For my entire life, the first weekend in December is when my church has its Christmas Festival; choir and orchestra, lots of lights, and decorations. When I was little, while I enjoyed it, I would always fall asleep because young me felt that it was, in a sense, the same thing every year. But as I got older, I started to help with collecting tickets, and putting out the food for the choir and orchestra between shows. I wasn't able to sit in on the concerts anymore and it was only then that I realized that I had taken the Festival for granted when I was a child.
Once I was a freshman in college, I had the opportunity to be in the choir! It was a totally different, almost magical, experience and I loved it so much. This year I was in the choir once again for the Christmas Festival, and it was still just as amazing as it was two years ago. The joy and excitement had been renewed.
After the weekend of Christmas Festival (and recovering from that for a few days), the Christmas season has really begun for me! Although I have to struggle through final papers and exams, I enjoy taking a break from that to go Christmas shopping. It's so fun walking through the mall, hearing Christmas music, and seeing lit Christmas trees and wreaths all through the place.
It's completely understandable that Christmas isn't the most wonderful time of the year for everyone. There's always family issues, personal problems, financial struggles, and other things that are going on. I deal with those things as well, but I still find Christmas to be my favourite time.
Christmas is my favourite time of the year because I'm focusing on the joy. The joy of Jesus' birth, the joy of spending time with family and friends, the joy of giving gifts to other people, the joy of no school work for three weeks. I find that the Christmas season is a time wherein I'm reminded that I need to focus on other people, and on Jesus, and stop focusing on myself and the difficulties that I'm facing.
Over the last month or so, I've been finding that I'm feeling a whole lot more joyful than I have been for quite awhile. When I stopped to think about why this is, I had only one answer.
Jesus.
Throughout the last couple of months, I initially found myself feeling fairly tired and weak. Every morning I would wake up and ask the Lord to strengthen me and help me to get through everything that needed to be done that day. I would dedicate the whole day to Him. And I found that that made me more joyful.
That may sound simple and too good to be true, but I'm telling you, that's all I did really. As I began to feel stronger and more joyful, my motivation and desire to spend time with God grew. When you can really see how He's working in your life, you long for more of that.
If you have time off of school or work over the next couple of weeks, take some chunks of time and intentionally meet with God. Dedicate each day to Him. Ask Him to fill you with more joy and strength. Seek Him with your whole heart.
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