I know some of you started already because –ahem– “Thanksgiving is a day but Christmas is a season.”
You have the right to your wrong opinion.
Anyone with any sense of proper decorum knows that nothing Christmas (including—but not limited to—decorations, music, spoken or written greetings, etc) is allowed until the day after Thanksgiving.
The previous sentence was not only snobbishly opinionated; it was also punctuationally suspect. (I may or may not have just made up a couple of words).
I actually believe (as a matter of personal preference) that we ought to wait until after Thanksgiving to start with Christmas “stuff” but the part about proper decorum and wrong opinions was pure jest.
But don’t we all run the risk of turning personal preferences into strongly held opinions?
And then turning strongly held opinions into litmus tests for “rightness?”
And then turning litmus tests for “rightness” into prejudicial judgments against those who hold differing opinions?
And then turning those prejudicial judgments into conclusions that identify enemies?
So, all you ungrateful Thanksgiving haters just went right ahead with your evil decorating!
Oops! Sorry.
I really don’t care when you decorate, start playing Christmas music, or start saying “Merry Christmas” (or your greeting of choice).
What I really care about is …
You.
Seriously. If you’re reading this, you matter to me.
More than my preferences and opinions.
Even if we disagree.
Even if you think I’m completely bonkers.
Even if I think you’re completely bonkers.
Even if I cannot support or affirm the things you support and affirm.
And vice versa.
You matter and I want you to flourish in the amazing life you were created for.
None of this is because I’m a great guy. Whether that is true or not, is all a matter of perspective. My “great guy-ness” is in the eye of the beholder.
And is completely irrelevant.
The reason you matter to me and I want you to flourish flows from the core of my faith.
I can’t prove any of this, but here’s what I believe:
There is one all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God who has always been and always will be.
He created all that exists and He sustains all He created.
He has revealed Himself in various times and various ways and those ways are recorded in a reliable collection of writings we know as the Bible.
He has revealed Himself ultimately in Jesus—God in flesh—whose life, death, and resurrection revealed God’s nature and purpose for the world.
Every person is created in the image of God.
Every person is someone who God loves.
Every person is someone for whose sins Jesus died to pay all penalties.
Every person has a unique God-given purpose.
If I believe this to be true, how could you NOT matter?
Even if you jumped the gun on your decorations.
Be amazing today, my friend.
