Christmastime joy can be suffocated by the pressure to have ...
Christmastime joy.
I like listening to Christmas music more during the year than I do in December. Why is that?
Nagging expectations that the season requires instead of awaiting with expectancy the birth of our Savior. My calendar is full of "holiday happenings", I bet yours is too.
When does more become too much? The more syndrome becomes a virus at Christmastime and we all get infected.
For a moment let's focus on being well, rid of the disease of more.
It starts with thankfulness for our past, the memories, good and bad, that shape who we are today.
I'm thankful for pain turning to joy,
for relationships that live deep within my heart.
I'm thankful for the orphanage that reminded me I'm the one that's poor and needy. In need of a Savior to make me well.
It's funny, when I focus on my thanks to God, the more virus goes away.
And expectations are replaced with expectancy.
I read this in Jeremy Camp's book-I Still Believe, which I highly recommend and it truly spoke to me about the CHRISTmas season:
ReplyDelete"The true heartbeat of Jesus can fade out of our hearing if we let too much other noise into the mix."
He wasn't even speaking of Christmas but that is what I received from his thought that if I get so caught up with "the virus"-I miss Christ.