Expectations of the Season

Written by Gail Rodgers

What does the Christmas season promise you this year? We all have an expectation even if we rarely pull it out to look at it.

For some it’s the expectation of a credit card bill that takes too long to pay.

• Others dream of just the perfect gift to buy.
• Some dread to go shopping.
• Some delight in family visits that are all too rare.
• Others expect to endure edgy relationships and escape as soon as possible.
• Some love the opportunity to celebrate traditions while others try hard to make tradition go away.

Just another holiday?

Our culture works at moving the Christmas season to simply becoming “The Holiday Season”. With that shift comes a hollow ring and an empty stable bed.

Snowmen, jingle bells and “merry-making” are all fun. Yet if the birth of Jesus is removed from the Christmas scene there remains only a tinsel laced party time.

Why bother with the religious side of Christmas?

When it seems that religious causes disrupt the peace of our world aren’t we better off to drop the religious side of Christmas?

• We can drop the empty rituals of religion and the lists of do’s and don’ts.
• We can drop the hypocrisy and the masks we wear.
• We can even drop the guilt of never meeting those religious expectations.

Yet we cannot drop Jesus.

• Every life that has opened itself up to believe in His virgin birth and his resurrection from the dead;
• Every one that has asked Him to share the journey of life with them;
• Everyone who has recognized that his own self efforts cannot pave the way to Heaven;
• Everyone who has called on the name of Jesus…enters into a relationship with Him that has no comparison to religious rituals.

Be amazed

This Christmas make a choice to explore the reason for the birth of Jesus.

• Explore the stories of lives completely changed by His love and grace.
• Explore the history behind his coming.
• Explore how a relationship with Him can change your life in ways you never imagined.
• Explore the wonder. Be amazed.

He came so you would find real meaning to life

• meaning that goes far beyond the tinsel laced parties.
• meaning that stretches past the commercialism of the season.
• meaning that will fill the empty places of your heart and mind.
• meaning that brings true peace … one heart at a time.

This Christmas open the gift with your name on it

• The gift He offers of love and forgiveness.
• The gift of true meaning and fullness to life.
• The gift of purpose and peace within.
• The gift of eternal life with Jesus.

It’s for you… it’s for today. Invite Him. Expect His coming. Be changed!

Dear God,

I’ve never thought much about Jesus. Christmas has only brought Him to the very fringe of my thinking. Today I want to open my mind and heart to knowing Him. I open my life to Jesus and invite His love to fill me. I accept the forgiveness Jesus offers me. Help me to turn from the destructive and harmful ways in my life. Help me to grow in understanding what it means to find true meaning and peace in my life through my new relationship with Jesus. Thank you for the gift of Jesus in my life this Christmas. Amen.

Tags: Christmas, Culture, gail rodgers, Jesus, Men, spirituality, Women

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