Christmas priorities

A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?"

"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:6-8).

Nothing reveals your priorities like the stress of a holiday season. As Christmas looms ever closer, the amount of things needing to be done grows at an alarming rate. That thorough cleaning you’ve been putting off becomes a high priority, now that you’re expecting company. Suddenly you are no longer just cooking meals for the family, now you also have to make treats for the office, treats for school, treats for the parties you’ve been invited to, treats for your own table. As if you didn’t have enough to do already, you have to get the Christmas decorations out of storage, untangle strings of lights, and hang from the ladder in a cold wind as you decorate the outside of your house. Inside, you have to keep the cat and your children out of the tree.

Shopping becomes a hassle, as you fight your way through ever-increasing crowds and wrack your brain trying to figure out what gifts will be appreciated and not left forgotten in a closet by New Year’s Eve. And although your hours at work aren’t any less, you know that many friends and relatives are expecting you to send them a card with a long, personal letter, and perhaps some family pictures as well.

Is it any wonder that people get stressed during the holidays? Your workload increases dramatically; however, you still only have 24 hours each day in which to get things done. What happens, then, is a reshuffling of priorities. Those things you deem as most important get done first; other things are rescheduled for later, or are given a quick lick and a promise, or are given up on altogether. Most of our lives are already so full of things demanding our attention that we simply cannot add Christmas without something else having to go.

But this can also be a period of self-examination for us. So much of the time, we do things without really thinking about why we do them. Much of our lives coast by on cruise control. But the heavy traffic of the Christmas season forces us to turn off our cruise control and start thinking about what we are doing. What are the most important things in our lives? Where does most of our time go each day, and why? The stressful rush of Christmas can force us to look carefully at what is truly important in our lives.

As an example, let’s consider your sleeping habits. We all know that sleep derivation can make you irritable and easily distracted. This being the case, any time spent on an activity when you should be in bed must be important to you. Every parent has missed sleep while caring for a sick child. Every worker has put in long hours to make sure there is enough money to put food on the table.

But be honest—haven’t you lost sleep for reasons that are less than critical? Skimping on sleep is bad for your health, erodes your productivity, and makes you unpleasant to be around. Bearing this in mind, did you really need to miss sleep in order to stay out late at a party? Did you really need to miss sleep so that you could finish detailing your car? Did you really need to cut sleep short so that you could be first in line at a door buster sale? Did you really need to cut sleep short so that you could get out early for a day of hunting or fishing?

When we are faced with limited time in which to get things done, we don’t always make the smartest of choices. Things that are important, like sleep, can be put on the back burner—we can get along without for awhile, we think. Yet how much hurt results from a lack of proper rest? How many sleep-deprived truckers crash their rigs? How many sleep-deprived farmers have a tragic encounter with a power take-off or some other dangerous piece of machinery? How many people speak harsh words to loved ones because sleep-deprivation has made them irritable? How many people have been forced into a hospital bed in order to get the rest that they’d been denying themselves?

We are willing to skimp on time with God the same way we are willing to skimp on time to get needed sleep--and we do it for the same reasons. We take our relationship with God for granted. When time is pressing us hard with many things to get done, we are tempted to make time with God a lower priority. Got home late from Saturday night’s party? Why not skip worshipping on Sunday morning—after all, church will still be there next week. Exhausted from a day working and shopping and decorating? Why not forget about reading the Bible tonight—after all, the book will still be on your nightstand tomorrow. Stressed out over everything you’ve got to do in the next few days? It’s probably better to skip trying to focus on praying right now; after all, you can always pray tomorrow. Look honestly at how you have spent your time since Thanksgiving—how much of Christ has been in your preparations for Christmas?

Isaiah warns us about getting our priorities straight. He says, All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall. Personally, my favorite flower is the lilac; I love the color, but even more, I love the scent. It’s frustrating to me that the lilac blooms for such a short period of time—only a couple of weeks. It’s great while its here, but oh so quickly it’s gone. God tells us that we are like that. From His perspective, human life is as beautiful as a flower, but just as short-lived.

When we set our priorities, we need to do so from God’s perspective. People spend huge amounts of money on plastic surgery. Why—just to look young for a few more years? The grass will still wither, the flowers will still fall. People work long hours in order to make lots of money, but can money buy the love of children who are strangers to you because you never have time to spend with them? People fill their lives with every kind of convenience and experience, leaving little time or money to devote to God. But is God impressed by a life that has no place for Him in its hectic schedule? Jesus said, What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26) Solomon, one of the wealthiest kings in history, surveyed his life and came to this conclusion: Everything is meaningless…I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes chapter one). Our lives are short; after you are dead, who will care about whether you dressed fashionably or how you fixed your hair? When you are gone, who will care about how good you were with numbers or how quickly you could get your work done? When you have left this world, how many people will remember your record videogame score or how many bucks you shot while hunting?

Isaiah directs our attention to where it needs to be: the word of our God stands forever. Earthly priorities are ephemeral; they are as wispy as clouds. But God’s Word, now that has permanence! God is eternal, so His promises are everlasting; God created and sustains the universe, so His wisdom never goes out of style. The word of God communicates four great truths. The first great truth is this—God is perfect: holy and righteous. John tells us that God is light; in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). God’s perfect love is not tainted by selfishness, like our love is; His perfect justice is not undermined by moral weakness, as happens in our courts. Our Lord is the standard by which right and wrong are defined.

The second great truth is that we are sinners, each and every one of us; Paul writes, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). None of us has obeyed God perfectly, nor are we able to do so. Romans chapter 8 says: the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. And because we are sinners, we are doomed to die--death came to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12).

The third great truth that the word speaks to us is summarized by St. John chapter 3 verse 16: God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The God of perfect justice could not let sin go unpunished, but the God of perfect love could not stand by and watch us walking ignorantly to the lip of hell’s flaming pit. So God sent His own Son to be the innocent baby that we like to pretend we were, to live the life of humble obedience and service that we failed to live, to suffer on the cross the punishment for our sins that we should suffer in hell, and to die the death that we had earned for ourselves. Jesus made right everything that we have made wrong, and satisfied with this great act of sacrificial love, God raised His Son from the dead and made Him king over us all. The result is that we can flee to Jesus’ open arms every time we’ve messed up, knowing that He will wipe away our tears of regret and tell us: take heart…your sins are forgiven (Matthew 9:22).

The fourth great truth we hear God’s word speak to us is this: I am with you always (Matthew 28:20). Jesus does not just forgive us and then leave us on our own to figure out what to do next. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, He has given us the words of heaven preserved between the covers of the Good Book. Through the Bible, Jesus teaches us all about what is good and what is evil so that we can tell the difference. Through God’s word, we are shown how to set our priorities as we live lives dedicated to our Savior. God’s word tells us to be humble, not proud; to value giving more than receiving; to look after the needs of others instead of demanding that they serve us; to forgive every hurt freely as Jesus has already forgiven us. Through His word, the Lord tells us to make healthy relationships our first priority, and no relationship is more important than the one we share with our Savior and brother, Jesus Christ. He is our help and comfort in life; He is our hope beyond the pale of death. And so we need to spend as much time with Him as we can—in worship, in Bible study, and in prayer.

These hectic, stress-filled days leading up to Christmas are a golden opportunity to reflect on your priorities. How important is Christ to you? As you choose how you spend your time and money, is your Savior consistently at the top of your list? Or is Jesus urging you to change your priorities, so that He can have the place of honor in your heart? As you plan for Christmas, what is most important to you?