Why I Hated (a Stand-Alone) Christmas and You Should Too

S o, perhaps the word hate is a bit harsh, but honesty is a thing that happens only when the ice of pretentiousness is broken. I can already imagine the responses for this article's negative tone, but let us not mistake facing reality with negativity. We should never fear to face reality, for the world of the Bible is the real world. Wisdom shows us that there comes a point of reckoning when we can either choose to engage the world as it is or only as we wish it were. And our chance for engagement only seems more imminent with the passing months.

Christmas Keeps Coming

Pull down the lights one by one, dump the tree, then fill up your trash bags with the results of the holiday feasting, and somewhere in the depth of your mind there is a looming sense of inevitability—Christmas will be back for another round. Like an abused DVD we are forced to repeat the uncomfortable scenes, over and over, every eleven months. Christmas is always just leaving or approaching and forcing logically-thinking adults to bring out the worst in themselves.

The Definition Of Insanity

If you are the average hard working individual, your monthly spending reads something like:

AUG: Making Ends Meet

SEP: Making Ends Meet

OCT: Making Ends Meet

But once Black Friday and December come around, we become insatiable mall zombies with credit cards activated and bank accounts depleted for all possible cash. In the midst of our relocation under the nearest bridge, we are told that these actions somehow have a holy purpose:

“ Jesus is the reason for the season man”

“What does buying your nephew an X-Box have to do with Jesus?”

“X-Box represents myrrh, duh”

“What?”

To make matters worse atop of this hypocrisy, we encourage all the neighborhood kids by telling them they can expect twenty-four hour surveillance and illegal entry into their homes by some fat old man that watches them sleep? What is any level-headed adult to do?

The False Option

We do what I expect the majority of us feel forced to: grin and bear it. Just put up the tree because you have to make the place look “Christmas-y.” Just buy the gifts so the folks you secretly hate do not actually figure it out this year. Just attend all the parties, and dinners, and awkward gatherings, and just get it over with. All the while the people that do these things feel less and less in the “Christmas Spirit” as it were. Anyone that finds themselves with an inability for instant happiness is considered odd, depressed or lonely (please). Just try singing about roasting chestnuts as you watch a half-hour of the evening news and see what happiness that brings.

This season has brought me into conversation with more and more adults hopelessly trapped under the weight of this “joyous” season. Since they fail to see how flying reindeer applies to real life, they commonly resign themselves with the words: “Christmas is for kids.” Advertisers would agree but I call foul, the advertisers are mistaken.

The Answer is Advent

Christmas is only meant to be a jewel on the necklace of Advent. The ancient Christian tradition of Advent, meaning “arrival” or “coming” is the season which prepares us for Christmas. The focus of the season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ (First Advent) and the anticipation of His rescue of the saints (Second Advent) and reign on Earth. It is the beginning of the Church year and celebrated from the Sunday following Thanksgiving to the Sunday preceding Christmas. It is not a celebration of Christmas, rather Christmas is a celebration of Advent Hope and Expectation. Christmas sometimes feels messed up by itself because our forbears never intended it to be.

Greater Expectations

It reminds me of the couple that spent their entire honeymoon on a cramped futon figuring it must have been the best their parents could afford on the luxurious resort, only to discover their last night that their magnificent suite had been on the other side of the door. They had spent their nights in the foyer! Greater treasures lie within the winter season for believers in Jesus Christ.

Christmas can be a meaningful holiday but only as part of a whole. Surely department store gift cards and gingerbread men are not our greatest hopes for the season. Our Advent Expectation is that God Almighty will soon crush the corrupt systems of power and sin. Advent says, 'the world is messed up, but watch the skies because it will not be that way for long.

Advent is the hope of Malachi 4:2, that “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.”

So perhaps instead of waiting for Santa Clause Christmas Eve, we would be better served awaiting the rising of our healing sun. 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel.'

In Him,

Jean-Marc

A Familial Christmas: A Poem

A Familial Christmas: A Poem
by Jean-Marc Saint Laurent 

At my family Christmas that happens annually,

There are places for my siblings, Satan, and me.

The prince of this world, this serpent of ground,

is on special duty when family's in town.

He is never invited but comes nonetheless,

and present with us in our familiar distress.

Our tree stands resplendent, brighter than our hearts,

and he takes this opportunity to rip us apart.

