Is Christmas Depressing?

Well, Halloween and Thanksgiving are over and the holiday season is in full swing.  We’ve had our “Turkey Day Sales,” “Black Friday Sales,” and “Cyber Monday” will be here tomorrow.  But, in spite of all the gifts we’ve purchased and deals we’ve gotten for ourselves, so many of us still feel empty and depressed during the entire holiday season.  I’ve been thinking about this… Why is it that so many Americans…even good “church attending” folk, often feel lonely, isolated, and troubled during the holidays? 

Could it be that we look at our lives in juxtaposition to what the Christmas cards show and feel our experience is falling short?  That charming, isolated, snow covered cabin full of gorgeous decorations and a beautiful roaring fire, seems to mock our everyday struggles to pay the bills, failures at making every one of our family and friends completely delighted with gifts we can’t afford, and the unshakeable worries of everyday life.  After all, when the holidays happen during days of hard times, trials, and tough decisions, they can be downright depressing. 

Instead of spending Thanksgiving being thankful for what God has given us we spend the day over-eating and planning our over-spending, leaving us with another year of under-living.  No wonder Christmas is depressing! 

Every Christmas my mother and sisters write annual poems.  It’s a fun way for them to inform us of their doings while giving a cheerful spin on the season.  In that tradition I want to give you a Christmas poem – but with a completely different intent.  

Let’s stop for a moment and re-think the reason for the season and God’s interest in our lives.  If you’re having trials and tribulations perhaps it’s time to ask yourself what God is trying to tell you this Christmas. 

If you don’t know Him personally, perhaps it’s time.  Nothing depressing about the grace of God given in the person of Jesus coming to take away your sin! 

If you are a Christian and having a hard time perhaps God has special plans for you during the tests of this season. 

It’s in this spirit that I offer a poem.  I found it on the internet and have taken liberties with its content – I hope the unknown author is not offended.  I’ve made the poem my own.  It expresses my feelings for each of you this Christmas and for the year beyond. 

 

The Valleys:

Author unknown – an internet poem
Rewritten by Len Allen

Sometimes life is hard to bear, full of sorrows, trials, and woe.

It’s then that I remember – it’s in the valleys that I grow!

 If I always stayed on mountain tops and never lived with pain,

I would not grasp the love of God and life would be in vain.

I do not always understand why things happen as they do,

But one thing in my life is sure – my Lord will see me through.

Yes, Jesus’ birth was glorious but He came for harder stuff,

He came to die for all my sins, and isn’t that enough?

My little valleys don’t seem so bad, when I see Christ upon the cross.

How He suffered in that awful pain, His victory – Satan’s loss.

Forgive me Lord, for complaining when I’m feeling very low.

Just give me a reminder; it’s in the valleys that I grow!

Continue to strengthen me Oh Lord, and use my life each day,

To share Your love with others and help them find their way.

I have so much to learn about and my growth is very slow.

Sometimes I need the mountain tops, but it’s in the valleys that I grow!

When celebrating Christmas cheer leaves me feeling sad and low,

Christ is with me in the valleys and it’s His Joy that I know!  

Thank you for the valleys, Lord. Strength and grace you do bestow,

The mountain tops are glorious, but it’s in the valleys that I grow!

 

Merry Christmas and blessed 2013….    A year of valleys – a year of Joy!

 Think about it….

Is Believing In Christ Weird?

Many of you know that I was in the advertising business for many years… so today I want to talk about Budweiser.   

If you’ve watched a football game recently, you’ve seen a Budweiser beer commercial showing male sports fans doing all kinds of funny things as superstitious acts to “help” their team win.  There are guys patting team flags, wearing mismatched socks, and turning their beer bottles so the label’s cosmic force will help a field goal…all while Stevie Wonder sings his hit song, Superstition, in the background.  It’s funny.  We smile because we know that stuff doesn’t really make a difference.  But then, at the very end of the commercial the announcer comes on with a voice-over saying, “It’s only weird if it doesn’t work.” And that got me thinking. 

In the book, The Case for Christ, the author, Lee Strobel, makes the statement that Christ’s claim of being God is only insane if He isn’t God.  And that got me thinking about Budweiser and that funny TV spot. 

There are millions of people, myself included, who can testify that Christ’s claim of being God, given to mankind as a totally free gift, offered without the necessity of doing all kinds of religious acts (like patting a church flag, wearing strange clothing, or holding up their Bibles in a certain way), and being willing and able to change our sinful, selfish lives into lives with significant spiritual meaning – is absolutely true.   

My life and the lives of all those millions (perhaps even you) gives proof to the Budweiser commercial that says, “It’s only weird if it doesn’t work.”  Maybe it’s time to ask yourself what’s working in your life.  What’s meaningful?  What makes you a significant person? Have you been doing all kinds of stuff to convince God He should bless you?  It’s time to just ask Christ to come into your life and change you to a completely new person.  He can do it!  He will do it! 

And if you’ve asked Jesus to be your Savior and Lord, maybe it’s time you just trust Him and quit exhausting yourself with religious activities and ask Him to show you how to best serve Him in your community.   

Too many of us are very, very busy “doing” instead of quietly living our lives based upon the powerful, living, Word of God, revealing a personal relationship with a life-changing, life-directing Christ. 

Although I do not endorse Budweiser, or drinking too much beer, I come back to their funny, wonderful, thought-provoking commercial.  Believing in Christ is only weird if He doesn’t work… And He works mightily! 

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.   Ephesians 2:8–9 

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.   John 1:12

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.   2 Corinthians 5:17  

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”   Matthew 11:29–30  

And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.   1 John 5:11–13  

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.    John 10:10  

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.  Romans 12:1–3 

 

Believing Jesus Christ came to earth

to offer us all the free opportunity to accept Him

as the one who freely died for our sins

so that we could live with God for eternity

and have a completely new life of joy, peace, and blessing

is not weird…

He works! 

Think about it….