Celebrating Christmas Your Way, Part 3
In parts ONE and TWO of this series, we looked at how believers can enrich their Christmas celebrations by keeping their preferred sacred pathway(s) in mind. We’re wrapping up the series this week by looking at the pathways of enthusiasts, contemplatives, and intellectuals.
Enthusiasts
Enthusiasts thrive on celebration and mystery, and Christmas can be full of both. During the month of December, it feels like much of the world is celebrating with us during this “most wonderful time of the year.” You’ll probably have Christmas songs playing before Thanksgiving leftovers are consumed. You’ll also likely be the family member pushing others to get the Christmas decorations out as soon as possible.
Because enthusiasts tend to be more relational in their worship (celebration is more fun when you’re sharing it with others), if you’re married to an enthusiast, you best be prepared to attend a songfest or two, church services given over to singing carols, or (in other years, but perhaps not this one due to COVID 19) house parties, and public performances of the Messiah or Nutcracker. If enthusiasts get together with friends and family members they are often hoping for lots of laughter, singing, and celebration—happy times!
Christmas also lends itself to the supernatural mystery that marks many enthusiasts. The popular phrase “it’s a Christmas miracle!” leads right into your preferred pathway. Ask God to help you make a difference in another family’s life, surprising them with food or clothing or gifts. You want to be used by God in ways that go beyond natural understanding—the kind of person who wants to pass on a divine encouragement, offer an unexpected visit at just the right time, or make a phone call exactly when it’s needed. Your “gift giving” may be small but momentous events like these where you hope God will use you in spontaneous and surprising ways to bless others during this holiday season.
The very “act” of Christmas touches both sides of your passion for God—celebrating that something so wondrous happened, and marveling at the mystery: God became a baby? God in flesh? Give yourself time to celebrate and marvel throughout this season.
Contemplatives
Contemplatives are known for the emotional heart of their faith. They major in adoration and are happy to sit at God’s feet and spend much time alone in His presence. Today, Christmas is often viewed as a “busy” season, but over-activity is the death knell of the contemplative’s faith. He or she needs time, space, and quiet to connect with God. You can’t “feel” for your Savior if you are wrapped up in anxiety, a never-ending to-do list, or attending a long string of parties that keep you preoccupied and up late.
Contemplatives will remind themselves and us that Christmas is, above all, an act of love. “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son…” (John 3:16). They want to receive Christmas as a statement of love, an act of love, and the embodiment of love. Accordingly, their worship will focus on responding to and returning that love. While others are often singing songs, having parties, buying gifts, attending extra church services, or doing good deeds, the contemplative wants God to know that He still has their heart, their first affection, and their focus, and that they want, more than anything, to spend time alone with Him, looking on His face and drinking up His love.
For instance, they may slip out of a Christmas party and go into the backyard, alone, just to tell Jesus, “I love you.” Their very favorite present to give might be something creative that they offer to God.
In the book Sacred Pathways I recount how, as a teen, I gave an anonymous Christmas Eve gift to a family. The anonymous part was essential for the gift to be received as a gift primarily to God. Contemplatives cherish “secret acts of devotion.” If you’re musical, you may create your own song celebrating the birth of Christ; what makes it an anonymous gift is that it’s a song that you’ll not share with anyone else. You may write a poem and burn it in a holy flame. You may give an anonymous gift to someone in need. Though the “secret acts of devotion” will differ, the motivation will be the same: by giving anonymously, you’re giving one hundred percent to and for God, out of love for God.
If you’re a contemplative, give yourself a few opportunities to meditatively pray through the events surrounding the birth of Christ (Matthew 1:18-2:18; Luke 2:1-40). Take a couple weeks to do this so you don’t have to rush past a single event in the Christmas story. Revel in the love of God that each act exhibits. Consider the love Mary had for Jesus, and the love the baby Jesus had for Mary. What about Joseph? And those who visited Him? Don’t miss the joy and exuberance of the angels.
You can still participate in others’ singing, and gift-giving, and party-attending, but you’ll come out of this season most fulfilled if you come out of it feeling loved and believing you have correspondingly grown in your own love for God.
Intellectuals
One of the best ways to awaken an intellectual’s heart is to engage his or her mind. When intellectuals understand something new about God, they gain greater respect and appreciation for Him and it increases their zeal for worship. The fact that God really did become “man in flesh” matters; not for the sake of argument, but for the sake of wonder. The fact that Jesus was born “of a virgin” matters. They won’t settle for superficial or sentimental agreements, as if truth is an afterthought. They will likely be more precise about the chronological timeline of the Christmas story (such as the delayed arrival of the wise men) and will want to be clear about what actually happened and when. If you set up a nativity scene and they keep moving the wise men out of the manger scene while the shepherds are present, now you know why! (If you’ve read my book, you may remember me recounting three scholars vigorously debating the location of the Sheep Gate in ancient Jerusalem.)
While others are singing the same old Christmas carols, intellectuals are likely to spend their time reading a solid Advent devotional. One option is a book put together by my alma mater, Regent College; The Cradle and the Cross: A Regent College Advent Reader (which I contributed to) can be obtained through the Regent College bookstore (bookstore@regent-college.edu). There’s also a devotional based on the Christmas sermons of Charles Spurgeon; intellectuals know you can’t go wrong with Spurgeon: Joy to the World: Daily Readings for Advent. Popular writers such as Tim Keller, Rick Warren and Paul David Tripp have each written their own advent devotional books, so you’re not likely to run out of new material any time soon.
For family gatherings and celebrations, let the intellectual do a little bit of teaching. My extended family would do this for me, even though I’m sure I got far more out of it than any of them did. Putting thoughts together in a coherent enough fashion to share them with others will help intellectuals enter into a more fervent time of adoration and worship. Intellectuals have to “put up” with more than their share of Christmas carols that aren’t theologically accurate, or depictions that don’t correlate with Scripture (there’s not a single instance of a feminine angel in the Bible). So if you can give them just a few minutes to put their thoughts in the right place, their hearts will follow.
Putting it All Together
If you’ve still got children at home, consider reading through the past three blog posts together and setting an agenda to worship Jesus this holiday season by incorporating each family member’s personal preference. Letting your children choose their favorite worship activities will help you get to know them, and it will make them feel known and understood. It will also broaden your entire family’s experience of Christmas.
If you’re an intellectual, enthusiast, or contemplative, please share some of your favorite advent practices in the comments section below so that others like you can be inspired to make the most of this holy season.
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