Coffee With Jo
Christmas is an exciting and beautiful time of year. Families come in from out of town, Starbucks put out their holiday drinks, and the air is starting to smell of pine trees. Everyone is waiting for the most wonderful time of the year. But in the twinkling chaos of Christmastime preparations, it’s easy to pass over what this holiday season is all about.
Johna Denis started singing at church when she was young. She started in her church choir and after positive responses singing was something she continued to pursue. For Johna and me we’ve come to an agreement that the air begins to feel different around this time of year. As regular church attendees, we’ve understood the significance of Christmas. While it’s a time to gather with family, the birth of Christ is what we gather to remember. As a worship leader, Johna often finds herself having to commit more as the holidays roll around. It’s when the Christmas-Mother’s Day and Easter Christian’s attend and there’s a surge in church attendance. But even in the chaos of it all, to Johna this is a reminder to her the importance of what she does and why she does it. Christmas is more than an airtight production and high number services. It’s a time of rest and reflection.
There’s a different kind of joy around Christmas now that I’m experiencing it as an adult. When I was younger I looked forward to magic, as an adult I look forward to Black Friday deals on gifts. But what makes this season special personally, is the shift of joy I feel in my spirit that normally I wouldn’t feel throughout the year. Jesus is coming. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6). For many people, the year is pretty hectic. So much happens from January that the rest of the year passes in the blink of an eye.
For Johna this year has been especially chaotic, as she wears many hats. At the start of the year she found herself juggling both ministry and her graduate program. For the first four months Johna didn’t find time to slow down, she looks back at the year and recalls how hectic it was. She was contracted as a singer for a ministry at her church while studying for exams, as she tells it it was like pulling teeth and hair. She had to prepare for her student exams as well as prepare for church events. But the real stress overload came around Easter with her last set of exams, happening before and after the holiday. With the discipline her graduate program requires and the commitment to the ministry she was serving in, the weight of exhaustion met her when spring break came. When spring break came, so did the flu.
The irony in her story is, what we preach as Christian’s is rest but with the overload of things that we find ourselves doing, even while serving in ministry, we forget the very thing we are commanded to do, rest. Jesus calls us to rest when he says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) The Christian worldview is this, our good works are not our ticket to heaven. When I was serving in ministry, I served in more than one place. On Fridays I lead a middle school small group, on Sundays I help in the kids ministry. Week in and week out this was my life for about three years until Covid hit. Once the pandemic came and the churches closed, I felt like I didn’t get my fill of what I felt I was supposed to be doing. Yet exhaustion came and I forced myself to slow down.
I feel as though many people miss the mark when they try to describe Christian’s. For many people I think they see us as part of a group who think they’re better than everyone else, which is far from the truth. No one is better than anyone else, we’re all the same. On the other hand however, what I see from the community of believers is they’re striving to be better but to the point of exhaustion. Like we’re trying to put their best foot forward so that no one sees the cracks in our facade. I tried to be like that once but many people saw past that and so did I. People like me strive to serve in different places to prove to God that we were worth the sacrifice he made.
Christmas is our reminder of the rest we were given and how we’re to be intentional of this. Jesus’s birth was symbolic because it revealed to us salvation. God came in the most humbling way, grew up the very way that we did and set us free by dying in the cross. Christmas is the time to pause and reflect on this truth because as the year flies by, we strive and forget what God has done. As we celebrate this holiday season may we be more intentional in our rest and reflect what God has done when He sent Jesus to the manger. Merry Christmas!