A Joyless Christmas?

Perhaps I’m imagining it, but it seems that an already-nasty society is getting even more vicious.

There is precious little “good will to men” or “peace on earth” happening right now.

As Nasty as We Wanna Be

Hearts are harder, disagreements are more vehement, refusals to accept difference of opinion are more strident, and reactions and counter-reactions are escalating.

Activists on the left and on the right are increasingly angry at each other, increasingly uncharitable and voicing ever more extreme positions, and “going after” anyone on the other side.

Both sides keep pushing and pushing and pushing, and monitoring and monitoring and monitoring, and condemning and condemning and condemning, and posting and posting and posting it for all the world to see.

Then they receive lots of congratulations and validation and applause from hard-core people in their own camp, who are quick to come to their champion’s defense.

But, like the Grinch, our hearts are shriveled.

We are becoming Scrooge-ified.

And it’s terribly, terribly sad.

Little of Christmas Cheer

We’re not having much of a Christmas, are we?

Oh, the shops are full and the lines are bigger.

Our advertisements are cleverer and cuter.

But there’s a sterility to it all.

Something’s missing.

And that something is repentant compassion.

Where Joy and Love Are Found

Paradoxically, nothing evokes care for others more than coming to God as a weakling failure and being loved as a rank sinner.

Self-righteousness loves to judge and label and monitor and call out and blast and rage and even crucify our opponent.

Those who are truly loved as sinners at the bottom of their lives find themselves saying, “That could be me” and “That used to be me!” in the presence of another’s sin.

They are compassionate and see the problem behind the problem and the person behind the issue.

They use gentle and patient words, and give the impression they are on our side against our evils instead of being against us.

They keep the main thing, the main thing, which is Christ.

They see their job not as a moral policeman, but as an unworthy escort who points to the One born in Bethlehem.

Getting Christmas

In other words, they really get Christmas in a way few others do.

They hear the triumph of God’s grace, join the angelic choir in celebration, and exclaim, “Glory to God in the Highest!”

Their dearest wish is for the peace of God to reign over troubled, tormented, conflicted hearts at war with God.

They are full of good will towards others and towards all mankind–part of the building crew not the wrecking crew.

They get no joy from pointing out the sins of others, but don’t mind publishing their own sins and how forgiven they now are.

They love Jesus–plainly, openly, and simply.

Others taste Him in them, and catch a glimpse of Him through their words, their attitudes, and their life.

Joy follows them and marks them out.

They know the source of all joy and return to the fountain of joy within them Christ put there.

My point is nobody needs to have a joyless Christmas.

Nobody needs to be sour and bitter despite the tragedies of a fallen world and the follies of fallen people and the wrongness of fallen society.

Time to Dump Our Control Worship

But we’ll have to lose something most of us find too precious to give up.

And that something is control.

Worshipping control is what makes us nasty, and what gets us into control battles with other groups, people, and events.

Voluntarily surrendering control to Christ, yielding up what we never had in the first place, and coming under His redemptive love, is what releases joy.

The people who need the least personal control, and who are the most under the control of Christ and His love, are the most joyful.

There is a solution!