Firm foundations

Before I start properly on this new post, can I first apologise for the seeming way that my blog doesn't really flow and that my posts are all on completely different topics. In some ways this also reflects my current state of mind, as I do flit from one thing to another generally, but in another sense it's partly an artifact of the blog cause I only post now and again. So, after having said that, I'm sorry for yet ANOTHER post on another different topic !

I was in church this evening (good service btw, apart from the fact that my hurting knee was distracting me a lot so I ended up sitting most of the time, but that's another story, which I'm sure you don't really want to know about...although, if any of you Christian friends of mine have a spare moment, prayer would be appreciated, as my knee is giving me quite a lot of trouble and is getting worse). Anyway, as I was saying, I was sitting in church, and had a moment where I was just thinking about Christmas. In the past few weeks, most people have been talking about whether they feel "Christmassy" yet, and whether they feel in the Christmas mood and like writing Christmas cards etc. And I've been getting caught up in this too, thinking that after my shopping trip yesterday I was feeling more "Christmassy" and more ready for Christmas. But in fact I'm not ready for it at all. I thought: Feeling "Christmassy", what does it really mean ? Surely it's just a state of mind and emotion which we hype ourselves up into ? In fact, the real reason why we celebrate Christmas is far more solid and firm than that. It doesn't come one day and go the next, like the feeling of "being Christmassy" does. Why do we celebrate Christmas ? It's because we're celebrating when Jesus came into the world as a human, to live the human life, and then ultimately to die that humiliating and painful death so that we could be brought back into relationship with God (He then rose again !) I was just thinking how amazing that really is. I just can't get my mind round the fact that Jesus would choose to do that for us, choosing to go through all the pains and trials of life on this earth, and then how it ended too.

What I'm really trying to say, in my long-winded rambly way, is that in fact we surely shouldn't feel the need to be concerned with "making ourselves feel Christmassy" because the foundation for Christmas is much more solid than that. (Hope you see what I'm saying ?) And before any of you interpret me wrongly,I'm not saying Christmas lights and trees and cards etc are bad and we shouldn't have them, I love seeing all the pretty lights as much as anyone else, (in fact possibly more than some people). I'm just saying that I (and probably all of us ?) need to be careful not to let all of that "wrapping paper" distract me from the gift inside the wrapping paper, of what Christmas is really all about, like I have been up until now.

I find, for me at least, that to be true about a lot of areas of my life: that my life can be an emotional rollercoaster. I feel so excited one moment I can hardly contain myself, and the next can feel so down. But there is something more solid than my feelings, and I want to learn to live more and more not just being ruled by my emotions, which are good things sometimes, but are also here one minute and gone the next. I want to learn more and more how I can put my trust in Jesus more and live with His truth as the rock under my feet which never changes.


p.s. Just before I go, I feel I should tell a Christmas related joke (since a few of my posts have been on this theme recently) - i apologize in advance that it is so bad:
Q: "What goes 'Ho, Ho, Ho, swish" ?
A: Santa Clause stuck in a revolving door ! *Groan* :-)
(I may unleash more Christmas jokes on you next week)