So many thought distractions keep coming up (and that's all they are - distractions of the enemy). Thoughts like, here I am at another Christmas without any money. Here I am without a significant other but with an over-abundance of relatives that don't seem to care about this most important holiday. Why can't they be in the spirit like I am? Deck the halls and all that jazz.
Ok, so here we are. Now what? Wait a minute. What I want to know is where is the White Christmas that has been my fantasy since I was a little fat kid growing up in the 50's? Remember the movies of white people (Yes, I said it. I'm talking about the 50's here.) hustling to and fro all bundled up with their bright holiday packages and the tree tied to the top of the car? That smell of pine and cinnamon spice, candles flickering and the manger scene that is dug out year after year lest we forget the reason for the season.
What is this all about? My sister is having issues. My niece is having issues. My brothers are having issues and I am at a loss as to what to do about it. My offers of prayer with them go unheeded but I continue to pray for them and, "Good grief, Charlie Brown. What is up with that tree?"
Many of us as children couldn't make any sense out of the season other than what gift we might be getting that might end up being broken before we went back to school from winter break. Did we somehow learn to equate the insanity of it all with the celebration of the season?
So here we all are. We are adults with a whole lot of unreal expectations about this holiday. Not always are our insecurities being reflected in the amount of money we have or don't have to spend. Our true messed-up-ed-ness springs forth in our continual search for the perfect peach cobbler, the perfect Christmas goose and our on-going fantasy that this year we will indeed have that Beaver Cleaver family around the table, "can't we all just get along?" kind of day.
Underneath it all we are afraid that we are not going to get what we really want: happiness. We search and seek and pursue that illusive thing. Yet we pursue a happiness that is as much a fantasy as me looking for my White Christmas. What would happen if we let it all go? What would happen if we really believed the scripture that we are told over and over again, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." (Luke 6:38 KJV) All too often this wonderful bit of scripture is used to get people to pay their tithes and offerings ONLY. What would happen if we had the kind of faith that understands this same principle applies to giving happiness on purpose? What if we flipped the script and stopped expecting to get something out of this holiday instead of giving something - friendship, love, joy, peace, happiness, time.
What would happen if we all found the creative spirit within us and discovered the myriad ways that we can make somebody else's life better? Not all of us are going to go out into the trenches to make the world a better place on a grand scale. Reachng out to another in need is still our mission on this earth, you know. I know of people that seem to have it all materially but are empty spiritually. What would happen if this Christmas we spread the happiness we find through our faith in Jesus Christ? Would we not see an increase in our own happiness, a deepening of our own faith?
Come on, Sis, write that Christmas message and send it to everybody on your email list or post on Facebook. It ain't silly. Somebody just might need to hear what you have to say. Come on, Brother, write that poem and send it out to everybody you know. Buy somebody a cup of coffee. Put some money in the red bucket in front of WalMart. Be kind, be loving, be happy. It is contagious and what you'll get back is beyond measure.
My prayer for this Christmas:
Dear Lord, I honor you with all of my praise for I realize that I am nothing without you. Release me from the burden of self. Where I fall short, lift me and deliver me. Work on my areas of unforgiveness so that you may forgive me of all of my mess. Let my brother, my sister, know that their lives do have meaning and they do have purpose. Show them words of love are important, smiles can light the darkest of darkness and transparency is essential to the development of strong relationships within our homes, our churches and on our jobs. Help us to be honest with each other and with ourselves so that we may fully understand happiness. And once we have gotten this wonderous thing called happiness, let us not hesitate to give it away. Almighty God, please strengthen this movement to keep Christ in Christmas. In Jesus' name, I pray.
Debi Mason
Spoken Word Ministries, 2009
Oakland, California, USA
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Thankgiving Revisited
Thanksgiving...
In the Arizona desert there isn't much of anything but dry sand and tumble weeds and and the house built by Uncle Abram for Aunt Henrietta when they first were married.
Painted the strangest color of pink and it has a slight lean to it where the foundation has settled unevenly. Out back are miles of desert sand that stetch far to the mountains. Would you believe that the sweetest and cleanest water in all the world is pumped right out of the ground there?
