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Life is Crazy Busy, and it Only Gets Worse Around Christmas

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The Real Question is…What Are You Going to do About it?

Most of us have too much going on in our normal daily lives, with work, family, personal task, etc. You know…life. This only ramps up around the holidays.

Why do things get so crazy busy at this time of the year?

There are several reasons for this. Most of the things we do are important, some not as much. I know our family starts holiday activities before Thanksgiving and continues through New Year. This can make things a little crazy.

This includes things like family gatherings for Thanksgiving, decorating for Christmas, Church events, etc. As families grow and kids marry, there are multiple activities that need to be organized. Other family members’ schedules affect our schedules. It’s a little like a game of holiday musical chairs.

Decorating, gift shopping, baking, gift wrapping, gathering to open gifts, traveling to the next family gathering and on and on. It’s easy to get caught up in the process and forget the reason for the season.

The key to holiday crazy is to be clear on what the most important thing is and to enjoy the crazy season.

Baby Jesus is the small center of sanity in the insanity of Christmas. Jesus is the ultimate gift and we need to remember that.

John the Baptist knew what the most important thing was. He makes this clear in his conversation with the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 3:1-12. He explains the importance of not just going through motions, but knowing who Jesus is and changing your heart and lives accordingly.

He explains the importance of repenting. Repenting is more than just feeling regret for something you’ve done.

Repenting requires change.

We’ve all experienced our GPS telling us we need to turn around. Granted, our GPS isn’t right 100% of the time, but we as humans think we know better and too often just keep on driving, even though we’re going the wrong direction.

Pastor Lee told us a story that makes this point. He was going to a town that he was sure was one place when, in reality, it was not. After listening to his GPS telling him to turn around for two hours, he realized the GPS was right. This cost him a lot of unnecessary time and heartache.

We all tend to do things like this in life as well. We think we know what’s best and we ignore God telling us to turn around. 

In this crazy Christmas season, embrace the busy, enjoy the season and listen to your life GPS (God’s Positioning System) for direction.

Anticipation Can Be Stressful or Exciting

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It’s Up to Us to Decide Which It Will Be

Christmas has come and gone for another year. That’s okay because we will look up in a few days and it will be here again.


Some people find the Holiday season stressful. The busy, rushed and harried pace can get overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.


We get to choose how it’s going to be.


I love the anticipation of looking forward to opening presents on Christmas morning. I don’t want to know what I’m getting until I take the paper off and open it. I will be extra careful to not see what’s in boxes and bags around the house leading up to Christmas. The looking forward to the unveiling of the surprise is exciting.


Advent is a season of the liturgical year observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas and the return of Jesus at the Second Coming.


This season really is more about waiting than coming. Joseph and Mary both showed great faith and patience waiting for Jesus’ birth. Because they were not married yet and she was pregnant they were looked down on. They had to trust what they had been told by God and believe it to be true.


Look forward to the future possibilities God has for you with excited anticipation!


Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

We Are The Ones Who Can and Will Do What Needs Done

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In the Christmas season we see the words love, joy and peace a lot. This doesn’t mean that these are the only feelings we experience during the Holidays. I do think we see these types of actions now more than other times of the year. This brings up the question why. Why do people seem to be nicer around Christmas?

I think that the Christmas season brings the Christian ideals to the forefront due to the fact that we’re celebrating Christ’s birthday. This makes us more aware of Christ and what He has asked of us. In Philippians 4:4-7, we are told to “…be filled with joy.” It doesn’t say to just be filled with joy the few weeks of the year when celebrate Christ’s birthday. It says be filled with joy. How can we be filled with joy?

What about peace? Merriam-Webster says that peace is 1. a state of tranquility 2. Freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions 3. Harmony in personal relationships. These all sound like great things. Why is it that we struggle to find peace, especially during the hectic chaos of the holiday season? Maybe it’s because everyone has different ideas, thoughts and goals. This can make peace difficult to accomplish. Pastor Lee told a story of a Nigerian woman whose Nigerian name means “the child who takes anger away”. When asked how she got this name she told about her grandparents on both sides of her family disapproving of her mother and father getting married. After they went ahead and were married the families quit speaking. After she was born the grandparents decided to get past their disagreements. It’s amazing the power of peace that a baby can have. There was a baby who’s birthday we’re now celebrating that this name would be a fitting for.

We have the choice to be filled with love, joy and peace through out the whole year, not just at Christmas, it’s up to us. We have to decide to and then do it. We can choose how we are going to live and act. Are we going to harbor anger and turmoil or are we going to choose joy and peace?

Another story in the Pastor’s sermon was about a military plane crash. It was a awful sight with body parts scatter around. The military personnel were cleaning up the mess when local civilians came and helped. This wasn’t their responsibility or a requirement. Never the less they were helping. Later that night a mortuary lieutenant was struggling with all that he had seen that day. He went and spoke with the Chaplin. While they were talking the young lieutenant said about the civilians, “They Are the Only Persons Who Would, or Perhaps Could, Do What We Had to Do Today”. This made a huge impact on the young man’s life.

These civilians would or could do what they did. The same thing is true of us when we are struggling with feelings opposed to love, joy and peace. We can choose love, joy and peace.

I hope you have a love, joy and peace filled Christmas.