The Best Post on Christmas Stress -- Ever -- In the World!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

In order to reduce my stress load this Christmas, I am reposting last year's Christmas Stress post instead of writing a new one.

Do you feel that Christmas is a disruption in your life?  Are you overwhelmed by trying to provide the best Christmas possible?  How do you feel when you read an article or hear a discussion on a talk show telling you that you shouldn’t try to create the “perfect” Christmas?  And don’t forget all those movies about a burned out parent (usually Mom) who has a revelation and cries and berates herself for not seeing the meaning of Christmas.  Do you feel guilty because you would have been satisfied with just “real nice”?  Or are you shooting for perfect and feeling guilty not only for not making it but for even trying?

No matter where you turn, someone is saying something about the stress of Christmas.  I stopped reading articles about how to avoid stress, since reading them and trying to put them into action just took up time and led to more stress.

Maybe we just ought to accept that fact that we are going to strive for “the best Christmas ever,” no matter what we read or see on television and hear in church.

But I have a thought.

Christmas disrupts our lives, just as it has disrupted the world.  Mary and Joseph had their lives disrupted; so did the shepherds and wise men.  When we decide to follow Jesus, our lives are going to be changed and change is disruption.  It is a miraculous disruption.

But wouldn’t it be nice to find a little peace?

Maybe on the 26^th or the Saturday after Christmas, we can enjoy the leftovers, watch the DVD’s we got, and really read the Christmas cards and newsletters.  I’m going to keep the 26^th in mind tonight as I wrap presents and worry about whether everyone will like them.

Watchman, Tell Us Of The Night Happy Advent!

What Is Love?

 

We hear a lot about Love.   Christianity can be explained in three sentences:  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Love yourself.  (I read this.  I did not think it up myself.)

But what does the church mean by love?   Certainly not romantic love, except maybe loving your neighbor.  It is hard to love.  How do we feel about the supervisors who screw us over or the neighbor who decided to love our significant other?  And our former significant other?

What about the Teapartiers or the Open Borders people?  What about welfare recipients?  Or Isis?

I, for one, don’t feel loving towards a lot of people.  This may lead to trouble about loving yourself.  Can we feel good about ourselves when we have such hateful feelings? 

A friend once told me that she got very annoyed at her neighbors who didn’t take their trash cans in on time.  She said she “wasn’t a Christian” because of it.

I said, “I’m not trying to be your pastor or anything, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a Christian.  It just means you’re not a particularly good one at that time.”  I don’t know if she believed me; we’re talking seventy some years of guilt producing conditioning.

And people have said that they couldn’t understand why we are told to love ourselves.  What about humility? You can be humble and still love yourself.  Not to an insult to God.  If you are good enough for God, you should be good enough for yourself.  And you can’t love anyone in any way if you don’t love yourself.

Basically, if God told you that if you did not want someone to have a merry Christmas, they would have a miserable one, and you wouldn’t get in trouble for it and you said, “Oh, what the heck, let the SOB or B have a nice holiday,” you are showing love.

Of course there are more charitable ways to do it, but this is the most basic.  We have to love, but we don’t have to like.

Do you have a s**t list?  Everyone who is on that list should be on your prayer list.

I’m not even going to try to talk about loving  God; it’s beyond me. As Dana Carvey used to say, “I’m only the churchlady” and I don’t want people to think I do a superiority dance whenever I write a post.

But hit it, Pearl, and we’ll dance for the fun or it!

 

 

 

The Air Quotes Church

What do you think of people who use air quotes?  I wonder how they got stuck in the nineties and forever after think of them as Mr. or Ms. Air Quotes.  Then I feel guilty, but I tell myself that they are reaping what they sowed.  (Isn't it interesting how a Bible reference seems to make a not-so-nice remark less catty?)  

What do you think about the thing being air quoted?  Air quotes denote sarcasm, which is saying something that isn’t true (often in a supposedly witty way).  No wonder Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies is so fond of them.

Although I’ve never seen it air quoted, I sometimes wonder if the established church doesn’t deserve to be.  The air quotes church is the official church that has a specific name and a specific identity.  In its struggle to keep its identity, it creates hierarchies, protocols, rituals (and not just liturgical ones) and rules.  It organizes conferences, task forces, seminars, and conventions, often with the best intentions.  Sometimes all this “organization” leads it to become disorganized religion.

If you do any reading about current religion, you are only too aware of the problems of the air quotes church.  People who are not (air quotes) religious mock it and sneer about what a waste of money and effort it is.  People who are religious and even some who are spiritual may make attempts to defend it, but worry that what the critics say is probably true.  If they are angry or disgusted enough, they may agree and offer ways to fix the church.  If they are completely burned out, they may say that the “church” is on its deathbed and the end can’t come soon enough for them.

I have been defensive, worried, angry and disgusted.  I may be on my way to burnout, but something stops me.  It may be the hymns that bring tears to my eyes, or the beautiful words of the service, or my friends in the church.  The air quotes church has enough to offer me that I stay.  Of course, as a parishioner I can ignore a lot, or at least not have to deal with the consequences of the “church”’s flaws.

But besides the air quotes church, there is the church, the people who may or may not be Members, but who strive to live Christ-like lives.  Or they may not even be striving.  The church includes everyone who wants to be part of it, trying to love God, love their neighbors, and love themselves.  The air quotes church may blatantly or covertly exclude people, but the church does not.  The air quotes church may blatantly or covertly judge people, but the church does not.  The air quotes church may have confused priorities (Should financial stability and growth be at the top of the list?), but the church does not. 

The church is an ideal.  I don’t know if it can exist without at least a part of the air quotes church.  But it does exist, even within the  "church".  Maybe if everyone recognized themselves as part of the church and tried to live that way, some or the problems of the air quotes church would be corrected.  Or at least the struggle would be easier.