Merry Christmas to all of us.
My hope and prayer for you this season is that everything God intended for you to have in the Incarnation - that is, in the coming of God in the flesh through the birth of Jesus - is yours.
It is yours, by the way. All of it. Forgiveness. Joy. Peace. Purpose. Consolation. Healing. Hope. Rest. Reason. Life.
All of it is objectively yours, as is God Himself, regardless of the conditions of your life. However, we do not all experience God in the midst of our conditions.
This is because we are beset by troubles from every side. Jesus himself braced us for this: "In this world, you will have trouble," he declared.
As a result, our experience is often far from what God intended in Christ. Guilt. Sadness. Stress. Aimlessness. Woundedness. Hopelessness. Busy-ness.
So, friends, what we need is more of God. Aware of it or not, you need more of God. No matter what is going on, more of God would help. God knew this. God made us with a need for Him that He is eager to accommodate.
That is why there is a Christmas. The Christmas name of Jesus is Immanuel, which means, "God with us." The very thing we need is the very reason He came. We celebrate this today.
And if you are interested in some of the simple, doable, sustainable practices that anyone can employ at any time in order to experience more of God, you can learn what we are learning by going to listen.southwest.org.
Merry Christmas to all of us.