Will you observe Christmas tomorrow? If so, according to a new Gallup survey, you’re in the majority: 88 percent of Americans will join you.

Will you attend church services today or tomorrow? If so, you’re in the minority: only 47 percent of Americans will join you, down from 64 percent in 2010.

Now consider two other recent Gallup headlines: “US Mental Health Ratings Continue to Worsen” and “Americans End Year in Gloomy Mood.”

I believe declining church attendance is related to declining well-being in a way that might surprise you, but will—I hope—greatly encourage you as well.

 “To run where the brave dare not go”

A recent article by clinical psychology professor Ross White advises, “Your purpose isn’t something to find, it’s something you form.” He reports that online searches for the phrase “find your purpose” have risen by more than 3,000 percent in the past three decades. However, he encourages his clients to take a different path.

In his view, our life purpose works with what and who we already are and evolves over time while serving its own ends. The goal is to form a direction that “brings meaning and vitality to our lives.”

I’m reminded of the testimony of Albert Camus, who called himself an “absurdist” and viewed the universe as meaningless: “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

His words stir something in me. The idea that I can form my own purpose and thus bring “meaning and vitality” to my life is viscerally attractive. I’m reminded of “The Quest,” a song I first heard as a young boy and has been performed or recorded dozens of times since:

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love, pure and chaste, from afar
To try, when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
To fight for the right without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star!

After all these years, I can still recite these aspirational lyrics in my mind today.

But are they true?

A nativity set missing a figure

Joseph is often called the “silent man of Christmas.” In all the biblical narratives, he speaks not a single recorded word. I remember a nativity set I once found in a store which included figurines for Jesus, Mary, shepherds, Wise Men, and even animals, but none for Joseph. If you set it out, I’m not sure how many people would notice the omission.

And yet, without someone doing what Joseph did, there would have been no Christmas.

He agreed to make his pregnant fiancée his wife, ignoring the societal scorn that would likely come as a consequence. He risked his life by embarking on a journey to Bethlehem for the birth of a baby who was not his. He risked his life again by taking the child and his mother to Egypt to escape the murderous clutches of King Herod.

He risked his future and prosperity once more when, “being warned in a dream,” he “went and lived in a city called Nazareth” (Matthew 2:22, 23), a town so insignificant that it is mentioned not once in the entire Old Testament.

While his words are nowhere recorded, he changed the course of human history—not just by protecting Jesus, but by modeling obedience for him. So it was that when his adopted son came to teach his disciples to pray, he began with the Aramaic word he first used for Joseph: Abba, “Father” (Matthew 6:9). Scholars tell us that Jesus was the first rabbi in Jewish history to address the Lord of heaven in such a personal way.

Now Joseph’s example is God’s invitation to us today.

“More than conquerors through him who loved us”

Isaiah foretold the coming of One who would be “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Yesterday, we considered Mary’s commitment to our Prince of Peace. Today, let’s emulate Joseph’s commitment to him as our Everlasting Father.

Here’s my point: we will seek and trust our Father’s purpose rather than our own to the degree that we believe he loves us more than we love ourselves.

You might think that you always want whatever is best for yourself, but I doubt it. If you’re like me, you too often succumb to temptation to make choices you know will cost more than they pay, then punish yourself with guilt for your failures. And you see yourself in the mirror of the opinion of others, valuing yourself only when and as they do. Since popularity is always fleeting, so is your esteem of yourself.

By contrast, the Christ of Christmas knows every failure of your past and future but loves you unconditionally (1 John 4:8). What’s more, he likes you. Our Lord “takes pleasure in his people” (Psalm 149:4), “delights in the welfare of his servant” (Psalm 35:27), and “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).

He is on our side so fully that “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Paul adds:

Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv. 38–39).

Experiencing this all-conquering love is the key to the well-being our souls long to embrace.

The choice that changes everything

Now we have a choice. We can form our own self-reliant purpose for our own ends, or we can seek and follow the purpose of an Everlasting Father who loves us more than we could ever love ourselves. We can strive to “reach the unreachable star,” or, like Joseph, we can take the hand of the Creator of the stars as he reaches down to us.

Famed missionary Jim Elliot prayed,

“Your will, Lord. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.”

Will you make his prayer yours today?

Quote for the day:

“He who obeys sincerely endeavors to obey thoroughly.” —Thomas Brooks (1608–80)

Our latest website resources:

• What does Christmas say about God?
• Australia attack, Rob Reiner, Christmas movies, Candace Owens & football updates
• Do miracles still happen? A podcast interview with Lee Strobel
• A review of Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Miracles”
• What does Christmas have to do with bioethics?

