Christmas can be a time of dread if focus is lost
- Dec 21, 2007 - 1
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
I have unfortunately found myself dreading Christmas. What should be a season of celebration has become a season of drudgery.
Several years ago, my dad had a major debilitating stroke at a Sunday School Christmas party. That Christmas was spent in the Intensive Care Unit, many times not knowing whether Dad would live or die. I can still remember seeing those white lights that hang suspended in front of Jackson General Hospital forming a Christmas tree outside of his Intensive Care Unit room. At some point, the plastic reindeer, blinking Christmas lights, and huge blow up snowmen started to turn my stomach.
Christmas is a time of celebration, especially as a Christian, and I was not in the mood to celebrate. In the Christmas rat race, this rat had turned a curve and hit a wall while the rest of the rats kept going.
In the midst of severe crisis, we tend to take stock of things that matter and things that do not. God brought us through that Christmas. When I started to see the Christmas toy commercials and Christmas decorations in stores the next October, a sense of dread overcame me.
Reliving the previous Christmas was not an appealing thought. Totally dependent on God, I slowly but surely fell back into celebrating a holiday that is so dear to me. I have, however, made some changes.
The first year after my dad’s stroke, I changed all the Christmas music that I had listened to for years. The old songs brought back too many painful memories. I wanted then, and I want now, for Christmas to be what it should: a time of celebrating God sending His Son to a lost, hopeless, and dying world.
I have found myself in the past being glad Christmas was over. Even before my dad’s stroke, on Dec. 26, I found myself exhausted. Imagine me, a pastor’s wife dreading the Christmas season. Sometimes in ministry, we have so many obligations at Christmas that we run out of steam and lose sight of the celebration.
Since my dad’s stroke, I have had to fight to be happy at Christmastime. For me, it is a spiritual battle. Satan tries to dim the light on one of the brightest times of the year. He tries to steal the joy that should be so easily present. In recent years, I have come to realize that he has been trying to do this for a long time, longer than I realized. He has tried to keep me busy and wear me out with endless to do lists which can include grocery shopping for one more package of cream cheese only to find that every store is out, gift shopping for the person who has everything, attending Christmas functions sometimes out of guilt, decorating the house … all of which should be blessings but have become burdens.
What do many of these have to do with celebrating the Christ child’s birth? All of this I see as a very subtle plan by Satan to de-emphasize Jesus’ birth and make Christmas something it should not be: stressful. It was a very slow-moving plan, but it worked. The grand finale in an attempt to steal my Christmas joy was my dad’s stroke during the Christmas season. This will be forever a bad memory associated with Christmas.
In praying through this, God has shown me that I am not the only one that feels despair at Christmas time. Many of you are or know someone who is very lonely during the holidays. Unexpected crisis happen during a season when all should be well.
Therefore, this year, I am boycotting Christmas, or rather part of it. No more silly traditions for the sake of traditions. I will focus on celebrating Christ’s birth on Dec. 25, but also on Dec. 26, 27, 28, and all year long. I will focus all the celebration on Him, because He is our peace and our only hope. He will restore my joy, as I do not decorate with all that stuff that I thought I had to decorate with and maybe just set out a manger.
I will continue a tradition of not always buying gifts for each other, but instead filling shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child.
As a schoolteacher, I pledge to look around me for students who are in financial need at Christmas. I will quit complaining about the things I must do and evaluate their importance and choose to do them, or let them go. I will also thank God for to ability to walk that allows me to do so many of these things. I will stop and breathe during the busyness and truly look at my children, husband, and family, remembering that this Christmas season will only happen once.
Finally, after I have made sure that I am only doing things that somehow glorify Christ during His birthday season, I will look into the eyes of those around me and tell them why I celebrate. I will tell them of the miracle of Christmas, and the miracles He has done and is doing by restoring my joy that I thought might never return. I will tell them how only He can turn our mourning into dancing and that is a Christmas miracle.
Join me this Christmas season every time things start to get stressed or loneliness and despair start to creep in and quietly, humbly, and slowly sing;
“Oh come let us adore Him,
Oh come let us adore Him,
Oh come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord.”
This article is reprinted from the December 19, 2007, issue of Baptist & Reflector, the newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention. The author, Kathy McBroom, lives in Jackson where her husband, Robert, is pastor of Madison Baptist Church.
1 comments (post your own) feed
1 On Dec 24th, 2007, at 4:09pm, Janet M. Womack wrote:
Thank you, Kathy McBroome, for your article. I,too, am a pastor’s wife and can relate to everything you said. It’s non-stop from the day after Thanksgiving until the end of the year! I have to constantly remind myself of the real reason for the season. Thank you again for sharing with us. May God bless you and your family and your ministry in Jackson, TN.