Reflection: Getting Lost in the Holidays
At the conclusion of this past year (2023), I wrapped up a holiday visit out of town and several things have become apparent to me.
First, holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and even Memorial Day, to name just a few, were enacted to solemnly remember the events that are important in our collective lives. Memorial Day, to pick one to extrapolate on, was established to remember those people who died serving their country in a war. They gave us their ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms. Thanksgiving is still on my mind, because I spent it out of town. Thanksgiving is a holiday meant to allow us the opportunity to remember and be thankful for all the wonderful blessings we have.
They each have a purpose. And an attached emotion.
The problem, (no wait; the error), is when you don’t take the time to reflect on the intent of the holiday and just look forward to it as an opportunity to visit with family or, even worse, just an extra day off. Society encourages this by commoditizing the holiday into just another shopping opportunity. During the week after Thanksgiving, I believed I received a couple of hundred emails a day trying to tantalize me into buying this or that…Black Friday sales, small business Saturday sales, the examples are almost boundless.
I have realized that I’ve recognized the low hanging fruit problem of not remembering the reason for the holiday and missing a bigger, and more personal problem - not praying with family and friends over meals.
To be transparent, I’m not consistent nor am I comfortable praying out loud in front of people. Growing up, my parents used to eat meals together as a family with the occasional prayer but even that seemed to diminish with society as we moved away from family meals and more towards eating in a living room. Just like my holiday explanation, I think that lack of formality of a sit-down meal also diminishes the likelihood of remembering, and practicing, prayers over meals.
“And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, 'Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” - Luke 22:45-46 ESV
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:4-7 ESV
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 ESV
I think I keep finding more things to work on.
