A Christmas that glorifies Christ

What if we celebrated Christmas like it was all about Christ? Oh wait. It is. Then why does Christ only receive our partial attention during the holiday meant to celebrate his coming? Good question.

Christmas has become to us a part of our culture. Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate, often in ways that are far too similar. As we (followers of Christ) are to be set apart from the world every day of our lives, how much more should we be different on the day we celebrate our Savior's birth? And by different, I mean VERY different. Going to church on Christmas Eve and reading the Christmas story together does not qualify as different. These things are great ways to fix our hearts on Christ and should not be abandoned, but when our minds are on shopping and planning (even while we sit in church), our rituals are not pleasing to God. Does this mean we should totally forgo all of the typical Christmas traditions? Maybe, maybe not. There's nothing wrong with Santa and gift giving and food and decorations, but when Christ becomes merely a side note rather than the center of our Christmas celebration, we have a problem. The problem is primarily in our hearts, our motives, our attitudes.

How can we fix this problem? We need to rethink Christmas. We should look at the way we celebrate and ask ourselves if our celebration pleases the Lord. To get down to the core of the matter, we essentially need to ask ourselves how Jesus wants us to celebrate his coming. Now I have a feeling that if we were honest with ourselves, we would realize that our celebration of Christmas is totally not the way Jesus wants it to be. Take gift giving, for example. The concept of gift giving is totally appropriate for Christmas; as God gave us the gift of his Son, we give gifts at Christmastime. However, gift giving often becomes more of an obligation than a pleasure. That's not how God gave us Jesus. God sent Jesus because he loves us and not because of anything we did to deserve him. God gave this gift to people who wronged him, denied him, hated him (yes, that's us). Maybe Jesus wants us not only to give to those who love us back and can give to us in return, but to people who don't love us back or can't give anything in return. That's what he did. Think about the way most of us have at least one big Christmas meal with extended family. Fellowship is critical, and food is sustenance, but what about the people who don't have family to eat with or even food to eat? Jesus said that we can find him in the hungry, thirsty, naked, and sick, the strangers and prisoners. Maybe we could celebrate the coming of Christ by serving these people with our families. We could make some extra food for Christmas dinner and take it to hungry people. We could clean out our closets (often our old Christmas gifts!) and give clothes to people who need them. You get the idea. Christmas is about CHRIST, not about us.

Christmas edition

I like music. A lot. So when Christmas comes around and I get to bring out another whole collection of music, I get pretty pumped. However, Christmas music serves as so much more for me than a thing to be enjoyed. It reminds me of what we are celebrating at Christmas time. You see, I like Jingle Bells and Frosty, but the Christmas songs that I really love are about the coming of our Savior. So from now until Christmas, I'll be blogging about some of my favorite Christmas songs.

One song that I listened to for the first time this year is by Shane and Shane, and it's called Born to Die. The first and last verses are my favorites:

"When the babe was born.
In a manger on the hay.
God saw a veil torn.
He saw Good Friday.
He was born to die.

We came here today
to celebrate His birth.
But let us not forget
why Jesus came to earth.
He was born to die."

This song kind of reminds me of T.S. Eliot's poem "The Journey of the Magi." The end of the poem goes like this:

"This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death."

This is way deeper than I can comment on, so take from it what you will. But my point in writing about this song and this poem is to emphasize the fact that Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, but it's also a time to remember why he came to earth in the first place. He was born to die. For us. The Son of God put on flesh so that we might be reconciled to God. That's pretty amazing stuff. I mean, really. If you're not blown away by the fact that the God of the universe loves you that much, you should be. So in the midst of the Christmas parties and presents and travels, remember and be thankful that the Father sent his Son to earth to live and to die, not because we deserve it, but because He loves us.

semester one [almost] done

This semester, I've come to realize more than ever the bigness of God and the smallness of me. It snowed the other day, and I got really excited, but after I had time for one snowball fight and didn't even get to make a snowman (after about a day), the snow began to melt. I moved to Union in August to begin my first semester in college, and now I'm soon to finish out the semester and head to Birmingham for Christmas break. Good stuff (and bad stuff too) eventually comes to an end. As I am coming to terms with the fact that the stuff of this world--yes, even things that are good and right--ends, I am more and more in awe of my God who has no beginning or end. He is the only eternal good. That means we should seek to invest in what is His (His kingdom, His people) because these things of God are the only things that last.


13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. James 4:13-17.

6 A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:6-8

no worries

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:25-34

I just read this passage this morning, and it was such a timely reminder. As final exams are soon to come, papers are due, tests are next week, and everything outside of class continues, it is so easy to worry. Easier to worry than to pray and trust. In Philippians, Paul writes not to worry about anything, but to pray about everything. Instead of worrying we should pray, putting our trust in God rather than ourselves. This passage was kind of a slap in the face this morning, like God was saying, "Hello...don't you know that I will take care of you? You don't have to stress. You don't have to be in control, because I am in control. I feed the birds. I clothe the flowers. I made you in my own image. Don't you know that I will take care of you even more?" So to all of you out there who are stressed and worried with life (probably most of you), trust God. Hand it all over to him. Cast your burdens on him, as it says in 1 Peter. The last part of this Matthew passage telling us to seek first his kingdom and righteousness ties it together perfectly. When we are more focused on him and less focused on us, he will take care of all those little things we waste our time thinking about. Think about it, and put your trust in him rather than yourself.

time flies when you’re in college

I thought high school went by fast. Nope. I am almost finished with my first semester of college. It’s kind of one of those, “Who am I, where am I, and what am I doing here?” moments. I feel like it’s been such a short time since Union was only a dream–something I wanted to happen but something that seemed out of reach. Well, I’m here. God worked it all out, and I’m here. I’m so thankful for this place and the fact that I’m in it. God graciously continues to show me why he has led me here. There are so many events and people and thoughts I could write about…I just don’t even know where to start. I think I’ll go backwards from this week.

Wednesday morning we had the most wonderful discussion in Honors. I left feeling giddy. Go ahead and laugh. I’m a nerd. Maybe it was just the coffee…ha. We just started reading through the book of Proverbs–what book would be better in a class called Wisdom??? It’s amazing how much of what I’m reading in Proverbs relates back to the secular sources we have read throughout the semester. I definitely noticed things I had not noticed before. Well, we read Chapters 1-9 for Wednesday morning. Basically, Solomon personifies wisdom and folly as two women. While Solomon personifies folly as an adulterous who seems desirable but is actually deceitful, he personifies wisdom as a woman who is good and right and true and most desirable above all. I think I will blog more about this on another post because I could go pretty deep, but I have more to say here. Be looking for a post on this soon

 Last week, the Honors Community freshmen from Union went to a conference about wisdom in education at Baylor University in Texas. I learned a lot, was confused a lot, spent time with my wonderful honors friends a lot, and returned home with an even greater passion for seeking wisdom than the passion I had before. Look for a later post for more on what I learned about wisdom. However, I will talk here about the fun times we had! First, we drove. In fifteen passenger vans. On the way we split up the trip, but on the way back to Union, we drove about twelve hours from Waco to Jackson. So we rode in close proximity to each other for about twenty-four hours, and it was great fun. Really. We listened to music, sang, danced, had deep discussions (you know we can’t live without those!), and slept. When we finally got to Waco, we spent most of our time at the conference, which I will discuss later, but we also got to just hang out and talk a good bit, which was such a great break from the stress of schoolwork and class. I love the community that God is building among the honors students here!