TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Advent Sets Table For Christmas

ADVERTISEMENT

By DEREK MAUL Special to the Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 29, 2008

Do you ever despair of making it through December with your faith intact?

Are you tempted to walk away from the performance art Christmas has become?

Do you sometimes dread this time of the year because you're sick and tired of finding yourself drained and empty by the time Christmas Day rolls around?

Do you enjoy the season, yet feel somehow let down the moment the last gift is opened?

Do you dare to dream that - just maybe - this is the year that Christmas will finally ring true?

If your answer to any of these questions is even close to a yes, then the best gift you can give yourself this holiday season is context. Because outside the traditional framework of hope, peace, love and joy, our celebrations will always fall flat.

In Christian tradition, the next 24 days are known as Advent. The word means introduction, beginning, dawning, coming on or arrival. Rather than a religious chore, observing Advent turns out to be our best hedge against disappointment. Then, instead of limping through the last few days of 2008 broke and exhausted, we will emerge well equipped to move into the future - grounded in seasonal hope, peace, love and joy.

Avoiding Post-Holiday Letdown
For many of us the "post-Christmas blahs" are as inevitable as next month's credit card bills. And the discontent tends to set in early - perhaps just a few hours into Dec. 25. After the last gift is unwrapped, the tree appears a little naked without its pile of brightly wrapped presents. It's then that a growing apprehension of "All this and now it's over?" can begin to squeeze the soul like a vise. Christmas sits limply on the living room floor, purposeless and drained of meaning, as if someone let the air out of a balloon.

But anti-climax is not a surprising outcome if we consider the initial trajectory our seasonal celebration likely took coming in.

The problems typically begin the moment we climb - enthusiastically - onto the cultural holiday juggernaut, sometime around Thanksgiving.

Our troubles lock in around the first week of December when we realize we're broke, over-scheduled, and already so sick of 24/7 holiday music we want to take a hatchet to the car radio.

We say we believe in shepherds tending their flocks, angels bringing news of a king born in a feeding trough, and a young refugee couple risking everything to follow God's way. But - all too easily - we abandon Luke's classic narrative in favor of the script prepared by the folks who market nostalgia. Sometimes it's Christmas Eve before we find our way out of the fog, and by then it's pretty much too late.

It's Not All About The Shopping

We're told that it's all about the shopping, especially in today's economy where merchants are desperate for a little extra action on our credit cards. But the first few weeks of December are more properly understood in terms of preparation. That's why this time is called Advent. Advent is a season purposefully designed to make sure that we arrive at Christmas neither empty nor disappointed.

If our focus is simply the big pile of loot Christmas Day, there really is nothing left once the gifts are gone. Then, rather than four weeks of Advent preparing us to experience the first day of "The 12 Days of Christmas," Christmas actually peters out with the birth of Christ. Dead trees appear on the side of the road, used up and forlorn, and we act like it's all over. But it's not even vaguely Christmas without Jesus, and the best way to prevent post-holiday letdown is to make it through the first part of December with hearts and homes ready to receive the King.

It's not so hard to move into the New Year if we show up for Christmas "locked on target" rather than stumbling upon the Savior by accident on our way home from the mall.

The Outline

The quality of our Christmas is best predicated by how well we navigate the next 24 days in terms of hope, peace, love and joy.

•HOPE follows the example of the wise guys who traveled from the East: They followed the star until they found Jesus.

•PEACE is an action word, something we're more likely to find at the soup kitchen than alone in a quiet place.

•LOVE was born at Christmas. Love was twice wrapped in bands of cloth - once in a manger, then again in a tomb.

•JOY emerges out of hope, peace and love. Christmas joy depends on Advent. The best way to experience joy is to arrive at Christmas with our hearts well-prepared to receive the King. That's Christmas with Jesus.

You can find out more about Derek Maul's new book at his Web site www.DerekMaul.net.>

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT