Tomorrow night is Christmas Eve. I am so happy this year to enjoy the season again. In fact, I have enjoyed the Christmas season this year more than any other time. As a musician I play at every worship celebration, and Christmas is the Church's biggest celebration of the year--along side Easter.
I'm not complaining...I love the Lord, enjoy singing and playing my guitar, and I love people. But since Christmas Day falls on a Sunday in 2011, many churches are having a huge Christmas Eve service (even multiple options) as well as full services on Sunday. I guess this is gonna sound wrong no matter how I put it: I'm glad my church decided to give Sunday morning to families this year. You heard me, no church Sunday morning! What a concept...
A lot of people have a difficult time with the notion of no church on Christmas Day. I understand. And even though I consider myself a very dedicated Christian--to the point of choosing a career as a worship pastor--I still am happy to wake up and spend the day with my family.
This past fall, one large church in California gave up a whole weekend of services to go into the community and help the needy, to make necessary repairs to the homes of widows, and to generally say to the community, "We care." The greatest part of the project was that they went out into the community and didn't ask for people to come to them.
Sometimes it's good to give our families a rest. As a church staff, we operate on the generous strength of volunteers. Many times, without doing a quick "cost/benefit" analysis on the projects our churches undertake throughout the year, we can tax our volunteers to the point of exhaustion.
I'm glad to be home with my family on Christmas morning. Tomorrow afternoon on Christmas Eve, though, I will be playing and worshiping with my church family. All of this activity reminds me of the Mary and Martha story: there is a time to work and a time to rest. I'm sure Jesus will let me stay home...just this once!
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