We\u2019re making our lists and checking them twice.\u00a0 Maybe even 3 or 4 times.\u00a0 There\u2019s so much to do!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yes, isn\u2019t that the irony of the season?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As the holiday has evolved \u2014 knowing evolution often distorts meaning and potentially reality \u2014 perhaps our most significant progression of the meaning of Christmas is that we\u2019ve centered so much of the meaning around what we are doing<\/em> as opposed to who we are being.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What do we do?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hang the stockings with care.<\/p>\n Fill them.<\/p>\n Roast chestnuts (ok, so maybe not really… remember the distortion of reality…)<\/em><\/p>\n Wrap presents.<\/p>\n Wrap more presents.<\/p>\n Cook.<\/p>\n Clean.<\/p>\n Call our mothers.<\/p>\n Dress up like eskimos.<\/p>\n Run to the grocery.<\/p>\n Stand in line at the post office.<\/p>\n Finish up work.<\/p>\n Purchase one more gift card.<\/p>\n Deliver those gift cards.<\/p>\n Eat.<\/p>\n Eat some more.<\/p>\n And more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The point is that we focus on the doing.\u00a0 Truth is, that seems our human nature.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As the events of the past week have unfolded \u2014 as we\u2019ve grieved the horror of happenings in Newtown, Connecticut \u2014 in our passionate, admirable need to respond \u2014 we continue to focus on what we can do…<\/em>\u00a0 establish tougher gun control laws… put guns in every school… invest more in mental health… tinker with the 2nd amendment… etc. etc. etc.<\/em>\u00a0 The point is that it seems our innate human response is to attempt to do<\/em> something… as if we, yes, we, can control it.\u00a0 We can stop this from happening if we only <\/em>do<\/em><\/strong> something.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is a far more ambiguous, intangible \u2014 albeit rewarding, growth-oriented \u2014 practice to focus on who we are…<\/em> who we are and what we were created to be.<\/em>\u00a0 It takes more time; it\u2019s not as black and white; it\u2019s less legalistic.\u00a0 It also causes us to be still… to pause, reflect, and take both ownership and responsibility for our individual strengths and weaknesses, our right and wrongful thinking.\u00a0 Newsflash, friends:\u00a0 we each have all of the above.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That\u2019s hard to wrestle with.\u00a0 It is challenging indeed, for example, to actually wrestle with what caused that gunman to snap, mercilessly murdering those innocent children.\u00a0 What was in his head?\u00a0 Where was the wrongful thinking?\u00a0 How has society contributed to that?\u00a0 Where have we morally accepted what is not<\/em> good and true and right?\u00a0 Where is my<\/em> wrongful thinking?\u00a0 Where am I<\/em> not acting and behaving and thinking as wisely as I should?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In order to answer those questions accurately, I need to be still, wrestling with the rawness of the answer.\u00a0 Wrestling, though, often makes us uncomfortable.\u00a0 Hence, we jump into doing<\/em> \u2014 because doing<\/em> is actually easier than being.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The coming of Christmas is not about candles and cookies nor even chestnuts nor children.\u00a0 The meaning of Christmas centers around the incarnation of a God who loves us because of who we are<\/em> \u2014 not because of anything that we do.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Who are we?\u00a0 Persons with individual strengths and weaknesses, even right and wrongful thinking… persons tempted to do.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Respectfully,<\/p>\n AR<\/p>\n We\u2019re making our lists and checking them twice.\u00a0 Maybe even 3 or 4 times.\u00a0 There\u2019s so much to do! Yes, isn\u2019t that the irony of the season? As the holiday has evolved \u2014 knowing evolution often distorts meaning and potentially reality \u2014 perhaps our most significant progression of the meaning of Christmas is … <\/p>\n