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Monday, December 19, 2011

Relax

The following appeared in the December issue of the Wheatland Parish newsletter:

            In some ways, December is the busiest month of the year.  There’s Christmas Day, of course, but in many ways Christmas is just a small part of it.  We have Advent, we have Christmas decorating, we have the start of high school basketball, we have wrestling, we have Christmas cards to write, we have Christmas concerts, we have Sunday School programs, we have Christmas parties, we have parades, we have Christmas shopping, we have travel, we have all sorts of things that we try to cram into the month of December.  If we’re in school, we have semester tests as well.  Then, just when we think it’s all over, here comes New Year’s Eve.

            It can be exhausting.  Have you ever heard someone say, “I’ll be so glad when Christmas is over”?  I have.  I hear it every year.  I’ll bet you do, too.  Maybe you’ve even said it yourself.

            When did it get that way?  I don’t remember it being that way when I was a kid.  It seemed like there was plenty of time to get everything done in December back then.  Were my parents feeling this harried and hurried, and I just didn’t notice?

            Why did it get that way?  Why do we do this to ourselves?  Why don’t we stretch things out a little bit?  There’s nothing that says we have to wait until December to do all our shopping.  There’s nothing that says we couldn’t have a party in January.  There’s no reason we can’t have family gatherings at other times of the year.  Why do we drive ourselves nuts trying to do it all in December?

            Don’t get me wrong here.  This is not one of those “put Christ back into Christmas” essays.  Everyone reading this newsletter knows the true meaning of Christmas, and I’m not trying to give you a lecture about it.  It seems to me, though, that somewhere along the line the celebration of the birth of the Savior got out of hand.  It’s like a wedding that starts out as a simple affair and then just keeps growing and growing until it becomes such an extravaganza that no one’s happy and the couple just wants run away and elope.

            I think God probably appreciates that we want to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I also think, though, that God does not want us to run ourselves so ragged that we all wind up cranky and irritable and just want all the frenzy to be over with.  It doesn’t help us, it doesn’t help the people we come in contact with, and when you think about it, it’s really not much of a way to honor Christ.

            So, when you’re planning your activities this December, remember to plan some time to relax and enjoy the season.  We don’t have to do it all in December.  There are eleven other months to do things in.   A lot of us don’t mind if we don’t get your Christmas card until January.  In fact, some of us even like it that way.

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