Hating Christmas
Do you hate Christmas? Does any part of you hate it? Here I go with more anti-religion talk but I think deep down a lot of us hate Christmas or parts of it at least. I do. Stay with me, there is a good part of this message to come.

I have grown to hate parts of Christmas. It is too commercial and too chaotic for me. I like peace and Christmas has come to be anything but peaceful for me. I love how my wife transforms our home during Christmas and I love how she cooks treats for others. Our home feels warmer during Christmas and I love that. I don't love how it wears her out. I don't love the endless "to do" lists. I hate - really hate - getting out into the shopping areas. It overwhelms me. I don't like how Christmas makes us all so tired - the travel, the shopping, the parties, etc. It just seems to wear us out.

But in reality, I guess I have figured out that the entire season has really very little to do with Jesus and that is why I don't like it. We get all freaked out and spend gobs of money and we wind up worn out and it really has very little to do with Jesus.

I don't hate Christmas. I hate the commercialization of Christmas. It is supposed to be about love but it isn't. The world has let it become about something else altogether. It is about a new Lexus with a big bow sitting in the driveway. It is about way too expensive jewelry and "this year, show her you really love her". It is about commercialized magic. It plays on our distorted memories of magical childhood Christmas'. "Make this year magical..." (by spending way more money than you should).

The magic of Christmas happened 2,000 years ago. Christ came to earth as a baby. The warrior came to liberate his people. He took human form knowing it would lead to murder. Max Lucado's book An Angel's Story reflects on this as he wonders what the angels must have been thinking looking at Jesus as a baby, "I exist to serve my King and I must watch Him be tortured? How will we sit silent as you suffer?" I've never thought of that but I wonder what it was like for the angels to see Jesus leave their realm and enter the world as a baby knowing full well it would lead to His painful physical death. Why would He endure that?

He came because He loved.

Christmas is about love. It isn't about Lexus', diamonds, playstations, Wii's or magical ski trips. It is about love. Remember and say to yourself over and over these next few weeks - "It is about love".

Soar!