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Blue Christmas
I’ll [Not] Have
a Blue Christmas: Reasons to Rejoice and Be Happy This Christmas
BY RANDY ALCORN
All of us, for better or for worse, experience the holidays each
year.
From mid-November to early January, our lives change, bringing
many delightful things, but also stress and fatigue.
Family tensions (whose house do we go to when?), never-ending
to-do lists, financial difficulties, unrealistic expectations — reasons for
unhappiness abound.
Is it possible to find genuine happiness during the Christmas
season, even in the midst of the pressures? Yes.
True happiness—the kind Jesus offers—is at the heart of what
Christmas is all about!
Consider the angel’s message
to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth: “I
bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10).
The Greek adjective translated “great” here is megas — this isn’t
just news, but good news of “mega-joy.” It’s the best news there has ever been
or ever will be.
What characterizes this good news is deep, everlasting joy for
those who receive it.
The Contemporary English Version
renders the verse this way: “good news
for you, which will make everyone happy.”
Isaiah 52:7 says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the
feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of
happiness” (ESV).
Here God tells us directly that our mission is bringing everyone
the “good news of happiness” about Jesus. .
If the message we share and model at Christmastime and all year
long doesn’t include happiness, then it contradicts God’s direct words in
Isaiah 52:7.
The gospel offers an exchange of misery-generating sin for
happiness-giving righteousness provided by Jesus Himself — joy incarnate,
happiness in human flesh. The gospel is happy-making!
Each stanza of “O Come All Ye faithful” contains
sentiments of true happiness: “joyful and
triumphant,” “sing in exultation,” “born this happy morning.”
Joy, exultation, and happiness are proper responses to Jesus. A
gospel not characterized by overwhelming gladness isn’t the gospel.
A Christmas without a deep, God-given happiness isn’t reflecting
the good news of Jesus.
So how do we experience true happiness during this season? It
starts with a godly perspective, a right way of looking at life.
An Eternal Perspective
A reconciled relationship with God, coupled with an
understanding of the biblical teaching of a resurrected Heaven and Earth,
assures us utter happiness will be ours forever.
This happiness will be fully realized in the promised
culmination of God’s redemptive plan, in the New Heaven and New Earth.
For various reasons, Christmas can be a difficult season for
many people.
Yet God comforts His people
in suffering, saying, “Look, I am ready
to create new heavens and a new earth!” (Isaiah 65:17, NET).
What should be our response to this promise?
God uses joy-drenched words to describe this New Earth, a place
where his people will bring happiness not only to each other but also to him:
Be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create!
For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy,
and her people to be a source of happiness. Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my
people will bring me happiness. The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will
never be heard in her again. (Isaiah 65:18-19, NET)
The forever that awaits us should color our lives now.
We should daily frontload eternity’s joys into our present
experience by focusing on Christ and anticipating the Heaven that awaits us.
Right Expectations about Life
and Suffering
This same eternal perspective will help us adjust our
expectations about life under the Curse, especially during the holidays.
A biblical worldview is supremely optimistic and joyful, but it
also recognizes the present reality of a fallen world.
By lowering our expectations that all should go our way
presently, and raising our expectations of eternal life, we can experience true
happiness now.
Considering the judgment we deserve, every happiness, small or
large, is an undeserved gift — the grace of God.
When we experience happiness now, we’re grateful; when we don’t,
we know someday our happiness will be complete and never-ending.
God doesn’t say we’ll never have hardship or suffering — he
specifically promises we will (John 16:33).
We’re not to be surprised when we face difficulties, even around
Christmastime.
Whether it’s something as
insignificant as a burnt turkey or as overwhelming as the loss of a loved one,
God tells us: “Beloved, do not be
surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though
something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).
If we expect God to make our lives easy, our expectations are
unbiblical.
As Christians, we’ll be delivered from eternal suffering.
Even now, God will give us happy foretastes of living in His
presence where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).
That’s his promise. And what better
time to focus on living in his presence than Christmastime?
Our outlook is changed when
we remember that our afflictions are Father-filtered by the God who knows all,
governs all, and sovereignly weaves all together for our good: “We know that for those who love God all
things work together for good, for those who are called according to his
purpose” (Romans 8:28).
The more we grow in our understanding of God’s sovereign grace and
loyal love, the happier we become.
We don’t have an all-powerful God who doesn’t care; neither do
we have a caring God who is powerless to make good things happen. We serve a
Creator who loves us and is sovereign over the universe, including all evil.
Our circumstances do matter. Broken relationships can be felt
more deeply at Christmastime.
Expectations about gifts received or given can bring anxiety.
Comparing how others celebrate Christmas can bring sadness,
especially if we feel left out. But all circumstances are opportunities for
growth and our ultimate good.
When they threaten to overwhelm us, these difficulties remind us
to look to our Rock and Redeemer (Psalm 19:14).
Truly, “the joy of the
Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
This is also an encouraging message for those who feel lonely
around the holidays, and wish their lives weren’t less busy, but more.
Even if not many friends and loved ones are nearby, Christ
promises he will be with people always (Matthew 28:20), and will never leave
or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
Acting on the Right
Perspective
We can control our
thoughts and attitudes. They’re not foreign invaders against which we are
helpless.
Paul said, “Fix your thoughts on what is true. . . .
Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8, NLT).
This doesn’t happen automatically. But once we develop the habit
and experience its rewards, we instinctively turn our minds to what makes us
happy in Christ.
Of course, we should never
flippantly say, “Happiness is a choice.”
It’s not always easy to choose happiness in Christ.
Embracing happiness is not merely working harder to pull up our
minds and moods, as we would our bootstraps. Rather, it’s gratefully receiving
God’s grace and happiness.
God provides everything we need to be happy, and empowers us
through his Spirit to believe in him and obey.
At the same time, he leaves it to us to adopt a right
perspective and make the choices that result in happiness.
God empowers us through his Spirit to believe in him and obey
him.
He also calls upon us to genuinely cooperate with him, which
requires our effort as we draw on his strength and grace (Philippians 2:12-13).
Happiness from Gratitude
Coupled with Humble Service
When life is viewed with a spirit of thankfulness, we’ll see the
reasons for happiness that surround us.
God gives us hundreds of reasons to be grateful every hour — ask
Him to open your eyes to them, especially during what should be a joyful season
of celebrating Christ’s birth!
Developing the discipline of gratitude brings greater praise to
God and greater happiness for ourselves.
When life’s tough, we can still be grateful that God is with us
and that He’s using it for our good.
No matter your circumstances this Christmas, there’s happiness
to be found in being grateful for God’s provision, and seeking to serve and
help others.
“In humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let
each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of
others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
Cultivating Christ-Centered
Holiday Happiness
Happiness comes naturally in the same sense that fruit comes
naturally from a tree.
If the tree gets sufficient sunshine and water, if the ground is
nutrient-rich, then yes, it “naturally” produces fruit.
Yet the joy spoken of in Galatians 5:22 is also the
supernatural fruit of the Spirit who indwells God’s children.
We must plant ourselves in the rich soil of God’s Word, soak in
the living water of God and his people, and bask in the radiant sunlight of His
grace.
Then happiness will come (super)naturally — happiness made
possible by our God who became a man, who suffered, died and rose again so we
could experience substantial happiness now, as well as ultimate and unending
happiness in our eternal home.
Learn more in Randy's book Happiness.
This article also appears in
the November/December 2015 issue of More to Life magazine.
Randy Alcorn (@randyalcorn) is the author of over fifty books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective
Ministries.
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