Aunt Henrietta grows the most beautiful roses along with beans and squash and tall stalks of sweet corn in a well tilled stretch of land that she has fenced off. The corn alone seems to reach as high as the sky as though reaching up to heaven to thank God for the sun and that little bit of rain. Carrying heavy buckets of water from the well in the heat of the day, she has named each one of those growing, green things like they are her special little children, you know. She has even been known to talk to them, too. She tells them that it is their duty to grow tall and sweet.
Most of the food eaten came off the land way before times got hard like they are today. "Take care of God's green earth and God will take care of you.", she says. It has to be back breaking work to coax food out that hard Arizona clay but that need to grow things has become a part of the family history and tradition. Nobody has ever gone hungry as long as she has something to do with it. Aunt Henrietta lives by giving thanks to God for everything, even the things that most folks seem to take for granted. No matter what anybody asks her for she always says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." As a kid it would make you mad with impatience and desire for immediate satisfaction but this is one of those golden rules that stays with you throughout life. Aunt Henrietta has a whole lot of faith that the seeds she plants in that dry Arizona desert will grow into tall stalks of sweet corn or beans or squash that will feed her family. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every human being could plant a seed and grow something in the earth? It would be a way of saying thank you to God for feeding us and clothing us and taking care of all of our needs. Maybe the other lesson we could all learn is that it is possible for us to become a nation of givers and not just takers. Don't you think that we would all be healthier and happier? Like Aunt Henrietta says, "Take care of God's green earth and God will take care of you." Life can deal you some hard Arizona clay kind of problems. But Aunt Henrietta kind of faith will till that soil and get rid of the rocks. Aunt Henrietta faith will give you the strength to do the work and carry those heavy buckets of water to that problem in the heat of the day. It will give you the voice to talk to that problem and tell it that you are a child of the Most High God and He is bigger than it. And when all is said and done, stand back, give thanks and watch His glory and His grace go into action. This is a Aunt Henrietta story and this is what this story taught me.
Debi Mason, 2006
copyright 2007, USA
In the Arizona desert there isn't much of anything but dry sand and tumble weeds and and the house built by Uncle Abram for Aunt Henrietta when they first were married.
Painted the strangest color of pink and it has a slight lean to it where the foundation has settled unevenly. Out back are miles of desert sand that stetch far to the mountains. Would you believe that the sweetest and cleanest water in all the world is pumped right out of the ground there?
Aunt Henrietta grows the most beautiful roses along with beans and squash and tall stalks of sweet corn in a well tilled stretch of land that she has fenced off. The corn alone seems to reach as high as the sky as though reaching up to heaven to thank God for the sun and that little bit of rain. Carrying heavy buckets of water from the well in the heat of the day, she has named each one of those growing, green things like they are her special little children, you know. She has even been known to talk to them, too. She tells them that it is their duty to grow tall and sweet.
Most of the food eaten came off the land way before times got hard like they are today. "Take care of God's green earth and God will take care of you.", she says. It has to be back breaking work to coax food out that hard Arizona clay but that need to grow things has become a part of the family history and tradition. Nobody has ever gone hungry as long as she has something to do with it. Aunt Henrietta lives by giving thanks to God for everything, even the things that most folks seem to take for granted. No matter what anybody asks her for she always says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." As a kid it would make you mad with impatience and desire for immediate satisfaction but this is one of those golden rules that stays with you throughout life. Aunt Henrietta has a whole lot of faith that the seeds she plants in that dry Arizona desert will grow into tall stalks of sweet corn or beans or squash that will feed her family. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every human being could plant a seed and grow something in the earth? It would be a way of saying thank you to God for feeding us and clothing us and taking care of all of our needs. Maybe the other lesson we could all learn is that it is possible for us to become a nation of givers and not just takers. Don't you think that we would all be healthier and happier? Like Aunt Henrietta says, "Take care of God's green earth and God will take care of you." Life can deal you some hard Arizona clay kind of problems. But Aunt Henrietta kind of faith will till that soil and get rid of the rocks. Aunt Henrietta faith will give you the strength to do the work and carry those heavy buckets of water to that problem in the heat of the day. It will give you the voice to talk to that problem and tell it that you are a child of the Most High God and He is bigger than it. And when all is said and done, stand back, give thanks and watch His glory and His grace go into action. This is a Aunt Henrietta story and this is what this story taught me.
Debi Mason, 2006
copyright 2007, USA
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