A Meditation for the Overwhelmed
by Raymond R. Newell
My wife, Joan, reminded me recently to put on the family calendar all the events that we are to attend this Christmas season. I became a bit overwhelmed by the number of obligatory events listed and reflected that if we didn't have so many obligations at church, at her job, or with family, we might be able to enjoy Christmas more. I mused nostalgically about a quiet, unhurried Christmas with much time for leisurely reflection on the meaning of this special day.
Then into my golden reverie plunged the unsettling thought that Mary and Joseph probably didn't want to fulfill all their obligations that first Christmas either! They would have preferred to have their new baby in familiar surroundings, unaffected by a busy world out there. But that busy world refused to allow them their quiet time to reflect on the meaning of their child's birth and demanded that they make a 60-70 mile journey to fulfill a bureaucratic whim. On top of this, they were required to travel through a rebellion-torn country. Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, tells us that the census under Quirinius caused a great revolt. A rabbi named Judas the Galilean proclaimed that paying taxes to Caesar would violate the commandment that the Jews should serve no lord but their one God. Eventually the Romans would crucify 5000 of the rebels along the roads surrounding Jerusalem. All those sentimental images we see on Christmas cards of Joseph leading a donkey carrying Mary down a dusty road should show the road lined with crosses! Crosses were as present at the first Christmas as they would be on the first Good Friday.
We often complain about all our commitments at Christmas time and how busy we are. Have we ever thought that it might be in the thick of all this that we find the true meaning of Christmas? Mary and Joseph were never given a chance to just sit back and reflect on the birth of their son Jesus — they had too many obligations to fulfill! Still, Jesus was given to them, and to us. Jesus does not require a quiet or undistracted time to be born into our lives. He can be born for us right in the heart of it all. There might be more real Christmas in rushing from Christmas noon lunch with the husband's family to Christmas night dinner with the wife's family than in any number of quiet hours spent sipping eggnog before a fire contemplating the Christmas tree.
This Christmas, may you find the newborn Christ right in the heart of all your hurried activities.
Raymond R. Newell is a FaithQuest leader and pastor serving Riverside United Methodist Church, Columbia, Tennessee.
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Spiritual leadership is a special type of leadership. Webster's dictionary defines leadership, in general, as the ability to go with others in order to show them the way — to influence and guide. Spirit refers to God. Spiritual means the way of God. Simply put, spiritual leadership specifically means to go with people, showing and guiding them on pathways that lead to God and the way of love.
— Kevin Witt, Director of Camping and Retreat Ministries, General Board of Discipleship |
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