Today’s post is part of an eight-author blog series and massive giveaway! You can enter the giveaway below, and be sure to read my friends’ posts. All the info is at the bottom of the post!
I love lots of Christmas traditions:
Classic Christmas movies. (Somebody posted a comment on Facebook the other day asking if she’s missing out by never having seen It’s a Wonderful Life. It was all I could do to stop crying and pull myself together before replying.)
Christmas candy…especially candy that other people make. I tend to have issues when I attempt to make it myself. (Seriously, ask my family about Melissa trying to make peanut brittle. You’ll hear words like “smoke,” “charred,” and “how is the house still standing?”)
Christmas decorations. Snow. The candlelight Christmas Eve service. FAMILY.
But there is one Christmas tradition that has far too easily taken up center stage my past few Christmases. And I don’t like it. I don’t like it in a little kid, stomp my foot, stick out my bottom lip and go full-on Veruca Salt kind of way. It’s a little tradition I like to call…busyness.
Now don’t think this blog post is about how we’re all too busy and we need to slow down. I mean, yes, we do need to slow down sometimes. We need to say no. We need to de-clutter our lives at times. I even wrote a blog post about that very thing earlier thing this year (not that I’ve been so good at listening to my own words).
But that’s not what this post is about.
‘Cause, see, sometimes we can’t slow down and say no. Sometimes—like at Christmas, maybe especially at Christmas—we can’t or don’t want to miss out on things like family gatherings and church programs and gift giving. Some of us can’t just take weeks off work or stop working toward deadlines. The calendar may feel crowded but if you’re like me, you may look at yours and say, “What could I possibly nix?”
Answer: nothing.
But I read a quote in a book earlier this year…it’s one I’ve come back to all year long, especially at the times when I feel like an out-of-breath-runner. (Which might be the worst analogy ever considering I don’t even remember the last time I ran other than to save cookies from over-baking.) It’s a quote from one of my favorite books of the year—Jesus Is Better than You Imagined by Jonathan Merritt. Here’s the quote:
The Bible’s God doesn’t settle in a single place waiting for us to show up, but one who scatters his presence in every nook and cranny like wedding rice.
That quote popped into my head again this week as I was thinking about busyness. It struck me that I don’t have to clear my calendar to experience God’s presence in my life this Christmas. I don’t have to find some perfect oasis of calm.
Sure, I’m going to take a few days off from both writing and work this week and it will be a gloriously wonderful shock to the system.
But even on the crammed-full days—the ones when I’m running from a wedding to a family gathering, trying to wrap presents and make food without burning anything and/or poisoning anyone, working my day job then coming home at night to write—I can still experience joy. And peace. And the wonder of Christ’s birth. Because God is in every nook and cranny.
It’s not about stepping away so I can find Him, but about looking closer wherever I already am to see where He already is.
And frankly, when my attitude makes this kind of shift, the busyness looks a whole lot different. Suddenly it’s not just stuff filling my days. It’s opportunity after opportunity to see God at work in my life and those around me, from the most mundane of everyday activities to the sparkly fun of Christmas-time.
In which case, maybe the busyness isn’t so bad after all. 🙂
*****
These are all the gifts my friends and I are giving away. Awesome loot!
Eight author friends and I have joined together to put on a Christmas blog series with an accompanying mega giveaway! We have over $100 worth of prizes to give away to one winner. Enter form is below. And here are all the other authors participating in the tour:
– 12/10 – Beth Vogt: A copy of Somebody Like You or A November Bride (winner’s choice); a $5 Starbucks card
– 12/12 – Cara Putman: A copy of Where Treetops Glisten; B&B Works lotion
– 12/14 – Kristy Cambron: A copy of The Butterfly and the Violin or A Sparrow in Terezin (winner’s choice); a $5 Starbucks card
– 12/16 – Katherine Reay: A copy of Lizzy & Jane or Dear Mr. Knightley (winner’s choice); a Lizzy & Jane tumbler
– 12/18 – Katie Ganshert: A copy of A Broken Kind of Beautiful; an audio copy of An October Bride
– 12/20 – Courtney Walsh: A copy of Paper Hearts; Christmas artwork
– 12/22 – Melissa Tagg: A copy of Here to Stay; an It’s a Wonderful Life DVD
– 12/ 24 – Sarah Ladd: A copy of A Lady at Willowgrove Hall; a Pride and PrejudiceDVD
Comments 22
We have family visiting this Christmas and we have done our best to not plan anything and just have fun together. That’s the best way to spend this week. 😉
Author
Hope you have a wonderful time with your family. 🙂
Now that is a great quote! Thanks for sharing it. I think I will be reminding myself of it over and over as we inch towards Christmas.
Author
I know, it is such a wonderful quote! I don’t even know how many times it’s come to mind ever since I read that book.
This is such a great way of looking at it. Thanks for the encouragement!
Author
You’re welcome, Angela. Have a wonderful Christmas!
Blackaby ~ joining God in what He is already doing ~ Experiencing God
So rich! Thank you for this post. Kathleen ~ Lane Hill House
Author
You’re welcome, Kathleen. Thanks much for stopping by. 🙂
I love making Swedish Tea Rings with women in my family in honor of my grandmother who did it with me as a child and for generations before this.
Author
Oh my grandma makes those! Mmm…
Immanuel-God with us! And He is with us everywhere, in everything, everyday! Thanks for the reminder to see Him! Merry Christmas!
Author
You’re welcome, Joyce, and hope you have a Merry Christmas too!
I love your referral type Veruca Salt and I completely empathize with that statement. It seems the busyness of the season can become rather overwhelming. I have to be very intentional about commitments I make this time of year. Not everything is a priority.
Author
Very true, Kandi. Everything can’t be a priority. Although, it’s hard sometimes discerning what should be a top priority and what shouldn’t. 🙂
Merry Christmas!
Spending Christmas Eve with my husband’s family in Miami. Since our daughter has to go back to work in NJ – we are having Christmas tomorrow. So fun! Baking all day!!!
Author
Fun! I hope you enjoy the day. 🙂
Just spending a quiet Christmas with my family. Merry Christmas.
Author
I love quiet, calm holidays. 🙂
Spending Christmas at my house with family. My husband is off of work for a couple of weeks, so it’s nice having him and the kids home during the holiday season. 🙂
Author
Fun to have your husband home…enjoy!
Expecting snow for a white Christmas in Montana! It will be beautiful! Thankful for the moisture God sends, but not crazy about driving in it. Not everyone is so fortunate to live in GOD’s COUNTRY – we Montanans LOVE our state! Come visit us & see for yourself what your missing!!
Author
I’ve driven through a corner of Montana before but never spent much time there otherwise. It’d be fun to visit for a longer time sometime. And yay for a white Christmas! We finally got snow in Iowa yesterday too…so pretty!