“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16

It is the first week of Advent and I am joyful. Over the last few years I have jumped ‘all-in’ to Christmas much earlier than I used to. I am not sure if it is due to my age or to tiring, dark, worldly news. But either way, the thought of celebration, Christmas, Jesus birth and the sights and sounds of joyful celebration stir deep hope within me. I hadn’t realized how deep until last night.

This year, I made the decision to get all the Christmas stuff out of storage and bring it home… WITHOUT Katie having to ask me! In fact, when she got home from work and saw the fully loaded truck, her face didn’t reflect ANY joy at all! She seemed MORE stressed. Over the next 24 hours, she started to warm up to the idea of a ‘Christmas’ point of view.

It was last night, while I was setting up the Christmas tree, that the reality of my desperate need for ‘hope’ really hit. I had turned on the TV and surfed the channels to find SOMETHING with a hint of Christmas in it. It landed on a station that was playing an old Perry Como Christmas special from YEARS ago. The picture was fuzzy and Angie Dickinson was TRYING to sing a song with Perry. SHE WAS TERRIBLE! If you picture St. Peter trying to ‘rap’ with Kanye West… you’d get the idea! But the measure of my desperation came when I realized… I was SINGING WITH HER!

I USED to think that ‘Christmas Spirit’ was something that came upon me like a mysterious visitor with a sack full of Heavenly dust. Until that visitation came and the ‘feeling’ hit, Christmas was just another day. I have learned that, like OTHER Christian characteristics, FEELING FOLLOWS ACTION! NOT the other way around.

If I want to FEEL love, I need to PRACTICE it in reality. If I want to invoke a Heavenly point of view, I need to deliberately drop the worldly one first! To ultimately FEEL I need to decisively ACT. A point that came with proof just last night! As I turned off the TV show, I heard Katie SINGING as she was decorating the ‘Snowman Bathroom.’ I smiled! She sings a LOT better than Angie!