Category: Michael D
the Spirit of Christmas
Ray Charles sang about it.
Someone you follow on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, a Blogger, or your social media of choice is probably influencing about it.
There is a personalized Ad waiting to popup in your feed to sell you something to help you experience it.
Jacob Marley tried to warn Ebenezer Scrooge about living it.
And Charlie Brown just wants someone to tell him what “Christmas is all about.”
Linus tells a bit of the spotlight Christian Christmas story about a savior, who is Christ the Lord. Remember, the shepherds returned to the field praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told to them. The story doesn’t say what the shepherds did the next day.
Is that the same thing as the Spirit of Christmas? I know it is hard to ponder in your heart, but in a pluralistic world the Spirit of Christmas may mean a little bit more.
Is it what Linus, Lucy, and the others do for Charlie Brown, and a twinkling star that lifts voices?
All the Whos in Whoville gather and sing:
“Christmas day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp.
Welcome Christmas where we stand
Heart to heart and hand in hand.”
How will you tell someone what the spirit of Christmas is?
If that seems hard to do maybe you can be a sign of the spirit of Christmas this year.
Happy Advent!
Searching for Advent in Times Like These: hope
As Advent begins, a chorus from a Bruce Springsteen song is echoing in my mind.
Glory days, well they’ll pass you by
Bruch Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A., “Glory Days.” (Columbia Records) 1984.
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days
In times like these what are you hoping for? Does it have something to do with the glory days of your memories? Maybe it is about a time to come when, (fill in the blank), becomes a new reality or old ways rise up again.
Maybe its something that gets you out of bed to put on a brave face and go out into the day.
Is it the routine. It’s what you or people like you do.
Is it your identity or an identifying quality of you.
When I pass someone begging on one of the corners in Tulsa, I wonder what they are hoping for? How many times have they told that story? What has changed? But, I don’t stop and ask. Here is my dollar or spare change. I trust that helps you today.
I don’t know if I’m being Hope for others, but I’m searching for advent. I’m searching for a hope that’s not algorithm compiled, TikTok influenced, Tweet-able, auto-tuned, or personalized. A hope that is not a consumable, doesn’t cater to my needs, my desire, nor trying to control me because of its need for power. A hope that can’t solve my problem or protect me, but grounds me in the source of my being for this day of living. A hope that makes a “well rounded outcast out of me.”
A hope that encourages me to live, give, and love again. And again. And again. And again.