Denison Forum

President Trump announced plans yesterday afternoon for a new fleet of warships, to be known as the “Golden Fleet.” In an address from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, he said the new battleships would be “one hundred times more powerful than any battleship ever built.” Renderings behind the president displayed the new “Trump class,” including a ship named the USS Defiant.

In other news, the US military says it struck a vessel allegedly carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific last night, killing one person. The US Coast Guard is in “active pursuit” of a third oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, part of an accelerating effort to block ships from moving the country’s crude oil. From a knife attack in Taiwan and a mass shooting in South Africa to possible new Iran strikes and US and Chinese satellites “dogfighting” in orbit, today’s news is filled with conflict, as always.

Prior to the First World War, the writer Hamilton Wright Mabie said of Christmas, “Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!” Over the century that followed, however, not everyone has been in on the “conspiracy.” Since his pronouncement, we have seen two world wars, conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, the Cold War, the Gulf War, the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, and ongoing conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.

Peace is often defined as the absence of conflict. However, there’s a pathway to peace that transcends our conflicts and transforms our days. It is indeed a “conspiracy of love” that begins at Christmas but is not complete until it includes every human heart. Including yours.

 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace”

When Jesus was born, the angels announced, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14). Seven centuries earlier, the prophet had promised: “Unto us a child is born, to us a son is given . . . and his name shall be called . . . Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Isaiah added, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end” (v. 7).

If Jesus is indeed the “Prince of Peace,” why didn’t his coming at Christmas bring the absence of conflict for which we yearn today?

You might say that his birth occurred two millennia ago and thus holds no relevance to the conflicts of our day, but Jesus assured us that he is “with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). As we have noted in recent days, he now lives in us by his Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16) and thus is as present in our world as when he inhabited his physical body.

Even more, by inhabiting Christians, he has multiplied his presence around the world through the billions of people who follow him. In this sense, he told us that we will do “greater works” than he did (John 14:12) by virtue of our globe-spanning presence as his “body” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

“Appointed for the fall and rising of many”

And yet, following Jesus does not guarantee the absence of conflict. The opposite is actually often true.

Simeon warned Mary shortly after Jesus’ birth, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34–35). I cannot imagine that this brought an absence of conflict to her heart that day. Or on the day she saw the prophecy fulfilled as she stood helplessly while her beloved firstborn was nailed to a cross (John 19:25–27).

Jesus warned us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). His word therefore advises, “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you” (1 John 3:13) and adds, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). As imprisoned believers in Iran and China can attest today, “all” means all.

And conflicts such as “divisions” and “quarreling” in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:10–11) have plagued the church across its history as well.

So I’ll ask again, how did Mary’s Son bring peace at his birth and today?

“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord”

The Old Testament word translated “peace” is shalom, which means to be right with God, others, and ourselves. The New Testament word is eirene, which similarly means harmony and order.

Here’s the catch: to be in true and lasting harmony with ourselves and others, we must be in harmony with God. Peace is a “fruit” of his Spirit (Galatians 5:22), a gift he alone can give.

This is what Jesus was born at Christmas to bring: a path by which our sins can be forgiven and where we can be restored to intimacy with our Father. If we reject this pathway, the conflicts that result are not his fault but ours. We can blame the Prince of Peace for all the wars that have come after he came, but this is like blaming our disease on the doctor whose prescription we ignored.

The key is to respond to the Christ of Christmas as did his mother: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). When we do—and only then—his transforming peace will be ours.

“God Emmanuel is with you”

Br. Curtis Almquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston suggests (his emphases):

As we anticipate Christmas this year, if you are asking, maybe desperately, whether God is with you, I suggest you rephrase the question. The question is not whether God is with you, but how God is with you. Because God Emmanuel is with you, and with the rest of us, whether we here, or those near, or those far away, all around the world. Whether the landscape of your soul is brightly illuminated just now, or whether you are temporarily blinded by more light than you can bear, or whether the darkness simply seems to loom large, God is with you. . . .

In Advent, are we waiting on God? Or is God waiting on us? The answer is “yes.”

How are both true for you today?

Quote for the day:

“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” —C. S. Lewis

Our latest website resources:

• What does Christmas say about God?
• Australia attack, Rob Reiner, Christmas movies, Candace Owens & football updates
• Do miracles still happen? A podcast interview with Lee Strobel
• A review of Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Miracles”
• What does Christmas have to do with bioethics?

Denison Forum

There are times when sinners seem to get away with their sins. For example, the Wall Street Journal tells us about the scourge of airline passengers claiming disabilities so they can board in wheelchairs and skip the lines. If no wheelchairs are available when they arrive, they are miraculously “healed” and disembark under their own power.

