Wake Up, Look Up

hello everybody thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking the

question does your Christmas need less

magic this is prompted by an article I

read this week which was suggesting that

the holidays for many people are

becoming Relentless uh sources of stress

not joy that we're doing a lot of things

to keep up tradition to keep up uh

appearances and increasingly we're

feeling a little less joyful and a

little more burdened uh this is

especially true at least according to

the article I read of moms and that

makes sense to me exponentially because

usually behind a Christmas tradition is

a mom who's keeping the tradition going

and often doing most of the work

involved in that tradition if your

family was like mine or is like mine

it's Mom who gets the Christmas

decorations out it's Mom who reminds

everybody this Saturday we're baking

cookies or it's time to get the tree or

whatever it might be mom often is the

epicenter of the family tradition which

means then Mom is perpetually tired and

stressed and what the article was asking

all of us but in particular you mothers

is have you ever stopped to wonder if

you need to keep doing all the things

that you're doing so we asked the

question does your Christmas need less

magic the point is are there things that

you're currently doing in your

celebration of the holiday that you

don't really need to keep doing

sometimes what happens at least again

according to this article is that we

worry about future memories meaning hey

the reason we're doing this tradition is

that 20 years from now when the kids are

grown I will have this memory or they

will have the memory of a childhood full

of Christmas Joy uh but often times the

things we're doing the people we are

quote unquote doing them for wouldn't

mind if we let them go in fact the

article was connecting it to a trend

that was pretty popular a few years ago

and that was the trend led by Marie

condo to declutter and simplify your

home to get rid of the things that that

didn't meet her criteria which was that

you look at something and ask does this

spark joy and if it does you keep it and

if it doesn't you get rid of it the

article was suggesting that perhaps we

take that approach to our holiday season

that we look at our Traditions our

Gatherings the things we're doing and we

ask does this spark joy and if the

answer is no you cut it out well look

that might be true for some of us I I

certainly think uh drudgery is very

often uh leads to a negative family

experience it's not a positive one of

course as Christians we know though the

call of God in our lives is not just to

ask does this spark joy for me but also

to ask does this spark joy for others

Jesus said greater love has no one than

this that he laid down his life for his

friends that that involves thinking

about the joy of other people over and

against your own joy and moms you're

typically great at this that's why we

all love you you're always putting

everyone ahead of yourselves there's

something incredibly loving about that

but it might be time to take stock of

what we're doing and to acknowledge

there are things we're doing that no one

would be sad if we let go and as you're

going to hear me say perpetually in the

holiday season at wake up lookup it will

also mean saying there are things we're

not doing that will reorient us as to

the meaning and message of Christmas

because moms you shouldn't feel like you

have to Pedal to keep Christmas going

what keeps Christmas going is what

happened in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago

Christmas is not about you proving

you're the best mom with the most

festive Traditions Christmas is about

gathering around the love of a God who

did not wait for us to get to him but

Drew near to us and I think for you to

experience that is also for you to lean

in to the rest he offers you God didn't

wait for you to be a perfect mother with

perfect Traditions to draw near he came

to you in the mess in the clutter in the

stress through Jesus so by all means

audit your Christmas ask yourself are we

doing things that make us joyful get rid

of what no one wants to do anymore but

above all else all of us but mothers

especially find joy in what Jesus has

done the work of Christmas has been

accomplished find some rest this season

and know we all love you even if

Christmas isn't always perfect hey

thanks so much for watching this episode

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