Bah Humbug
Bah Humbug
Thanksgiving was so late this year. We hardly have time to ramp up for Christmas. The weather has been rainy and now warm...not Christmas weather at all. My wife and I have all ready given each other our gifts, the kids just want money, and we received a list from our kids for the grand kids and so we just place our order on Amazon. Everyone else we buy gifts for is a grand carousel of twenty five dollar gift cards. We don’t need to move from our recliners and all of our Christmas shopping is done! I tried to get excited about the Christmas tree but after filling out the loan papers in order to afford the tree this year, I had lost my joy. Speaking of joy, when putting out the joy sign in our front yard my wife continually explained to me how I should pound in a simple stake until I loudly had to ask her to stop...which my neighbor heard and began singing about a Merry Christmas. Way to go Pastor Hlad! Bah Humbug!
As I sit here at my desk watching the rain clouds roll in, there are many reasons why this Christmas season is hard to get excited about. I must also admit that all of my reasons are trivial. For some of you, this holiday is much harder than in years past. Losses, difficult circumstances, emotional upheavals, or things I cannot understand all combine to make it difficult to be filled with joy. The key to that last line, though, is that all of these things, trivial or not, make joy difficult but not impossible. Joy is a choice. Just as it is possible for me to list all of the reasons that this holiday season is difficult, I can also outweigh that list with so many reasons for me to choose joy. Isn’t that the message of just about every holiday movie or Bible lesson we will be exposed to this year? Isn’t it amazing at how many times we need to hear the same message? Jesus is enough for me to choose joy. He outweighs every difficulty or bump in our roads.
So, as the rain pelts the Noel sign at church and the wind probably blows our Joy sign away at home and my wife gets to give me more advice as to how to correctly pound it into the ground, I choose joy. For me, I also cannot allow others to dictate what I need to do to change my heart. I know the kids can use the money. I have kind of lost track of what they like anyway. But I enjoy thinking of others as I try to buy them gifts that they will probably find silly or gifts that they liked 10 years ago. It is how I remember them growing up and so I find joy in buying them what brings back the memory. It is not the shopping, I will still do most of it from my recliner, but it is the process of thinking of them as I seek to find things that they will probably find useless. It is what I enjoy about the holidays. So get ready kids and grand kids, more stuff you don’t need but stuff that allowed me to think of you more than I thought of myself. You may not be into Hello Kitty anymore but it is a memory that I hold on to that brings me joy. So enjoy the money and allow G-Pa to enjoy his Hello Kitty moment. Merry Christmas, I am going shopping (on line of course).
Thanksgiving was so late this year. We hardly have time to ramp up for Christmas. The weather has been rainy and now warm...not Christmas weather at all. My wife and I have all ready given each other our gifts, the kids just want money, and we received a list from our kids for the grand kids and so we just place our order on Amazon. Everyone else we buy gifts for is a grand carousel of twenty five dollar gift cards. We don’t need to move from our recliners and all of our Christmas shopping is done! I tried to get excited about the Christmas tree but after filling out the loan papers in order to afford the tree this year, I had lost my joy. Speaking of joy, when putting out the joy sign in our front yard my wife continually explained to me how I should pound in a simple stake until I loudly had to ask her to stop...which my neighbor heard and began singing about a Merry Christmas. Way to go Pastor Hlad! Bah Humbug!
As I sit here at my desk watching the rain clouds roll in, there are many reasons why this Christmas season is hard to get excited about. I must also admit that all of my reasons are trivial. For some of you, this holiday is much harder than in years past. Losses, difficult circumstances, emotional upheavals, or things I cannot understand all combine to make it difficult to be filled with joy. The key to that last line, though, is that all of these things, trivial or not, make joy difficult but not impossible. Joy is a choice. Just as it is possible for me to list all of the reasons that this holiday season is difficult, I can also outweigh that list with so many reasons for me to choose joy. Isn’t that the message of just about every holiday movie or Bible lesson we will be exposed to this year? Isn’t it amazing at how many times we need to hear the same message? Jesus is enough for me to choose joy. He outweighs every difficulty or bump in our roads.
So, as the rain pelts the Noel sign at church and the wind probably blows our Joy sign away at home and my wife gets to give me more advice as to how to correctly pound it into the ground, I choose joy. For me, I also cannot allow others to dictate what I need to do to change my heart. I know the kids can use the money. I have kind of lost track of what they like anyway. But I enjoy thinking of others as I try to buy them gifts that they will probably find silly or gifts that they liked 10 years ago. It is how I remember them growing up and so I find joy in buying them what brings back the memory. It is not the shopping, I will still do most of it from my recliner, but it is the process of thinking of them as I seek to find things that they will probably find useless. It is what I enjoy about the holidays. So get ready kids and grand kids, more stuff you don’t need but stuff that allowed me to think of you more than I thought of myself. You may not be into Hello Kitty anymore but it is a memory that I hold on to that brings me joy. So enjoy the money and allow G-Pa to enjoy his Hello Kitty moment. Merry Christmas, I am going shopping (on line of course).
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