Skeptical observers call this the work of “Jetway Jesus.”

Then there are times when “private” sin becomes public overnight. For example, the New York Times is profiling the woman who was “shamed” at a Coldplay concert last July when she was caught on camera in the arms of her boss. When news broke that both were married to other people, the story caused an international furor. Both resigned from their positions; she has received death threats.

There are mistakes and failures in my past that I am glad were not broadcast to the world; I’m sure you can say the same. Here’s the practical question: What shortcomings in your life would you most like to improve today?

Do you struggle with what the Puritans called “besetting sins,” perennial temptations and failures? Are there things you wish you could do or stop doing if you only had the strength? Defeats you wish you could repair? Victories you wish you could claim?

The answer to all of the above is found in Christmas.

What was your favorite Christmas gift?

What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child? For me, it was the Mattel Stallion Bicycle (like this one) I received in elementary school.

Someone at my school had one and parked it where I passed by it each day. I thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. My parents, however, gave me no assurance that I would receive one. I was a “challenging” child (to put it mildly), constantly bringing home conduct slips generated by boredom at school and my belief that I should be able to amuse myself however I wished.

I did nothing to deserve that Stallion bike and had no reason to expect it, which made (and makes) the Christmas morning I found it beside our Christmas tree near-miraculous to my mind.

Of course, of all the gifts we did not deserve, the one for which Christmas exists stands above them all.

Jesus was not “born” when he was born at Christmas: before time began, he was “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8 NIV). It is therefore unsurprising that three chapters in Matthew, three in Mark, three in Luke, and six in John focus on the last twenty-four hours of his earthly life.

The reason is simple: he was born to die for us.

A second- or third-century work called The Letter to Diognetus notes that in response to our sins,

[Our Father] gave his own Son as the price of our redemption, the holy one to redeem the wicked, the sinless one to redeem sinners, the just one to redeem the unjust, the incorruptible one to redeem the corruptible, the immortal one to redeem mortals. For what else could have covered our sins but his sinlessness?

Across this Christmas week, I invite you to remember each day the greatest gift you have ever received.

The truest measure of our sincerity

How should we respond?

We often hear the question, What can you give the person who has everything? In Jesus’ case, it is literally true (Colossians 1:15–17). Ministers typically respond by encouraging us to give Jesus ourselves. This is good theology: our omnipotent Lord has chosen to honor the free will with which he made us in his image, so he stands at the door of our heart and knocks to gain admittance through our free choice (cf. Revelation 3:20).

The harder it is to open this door of obedience to him, the deeper the love we demonstrate when we do.

When God’s will obviously benefits us, we can respond as an employee who chooses to do what their employer asks in the transactional expectation of reward as a result. The price that obedience costs us is the degree to which we demonstrate the sincerity of our love for him.

I don’t know about you, but this is not entirely good news for me.

I’m as obedient as I want to be

I once heard the president of a once-Christian university say, “At our school, you can be as religious as you choose to be.” I’ll confess that the same often applies to me: I am as obedient to Jesus as I want to be. If my next step into serving him were easy or obviously beneficial to me, I would have already taken it. What remains in my journey to surrender and sanctification seems to cost more than it pays.

Perhaps you know what I mean. Perhaps you are also being called to do something you’re not doing or stop doing something you are doing. In fact, I would imagine that every Christian on the path to holiness faces such a step today.

As Oswald Chambers noted in today’s My Utmost for His Highest reading, “Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp.”

Here’s the good news: the Christ who lives within us will empower us to fulfill the purpose of Christ for us.

In recent days, we have focused on the incarnational miracle that “Christ in you” is our “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The One who came to live in our world at Christmas now lives in believers by his Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). Paul’s testimony is therefore true of every Christian: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

Now the living Lord Jesus stands ready to help us step into the holistic obedience that is our best response to his holistic sacrifice for us.

If we ask, we will receive (Matthew 7:7).

“Majesty in the midst of mundane”

If you doubt that Jesus can work such a transforming miracle in your life today, think back to the transforming miracle by which he was born into our fallen world. Max Lucado describes the first Christmas:

Majesty in the midst of mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near. And as Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end.”

In what new way will you make him your king today?

Quote for the day:

“People don’t resist change—they resist being changed.” —Peter Senge

Our latest website resources:

• What does Christmas say about God?
• Australia attack, Rob Reiner, Christmas movies, Candace Owens & football updates
• Do miracles still happen? A podcast interview with Lee Strobel
• A review of Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Miracles”
• What does Christmas have to do with bioethics?

Denison Forum