Live.Awake

The Post-Christmas Blues

// December 27th, 2007 // Christian Living

Each month, the Kernersville News asks a local clergy member (clergy? That word makes me feel funny…) to write an “inspirational” article for their Lifestyle section. This was my turn. I thought I would share it here.

Before I became a pastor, I did a variety of jobs ranging from High School English teacher to glue filterer at a glue factory. Working at the glue factory was the most memorable. I learned that glue is not made from horses, but rather from mixing dangerous chemicals into concoctions that can kill you and/or cause you to grow extra appendages. I also learned something about humanity. At the glue factory, we got paid every Friday. I can remember watching as all the workers lined up to get their checks on Friday afternoons. Then they would run off to the bank down the street to cash it. They would spend most, if not all, of it partying over the weekend.

Then Monday would come. Every one of those guys that blew their paychecks over the weekend came dragging in depressed because they had nothing left. Around Wednesday the chatter would pick up. “What are you doing this weekend? I can’t wait until Friday.”, they would say. The excitement would build for the rest of the week until Friday. Then the cycle would repeat, week after week like an aimless roller coaster of hopelessness.

For them, life had been stripped of its significance. While living for the weekend, they weren’t able to really live now. I later went from the glue factory to working as a Computer Tech Support technician for a Fortune 500 company and later a small company. I found the same phenomenon there. Though, for most of my white collar coworkers the weekend wasn’t enough to lift them from the doldrums. Instead they lived for their IRA, a big promotion, some letters after their name, and a lower golf score.

You see this with kids and Christmas as well. I call it the post-Christmas Blues. For weeks Junior has been anticipating Christmas morning and the glorious revelry as he tears into his presents. The TV has been telling him that he will be happy when he gets what he wants. He believes it with all his heart. He makes a list of all the things he believes will make him happy and gives them to Santa. Then Junior starts watching the calendar, counting the days until Christmas.

Then the day comes. Once the presents are opened, the toys played with, the batteries worn down, and Gramps has gone home there is a profound moment of sadness. Disappointment. Emptiness. It’s not ingratitude. It’s not disappointment in the quality of the gifts, or the love expressed in their giving. Rather it is disappointment in the ability of the gifts to satisfy Junior’s deepest longings. It’s the unsettling realization that maybe, just maybe, what will truly make Junior happy is beyond the reach of what money can buy or Santa can bring.

Right before He left, Jesus said a profound thing. He said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.” He gives us a peace that is different from what the world gives us. More real. More profound. More substantial. When James Lipton interviews celebrities on his show, he always asks them this question: “What one thing do you know for sure?”. I know how I would answer. I would say that in my own life there have been few constants. The list of people who have never let me down is short. The one constant truth that threads my life together from birth to this day is that fulfillment can only be found in Jesus. Living for Him is the only thing that can infuse my life with meaning and purpose.

What are you living for? Is it the weekend? Is it a fat IRA that will make you happy? Will the respect of your friends and coworkers sustain you? When you retire and your kids grow up what will remain? When Santa has done all he can, to whom will you turn?

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