My Christmas Carol Ramble

Honesty is scary.
Especially when you are trying to be honest with yourself.

What if you peer into your soul and don't like everything you see?

What if you catch glimpses of light that you never quite measured up to?

What then?

In August I posted a music video by Nick Vujicic. One line rings through my head frequently:

"Where do we go when hope runs out?

 When we're empty, when there's nothing left?"

As I was thinking about this, my Christmas station on pandora provided a timely answer, with the classic, "You Raise Me Up," sung by Josh Groban...

...When I am down, and oh my soul so weary. When troubles come and my heart burdened be. Then I am still, and wait here in the silence until You come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains. You raise me up to walk on stormy seas. I am strong when I am on Your shoulders. You raise me up to more than I can be.

There is no life--no life--without its hunger. Each restless heart beats so imperfectly.

But when you come and I am filled with wonder, sometimes I think I glimpse eternity.

Let those words sink in and they are liable to give you chills (good chills).

Switchup! (don't like that song...but the transition works ha)

In the classic Christmas Carol story with good ol' Scrooge and the gang, Scrooge finds out a heap of unpleasantries about himself.  

So he changed.

Yes, honesty with yourself--about what you really think, or want, or hope, or believe--seems scary. 

But when we factor Christ into the equation, change becomes possible. Hopeful, even.

We don't need to wait around for the ghosts of Christmas to tell us we need to change. For one, all of us can realize that we could change for the better, in some way. 

For two, life itself gives us so many moments that are silently challenging us to be better. Some moments bigger than others. Get-goin' moments.

Nobody's story is the same. We all have different choices to make. 

I believe there are absolute rights and wrongs that can guide these choices...

...but I increasingly see that how those rights and wrongs should be applied to real life is not so black and white.

Are we strong enough to make the right decisions? Are we wise enough to know what the right decisions are?  Maybe not on our own. Luckily, we are not alone. 

Christmas is a time for many wonderful things. The most wonderful part, of course, is a celebration of the fact that Jesus Christ was born. 

The Hope of the world.

We don't have to be alone, because He came. 

So I guess my own little Christmas Carol goes something like this:
There will be moments in life that quietly direct us to evaluate ourselves. We might be faced with all of the smallness and problems inside us.

We decide if we will be strong enough to overcome all that 

by deciding to align ourselves with our Advocate and Friend,

Jesus the Christ!

:)