Christmas Advice

How was your Thanksgiving? Mine was strange.  This fall has been so busy that we didn’t make any plans until mid-November.  We decided to fly down to Southern Cal and see Lori’s twin sister and family, but a few days before leaving Lori determined that would be too much drama, so we planned to go to our son Tim’s house for Thanksgiving. 

Wednesday night we out to a Mexican place for a quick dinner.  I ordered an el pastor plate, that turned out to be an “el blastor” plate.  It kept me up most of the night.  I was so sick I didn’t eat a thing on Thursday, and Lori went to Tim’s alone.  I spent the day in bed and struggled with stomach issues all weekend.

Sometimes the holidays do not turn out like we planned or hoped.  I suspect we all want our version of a good ‘ole Griswold family Christmas, but plans and hopes don’t always work out. 

So how can we approach the holidays?  How can we plan when plans don’t pan out?  We can’t control everything, but we can put ourselves in a position to actually have a hopeful, meaningful, spiritual Christmas. 

Let’s look at the Christmas story for how we can position ourselves.

But after he (Joseph) had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream…
Matthew 1:20 (NIV)

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they (Mahi) returned to their country by another route. Matthew 2:12 (NIV)

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.
Matthew 2:13 (NIV)

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
Matthew 2:19-20 (NIV)

How can we have a meaningful Christmas?  Get some sleep! 

Put yourself in a position to sleep.

Plan to get some shut eye.  Take some naps.  Grab some Zs.  Snooze and doze. 

What would have happened to Joseph if he stayed up to watch Christmas movies?  What would have become of the wise men if they’d been drinking until all hours of the night.  Let’s get some sleep!

Here is the problem, some of you are great at sleeping.  Some of you can fall asleep on demand.  Some of you are sleeping now.  When my wife’s head hits the pillow, she is out.  Our three boys can sleep anywhere.  When they were kids, I kept asking, “Why are we spending money on beds for these guys - they never use them!?”  They would stretch out like Shohei Otani trying to avoid a tag sliding into second base.

Our daughter, Tricia, was different.  She resisted sleep. 

I struggle sleeping.  And I’ve read the books and tried the tricks.  I have woken up during medical procedures several times.  I woke up during my first and last and only colonoscopy.  Anesthesiologists need to double my dose.  Telling me to get some sleep doesn’t work.

So, let’s tweak it to:

Put yourself in a position to rest.

How about we plan to get some rest instead?  Tricia didn’t take naps, she took rests.  She sat and played on her bed. 

Maybe the key is just resting.

We sing about that at Christmas, don’t we:  God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen…Silent Night…Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer…

We don’t have to do everything this Christmas.  I recently told Lori, “My favorite Christmas traditions are the ones we don’t have to do anymore!” 

A woman wondered if she could get her husband to help address Christmas cards, since she had so much to do.  "Come on, Dear, let's get these out of the way,” she said to her hubby.  He glanced at the array on the table, turned away and went into the hall closet, only to return moments later with a high stack of cards, stamped, sealed, and addressed.   “They're last year's," he said. "I forgot to mail them. Now let's go out to dinner and relax."

Amy Weatherby’s quote is making the rounds this season:  "The first Christmas was pretty simple. It's okay if yours is too."

I have an older pastor friend who has a theory:  for every day off you don’t take, you spend a day sick later.  I thought about that on Thanksgiving.

Let’s get some rest!  But over at Luke’s Christmas account no one is sleeping:

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him (Zechariah)
Luke 1:11 (NIV)

They (the people) realized he (Zechariah) had seen a vision in the temple…
Luke 1:22 (NIV)

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,  to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
Luke 1:26-27 (NIV)

An angel of the Lord appeared to them (Shepherds)
Luke 2:8 (NIV)

It had been revealed to him (Simeon) by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
Luke 2:26 (NIV)

Joel prophesied, and Peter quoted it in Acts 2: 

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
Joel 2:28 (NIV) (Acts 2:17)

So, I can’t sleep because I’m still young?

Put yourself in a position to see.

Perhaps the best advice isn’t about sleep or rest or even vision.  Perhaps it is this Christmas season, no matter how your plans or hopes go, no matter how much sleep or rest you get, put yourself in a position to see.

People saw visions, people saw angels!

How can we see an angel?

The writer of Hebrews suggest angels are all around us:

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Hebrews 13:1-2 (NIV)

How can we see angels?  Two suggestions come from this Christmas story:

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.  Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.
Luke 1:5 (NIV)

And Mary said:  “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful     of the humble state of his servant.  From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.  His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.”
Luke 1:46-50 (NIV)

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout.
Luke 2:25 (NIV)

One way to see an angel is to be righteous.  The good news is through Jesus we are forgiven, and Jesus’ righteousness is imputed into us!

Another way to see an angel is to be at the right place at the right time.

We see that with the shepherds: 

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.  Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them.
Luke 2:8 (NIV)

And we see that with Anna: 

Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple…She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.
Luke 2:36, 38 (NIV)

If you are in the right place at the right time this Christmas, maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of an angel!

Put yourself in a position to hear.

God likes to speak at Christmas.  Are you listening?

God gets particularly talkative around the holidays.  God spoke the most, by volume, at the Christmas event than at any other time in the Bible.  God spoke to the most people, by volume, at Christmas than at any other Biblical event.  It might be his most favorite time of the year to speak to us.  It could be through dreams, or angels, or visions, or the Holy Spirit or the Bible…

We all need to hear from God.  Especially those of us in leadership.

It has been a crazy two years.  It has been a hectic fall.  We have no idea what 2023 may bring.  But let’s make sure we listen to God.

The Excel team set a goal in the middle of Covid to see how fast we could sign a hundred church planters.  We hit that and it looks like we will set a record for the number of planters signed in a year.

Heading into next year, we have set a new goal: how fast can we get a hundred couples/clients through a Discovery Center.

But more than that, as we head into 2023 we’ve set a goal we’re calling “23andMe.”  We want to examine the DNA of our network to make sure we are not experiencing major mission-drift.  We want to hear from God.  And I want to start now! 

Let’s all put ourselves in a position to rest, see and hear. Let’s put ourselves in a position of a hopeful holiday.