All I Want for Christmas is ... Contentment

by Alecia Klauk
(Chapin, SC)

Contentment is a tricky concept. Contentment is a really tricky concept at Christmas.

Contentment is very much in conflict with most of the emotions that swirl around Christmas, and I'm not even primarily talking about the whole gift thing. I don't know many adult women who are planning to throw a fit if they don't get what they want for Christmas. I am talking about a contentment to let enough be enough, in all we do and all we want to be at Christmas.

Now I know that we can be properly motivated to give and to bake and to decorate and to plan and to host and to ... For many of us, those are fun and enjoyable things that we want to do, and we even want to do them simply because we care.

But let's be honest. Sometimes, we want to give the perfect gift because we are hoping to impress someone. Sometimes, we insist on baking homemade cookies at 3:00 am because we just can't let second graders think that we'd go to the store and buy them. Sometimes, we let our husbands risk their lives to hang lights on the house just to make sure that the Quakenbushes don't out do us.

Let's face it. For as much as we try, and I know we really do try, to keep Christmas about Jesus and love and giving and everything else that it should be, we all have those moments. Those horrible freak out moments when the 14th batch of muffins just won't come out right. And we can't find the box of Nutcrackers, which we are certain have to be put out (does anyone else find them a bit scary?).

And somehow, between this year and last, most of the sequins have fallen off our favorite Christmas sweater. Joseph has taken the plunge off the mantel for the last time, and we actually ask ourselves if it would damage the spiritual walks of our kids to put out a headless shepherd.

We are deeply disturbed when the dog chews on the baby Jesus .. again. And then (oh do you feel sorry for him yet?,) those poor men of ours walk in the room, looking innocent and truthfully having been ignored, and we go postal because he asks if there's any peanut butter.

We find ourselves hollering about things we ought to be singing about. You know what I mean; in a voice that frightens everyone in the house, including the dog who keeps hiding under the bed, we declare the joy of Christmas to be a requirement to all, and to all a good night.

Really, we are desperate for Christmas to be wonderful. Wait ... that's not it. We are desperate for Christmas to be perfect. And we put incredible pressure on ourselves to make sure that happens.

I have a challenge for us in those moments.

Because perfection is largely what drives us when we are in those irrational but powerful emotional places, the next time you have a Christmas meltdown, have the courage to stop and ask yourself where you are lacking contentment. I would wager it's somewhere.

Contentment is indeed a tricky thing.

It's not just that we want to feel content because we think we are supposed to want it. This is one of those traits that we want, really want. We know that we should want to learn patience, but it's not really something we often strive for, right? Self-control is another one that we want, but it can be scary to ask for. With contentment, we want it to be obedient, and we want it, at least in part, for ourselves.

We want the relief of contentment.

We want the pressure valve released on our feeble hearts.

We want to feel off the hook from our own expectations.

We want to feel content and to think that, even for a moment, we could join Paul in knowing that grand "secret of being content."

But here's the rub. Have you ever noticed that when Paul said that he'd learned the secret of being content that he doesn't really give us much detail on how he did that? We would love to have a step by step guide to such spiritual wonders. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it!

But contentment is a deep heart work, and only God can give us those pieces of truth as we attempt to live in such a way that contentment rules our hearts. Right after Paul declares the secret known, but doesn't really tell us what the secret is, he says that he "can do all things through Christ" who gives him strength.

And maybe that's it right there. Maybe that's the secret.

It takes strength to walk in contentment, strength so powerful that in ourselves, we are just incapable of mustering it up, no more than an infant could lift a Chevy. We just can't. We need Him.

So, during these joyous weeks in preparation for another opportunity for yule tide cheer, I issue a challenge: seek contentment and see what God does.

When you really can't go to one more party, be content to stay home and read to your children in front of the tree. Content to miss something, something less important for something of true value, something that really builds a memory.

When someone asks you to bake something else and you just are done, say no, without guilt. Content to allow people to misunderstand or even judge you because you are trying to maintain your own sanity.

When you think you need to just get the kids one more thing, remember your own words to them in teaching them those grandiose lessons on materialism. Content with enough, just enough, for them and for you.

When your heart is racing and you fear the opinions of others, when doubt is raging and you are sure that you can single-handedly ruin the holiday if you don't just do one more thing, when insecurity is rearing and you start to become frightened of your own need for affirmation: stop. Pray for contentment.

Because Jesus will fill you with a quiet, fueled by His strength, to just be still and know that He is God. I love those moments when that's all I need. I don't walk in it all the time, but those are "times of refreshing" from the Lord. What more do I need when I know that He is enough?

When we get quiet enough, peaceful enough, content enough, we can almost hear those cattle lowing and a baby cooing. We can hear the sheep bay and the angels sing. We can hear the heartbeat of the Savior reminding us that He did it all just because we need a Savior, because He loves us so much, because His own contentment -- to seek and to save that which was lost -- required it.

So Merry Christmas, dear one. I encourage us both to continually find ourselves at the feet of the Savior, soaking in His contentment and peace. I'd much rather have that than another piece of fruitcake.




Note from Karen: Here is a page where you can give us YOUR best ideas for keeping Christ in Christmas.