Mixed Moss

If it weren’t for that whole Christian thing, Christmas would be awfully depressing. Not merry at all. Certainly not the most wonderful time of the year. In fact, I’m sick of Christmas songs that tell me to be merry, joyful, and peaceful when I’m feeling anything but. I hope that doesn’t make me a scrooge.

I mean I personally find that most of the commercial end of Christmas leaves me cold. Think about the message Christmas commercials and TV holiday specials send!  Marketers spend tens of thousands of dollars to swear up and down that if we just buy their toys for our kids and their cookie sheets for our baking and their holiday shimmer blush for our faces then the kids won’t fight and the food will be perfect and we’ll look like Julianne Moore and everything will be as fabulous as a TV Holiday special! And then, we will be happier and find life more fulfilling. And we silly fools buy it. We buy the lie. We try to make things perfect and when our expectations aren’t met, we get disappointed and depressed.

Women across America kill themselves trying to be one half Rosemary Clooney and one half Martha Stewart every December the 25th. This is just absurd. Christmas is never going to be perfect. Why? Because we invite our families. Duh. We should all just get over the fact, lower our expectations, and sit back and enjoy the ride. But no. We never do.

The only thing that saves Christmas from being nothing more than the most exhausting marketing exercise in the calendar is…well…Christmas. My pastor had such a great message this week-end. Check it out here: Dave’s Christmas Message He talked about how for somebody who’s called the Prince of Peace, God sure left the world a mess when he went back up to heaven. How can we experience God’s peace in a world that is anything but? This is the Christmas dilemna. One we will someday find a solution to.

In the meantime, may God grant inner peace to those in places of conflict around the world. May he give joy to those experiencing loss, rest to those who are weary, and comfort to those in pain. May he provide warmth for those who are cold and food for those who are hungry. And may the true spirit of Christmas move all of us who live in plenty to show generosity to those in need around us, just as God in his charity gave us the most generous offer in the history of the universe: “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I won’t be one more voice urging you to have a Merry Christmas; just have the best sort of Christmas you can manage. And may God bless us, every one.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 24th, 2006 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.