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The Lull Between
by Jerry Ousley We are officially in that lull time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You know, the time we endure our jobs for another four weeks before we get another long weekend; the time most of us make our mad dashes to the department stores and malls to find that special gift for those on our list; the time we party and indulge ourselves talking about how we shouldn't do it, but we do anyway; the time that we frantically try to get the church Christmas play together hoping for a success; the time we really should be thanking God for all that He has blessed us with this past year and be looking toward the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. This is a time for reflection. As I look back over the year I see a lot of things I did that were wrong, but there were some right things too. We made some life changing decisions and some little decisions that don't matter much to anyone. But one thing's for sure, those decisions will affect our future. Mostly, people are getting ready for Christmas. The stores are stocked and ready for a record breaking year (or at least they hope). Many will go overboard in spending, as do every year. Deb and I have in past years. I don't wish bad luck on any of the stores who are looking to make or break their year this season and I don't want to see people hurt themselves financially buying all those things that they can't really afford. But I do want to say that it's past time we refocus our attention on just what the holidays are really all about. I was talking to a man the other day as part of my job and we were discussing how we were going to get some parts in that my company needed for production. I made the statement that since they wouldn't ship until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving that we wouldn't receive them until the following Monday. He responded with, "What's that got to do with anything?" As if he expected me to force special shipping so that we would receive them during the holiday. He also expected us to work through the holiday and have them ready for him on Monday. Our nation is quickly loosing its holiday spirit I'm afraid. Work already has no regard for Sunday like it used to and now our industries are trying to swallow our holidays as well. I fear that our prosperity and drive for wealth has taken over our need for "R & R," and our focus on God. The fact of the matter is, God, from the very beginning and from all of His Divine wisdom, knew that people need to take time to rest, enjoy themselves and their families, take a day off at least once a week and take time to celebrate those things that are really important and really matter in life. There was a time that we understood this. It seems that time is becoming lost among all those other demands of today. It's scary, at least to me. The good news is, we can make a stand for what is right. We can draw a line in the sand and make decisions that will affect our lives in a positive way. Those aren't easy decisions because it means not "being with the program." But, I beg your pardon, the original program, God's program, was the right one to begin with. I hope you and your family have a good holiday season. I pray that you will make time for God in your holiday plans and that you will realize what is really important in life. The world isn't going to end if a few automobiles don't make it to market, or if you don't make the profit you had planned on this year. But decisions made that put God and family second in order to assure that those material things get delivered or we top our gross income from last year will affect you and your family. Think about it . . . Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |