Fight For the Pause This Christmas

December comes rolling in with a vigor that can be full of childlike excitement or of the dread of “too much to do and too little time.” I’m not going to lie, I’m going to have to fight for the childlike wonder this year. In addition to all of the other added expectations the holidays bring – extra baking, Christmas parties and programs squeezed into an already loaded calendar, shopping for gifts, and planning ways to make Christmas special, we are preparing for our oldest daughter’s wedding at the end of this very busy month. 

I will accept this fight because it is important to me. Every year at this time, I feel the deep ache of a much needed pause; an intentional shifting of eyes and heart to a realm beyond shopping malls and checklists and schedules. It doesn’t make sense to have a time-out in the middle of a season that requires us to kick it into turbo like the final moments of a Super Mario Bros. game when you’re running out of time and you have to fly past everything to get to the flag at the end of the round and beat the clock. But without the intentional slowing, this miraculous season will be stolen from me, controlled by something or someone else. I’ll end up taking my Christmas tree down January 1 relieved it’s all over and we all survived. 

Fight with me.

Fight with me. It’s not a fight against the schedules or the lists, but wrestling to keep eyes lifted above what’s directly in front of us in the midst of them.  A fight to lean in to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice inviting and engaging us in the mystery of this season. A fight to keep fires kindled in our hearts and our family’s hearts that burn with ache for the Christmas that brought us the Hope we build our lives upon. 

The Holy Spirit whispers the same words to me each Christmas:

Come. Listen. Receive. Proclaim.

Every Christmas teaches me more as I dig in to these words and why they are so important this time of year. Despite the chaos of this month, I invite you to fight for the pause with me every day as we take time to listen and reflect on the wonder and mystery that didn’t just begin in the manger that first Christmas, but before the foundations of the world. No matter what competes for our attention, let’s come, invite Him into our day; give Him room to slow us, calm us, and restore us throughout this busy month.