Sometimes life is much more about reflection than solving problems. Sometimes it does us good just to watch, and in the watching discover the undiscovered. In the discovering, to then savor what we discovered. Sometimes we would do well to simply soak up this thing we call “life” rather than dissect it, attempt to control it and in doing so both manipulate it and marginalize it. Sometimes it’s good to just “be” for awhile.
At the onset of this Christmas season, I would encourage you to take the time to simply “be.” Certainly not for excessive periods of time, or to do so as a means of escaping whatever your reality might be. But to reflect on the greater things in life that Christmas encompasses, embraces, unashamedly points to and celebrates.
It might be of value to draw away a bit and ponder what life is beyond the confines of our problems and challenges. There might be encouragement and even healing, possibly great healing in realizing that the small confines of our realities are at times so terribly limited that they effectively shut out far greater and far grander realities. It may do all of us good to step up and step out of worlds whittled tiny by worries, apprehensions and fears, and in doing so realize that we have drawn into places so tiny that they block out greater, more profound, even more improbable wonders.
That’s what Christmas is. An awakening and a realization that life is much more than we’ve allowed it to be. That beyond our terribly limited lines of sight there lies grand opportunities and vistas that can change, even transform the way we look at our lives and the world itself. That who we are and the sum total of our problems is not the sum total of life . . . at all. Christmas says that there is something more, much more. Christmas illuminates the limitations within which we live, and calls them out and up if we allow it to do so.
So this Christmas at the onset of this Christmas season, take a moment to ponder. Take a moment to ask larger questions and dare to shape bigger dreams. Reflect on what is possible, not necessarily what is feasible or reasonable. Be willing to be called out and called up. Refuse mediocrity and pursue the marvelous. Do all of these things because Christmas shouts the reality that the resources to pursue the marvelous actually exist and are actually available to each and every one of us. This Christmas, let Christmas do what it was designed to do. Let it change you because of what it offers you.
Craig Lounsbrough
M. Div., LPC