitude towards life brightens up. When I am attentive to what God is doing that blesses me, I can make my way through a stressful season with joy in my heart.
I would like to suggest a little exercise for you to do. When you lay your head on the pillow at night, find five specific things you can thank God for. Then, when you wake up in the morning with your head still on the pillow, thank him for five more things. Try it. You will be surprised at what it does for your attitude.
The second thing we need to do is avoid the distractions of the season. Jesus calls us to be a part of a great party. When we know Jesus, life is a feast. But we are often distracted from that. The pace of our life, the consumerism of our culture, the secularization of Christmas all get our eyes off Jesus. What we need to do is commit ourselves to a relentless focus on Jesus as we move through the seasons.
That kind of focus on Jesus is what makes the difference between experiencing this season as a stress-filled, materialistic time and experiencing it as a time of profound awareness of who Jesus is in our lives. Keep your eyes on Jesus and it will bring great joy and delight to you.
Blessings
Pastor Bill
P.S. –Please remember to support our children this Sunday during the 9:30am service, as they perform “Jesus Means Christmas to Me!”