Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Really?

I recently read in the newspaper a little blurb about Christmas that floored me. Apparently, "cancelling" Christmas was a phenomenon at some Protestant churches in the US. Due to fears of low turnout, they declined to hold services on Sunday, the 25th. I certainly get it. I'm ashamed to admit that I had a groan moment when I realized that Christmas Day fell on a Sunday this year. Its not so much not wanting to be at church on the day, it's just adding the pressure of getting eight people dressed nicely and out of the house in a timely manner on Christmas morning that is intimidating. But as soon as that internal shudder went through my body, it was immediately followed by guilt. There's no way around it - being upset about church interfering with secular Christmas activities is an unacceptable state of the heart for anyone who calls themselves a Christian. And, as is usually the case, God had our backs - Christmas can get a little hairy between the stress and mess. The timeout from those fun but unimportant activities was exactly what we needed to refresh and calm ourselves and have our hearts in the right place to celebrate the true meaning of the day.

1 comments:

Mom said...

That is seriously sad....glad you found the good in it.