madavison

I may have said it before, so my apologies if this is redundant.  Christmas is not my favorite holiday, sacred or secular.  I’ve lived long enough to remember how it was ‘back then’ knowing that the old days were not always good, but those days and the experiences shaped who I am.  I am in touch with how my past informs my present and continues to teach me how I follow that inner moral compass into the future.  My past has a voice, but not a vote.  Hard as it is to change your narrative, change it can; and this time of year people believe that idea a little more than they do at any other time.  Maybe it’s because culture markets this feeling more in late November and December.  About this I don’t mean to sound cynical, but ‘selling’ Christmas begins in October.  Over twenty years ago I stopped listening and buying.  I’m content with the responsibility of recognizing the context before I wish someone I know, or that is unknown to me,  “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.”  I’m not on the ‘war on Christmas’ team, because it’s always been about selling the feelings that get consumers to spend more even if that means taking on debt.  Been there.  Done that.

That cynicism aside, that is not what Christmas or the holiday season is all about. Think about your favorite Christmas cartoon or movie.  Imagine the characters or a scene in your mind.  There is a character or group that experiences an “aha” moment of vision that changes the way the character or group sees the world, interacts with the world, or expands the heart.  My favorites are: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life, and Love Actually.  Yes, I’m admitting that last one in print, but I also think Die Hard is a Christmas movie.  Odds are your favorite holiday film encourages self reflection about your motives, desires, and communal life using the “olden times and ancient rhymes of love and dreams to share.”(1)

Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year.(2)

That last bit of lyric that Lee Mendelson wrote invites us to go, and see, and ask.

What would that spirit look like in your community?

What dreams do you share with your neighbor?  Not the neighbor you like, but that other neighbor?

What kind of maintenance plan do you have for your moral compass?

Christmas day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp

Welcome Christmas bring your light

Welcome Christmas while we stand
Heart to heart and hand in hand.(3)

May the Spirit of Christmas inhabit your dreams, and your living, as you make your way to Bethlehem to see this thing that God  has made known to you.

______

1) Mendelson, Lee / Guaraldi, Vince. “Christmas Time is Here.”  Lyrics © Lee Mendelson Film Prod., Inc., 1965.

2) Ibid.

3) Geisel, Theodor S. / Hague, Albert. © EMI Music Publishing, 1966.

Is there another way to re-frame our view of the other, our congregation, youth group, person in the opposite political party, or reading of the biblical text? Our culture is caught up in 2 dimensional thinking, governing, religious ritual, and survival mode.  The characteristics of our current politics is evidence that we’ve become more transactional and less transformational since 2000.  There are some simple ‘right and wrong’ actions in our culture, but followers of Jesus are called to live in the messy balancing act of ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’  That’s the kin-dom of God in our midst and not yet fully known.  Some days we are better at recognizing the kin-dom than others.  There is so much noise competing for our eyes, hands, and thought.  It seems to me we need 3-dimensional thinking that speaks a vision of tomorrow together, AND solves a few of the bigger problems of ‘Now.’  Maybe that means seeing the ripples.

Every decision we make changes things. The people we befriend, the examples we set, the problems we solve…

Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we get to glimpse those ripples as we stand at the crossroads. Instead of merely addressing the urgency of now, we can take a moment to focus on how a quiet insight, overlooked volunteer work, or a particularly welcome helping hand moves so many people forward. For generations.

How did you get to where you are? Who is going to go even further because of you?

Thank you for passing it forward.