In my opinion, we are entering the most exciting time of the year. It is the time of the year when my normal routine finds a long awaited change of pace, and when my playlist is invaded with nostalgic carols. It is the season of expectation and hope. It is the season when everything is different. Even as I am writing this I have noticed that my Starbucks coffee cup has changed its color… and lets be honest, there is something about those red festive cups that seems to set the Christmas spirit.
Along with the excitement, this season can also be the season of incessant busyness. Schedules fill quickly with family trips, traveling arrangements, and holiday errands. We run from one thing to the next, and after it is all over we are exhausted in need a vacation from our Christmas vacation. It is Christmas chaos!
In the midst of this season and in the midst of the exciting chaos, it becomes so easy to overlook some simple opportunities, and the point of this blog is to serve as a reminder (mainly to myself) to look up from the Christmas chaos to take advantage of unique opportunities that are right in front of us.
Here are three that I am going to try this year:
- Look for Spiritual conversations. As crazy as this may be in our culture, this season is founded on the birth of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If statistically I know that the majority of my community does not believe in or follow Jesus, and if this season is founded on Jesus, then this season is ripe with opportunities to have conversations about Jesus. So, I encourage you to look for opportunities to ask questions. Look for opportunities to share why you celebrate Christmas. In many ways, our community is open to engage in the conversation this season. Look for spiritual conversations with your co-workers, with your family, with your friends, or potentially even with a stranger. You never know what God can do with these conversations.
- Be available for hurting people. For many, this season can be a time of hurt. For some it is lonely, and for some it brings back painful memories of loss or hurt. Many of us have people in our own families, who will be eating at our own tables over the next couple weeks, who are hurting this season. Be available. Be available to listen. Be available to pray with them. Be available for them. As you enter this season, I would urge you to have the awareness that God may choose to use you to help someone who is hurting. Be available.
- Be intentional with your gifts. Let me start by saying this… I am terrible at this! We will all be buying all kinds of things over the next couple of weeks, and I encourage you to make these purchases count. You can choose to spend your money in multiple stores and on multiple things, and my hope is that we make wise choices this season. Look for ways to make a difference with your money, or maybe this is by purchasing your gifts from a company that you want to support or a fair-trade company, or maybe this is by purchasing something unique and thoughtful for your loved ones. Either way, I think we can make a difference if we just eliminate pointless purchases, and we replaced them with intentional and thoughtful gifts.
I hope that these things will help you focus on Christ and point others to do the same this Christmas season. Merry Christmas!
-Justin
P.S. It is now officially acceptable to listen to Christmas music and to watch ELF… So if you have not already done so, enjoy!