Holidays

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday December 12, 2005

The message of the church during the Christmas season is often lost in the tinsel and panorama of events with Christmas themes. I think this is sad as Christ came to answer some of the most painful needs of life. This being the solution to the real need of sin, of horrible habits and a number of other religious themes is often emphasized to the point of overlooking some real down to earth basic ones.

Sinclair Lewis, Nobel winning author and skeptic of American society, especially evangelical believers, wrote in one of his novels of an older, respectable businessman who had run off with a younger girl, thinking that he is madly in love with her. In one scene after the fires of passion are ebbing the younger woman says to him: "On the surface we seem quite different, but deep down we are fundamentally the same. We are both desperately unhappy about something and we don’t know what it is."

I wonder how many lives and families are ruined or deeply scarred by the frantic search for happiness? How many make the same mistake as the man and woman Lewis wrote about? I'm sure that at any given time in our country there are several million people who fit the description given by this wisp of a woman.

In America at Christmas time we seem to go all out to promote the idea that more is better and more with a new person would be tremendous. An ideal American Christmas carries the subtle insinuation that Christmas will be all it can be for us when we are featured on the Lifestyle of The Rich And Famous.

I always admired the acting ability of Peter Sellers. Yet by his own admission he was not the kind of person to emulate. He knew that life is not an act when you get down to where the rubber meets the road. Shortly before his death he uttered words that were tragic and a warning to all who think that any concept of happiness involving the accolades of your fellowman or the things you can hold in your hand are the keys to inner happiness. Peter Sellers said:

"I'm so unhappy and I don't know why?"

Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10b.

If one of the reasons for the coming of Christ is that we might have a truly abundant life, then unhappiness must be the result of something amiss with our relationship or fellowship with Christ. I make this statement taking into consideration chemical or other imbalances in our system. It is my considered opinion that most unhappiness is caused by something gnawing away at us in our spiritual life. A little fox that eats away the vine, blocking our life flow from Jesus.

Intensifying your walk with Christ is often the key to inner peace and happiness.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit.

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