“It’s the day before the night before Christmas, and I’m busy, busy, busy being __________ (fill in the blank, here).”

This is the time when we get to find out if all that Advent “season of expectation and preparation” stuff really made any difference in our spiritual life. This is the time when we either experience anxiety, stress, and overwhelm (punctuated by fleeting moments of happiness and cheer), or we find that “joy” really can be front and center in our functional vocabulary.

• Was it really HOPE – or has it just been wishful thinking?
• Do we know “the PEACE that passes understanding” – or is the best we can do just a few moment of quiet?
• Is this Christmas an experience of “LOVE that will not let me go” – or are we locked in a celebration of nostalgia and sentimentality that barely scratches the surface of what is possible in Jesus?
• Is this JOY? Or are we running from pleasure to pleasure, doing our best to score some fun or happiness? Can we identify with the author of 1 Peter who wrote, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious JOY…”?

WFPC: Yesterday I wrapped up my December teaching series at church. The subject was “JOY”. Joy in the context of Advent preparation for Christmas.

It was a wide-ranging discussion, and I found a number of great quotes from literature to help me along. But, other than the scripture from 1 Peter, there’s just one JOY reference I’d like you to memorize and take with you from today’s post; it’s from Hellen Keller.

As selfishness and complaint pervert the mind, so love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision. (Helen Keller)

Of course, selfishness and complaint pervert not only the mind but everything we care about. Complaint perverts – and poisons – relationships, marriages, businesses, churches, government.

But the counterpoint here is such a beautiful truth. Love with its joy clears and sharpens the vision.

It’s Monday. It’s the day before the night before Christmas. Let the Jesus quality of love, with its celebratory and life-charged joy, clear our hearts, sharpen our vision, and help us all to grow in grace.

In the inexpressible and glorious joy of believing – DEREK