December 17, 2001
CYBERCOLUMN:
Hope beyond our foolishness
___By Berry D. Simpson
___Some of you are aglow with Christmas cheer. You hum, "It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas" everywhere you go. You finished shopping on Dec. 10 and mailed everything (including your Christmas letter) on Dec. 11. The smell of gingerbread fills your kitchen. If you are saying to yourself, "I did such a great job this year that I am about to have an almost perfect Christmas," then you need to read another column. I mean it. Stop reading this column and go drink some more eggnog.
___The only smile some of us have had in the last week was when the woman in the checkout line announced, "I stopped loving Christmas when I realized that I am Santa Claus." Some of us have children who have Christmas flu—the desire to own every toy in the universe (not my children, but I’ve heard about such children).
BRETT YOUNGER
___The hardest parts of life don’t stop for the holidays. It seems like there are more sicknesses, funerals, tragedies and loneliness this time of year. Some feel nothing as keenly as the absence of a Christmas stocking. For some, the best company on Christmas day will be their memories.
___Sometimes Ebenezer Scrooge seems misunderstood. We get bewildered because we’ve been running non-stop and we didn’t get it all done. Every year, I think about putting lights in the front yard, but the neighbors’ "Salute to Vegas" makes it easy to mark it off the list without doing it.
___This year, you didn’t write, compose, sew, paint, sculpt or chisel presents like you dreamed you would. You stumbled into Target yesterday with a deer-in-the-head-lights look on your face. You threw a remote control car into the basket, but then started wondering if it will run on carpet. You already regret buying a gift with "some assembly required." You hope no one saw you pick up a box of Christmas cookies. You planned to bake this year. (You planned to bake last year and the year before that, but this year was going to be different.) You’re worried that someone will give you a gift that costs twice as much as you spent on them. That’s upsetting if it’s anyone other than your parents.
___If you’re feeling a bit frustrated, here’s what you should do:
___Be still.
___Breathe deeply.
___Close your eyes.
___Clear your mind.
___Take a break.
___Meister Eckhart said, "God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by subtracting." Subtract something. Let go of some frustration.
___Be still and read the Christmas story. Push away your cynicism, and kneel by the nativity on the coffee table. Read the story like those who for 2,000 years have been taken by its simplicity and beauty.
___Be still and look into the eyes of people you love. Be grateful for them. Ask God to surround them with love. Call someone who might be lonely and say, "I was thinking of you." Check in with a friend who has a special grief this Christmas—someone who has one of the many hurts that hurt more at Christmas.
___Be still, sit down and make a note to give a gift in January that you wish you had already given. It may be that a present on Jan. 25 means more.
___In some ways, Christmas never lives up to our expectations, but there are moments that are beyond anything that we can plan.
___ Be still.
___Take a walk.
___ Look at the stars.
___ Be gentle with yourself.
___God is a graceful grader for bleary-eyed young parents, senior adults now alone, those who rejoice, those who sorrow, you and me. Be still and know the peace of God’s presence, the love without conditions, the joy deeper than our hurts and the hope beyond our foolishness.
___ Brett Younger is pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth.
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