The Journey Rev. 21:1-6a 12/28/03     [810]

We have made the journey to Christmas once more this year. Did it meet your expectations? Was it quiet or filled with lots of excitement? Did you get the Christmas gift you expected? Are you glad it's over so life can get back to normal? The tree will come down and bright lights will go out. We will eat up the rest of the Christmas sweets as we get ready to go on the traditional new year's diet. Our weariness from all of the rushing around will lead us to some extra naps or a few extra hours of sleep on Saturday morning. I must confess I'm not ready to pack up the Christmas decorations just yet. I want to keep the tree I lights on and re-read the messages from the Christmas cards we received. Maybe there's still a bit of a kid left in me or maybe I want to believe that we can keep the spirit of Christmas with us as we go into a new year.

I share a story with you from the Unsettling Season written by Donald Shelby:

Indeed the holiday is over and whether we're happy or sad about that, the real spirit of Christmas can be kept in our hearts and lived out in the new year. For Christ comes to us in our most ordinary of days with signs of new life. We can keep alive the spirit of Christmas by giving the gift of life to the people we meet everyday. We can reach out to those people who we love in our lives not just at the holiday times, but throughout the year. We can create families of choice who love and support us no matter what. The spirit of Christmas can be birthed as we take up healthy new habits and give up anything that would destroy God's life that lives in us. As we wake up on each new day we can pray about the possibilities that are available to us to head in new directions. When Christmas lives in our hearts each day we know that God is with us and nothing is impossible. No situation to terrible, no problem to big that God can't make a way. When Christmas is alive in us God is bringing about new life.

When we go to work or spend time with others we can bring to them the peace on earth for which we all seek. The message of peace can be lived out in our relationships, in the ways we work with others, in seeking to live peace filled lives. Peace on earth does begin with us and then it reaches out to the far corners of our world offering the possibility of new life.

As we come to the end of 2003 take the opportunity to leave behind anything that keeps you from being all that God has created you to be. This is a great time of the year to take inventory and acknowledge any ways that we have made mistakes over this past year, to learn from them, and move on. It is not necessary and it is even harmful to take unnecessary guilt, shame, and resentment into the future. Indeed what is done is past, we can only learn from it, and try to do things differently in the future. Take the time this week to celebrate the ways you grew and changed this year. Maybe you quite smoking, ended a harmful relationship, took up a new approach to an old problem. When things change, when growth happens new life is taking form. God is with us. Christmas is happening.

As we go in to 2004 be open to newness, be open to grow and learn, be willing to risk the ways that God will work in the new year. Life with God is always an adventure that is not complete. We can trust God to be with us in new ways, in changing old behaviors and patterns of relating to others that are unhealthy, in looking for liberation from old habits and worn out beliefs. Change is healthy, is vital to growth and newness of life. Sit down this week and pray about your new year's resolution. What things do you want to be different, what dreams to you want to see realized or at least begun. What would make your life better? Pray about that and see the ways God will be present in the new year. Each time we recognize that God is present with us Christmas comes.

Don't take down the tree, the lights, or pack away the signs of Christmas until you are ready, until you have experienced Christmas in your heart. I wish you the blessings of Christmas in the new year 2004. May you receive all that you want that makes for new life and birth.