Post-Christmas Christianity
I trust everyone had a nice Christmas. We did here at Lark Circle. It wasn't the affair it's been in years past but we had an unusual guest join us for dinner. My mom's uncle, who passed away before she was born in 1943, had a daughter my mother didn't know. She's LDS and serving a mission in Salt Lake City for a while and looked my mother up. We were very blessed to meet this lady yesterday and to share Christmas dinner with her.
The after-Christmas focus I think becomes over the course of the next few days, about putting things away until next year. I got thinking about that earlier tonight. June asked to leave the decorations up until New Year's Day and I agreed. The tree is hanging in there, so a few more days won't kill us. Then, the Santa figurines will go into boxes and be hidden until next year. So will the nativity set. It's a Christmas decoration to be sure, but among the most treasured of the ones I have.
There was much ado, on Facebook and elsewhere, about keeping Christ in Christmas. I was thinking about that, too. Christ IS Christmas. There is no other reason for celebrating anything on December 25th. (again, please let's avoid the discussion about the ACTUAL birthdate of the Savior). So my question tonight to you is a simple one:
What do you do with Christ after Christmas?
We hear of wars on Christmas. There were Christians murdered on Christmas Day this year as several churches were blown up in Africa. We hear about the hulabaloo of keeping Christ in Christmas, but what about the day after? Or is Christ just convenient to believe in when we need something, when someone's ill and we want healing? What are you putting into that relationship?
Fair questions, no? Again, I'm not judging but if you were among the masses who remarked about keeping Christ in Christmas, I think it's fair to ask you to look at yourself in the mirror and ask these same questions about the day after Christmas, and the day after that, and so on.
I can remember a time in my not so distant past where I didn't need God in my life. Now I can't imagine what I'd do without Him in my life every day. Is my life perfect? No. Am I? Far from it. Do I still struggle with certain things? Yup! Hey, I'm human. It's tough out there, it's a battle and a struggle, and if you're putting away Jesus with the Christmas decorations, you're putting away the best weapon you could have on your side to fight the battles of life and the best comforter there is. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He doesn't fit into that box you may tend to put Him in.
I kinda want to use this paragraph to put in a shameless plug for a great book I just read called Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos. It's a humorous look at some different struggles with Christianity, using monsters like werewolves, vampires, and zombies to weave a humorous and kind of heartbreaking tale about Christianity. I found out that I used to be a vampire. Not so much anymore, but in the process of being a vampire, I helped create a vampire. Vampires tend to flock to other vampires too, or at least that's been my experience. You'd have to read the book though to understand what I'm talking about.
Anyway, what you do with Jesus in the coming days is up to you, but I hope that you'll stop and think about this, think about your relationship with the Lord on the other days of the year. Check out the book. If you have questions about salvation, BBNradio.org has a chat ministry and folks there to help answer your questions.
Remember why Christ came, not just that He did. Keep Him with you and try to make everyday a little bit of a celebration of His life, His love, and His sacrifice for you!
The after-Christmas focus I think becomes over the course of the next few days, about putting things away until next year. I got thinking about that earlier tonight. June asked to leave the decorations up until New Year's Day and I agreed. The tree is hanging in there, so a few more days won't kill us. Then, the Santa figurines will go into boxes and be hidden until next year. So will the nativity set. It's a Christmas decoration to be sure, but among the most treasured of the ones I have.
There was much ado, on Facebook and elsewhere, about keeping Christ in Christmas. I was thinking about that, too. Christ IS Christmas. There is no other reason for celebrating anything on December 25th. (again, please let's avoid the discussion about the ACTUAL birthdate of the Savior). So my question tonight to you is a simple one:
What do you do with Christ after Christmas?
We hear of wars on Christmas. There were Christians murdered on Christmas Day this year as several churches were blown up in Africa. We hear about the hulabaloo of keeping Christ in Christmas, but what about the day after? Or is Christ just convenient to believe in when we need something, when someone's ill and we want healing? What are you putting into that relationship?
Fair questions, no? Again, I'm not judging but if you were among the masses who remarked about keeping Christ in Christmas, I think it's fair to ask you to look at yourself in the mirror and ask these same questions about the day after Christmas, and the day after that, and so on.
I can remember a time in my not so distant past where I didn't need God in my life. Now I can't imagine what I'd do without Him in my life every day. Is my life perfect? No. Am I? Far from it. Do I still struggle with certain things? Yup! Hey, I'm human. It's tough out there, it's a battle and a struggle, and if you're putting away Jesus with the Christmas decorations, you're putting away the best weapon you could have on your side to fight the battles of life and the best comforter there is. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He doesn't fit into that box you may tend to put Him in.
I kinda want to use this paragraph to put in a shameless plug for a great book I just read called Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos. It's a humorous look at some different struggles with Christianity, using monsters like werewolves, vampires, and zombies to weave a humorous and kind of heartbreaking tale about Christianity. I found out that I used to be a vampire. Not so much anymore, but in the process of being a vampire, I helped create a vampire. Vampires tend to flock to other vampires too, or at least that's been my experience. You'd have to read the book though to understand what I'm talking about.
Anyway, what you do with Jesus in the coming days is up to you, but I hope that you'll stop and think about this, think about your relationship with the Lord on the other days of the year. Check out the book. If you have questions about salvation, BBNradio.org has a chat ministry and folks there to help answer your questions.
Remember why Christ came, not just that He did. Keep Him with you and try to make everyday a little bit of a celebration of His life, His love, and His sacrifice for you!
Count Dale-cula ☺
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