Saturday, December 09, 2006

The Busy-ness of the Christmas Season

This time of the year, we get BUSY! I have often joked that the choir needs to record their Christmas Cantatas early on and be ready to lip sing the cantata in December with all the colds, etc. that seem to beset choirs at that time. The reality is - trying to juggle more hectic schedules, scheduling more in a day than we can effectively do, rushing to extra practices and church or community events of the season, grabbing a bite on the run, etc. - all contribute to weakened systems and an overwhelming feeling that stresses us out.

Donald Whitney's book, Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health might be a good read for this time of the year for those of us in ministry. The piercing question in both our personal lives and in the life of the church is simply "Are YOU spiritually healthy or just spiritually busy?"" Sometimes I just think we are busy - nothing spiritual to it!

I encourage you to take some extra time to maintain a strong spiritual health for the season. Don't get caught up in the familiarity of telling the story of Christmas again - get caught up in knowing the Christ of Christmas and become renewed in who He is and relay that old, old story in a way that is alive, fresh, and new to a people who desperately need to HEAR that message of hope, help, deliverance, and salvation.

Please know that you and your families are in my prayers as you serve the church in the busy-ness of the season. In the busy-ness, may you find time to renew yourself in Him and from the overflow of being in His presence, may you expereince the true joy of this Holy Season.

In Christ,
Dougald

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are so right. I am trying to rest in Him today. I'm trying to get some quality time in today. I hope you do as well. I have found that sitting in the deer stand lately has been a great way to get quiet and experience His revelation of Himself. Last night I sat about 25 feet up in a pine tree overlooking a large pile of corn. I heard some noise and saw a squirrel approaching the pile of corn. He squatted down in front of that pile of corn and ate almost the whole time I was there. I thought to myself, "I'll bet that is the happiest squirrel in the entire world". We'd be happy too if we feasted daily on all that God has graciously piled up for us. Thanks for your blog! God bless you and your family this Christmas.