Holidays? What Holidays?

This past holiday season we really struggled with feeling... hmmm. How can I say this?... “we were... well... we were feeling sorry for ourselves.” There, I said it. Now I know that you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, right? Because nobody else ever struggles with that, I’m sure. But we were. It was the holidays and what was usually one of the funnest and one of the busiest times of the year for our family had been reduced down to something that felt like just another day in the life of American Missionaries in Brazil. (The fact that it was 1000 degrees and that we were literally being eaten alive by insects didn’t help either. Happy Birthday Jesus!) Anyway,for us, (who were used to being on a pastoral staff at a local church) “The Holidays” usually meant two things:

Number One- Extra Ministry Stuff

This was one of the busiest times of the year for us “ministry wise.” Besides all the normal pastoral duties we were responsible for, we were also over all of our church’s outreach ministry. And, for years, we got to organize “The Thanksgiving Outreach” where we gave out 500-600 meals on Thanksgiving Day. We had over 200 volunteers show up on Thanksgiving morning to prepare and deliver food to low income and destitute people who desperately needed Jesus. This was actually one of my favorite things to do each year (Hope and Life, you guys rock). 

And in December we had something we called the “Angel Tree.”  This is where we gave gifts to needy children and put on a small Christmas program in their neighborhood where we handed out the gifts. This was always fun. 

Then, on Christmas Eve, we held multiple Christmas Candlelight Services (that MJ and I had to organize and set-up for each year) which kept us hoppin’ on Christmas Eve. So, all these things were going on, on top of an already slam-packed schedule. So we were always busy. You get the idea, right?

Number Two- Parties

We were invited to soooo many Christmas parties each year that we had to make the rule that “we can only go to the first 5 parties that we’re invited to” because there was no way we could go to everything we were invited to. We loved visiting with friends and family and even though we felt overwhelmed with all the busyness of the holiday season, we loved it.

But, here in Brazil, neither of those two things are a part of our lives. There’s no Thanksgiving Outreach, well... because there’s no Thanksgiving! This is Brazil, not America and that’s an American holiday, duh. : ) And it doesn’t seem like Christmas gets “the love” (here in Brazil) that it gets in the States, so getting invited to Christmas parties? Ha! Either Christmas parties aren’t popular here or we’re not popular here. I have a sneaky suspicion that it’s the latter. lol! Then add all that to the fact that this was our first Christmas without our oldest son (Michael) and it made it the perfect storm for “holiday- feeling-sorry-for-yourself-blues. So, basically, we weren’t feeling the holiday spirit at all this year (cue the violin music here).

But here’s the question that we needed to keep asking ourselves (so that we could maintain our sanity), “are we where God wants us to be and are we doing what He wants us to do?” Because as nice as it would’ve been to be with our son., and as awesome as it would’ve been to be doing all the holiday ministry stuff we were use to, and as much as we missed all our friends and the parties... “we know that God has us here doing what He wants us to do.” 

So, we’ll just have to be cool with missing everything and everybody and just press-in to the fact that following Jesus isn’t always about what we like the best and what makes us the most comfortable. Now don’t get me wrong. If He led us back to the States so that we could enjoy the holidays like we use to, well, lets just say that “there’d be a dust trail so fast down the mountain that people wouldn’t know what just happened!” But until then? Well, we’re gonna have to just walk where He says walk and do what He says do.  

What about you? Are you doing something that you'd really prefer that you weren't doing? But here's the question you need to ask yourself... is it what God said to do? Because if it is (doing what He said to do) then really we have no other choice (if we’re really following Him) but to just walk through it, right? And (for us) in spite of all the negative feelings and emotions that bombard us on a daily basis, knowing that we’re exactly where He wants us to be and doing what He wants us to do is comforting and encouraging. 

So if you’re like us (doing something you’d prefer not to be doing) just keep following Jesus. Because having Him is worth every single struggle. And besides, “the grass is never greener somewhere else, it just looks like it.”

Happy New Year, 

Jim