"Seizing The Season!"

The "Christmas Season," longer than usual THIS year because of an early Thanksgiving, is a painful time for many.  While most of us are shopping, or partying, or anticipating Christmas,  some suffer in silence feeling quite the opposite. Most often their depression, and dread of the holidays, can be because of the death of a loved one, or the imminent death of one, but there may be other factors, as well.

For example, if you visit a place where the elderly are "cared for," as I often do, you'll see many who are sad simply because virtually no one comes to interact with them unless they are paid to do so.  It's particularly heartbreaking to see these folks at THIS time of year when many, for the most part, only have others who are "in the same boat" to be with.  Lonely men and women who are separated from family and friends, because of military service, or incarceration, or OTHER reasons not related to sickness or death (think singleness or orphans or homelessness) find the "Christmas Season" to be a very painful time, as well.

My dad died on Christmas Day, 2009 and my first wife was dying slowly during Christmas 2015 and 2016.  And I remember the isolation I felt, even though my kids and church family and friends were very supportive of me.  There's something about seeing "everyone else" in the "Christmas Spirit" and you are not.....and if you dare to be transparent about what you feel, you might be labeled "Scrooge" or "Grinch" as quickly as you might be falsely called "racist" if you're white and had a problem with Barack Obama, Lol! (And, let's face it, who wants to be called a "partypooper," after all?)

Only GOD can sustain us when we are in such loneliness. He sure sustained ME!!  But there are those who don't know Him in a saving way, and those of us who DO know Him need to "Seize The Season." Search them out, and seek to reach the lost, USE the opportunities that Christmas presents and, at the very least PRAY for people. It's very unlikely (though not impossible) that those who suffer in silence, or those who are lost, will reach out to US, you see!! 

Let us not forget that the One whose birthday we honor was called "Man of Sorrows" and He spoke of leaving the 99 sheep and searching for the one who was lost. Again, as I frequently say, "Fishers of Men" go where the fish are, they don't pray for the fish to come up on dry land to them. We need to spread the Good News that Jesus came to save His People from their sins, and, of course, to DO that we have to know Him ourselves and then see beyond ourselves.



In conclusion, there's lots of talk about "Keeping Christ in Christmas" but until we follow the Example of the One Who left all to come to where WE are, for OUR good, our problem is not keeping Christ in Christmas...it's getting Him here in our hearts, in the first place.