3 Ways To Fight Discouragement This Christmas
November 19, 2021 | Nicole Chavers Stratton
Life is fast. Life is complicated. Life is hard. And if I’m being honest I would normally just scroll past a blog like this, not because I don’t care about reclaiming the true meaning of Christmas, but because I already feel like a failure so often. I don’t want to be reminded in a blog of all the great things others are doing with their loved ones this season that I’m failing to do, or frankly don’t have time to do with mine.
#1: Realize Nobody’s Perfect
Christmas can make me feel like I’m not enough. Is that too real for you, or can you relate? I mean let’s be honest, the Christmas season, while wonderful, can also be rather tough. There are decisions to be made about family gatherings or the lack thereof, what to buy, can we afford what we want to buy, and just the overall pressure of having everything perfect. But this is where I’d like to stop right now and ask you the question, Why? Why does it have to be perfect? I mean, isn’t the whole point of why Christ came as a baby centered around the idea that we as the collective human race have sinned, messed up, utterly failed and we have no power to fix it or be perfect? If the whole point of Christmas is about the lack of man’s perfection and the need for a perfect God to come and redeem mankind back to Himself, why are we putting so much pressure on ourselves to be perfect?
So friend, my first ‘point’ for you as it were is to stop, BREATH, and recognize the fact that you can’t be perfect! Release that desire and social pressure to the Lord and let Him take that burden from you. All we can do is our best. All he desires is our heart, so let that be your focus this Christmas. Then no matter what happens with family, food, or finances, you can have a heart that is joyful and pleasing to Christ and keep the focus on the only One who is perfect this Christmas, your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
#2: Have Crucial Conversation
The reason most young people are leaving the church today is because they are not having real conversations about real issues. Christianity has become commercialized and ‘fake’ feeling. So, this Christmas, let’s band together to have some crucial conversations with our children about the TRUE Christmas story and it’s meaning. Let’s talk about Mary and Joseph, but not just what we typically hear about them, let’s talk to our children about who they truly were and the real struggles they faced. The social pressure of being looked down upon because Mary was with child before their marriage. The financial and physical pressure of the long journey to Bethlehem for Caesar’s census. Let’s paint the picture for them, not of the cookie cutter kind of children’s story but the true story of faith and sacrifice and in doing so we will rekindle inside of them and in our own hearts the true purpose of this holy season.
This is one of the reasons that I chose the story of The Other Wise Man for us to perform this year in The Logos Theatre. I wanted families to have a place where they could come and experience a unique and real take on the Christmas story. Something that would be deep and meaningful and The Other Wise Man was the perfect story to do just that. It isn’t your typical dancing singing Christmas show, but it is real and it is beautiful. It tells the story of an outsider in the Christmas story, a man named Artaban who also saw the star which told him of the coming King. It shows how Artaban believed the prophecies of old and sold all he had to give a matchless gift to the Christ child. It also follows his journey and all the things that befall him along his way to worshiping the King.
It’s a story that challenges the audience to see Christ as He is. He is our Prophet, Priest, and King, but most importantly, He is our Savior, and as we see Artaban’s life transformed by this truth, we are reminded of that same miracle that works in the lives of every believer. When I was growing up, my favorite holiday tradition was focused around this transformation. Every New Years, my parents would have us make a small paper cutout of a person, and they would ask us to write down all of the things we had struggled with that year, all the things that we wanted to leave behind. It wasn’t something we shared with anybody else, but in those moments of introspection, I had to honestly think about what kind of a person I was. It was real, honest, and difficult, but when it was done, all of us took our little paper cutouts and we burned them in our fireplace. My parents wanted to give us this powerful picture of a precious truth: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” But my parents didn’t stop there. We would then make another paper person, and we would write all the ways we wanted to grow and change the next year. And then we would keep them in our Bibles as a reminder of how Christ had made us a new creature. I wonder what Christmas time would mean to our families if we allowed this truth to guide our thoughts. If we took the time to celebrate the precious gift of God’s Son, and the daily renewal and transformation we can find in Him, would we be burdened down by the feelings of failure, or would we be filled with gratitude towards our perfect and loving Lord?
#3: Rejoice in the Moment
Christmas time is precious. And it seems so often like those precious moments are slipping away. My final point for my readers is to rejoice in every moment you have with your family. Don’t let the rush and pressure of the season distract you from the fact that God has given us so much! Rejoice and be glad! Remember that the Savior is born! And through His life and sacrifice, joy and peace is offered to all who believe on Him!
If our children see us living that way this Christmas, it will open their eyes to what it truly means to be a new creature in Christ! Your own example of rejoicing in the truth of the season can bring them into a deeper understanding of Christ and what He has done for us! Give them a picture, imperfect, but genuine, of Christ’s transformation. Here at The Logos Theatre, we get to see that picture lived out on the stage with our production of The Other Wise Man. This production will of course have the grandeur and production value that you have come to expect from The Logos Theatre, but the message is the thing that brings us joy. It is one that will stay with you the rest of your life! And let’s be honest, our children don’t need more stuff, they need a real encounter with Jesus Christ! They need to see wealthy successful people willing to sell all for Him. They need to see what it looks like to seek after Christ with all your heart, mind and strength and this production does just that.
So this Christmas let’s not focus on trying to make everything perfect or even seem perfect to those around us. Let’s first focus on our hearts and make sure we are celebrating the only perfect One in a way that would please Him. Let’s make memories with our children that are centered around Christ’s birth, His life, death and triumphal resurrection! That is the true reason for the season and when we make that a priority in your family’s life, your children will sit up and take notice. We hope you will make The Logos Theatre part of your family’s Christmas tradition as well! We are working hard to bring you and your families stories of hope and purpose. Stories that will begin crucial conversations in your home and create amazing memories that your family will cherish for years to come! We can’t wait to see you and celebrate our Savior together in this exciting and unique way! So from our family to yours, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