He adores our festive table with food everywhere,

Suggesting his malice between swallows and stares,

and giggles and grumbles and guffaws and gravy,

by tempting the men and pushing the ladies.

Swear us? Hardly, it be not our tea

but he injects venom in our insecurities.

Little Sister's depressed and wants not to stay,

Big Brother's sarcasm kills the mood o' the day,

Mother's mad from the hours she's worked all the years,

misused and abused, she's lost all her tears.

“Hardly-there father,” says older sister the host,

“Would be more of a father if he were a ghost.”

“Have some Christmas Spirit!” is Uncle's attack,

with a sin list so long it'd fit on five plaques,

“Just look at my kids,” and the demons arise,

piercing hearts, with bellowing, whining and cries.

Insults from Cousin 2 fly sharper than tacks,

with Cousin 1 all the ready to stab them in backs.

The in-laws offend with each poor utterance,

resting with excuse of supposed ignorance.

Old friends come to visit with faces so pleasant,

to destroy and defame people not present.

But by the kids' table is Cousin number 3,

more simple and kind than others could be.

No deceit in his words, no plans on his mind,

God-given innocence puts evil in-bind.

To say what you mean and to mean what you say,

are the proper tools to put devils away.

Seeing his heart so clean, we are reminded of sin,

And the carefree children, we each had been.

Those days have long left, those days are long lost,

Yet sin was the creature he killed on the cross;

Our Jesus divine of wintry season,

and gives all our days a' filling of reason.

So let us not hope in people or sights,

or glitter, or tree, or presents or lights,

or sleigh bells or Clauses or chocolate chips,

or promises and disappointments in our relationships.

May we look to the One above whom there's no other,

and maybe He'll keep us from killing each other.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours,

Jean-Marc

The Inconsistent Biblios Bubble: A Posture Like Adam's

“...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

-Philippians 4:11-13

May I suggest to you today that mission work many times does more good for the one helping than the one being helped?

It was the week of the Haitian Earthquake 2010, I could not give money online any longer nor accept the awful site of crying children and people in distress. These were my people and I had no choice but to help. God opened an amazing door of opportunity and an outrageous ticket purchase and a few days later I was in the thick of post-disaster Port-au-Prince: U.N Troops, rocky road trips and hospital work, all with the sun unabashedly bearing down on me.

I was no holy saint or selfless hero, just a dirty and sweaty man that had the privilege of building tents to house the injured, distribute water to thirsty young mothers, encourage a few people on the way to amputation and supervise small construction and demolition projects. But when I look back, it seemed that it might as well have been me on that stretcher instead, for those I was sent to help helped me. Their faith emboldened me as their perseverance in preaching the gospel had gone unhindered and their children's laughter brought joy to my heart, all in a place of truest beauty one could ever find, regardless of apocalyptic media reports.

As I rode with my companions, crossing the border in an SUV as physically beat-up as I had become by our trip's end — I saw it. A secret oasis the country had hidden to all but a chosen few. Lush hillsides of palm tree green I am sure extended indefinitely; pools of the whitest uninhabited waters that coruscated with more brilliance than a looking glass in which I saw my future.

I was an old man, Moses beard accompanying, faithfully keeping up a home for neglected children in the green of the hills with my (yet-to-be-known) future wife. We would build a schoolhouse and train the children in maintenance of the land, along with the typical tenets of reading, writing and (a)rithmetic. We would not live under the hand of modern industry but be a free people rid of all superfluous appurtenances disguised as life's necessities. God, sun, love, water, purpose, light, grain and shade were all we really needed — somewhat like plants save the occasional taste for meat. In my heart I was given to precatory pray without uttering a word: “Lord, this is where I want to die.”

I was told the place was named La Gran Bourik, it is not found on any internet search, I am afraid, or written down in many places, if at all, but my friends I have seen it and it rests inside my heart, where it ages not a single day but sits frozen in the same resplendence of that afternoon's daydream.

In our hearts and minds is a place that no currency can ever console and no status will ever stimulate, it is where God lives or at least wants to. And where the Son of God, Jesus Christ wishes to re-purpose and remind you of what is truly important in all circumstances

Life is not always simple and I unfortunately returned to my typical metropolitan living after that day, but the vision never died, it only gets stronger. A vision of a place often read of in Sunday schools.

