Bah......humbug

HUMBUG DAY

When the stresses of the holiday season have piled up, many of us start to feel a bit like Scrooge.  This day was created to allow us an opportunity to express our frustrations.  Humbug Day is celebrated annually on December 21.

I often use "national day of ..." calendars and postings in my Jamberry business.  It is fun to find images of certain events and pair nail art wraps with those.  People love to go all out in costumes for events and holidays.  Take the current Star Wars obsession!  Clothes, toys, parties and even other shows are talking about Star Wars.  I  had some friends of mine (more than one actually) dress their entire family up in costumes in order to attend a viewing of the new movie. I would say that it is a safe bet that many living rooms will be filled with Star Wars items when packages are unwrapped in just a few days.

Here is another one - sports teams or schools.  Oh my stars and garters...... people are over the top when it comes to their sports teams and I'm probably going to step on some toes with this one, the world is NOT going to come to an end if you don't wear a certain color or if 'your team' isn't worshiped by everyone else around you.   Worship is a powerful word, and for most of us the first thing that comes to mind is church.  When I got out my favorite dictionary (Webster's 1828 American Dictionary) I found 7 definitions of worship as a noun and several more as a verb.  I am going to list some of these and I would like you to reflect on where you place God, a favorite movie, your college or pro team, another person, a family tradition or a treasured possession in the definition:

Worship: to adore; to pay divine honors to; to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission.  To perform acts of adoration.   (I don't think worship is too strong of a word when I see some people that will miss all other things in order to watch their team play or to completely arrange schedules to revolve around a movie premier).

Yesterday as my husband and I were watching some football (since there was nothing else much on!), the announcers were talking about the upcoming schedule as the pro season winds down.  There will be a game on Thursday night, as Thursday Night Football has become routine over the last few years. Thursday night will be a little different at our house, and it has nothing to do with football! Christmas Eve is Thursday night.  I think it is safe to say that there will be hundreds of thousands of people sitting in a stadium watching that game - some even baring their chest, painted in the team colors and waving bizarre signs and acting crazy with hopes of being seen on the Jumbotron.  Still countless others will be watching on televisions - instead of sitting in a church pew and then around a meal table to discuss the reason we even call that day Christmas Eve. There will also be some that will 'worship' at the altar of certain family traditions, at all costs, when all reference to Jesus has been lost somewhere along the way.

It is evident that I love this season and all that goes along with it.  My home is decorated and I practice traditions that have been passed along for many years.  My "scrooge' comes out in other ways.  I wrote earlier in the season on this blog about expectations vs reality.  Time changes things and as I get older I realize that I don't like that very much.  I long for 'the way things were'.  I'm not going to dwell too much in the scrooge mode though.  Writing this entry today is one way to let it go.  To release the frustration that not everyone sees things the way I do. To ask "why, Jesus?"  Not "why Jesus" but WHY, Jesus do I feel this way?"  Why is it easier to worship things, money, athletes, events, traditions, and it is so hard to simply stop and worship you?  YOU , the one that can and does make the biggest impact on my life?  WHY do I push you so far down the list?  

For many people, me included, this next few days will be filled with activities.  My 6 year old granddaughter is out of school so she will be spending days with me.  I do  have things planned, things like baking and wrapping and anticipating.  As I write this my  'anti scrooge' plan is to slow down a bit. Take some time as we do all of these things to just talk, to visit with her about Jesus. To perhaps build up the spiritual traditions that I hold so dear, and lessen the material ones.  She has difficult things going on in her life, the first year of journeying through back and forth visitations with families as her parents figure out 'divorce'.  The family isn't going to look the same for her ever again, but Jesus will. How can I make Jesus more real for her, to sustain her through the many frustrating things that are to come in life? How can I share, on her 6 year old level, that believing in something you can't see is a comforting thing when the things you do see are so upsetting? How can I 'be Jesus'  to the neighbor, a young woman that battled through breast cancer alone, and all she wants is a mate? How can I comfort my friend that will face her first Christmas without her daughter that she lost to drugs?  It would be much easier to just immerse myself in the pretty part of the season, but these painful and dark things are really more the norm -all of them will still be here when all of the wrappings are discarded on Christmas morning.  Now ask yourself, "why Jesus"?  Because in all of it - he will be here, he IS here, and that is why we call it CHRISTmas.

Have a little moment - get your 'scrooge out' on Humbug Day, then draw closer to the One who waits to hold you up and help you through.