Christmas 2023
I can’t help but stop my hectic life and think about what I need to do for Christmas. Once again, I didn’t get decorations up, once again, no letters, no Christmas cookies, and I still don’t have all my presents bought. But I have spent more time this year preparing my heart for Christmas’s meaning.
Richard Foster is one of my favorite writers. His book Celebration of Discipline remains a compelling book for me. The first sentence says, “ Superficiality is the curse of our age.”
My faith affects all my relationships with my family and those I love, to neighbors and community members. But it should also affect my crippling self-indulgence and self-interest.
I worry about making the Mountaineer better and more financially sound—my materialistic approach. So much time and energy are spent on my life’s so-called “urgent” areas. Get this done, do that, think this way, or don’t do that. It’s all so shallow. It’s not the real world.
Yes, it’s the physical world, but I want to live more in the spiritual world. I want to live above my circumstances. I want to find value, beauty, joy, and peace daily. There is a spiritual world. All I have to do is be more mindful of it and more deliberate about my activities.
So, I will spend more time praying and meditating this Christmas. I’ll do more bible study instead of worrying about the lack of decoration. My decorations will be simple, maybe more meaningful. Don’t get me wrong. I love lights! The more, the better, but this Christmas, I’ll concentrate on the light of the world, Jesus, instead. I’ll spend time reflecting on what He came to us means. I’ll read about the birth, imagining myself there in the stable, watching with the animals when the savior is born. What does it mean? How can I be used? What more needs to be changed within me?
And I will rest. I rest in solitude as I settle my thoughts. Worship privately and renew my relationship with my God. Christmas will be internalized, and I will be renewed, restored, and empowered.