I have seen it and it rests inside my heart. 

In Him,

Jean-Marc 

His Pleasure to My Delight

2 Days left to live and counting!(Would it not be horrible if you read this after May 21, 2011? : )

Just as the impending apocalypse, today I contemplate things both simple yet difficult to grasp:

One of the problems with being a lukewarm christian is that you hardly know a thing.

The church's 2007 college mission trip seemed like a pretty good way to get out of my monotonous work week as a home healthcare provider. So after paying the deposit (and having them pick up the rest of the tab), making it through customs and meeting with our host "missionaries". I found myself handing out spiritual interest surveys in front of our makeshift kiosk in the mall of the University of Alberta (Canada, that is)


It was there that would come a moment although brief, bothers me to this day. I still do not remember his face or voice, only his question as he completed the survey:


"So...is being a Christian fun?" he slyly inquired.


And with aikido-type leverage, my lightweight spiritual understanding was thrown into the air.


"Uh...yeah" I retorted nonplussed yet he seemed satisfied that he had stunned me.


Reading between the lines
Any actor worth his grain of salt is familiar with the term 'subtext'. It refers to what is really being expressed underneath the words being spoken.


So just as a crazed lover in a horror film, holds a knife above her head while telling the object of her obsession: "We'll be together forever!"So was this college student saying more than I could audibly hear.
What I did seem to make out was something like: "Poor Christians, missing out on everything" .


You have heard and felt it before, I am sure; when you explain to co-workers that from which you abstain and why, all the while being the recipient of these sorry looks that seem to say: "Oh well, more for us!"


As long as I can (and I know others of us can) remember, it would seem as though faith and fun were somehow enemies or at best distant cousins in need of reconciliation.


So have you reconciled them?
"Is Being A Christian Fun" or better yet "Is it pleasurable?"


May I be honest with you, for the last few weeks, I am not sure it has been.
As of late, it would seem that I have experienced more self-judgment than joy. Here are just a taste of my most recent "convictions" in the last month:


1) I live in the West and therefore have no reason to complain for anything
2)I do not deserve to buy anything other than dire necessities
3)I hang out after church too much
4)I complain at work too much
5)I do not hang out with my friends enough
6)I eat out too much
7)I should stop eating out too much and support mission work
8) I do not smile enough, I should always 'look' joyful, especially living in the West
9) I do not witness enough
10) I do not witness well enough
11) I care too much about what others think
12)I do not consider others enough
13) I should be praying more
14) I should be praying less and doing more
15)I should give more to the church
16)I should give less to the church and more to national missionaries


With thoughts like these on constant rotation, the Christian life feels like a merry-go-round of the mind; it is enough to make you not want to think of it or worse – get off.


And that is the danger of a "Christian" life devoid of pleasure: being only human and requiring some form of enjoyment, we will look for pleasure elsewhere, if only out of necessity.


Joy=Pleasure
In the New International Version of the Bible, translators had chosen to translate the same Hebrew word as both 'joy' and 'pleasure'. When the connotation was positive, 'joy' was used and when it was negative, 'pleasure'. That being said, Nehemiah 8:10 could be read as: "Do not grieve, for the [pleasure] of the LORD is your strength."


So I ask, where is our sense of strength today?


Many argue and I would agree, that instead of only warning our youth of all the dangers of "the World" (which when I last checked, we lived in), we should exhibit the benefits of holy living: a clear conscience, honest friendship and fellowship, clear vision and growing wisdom among other rewards.


Does anyone ever successfully accomplish riding a bike by learning 'how not to fall'? Or do they look forward to the prospect of future independence and the journeys ahead?


Would you think more or less of a married man, pacing about his office repeating to himself: "I will not have an affair! I will not have an affair!"? Would not his time and energy be better spent on strengthening his marriage through prayer and deed to be invulnerable to such sinful notions?


Question: Then why is it that so many of us walk out our renewed lives in this fashion?

Answer: Because we do not fully get it.


The Feast of Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of First Fruits, The Feast of Weeks, The Feast of Trumpets; these and more were annually celebrated by God's people in the Old Testament. 1 Kings 8:65 even describes how King Solomon and the people of Israel celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles for fourteen days! Some today can hardly hang for an hour without feeling convicted.


What had Old Testament believers learned that we New Testament saints have largely yet to grasp?
- That the goodness of God is only worthy of a life filled with celebration!


"Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above"
-James 1:16-17


The reason many of us feel bad for feeling good is that we have dragged our old thoughts and preconceived notions of 'holy' and 'worldly' into our renewed relationship with God.


What an amazing lie it is that Satan has some sort of monopoly on pleasure. He is incapable of creating anything, therefore he is only left with the option of having humans pervert God's good gifts.


So what are godly pleasures?
-Any gift recognized as coming from "the Father of heavenly lights": a baby's laugh, peanut butter, sex, stimulating conversation, a satisfying meal, a hearty laugh, a restful night's sleep, uplifting worship, truthful spiritual communion, a magnificent run, an empowering workout, an inspirational word, good music – and the list is endless.


(The other day I had a cup of Colombian Medium Roast lightly sweetened with honey to the glory of God, I would highly recommended it.)


In his message delivered on May 17, 2009, the message that brought me back to faith, Ravi Zacharias spoke on the "Problem of Pleasure". He reasoned that true pleasure, was that whose benefit was experienced after it had been paid for however false pleasure was that which could be immediately enjoyed but would have to be paid for after the fact.


It is fascinating to think of how God shields us with his goodness: how he knew Adam and Eve would be tempted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and so provided them with several other good trees as an alternative and how God knew many of us would be tempted by sexual immorality and therefore provided the gift of marriage for the expression of physical intimacy. Godly pleasures help protect us from sin.


With the alarming amount of prominent Christian figures being publicly humiliated for acting on some illicit desire, we should truly ask ourselves what godly pleasures were lacking in the lives of the defamed and proactively fortify our lives with enjoyment worthy of our Savior, so as to recognize a tin-pot substitute when it appears.


Christian man and Christian woman, believe this: Unless you have found pure pleasure in friendship with the opposite sex(or avoid them entirely), you will fall prey to the seduction of an ungodly relationship – guaranteed.


And until contentment is found in honest and open relationships with our friends and family, we will continue to suffer in the subtext of the verbiage: "I'm good, everything's going well".


And may I ask whom it benefits when we are joyless?


Lately I have become acutely aware of this: that Satan our enemy has seen much of our turning from sin and has devised a "new" strategy (at least for me it is): to condemn us through "convictions", puff up our pride through "piety" and kill off good pleasures through an imbalanced sense of "duty".


And after all of it, we are left feeling insecure with our only consolation being religious pride that separates us from the heart of God and yet deceives us into boasting of how we are somehow closer to Him than everyone else.


The greatest deception the devil can create is that it is God that condemns and he that liberates.
O, how many souls have we spoken with that have left the church because "God" was too hard and "God" was too strict?" Yet they have yet to truly meet Him.


Does it make sense that we should experience less joy after encountering Christ?


Pleasing Son, Loving Father
Consider the following:


"As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
-Matthew 3:16-17


Question: What had Jesus done up to the point of being baptized that had His Father, Father God, pleased with him?

Answer:Be His Son


No healing, no preaching, no walking on water yet – just being.


I am so sure of the many fabulous things the Lord has planned for us, that I do not even try to imagine how the earth could contain all this greatness – but whatever good you do or do not do, it will not make God anymore pleased with you than He is right now by simply being His Son or Daughter.
If you are even vaguely familiar with scripture and are anything like me, your mind is fighting tooth and nail to correct the last statement (it is by His grace I have not deleted it) but the Word corrects us both.


Consider for one moment the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation, as a single written statement from God. How would it read? If the Bible is truly God's love letter to us, would it not express a father's concern and say:


"Turn to me children and live as though you are mine?"


In reading through the Word, the only reason I can confidently find for God giving it, is His desire for our best.


"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full"
-John 10:10


This verse has come up a few times in my readings as of late. Scholars agree that the "life" Jesus was referring to was to begin right away, it would be our taste of Heaven 'now' that would last 'forever'.


Friends, in knowing each of you and the world in which we live, I am convinced that what we are in need of today to strengthen our souls, is a taste of His heavenly pleasure. If we could fill up on His good, I can not imagine a sufficient excuse for tolerating anything less.


In Him,

Jean-Marc


P.S.-For deeper dive into this topic, I recommend Gary Thomas's book "Pure Pleasure: Why Christians Feel So Bad About Feeling So Good" (Available as a FREE e-book online)