Posted 11/25/03
CYBERCOLUMN:
Preparing for Christmas
By Brett Younger
Those of us who don’t count shopping days until Christmas are counting the days until we have to start counting shopping days until Christmas. We need to stop and ask, “What do we really want for Christmas?”
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| Brett Younger |
In addition to a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, Cotton Bowl tickets and an IOU for a copy of “Who Moved My Pulpit: A Brief Amusing Guide to Almost Everything Ministerial” by Brett Younger (available in March, Smyth & Helwys Publishing) we are all waiting for a moment when we feel the Spirit of Christmas. Some of the busyness of the holidays comes from our attempts to create a lump in the throat.
Such moments are fabulously unpredictable. Sometimes flickering candles and “Ave Maria” leave us yawning. At other times Alvin and the Chipmunks singing “Deck the Halls” bring tears to our eyes. The randomness of moments of Advent grace does not mean we cannot be more open to those possibilities. What activities make the experience of the Christmas Spirit more likely? What is less likely to lead to Christmas joy?
| More Likely | Less Likely |
| • Watching a child tell the Christmas story with porcelain figures of Mary and Joseph | • Watching a child tell the Christmas story with “The Lord of the Rings” action figures |
| • Singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” with a choir | • Singing “Jingle Bells” with the barking dogs |
| • Taking a walk and looking at the stars | • Walking in the mall parking lot looking for your car |
| • Reading a note on a Christmas card from a dear friend | • Reading an e-mail Christmas card from your bank |
| • Watching Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” | • Watching “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” |
| • Taping a story book for your grandchildren | • Buying your grandchildren an X-Box |
| • Listening to Rutter’s “Angels’ Carol” | • Listening to Puff Daddy’s Christmas album |
| • Spending your time on a gift that costs no money | • Spending lots of money on a gift because you don’t want to feel embarrassed |
| • Eating freshly baked cookies with children | • Eating cookies Mrs. Fields baked by yourself |
| • Giving clothes to someone who needs them | • Giving handkerchiefs to someone who has handkerchiefs |
| • Eating a meal with three people you love | • Attending a big party with people you don’t know |
| • Spending Christmas Eve at your church | • Spending Christmas Eve at Toys-R-Us |
| • Wishing for a more loving Christmas | • Wishing for a more organized Christmas |
Even if we pay more attention to music, friends, and silence there’s still no guarantee we’ll see angels and stars. It’s helpful to remember that nobody at the first Christmas was prepared. Christmas happened for them because they were there. We would do well to stop trying to make something out of the ordinary happen and notice what’s always happening, stop trying to create a love that isn’t there and recognize the love that is there, and stop watching for something we’ve never seen and see the joy we usually miss.
Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth
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