Over the weekend, all of our Christmas decorations went back in the box. The lights came off the house. The stockings were unhung. Even the tree got thrown into our “Christmas Tree Graveyard” where rests last years tree and the tree from the year before. One of these days I will get someone with a truck the help me get those to the dump, but that’s another blog for another day.
As we were putting the decorations away we lamented over the loss of the Christmas season. Even though we started celebrating early November, and even though we had four “Christmas Day’s” stretching from Thanksgiving to Dec 26th, it was still hard to say goodbye. The thing about Christmas is that it comes with so much excitement and so may expectations that when it’s over, it is sad to see it go. The reality is, often our expectations of Christmas and the season are too high, and so we are sad that our unrealistic expectations are not met year after year.
I think sometimes we do the same thing to God. We often create our own god to be what we want, and then get angry or bitter when he doesn’t play by our rules. We spend our time searching for a god we invented, one that we can understand and put in a box, and we miss the real God who loves us and wants a relationship with us. We get caught up in our false expectations and miss the real love of God, and so we pack Him away because He isn’t the way we want Him to be. It’s January, and all of the things from 2010 are gone. Don’t let God go with them, instead experience Him all over again in 2011 without faulty expectations but in Spirit and Truth.
For more on the reality of God, check out OASIS this week at Calvary, Wednesday Night 6:30
As we were putting the decorations away we lamented over the loss of the Christmas season. Even though we started celebrating early November, and even though we had four “Christmas Day’s” stretching from Thanksgiving to Dec 26th, it was still hard to say goodbye. The thing about Christmas is that it comes with so much excitement and so may expectations that when it’s over, it is sad to see it go. The reality is, often our expectations of Christmas and the season are too high, and so we are sad that our unrealistic expectations are not met year after year.
I think sometimes we do the same thing to God. We often create our own god to be what we want, and then get angry or bitter when he doesn’t play by our rules. We spend our time searching for a god we invented, one that we can understand and put in a box, and we miss the real God who loves us and wants a relationship with us. We get caught up in our false expectations and miss the real love of God, and so we pack Him away because He isn’t the way we want Him to be. It’s January, and all of the things from 2010 are gone. Don’t let God go with them, instead experience Him all over again in 2011 without faulty expectations but in Spirit and Truth.
For more on the reality of God, check out OASIS this week at Calvary, Wednesday Night 6:30
No comments:
Post a Comment