Fairly Spiritual: Have a not so magical Christmas

A couple weeks back I had an enlightening conversation with my older sister, Christine. She’s an extremely intelligent and wise person. Besides being a full-time medical doctor, she’s also the worship leader for our church. It truly is one of my joys in life to work alongside my big sis.

A couple weeks back I had an enlightening conversation with my older sister, Christine. She’s an extremely intelligent and wise person. Besides being a full-time medical doctor, she’s also the worship leader for our church. It truly is one of my joys in life to work alongside my big sis.

Anyway, it was the first week of December and I had just finished my first Christmasy sermon of the season. After the service, Christine gave me some gracious compliments about the message and then she said something really profound. I will paraphrase her comments as I do not have a photographic memory. Frankly, I don’t even have an Etch-a-Sketch memory.

“Doug, I think the reason people have such a difficult time with Christmas is they make Christmas into too big of a deal. They try to make it so meaningful and magical that they often find themselves disappointed that the day sort of feels like just another day.”

She said it better than that, but again, I’ve got a bad memory and I am not comfortable recording all of my conversations for column fodder. However, the point of her observation was clear and unmistakable. We put so much pressure on ourselves when it comes to Christmas that Christmas becomes this grand experience we can never seem to achieve.

We start with the assumption that Christmas is magical and if we just do it up right, we too will experience that same magic. It’s the “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know” syndrome. We assume the past was full of magic and although the present doesn’t look that magical, if we just work hard enough to bring some holiday cheer into our lives, we will be able to recapture that past magic once again.

Although holiday magic makes a great Christmas movie or song, it doesn’t always pan out in real life. The simple truth remains that Christmas often feels profoundly ordinary, overwhelmingly normal, even unimpressively mundane. Instead of a Christmas miracle, we find the same dysfunctional family we saw at Thanksgiving or the last birthday party.

Rather than a profound sense of peace and goodwill, we are confronted with the standard simmering desire to choke Uncle Carl if he says one more ill-informed word about politics. Our sacred gathering around the Christmas tree becomes another “Leave your brother alone or I’m going to send both of you to your room!”

These normal, everyday occurrences would have little impact if they happened on Aug. 13 or any other random day on the calendar. But … “It’s Christmas! How could this happen on Christmas? I just worked so hard to make this a nice Christmas and now it’s ruined … ” Well, maybe not ruined, but Bing Crosby isn’t going to show up and sing “White Christmas” and Tiny Tim will be unable to say “God bless us, every one!” because you just sent him to bed for hitting his sister on the head with his new Nintendo DS system.

Now, before I’m accused of being the Grinch and taking all the joy out of Christmas, I want to be clear about why I’m writing today’s column. I’m writing to let you know that it’s all right. Christmas doesn’t have to be magical. It’s simply a day we choose to honor the birth of Jesus. Frankly, it’s not even the day Jesus was born.

So don’t be so hard on yourself. If Dec. 25 doesn’t work out too well this year, then pick another day on the calendar and try again. Pick any day, it doesn’t really matter. The magic isn’t limited to any particular moment or season in the year. Christmas, at its best, can be celebrated on a daily basis. All it takes is someone willing to make room for the love of Jesus.

Yes, I do believe in magical moments. I do believe in special gatherings. I just don’t believe we should force all the magic to happen on Christmas. For me, the magic of Christmas is rooted in my ability to abide with Jesus every single day of my life.

With this in mind, I want to wish everyone a very magical and/or ordinary Christmas and a very happy and/or normal New Year.

“Live from Seattle with Doug Bursch” can be heard 4-6 p.m. weekdays on KGNW 820 AM. Doug Bursch also pastors Evergreen Foursquare Church. Evergreen meets at 10 a.m. Sundays at 2407 M St. SE next to Pioneer Elementary School. He can be reached at www.fairlyspiritual.org or doug@fairlyspiritual.org.