Christmas time is tough. Especially in times like these—when family and friends are out of touch, when others are gathering and we are quarantined, when the normal holiday rituals are just not going to happen.
At a time when the Light Of The World is celebrating a birthday, we should be happy, right? We live in consummate luxury compared to most the people on the planet, yet the world continues to dish out difficulties like mashed potatoes at Wheeler Mission on Thanksgiving. Happiness eludes us.
A Buddhist nun addressed the subject in a Ted Talk a while back. With a shaved head she asked the audience, "Have you had a good day or a bad day?" And then "Why?" Yes! There is the million-dollar question! We can report all the bad things that have ruined this day, or week or year. (Do you want it alphabetically? Or chronologically?)
Everyone wants the day to be happy, but our minds, she said, are like balloons in the wind, blown about by external circumstances. If things go well we're happy. If our balloon gets a flat tire on 465, we are not. When we do not purposefully choose to be happy, we let the world decide for us, she said. "We are outsourcing our happiness." We have given away control.
My friend who spent 22 years in prison was one of the best examples in my life because even though he was living in the worst of circumstances, he continued to hold on to the joy of the Lord. His sweet smile disarmed the toughest people and he strove always to give grace in return for insults and mean intention. Writing him was an amazing gift, leading us at UNITE INDY to find letter writers, mentors, and trainers for incarcerated men and women, and jobs to provide a second chance for those being released.
In prison, he was a living example of the fact that happiness and unhappiness are states of mind—something we choose. Of course, when life-altering occurrences shatter our world, we must take time to recover—but all our days are numbered. To truly live, each of us eventually must leave our heaviest baggage at the foot of the Cross and go on. When Paul wrote second Corinthians he was experiencing life-threatening trouble on every side, yet he wrote, "in all our affliction I am overflowing with great joy" (7:4). We too can choose again to enjoy our days on this earth remembering that although "weeping may last for the night, joy cometh in the morning." (Ps 30:5) It does, if we let it.
Whatever your plans for this holiday—whether we dread the noise, the cooking, and the mess, or are sorrowful because we'll spend these special days alone, or are facing a devil of another kind, we can experience internal happiness. Each of us can decide what to think, not to blame, to turn away from sadness, to be grateful and choose happiness. Every. Single. Day, the choice is ours.
Sending love and best wishes to all for a happy and Merry Christmas,
Nancy
