Merry Christmas

Ebeneezer Scrooge woke up on Christmas morning a changed man because of the prophetic dreams he had the night before. No more the miser, the 'scrooge', he was generous, kind and empathic. In many ways we too are to wake up changed people on Christmas morning because of the prophetic dream that came true when the baby Jesus arrived. And yet, how many of us, find ourselves changed, transformed, by this event?

Ok, I know I'm treading on some toes here. Of course, we all have had a conversion experience and have answered a call. Both of these events are life changing indeed. But what about your life changed? The direction, the path, the context for sure. What about the inner life? Did that change as mightily as Scrooge's? Or did we/do we just keep doing a lot of the same things we did before only now we can hide them or even use them in our new context? For example, before answering my call and responding with a life changing role to pastor, I was ultra responsible, the go to person in my family, the fixer, the over achiever, the performer. I gotta tell you that didn't seem to change very much when I became pastor. Well, you say, "you just took those gifts and used them for God and the church", I wish I could say "you bet I did, thanks for being so perceptive"

Deep inside though I know that isn't the truth. The truth is that I didn't let God transform me to trust that God's grace would be sufficient for all things and that I no longer needed to be the savior, the fixer, the achiever. It would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights, lots of money on prescriptions and lots of lost time with my family. And it might just have let the church be open to being transformed where they needed to be.

Maybe I'm all off base on this one and if so, I will own it. However, when I look at health and wellness of churches and their pastors, I wonder just how seriously we take the transformation that is to come when Christ is born in us again - each year - at Christmas. Will you be as exhausted as Mary was after she had given birth to Christ on Christmas Eve or will you be filled with rejoicing and energy that once again you have been given the gift of life through the grace of God?

Merry Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone!