Stinkin' Awesome

Do you remember experiencing the Christmas season as a child? Barring amnesia, I am quite certain that, like me, you do. It is also reasonable to assume that, with a few exceptions, it was stinkin' awesome (yes, "stinkin'" means something quite different from "stinking"…or at least it does to this Southern gal)! Back then Christmas was an all-consuming season of eager anticipation of presents, joyously belting out Christmas carols and hymns that celebrate Jesus's birth, enduring embarrassing church programs (for me anyway ;)), peacefully sleeping during silent nights (excluding Christmas Eve, of course), accepting gifts freely, and, in general, observing the joy of the season with awe. Stinkin' awesome, right?

Recently, I have been in awe to discover that the mentality of a child at Christmastime mirrors in many ways the manner in which God would have His children approach life. Not life in December…but life every month of the year, every day of the month, every hour of the day, every minute of the hour…LIFE with God. How He desires to mold our lives into something stinkin' awesome for Him, and how often we easily discard the glorious free gifts He offers in favor of expensive lessons that we do not have to buy for ourselves.

Let's break it down line by line…

(Confession in advance-I struggle with each one of these personally, so every "we", "us", "our", etc. most definitely includes me, too)

"eager anticipation of presents"- Do we expect God to come through for us? To help us? To bless us? To carry us across the stormy waters and through the blazing infernos? Or do we dreadfully look ahead to the worst that is "bound to happen"? Do we see the mountain we are facing as too big, too strong, too immovable for our God? What would happen if we chose eager anticipation instead of despair? "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." -Hebrews 11:1 (P.S. I would encourage everyone to read Hebrews 11 in its entirety)

"joyously belting out Christmas carols and hymns that celebrate Jesus's birth" -What is our attitude toward worship? Is it a happy time of truly celebrating how great our God is whether we are at home, in our car, or at church? Do we choose to worship willingly, personally, and whole-heartedly? Or is worship something that we go through as mindlessly as washing the dishes, one more task to complete, another check mark to make on our list? Do we pour our heart out to God in worship or hold ourselves back out of fear of what others would say, pain concerning what we are facing in life, or mistaken notions about what worship is "supposed to be"? "Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! …" -Psalm 150:1-6 (ESV) 

"enduring embarrassing church programs" -Okay, here is a humorous break from our otherwise serious discussion. I was not big on participating in church musicals, programs, and plays as a child…and by "not big on", I mean quite a few fits were pitched. For a shy (yes, I was once) young girl who had the singing voice of a bag of cats, they were just not my choice for a rompin' good time. Though I rarely endured them patiently and humbly, I now know it would have been to my benefit to do so. Just as it is to all of our benefit to draw near to God in hard times, to trust in His plan, to wait on His word, rather than run our own path through the maze, work on how we will fix the situation at hand, and, when all else fails, throw a grade A temper tantrum. How I wish that I could honestly state that the best choice as described above is the easiest or that I always make it…or even usually make it, but that is just not true. HOWEVER, I know that victory in Jesus is possible, and He and I are working on it together. I encourage you to as well. "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." -James 1:12 (ESV)

"peacefully sleeping through silent nights" -If the only gift that I received for Christmas was the ability to sleep as peacefully, soundly, and restfully as my two year old daughter does, I can honestly PROMISE that I would be more than thrilled with that one present. Sleep does not come easy for me. Worrying, stressing, going over to-do lists in my head, retrieving problems from the past and borrowing them from the future…none of that makes for a restful night. My desire is to find rest in God's promises (day or night), to entrust my past, present, future into His capable hands, and to not waste time on fretting over problems that only He can fix. Makes my eyelids a little heavy just to type those words. :) "In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." -Psalm 4:8 (ESV)

"accepting gifts freely" -This is a big one, folks! Santa's sleigh can only hold so much, but God's storehouses have boundless gifts in stock for His children: grace, mercy, forgiveness, joy, peace, strength, compassion, holiness, power, LOVE, and so much more. BUT, do we receive those presents that are paid for by the blood of Christ freely? Do we reach out for them and clutch them as prized possessions? Do we fight against the devil when he tries to convince us that they are not ours for the taking? Or do we neglect to accept them because we feel unworthy? Even worse do we not allow ourselves to believe they even exist in this corrupt world? Do we treat them like we do childhood myths: too good to be true? Oh, that we would accept what God is offering. It is so much better than what we are settling for. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." -James 1:17 (ESV)

"observing the joy of the season with awe"- Let's just be honest…it is often difficult to be joyful. There are traffic jams, family feuds, diseases, political pow-wows, and a million other circumstances just waiting to bump our happy. Though I have by no means achieved greatness in this area, I know that any joy I find in the day-to-day grind of life will be (1) found in God and (2) a choice that I make. I could make you a list longer than Santa's "Naughty List" of all of my hundreds of grievances, things that just set my every nerve ablaze, but there are innumerably more reasons in Christ that I can locate and choose joy. May we all pray to observe and celebrate the joy of our Savior daily with awe…even in traffic jams, Lord help us. ;) "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!" Philippians 4:4 (ESV) 

Prayer: 
Dear Lord, thank You that You long to make our lives as stinkin' awesome as that of a child at Christmastime. Life is hard, that we know, but we also know that You are good. I ask You to continually remind us of Your goodness, help us to anticipate it, celebrate it, endure hard times because of it, find peace and joy in it, and accept it freely. This world is often wild and crazy, unpredictable and scary, confusing and disheartening, but the abundant life You offer in it is no myth. Never has been; never will be. Don't let us forget it, oh, Lord. We love You and praise You for all that You are and all that You do. In Jesus's name, Amen.