Galatians 2:19-21
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
It’s Christmas Eve, and like many people, we are scurrying to do last-minute things before the family arrives for dinner and holiday festivities. There was a time, not so many years ago, when I would have thrown myself into a tizzy…cooking, cleaning, decorating and getting everything “just so” for the arrival of my family and friends. I did clean our house and decorate - and there will be a delicious potluck meal… although traditional turkey and ham are not on the menu this year! But my focus has definitely shifted from concentrating on everything being “Christmas-card perfect” to spending time with those who visit and truly enjoying the hours we will share together.
For the first time in at least 15 years, I did not write a “Christmas newsletter” to enclose in holiday cards… and I scaled back my Christmas card list significantly. I still care deeply about every person on the list… but I’m finding other ways throughout the year to let them know this, so I don’t feel that a card during the Christmas season is as necessary as I once did. Instead, I spent the two-plus days it would have taken me to address these cards to play with Timothy and Zola and introduce them to the wonder and excitement of Christmas.
Last Christmas Eve, we got everything ready for a big holiday dinner… decorated the house…filled the stockings… sent the cards and prepared for an evening of fun and festivities. Then my grandmother fell on our driveway as she stepped from the car and suffered a bloody puncture wound and concussion. We ate in shifts… and my grandmother spent two nights in the hospital. She never made it inside our house. That was when the “Christmas rules” totally flew out the door for me.
Sitting in a hospital room late on Christmas Eve, looking at my frail little grandmother with her head wrapped in a turban of gauze, I watched nurses and aides scurry in and out to check on her. They were not home enjoying a family dinner… they were ministering to others in God’s name. The next morning, a very cheerful aide came in to straighten the room. She was bubbling with “Merry Christmas!” greetings. She could have been grumpy and full of complaints about missing Christmas morning with her children and extended family. Instead, she did everything possible to make my grandmother comfortable and to bring her cheer.
THIS is what God asks of us. He wants us to toss the “rules” of the world to the curb and focus on being the hands and feet of Jesus. The true celebration of Christ’s birth is to bring joy, grace, mercy, peace and comfort to others. It won’t matter if there is dust on our furniture or we don’t have turkey and ham this year. What will matter is that we gather and share this holiday… that we revel in the surprise and amazement of the little ones as they open their packages and stare at the lights… that we hug each other and thank God that we are together, with plenty to eat, warm beds in which to sleep, and all of our basic needs more than met.
Each one of us celebrates Christmas for a few of the 365 days in each year. But what we really need to do is to celebrate Christmas every day… to surrender our ego and focus on serving Jesus and sharing His love with others. If we don’t do this, the Apostle Paul is right… Jesus came to earth, suffered, bled and died for nothing. I don’t believe for one minute that this is the case - do you? What will you do to demonstrate this today… and in the year ahead?
I pray that your Christmas Eve is blessed… that you share love, peace and joy with at least one other person. If you are spending the holidays alone, pick up the phone and call someone to say, “I love you.” Attend a worship service and celebrate Christ’s birth with others. Visit a shut-in or someone in the nursing home… or spend some quiet time talking to God and thanking Him for all of His blessings in your life. But let this be the year that you toss “rules” to the curb and really start to live in Christ Jesus. Make this the Christmas that you truly begin to celebrate Him! Merry Christmas Eve!
©2012 Debbie Robus
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