Interrupted by Christmas

Here we are, having a nice, hand-wringing, time-crunching, brain-frazzling, one-more-thing-you-have-to-do kind of normal fall and early winter, when along comes Christmas. And Christmas is not a Memorial Day kind of holiday you can satisfy with a parade of fez-hatted Shriners on mini-motor scooters and a couple of high school bands, topped off by a backyard barbeque. No way. Christmas demands months of planning (we’re already late), generating gift-lists, card-lists and guest-lists for parties, arranging for halls and huge family rooms, getting motel reservations, decorating inside and out, innovative recipes, special clothing for the season, practicing for the obligatory play, picking a night to go caroling…and I haven’t even gotten around to the shopping! You know you’re not going to get away with a trip to the local mall. You’ll have to race to the outlet mall ninety miles away; visit the specialty shop in the next town over; check out a thousand websites for a rare gift; and then wade into the tedious job of tag-removal, gift-wrapping, bow-tying and receipt management. And did I mention tree-cutting traditions, side-trips to see grandma, or writing articles like this? And I don’t dare talk about the budget.

Honestly, we don’t have time for Christmas anymore. To many of us, it has morphed into an overgrown time and cash-eating monster that waddles into our lives in early November and hangs around until after the New Year. Critical projects get postponed until “after Christmas.” Vital appointments have to wait until “after Christmas.” Why, lots of people thoughtfully hold off on lawsuits, bankruptcies and even divorces until “after Christmas.” We can’t move forward with really important stuff until “after Christmas.” Our lives cruise along quite nicely until interrupted by this super holiday.

Interruptions like Christmas cause havoc with the smooth flow of life. After we have settled into a certain mode of operation, after we have invested our plans and finances into predictable routines, after we have derived a measurable degree of emotional and psychological security from “the way things are”, some huge seminal shift descends upon us and turns everything upside down. It interrupts, inconveniences and irritates us to no end. It seems as if we just got over last year’s Christmas. Now, we have to deal with another holiday hiatus.

But, wait just a minute. I would like to interrupt this article for an important announcement:

INTERRUPTIONS ARE NOT ALL BAD! A remote possibility does indeed exist that an interruption may shock you right out of your nose-to-the-grindstone routine. You may be so obsessed with what you’re doing that you don’t realize that what you’re doing is not what you ought to be doing! You may be locked into so much negativity that you believe failure is inevitable. One man said that some people are so sub-normal that if they ever became normal they would be scared into thinking they were abnormal. An interruption may be exactly what you need.

Have you ever noticed, for example, how peace interrupts war? Wartime strategists just get good at executing conflict more efficiently when along comes peace. Fighting forces just hone their skills to the point of perfection, and then peace puts them out of a job. Armaments manufacturers just start raking in the profits, and then peace sabotages their business.

Jesus turned interruption into an art form. A young man’s funeral procession was conforming to all the proper protocol—-with mourners, sigh-ers, long-faced weepers in tow—-only to have the audacious Jesus come along, touch the coffin and derail the pomp and circumstance with resurrection power. Think of the planning and tradition that the “resurrection and the life” ruined! And then there was the disease that afflicted the woman with a discharge of blood. Her malady was progressing according to schedule when healing power from the hem of Jesus’ garment so rudely reversed the malignant advance and restored her to health. In another instance, Satan gloated over a boy’s spasms that would soon destroy him by casting him into the fire, but Jesus’ word ripped the demon out and sent him packing.

Satan wants no divine interruptions. The “prince and power of the air” wants us to assume that he’s in charge. He wants us to believe that “bad” is the way life is supposed to be and the forecast calls for “worse yet.” Given half a chance, he will flatten your faith, gut your glory, jump on your joy, walk on your worship and vanquish your victory. He will deny to your face that you have a right to anything but woe and sorrow. His plan needs a major interruption.

Let Christmas interrupt your harried, hassled, joyless schedule this year. Maybe you’ve already bought into a long and depressing scenario as your lot in life. Maybe you think God’s favors have passed you by. But, like a smile interrupts a frown, sun-shine interrupts the rain, and blessing interrupts tragedy, the seasonal retelling of the good news of Christ’s birth can ignite a brand new fire in your life. Let it. Nothing can turn the tide right now any better than a wonderful interruption from heaven.