the lonely crowd at Christmas

I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the word seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.

-Taylor Caldwell

It is possible to walk down Fifth Avenue in New York City with a mob of shoppers and window watchers on a Saturday afternoon during the Christmas season . . . to attend a packed church service to experience Handel’s Messiah . . . to stand in a long line at the local movie theater on the opening night of the latest holiday blockbuster everyone has been waiting to see . . . even to attend the neighborhood Christmas progressive dinner with people you know and greet regularly . . . it is possible to do all these things and still feel lonely.

David Riesman, a Harvard professor and prominent psychologist of the 1950s, described this “modern” phenomenon as being a member of the “lonely crowd.”

Christmas reminds us we are never alone.

If you are feeling disconnected, isolated, and alone in the world, well, you’re not alone. As easy as it seems to simply reach out to others, in our fast-paced, media-saturated, competitive, busy, self-centered, preoccupied society, really connecting can be an imposing challenge. Is it any wonder that so many people turn almost exclusively to the virtual world of cyberspace for dating, chatting, socializing, and experiencing relationships rather than savoring flesh and blood encounters?

Excerpted from the Simple
Blessings of Christmas.

You can do Christmas shopping online to avoid the crowds and connect with friends on Facebook, but you just can’t do Christmas by yourself. So even if you find yourself alone in a crowd at Christmastime, the spirit of the season—the One who came to bring peace to all people, to reconcile God and man, to lift up and redeem people from every walk of life—will touch your heart. Even if you don’t know how to reach out to Him or others, He will reach out to you.

What does it take from you? Nothing more than an open heart. Why try? You just don’t know how, when, where, and with whom you’ll realize you are not alone.

“The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means “God with us.”

Matthew 1:23

 

Christmas Teaches Us Gratitude

From the Simple Blessings of Christmas
Published by Simple Truths

Christmas day is a day of joy and charity. May God make you very rich in both.

 - Phillips Brooks

 There is a simple attitude that determines in our own minds whether we are rich or poor, blessed or cursed, and fundamentally positive or negative about life. To make that enormous of a difference, that attitude must be incredibly powerful. And it is. That attitude is gratitude.

One person gets a job and is thrilled to be a contributing member of a team—and to be paid for it to boot. Another person gets the same job with the same company and with the same pay and benefits and feels cheated. One person literally has a great job and the other has an equally crummy job. Why? The difference is an attitude of gratitude.

One teen looks under the Christmas tree, finds a simple and thoughtful gift from her mom, and knows she is loved; all that another teen can think about as he tears the glossy wrapping paper from the box is the new cell phone model he didn’t get. She had a great Christmas morning and got absolutely everything she wanted; he had a lousy Christmas and didn’t get anything good. Again the only difference was gratitude.

After a long pregnancy that generated more questions than congratulations; that nearly led to a marriage ending before it started; that included a painful and arduous journey; that culminated in her son being born in conditions fit for animals but not for humans, how did Mary respond?

Luke tells us that she “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (2:19). In Bethlehem, among the animals, she found joy. She could have complained that God was doing nothing good for her, that her husband was a lousy provider, that the innkeeper should be put in prison for denying her a bed in the house, but instead she declared the “great things” God had done (Luke 1:49).

This central Christmas story—and the joys and challenges of our modern holiday—remind us that gratitude changes everything. Whether there are gifts stacked to the ceiling with your name on them or you aren’t sure anyone is going to give you anything, stop and give thanks to God, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts. You’ll receive a special blessing in your spirit and discover you have everything you need.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17