It’s easy to see how Christmas – a holiday meant to celebrate the greatest good news in the history of man – can become the most busy, stressful, and un-enjoyable time of the year.

What can we do to remember the reason for the season and to experience the joy that should come as a result of Emmanuel: God with us?

To really enjoy Christmas, I must be a Christian. Put another way, like the wise men from the east, I must be following Christ! Without the commitment to living out my life as a Christian… as a Christ-follower, I won’t be moving in the right direction. Without the right direction, I won’t experience God’s JOY TO THE WORLD.

Even as a Christian, I have to be deliberate about my life’s direction. We too often get the wrong idea that Christianity is a matter of a one-time decision of faith, often made long ago. The truth is that the Christian faith is a daily decision to follow Christ. Especially at Christmas, it’s easy to get sidetracked with all the Christmas shopping, cooking, planning, wrapping, parties that can ultimately lead us down the pressure-depression trap.

So how do I experience this joy? How do I live this Christmas in the right direction with the right reflection and rest?

If God wanted to give us a present of his PRESENCE, would we know it? Would we hear his still, small voice? The greatest tragedy of Christmas would be that God Himself would like to be with us and that we wouldn’t know it… that we’d be too busy!

I must do the same thing the shepherds did. I must “go and see the King,” “with haste”! Changing my focus from the stressful holiday to the “go and see with haste” miracle of the baby Jesus.

~ Mary Lindow ^©

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” THE MESSENGER ” ~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
Global Prayer Rooms

Mary Lindow has a passion for encouraging others in all generations and careers or vocations to live and express excellence through personal integrity, healthy accountability, and wise management of talents and skills. She is a sought after keynote inspirational and humorous speaker and teacher throughout the United States internationally in Ministers conferences, International Spiritual leaders Conferences, and in National and International training seminars for various organizations.