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Reaching Beyond Ourselves to God and Others Through Christ's Love |
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Thanksgiving and Christmas: these are two powerful holidays that can charge
people with emotions and expectations that can either lead to incredibly wonderful and
meaningful times or to shattered dreams and depression. Why? Partly, because we
bring so many expectations to these two holidays. We expect family to get together.
We expect that we will be happy and content during this season. We expect the warm
fuzzies to be present in our emotional status. We expect money to be there to purchase
what we want for others and we can foolishly expect that others will know enough to
purchase what we want for Christmas. Finally, we expect that our hearts will be naturally
thankful for November 27th, and for peace on earth and good will to me to be the
status quo on December 25th. I would like to suggest that we need to give our expectations to God. We need to rethink what they holidays really commemorate and heed the real message they were intended to give us. Thanksgiving was celebrated in the context of a hard and difficult life in the new world. Many of the original pilgrims, who had come from Western Europe to the New World had died because of disease, starvation or lack of other necessary resources. And yet, those first Pilgrims recognized God’s bountiful provision throughout the year and set aside time to give thanks to God for all of His blessings even in the midst of great loss, hardship, and difficulty. Christmas is a celebration of Immanuel. God has come to be with us, dwell among us, be our righteousness for us, take the death sentence punishment we deserved for us. It too is a celebration recognizing God’s bountiful provision in sending His Son to us to give us the hope of peace on earth and good will toward men. But, the celebration itself is surrounded by hardship, suffering, sacrifice and loss. So why do we put our emotional stability and psychological well being in potential peril by all of these unrealistic expectations for Thanksgiving and Christmas? I feel, because we want so badly to experience NOW what we know in our hearts the kind of life in which we were created to live. God made us to pursue close relationships with others. God made us to want to give to others to allow their lives to be fulfilled and complete. God made us to EXPECT to live with a sense of the ideal and perfection. But, unfortunately, because of the sins of Adam and Eve, and as a result of our own sinfulness, we have forfeited the right to EXPECT all of these wonderful ideals. We are fallen. Our world is fallen. Our relationships with others are fallen. And as a result, we end up with shattered dreams and a depressing Christmas. Instead of going through the Holidays disappointed they could not be all you EXPECTED them to be, why not thank God for all He has done for you and not blame God that everything is not as you ordered? As I look at the first Thanksgiving and the first Christmas, the main characters of those original stories were able to set aside their expectations, and see God’s purposes, and trust in God’s providence in spite of the difficult situation in which they found themselves. We would do the same. Don’t ruin a perfectly good Thanksgiving and/or Christmas by imposing your EXPECTATIONS on others who may not or chose not to fulfill them. Instead, look to the Lord and count your blessing and then you can learn to be content with whatever may be your lot for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Count you blessings, name them one by one; count your many blessing, see what God hath done! |
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150 Union Street, Hillsdale, Mi 49249 - 517-437-2251 - email |
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