Sunday, 25 December 2011
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Keeping Christmas in Perspective
By JN Hong
I feel sometimes people fight all the wrong battles.People arguing about Happy Holidays over Merry Christmas especially. They have grown so overblown that it become irrelevant from its true rooting in Christ’s birth. Merry Christmas is in the larger scheme of things only a small part of what Christmas is. Is Christ diminished if we do not wish people Merry Christmas, or is Christ more manifested in other places? In other words, is this the Gospel? I am convinced if we continue to fight these meaningless battles, and all we are seen fighting is over these things, it begins to define us. And I am sure the Devil would be glad to see us fight over these little things instead of fighting for the sake of the Gospel.
People often say that the Devil is so successful because people don’t believe he exists, but equally dangerous is to believe he exists but not to destroy the work of the Gospel.
I think people fight for too little if they are fighting to maintain a Christmas story, without looking at the larger picture. The Christmas story can sometimes be so deeply entrenched in tradition that we can almost become lethargic in how we carry it on. Then perhaps, it becomes almost acceptable for non-believers to treat Christianity as nothing more than tradition of a time long ago. People often complain that Christianity is not relevant enough, and this is true because we aren’t living and engaging actively with the complete story of Christmas.
Christmas is more than just a merry time and a feel-good nativity story, it is more than a woman giving birth to a child in a manger.
“If you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
” Isaiah 58:10 (English Standard Version)Have been diminished the power of Christmas that it is merely a time of the year, but a daily reality and sanctification?
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About the Author
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- From: llamalima@xanga
- About Me: Who am I? I am 19 year old university student, prone to stressing over about some assignment due the next day. I sometimes have time to blog mostly about Christian thoughts. In my spare time, I am also a musical connoisseur, ninja, movie junkie, and full-time hypochondriac. I may have lied about one of those, or a few.
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Comments (3)
Good thoughts, JN! Some thoughts from my post today:
You know, after all the presents are opened and food consumed, there remains the gnawing question, "does all this really satisfy?" If we think back to the humble scene of the first Christmas, we should realize that the world only had a fleeting glimpse of the glories to come through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Our needs are only satisfied as we choose to trust in Him as our Lord and Savior, and to walk in His Spirit daily. This should be the message of Christmas, don't you think?
The battle for "Merry Christmas" is one well worth fighting. Our culture is becoming such that Christianity is being completely omitted and turned into a complete mockery.
It has gotten that way because Christians mistakenly think they don't have to fight for their faith even if that only means defending the importance of saying, "Merry Christmas".
I caught hell on a Xanga post for objecting to South Park's parody of Christians where they actually had a Christian saying, "Merry F-ing Christmas".
And every other Christian who commented there made the excuse that associating the F-word with baby Jesus was just all good fun and a natural part of our humor landscape.
I couldn't disagree more.
@Evangelist_Guy@xanga - "They recognized him in the breaking of the bread."
Enjoying Christmas with friends and family over a sumptuous table of food sings the glory of God. We needn't feel guilty about the gratitude we feel for all His blessings and gifts.