Our Selfish Needs Twist Its Significance

     I couldn't sleep this morning, so here I am awake at 4:30...reclining in one of our family room chairs wrapped in a blanket with the Christmas tree lights gleaming.

     

     Since Christmas is a week away, I decided in this stillness to re-read and re-consider the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus. The things our culture has done to that fine story!  We've elaborated on it, Romanticized it, twisted it, focused on our chosen parts of it, created artsy Nativity scenes depicting it, turned it into a story for little kids. We've SELF-absorbed this event into a tale that suits our individual tastes---and our culture's permission.

     

     And that's just wrong, folks.

   But, perhaps, not as destructive as those who have dismissed it, mocked it, joked about it. Therein lies a tragedy. To the degree that we've interpreted this Birth in terms of our individual needs and experiences and, thus, belittled its significance---we have failed ourselves and all  of them, thus dressing ourselves in guilt. 

     Interpreting life using only our own experiences leads to partial truth; interpreting it based upon our selfish needs twists its significance. This Birth, and our chance for Second Birth, requires us to avoid those errors---it also demands that we function purely from faith, eliminating logic and emotions and placing ourselves to the degree possible into a willfulness to accept and commit. At that point, intervention happens and one will receive eternal life in a relationship with Jesus.

     There's no "understanding" it or "feeling" it that somehow makes it real---our simple trust and the conviction of the Holy Spirit do that. This mystical part of my personal life with Jesus goes, I fear, without adequate explanation---it's a "knowing," one which many I fear may never grasp. 

     I would challenge each of you to re-read and re-consider. Find some "stillness" somewhere in the busy-ness of your life, and listen. Let the story of that event speak itself beyond your logic and your reason. With that, I wish all a Merry Christmas!