Will You Own or Steward Christmas This Year?
Your Guide to Bringing the Meaning Back into Christmas
Do any of these comments about Christmas sound familiar?
- I love Christmas but not the stress of trying to make everything perfect.
- We always seem to overspend and then regret it in January.
- I hope our family can just get along this Christmas.
- I hate the thought of walking through the malls trying to find the ‘perfect gift.’
- I feel disconnected from the true meaning of Christmas.
- I’m already tired just thinking of all the cooking, baking and decorating.
- I used to love Christmas but lately the ‘magic’ seems to have disappeared.
- It’s getting harder to find Jesus at Christmas; it is becoming so secular.
- I sing the carols and go through the motions, but I’ve lost the joy of Christmas.
- We lost a loved one at Christmas and now the holiday is harder to celebrate.
- I am alone this Christmas and I don’t see how it will be very joyful.
- Christmas? I’ll just be glad when it’s over.
If you can relate to any of these, then I would encourage you to consider how you can ‘steward Christmas’ this year. To help you, my daughter Lindsay and I have written a short ebook that outlines a journey you can take to make this Christmas season more worshipful and Christ-centered.
If you’re not sure what the term ‘stewarding Christmas’ means, take heart, we are learning it together.
Here is an excerpt from our book.
“For the past 15 years I have been writing and speaking on the topic of the life of the faithful steward. I’ve tried to be comprehensive in my writing, looking at the steward’s journey from every possible perspective of life. That includes how we steward our relationship with God, with our self, with our neighbor and with the created world around us. I thought I had considered this call to be faithful stewards from about every possible perspective.
But I never considered what it meant to be a steward of Christmas.
Last year in the middle of the Christmas season I ran headlong into my own hypocrisy. I was finishing a major article on ‘the freedom and joy of a faithful steward.’ At the same time I was frantically rushing around trying to accomplish all of the things on my Christmas to-do list. I was humming “O tidings of comfort and joy” while managing my blood pressure trying to find an elusive parking spot at the mall. I was listening to a stirring rendition of “Joy to the world! The Lord has come, let earth receive her King,” while attempting to put up all of our outside lights in the one hour I had allotted for the four-hour task.
When Christmas finally arrived there was more relief than rejoicing. What happened? What had gotten me to the point of ushering in the birth of the Prince of Peace by engaging in a three-week process of chaos and turmoil?
Then I remembered all of the ‘owner-steward’ stuff I have been writing about. I’ve been preaching that, “owners want to control things and end up with stress and anxiety while stewards give up control, trust God and are blessed with freedom and joy.” It works in every area of our life…
…but Christmas?
Could celebrating Christmas fit into this steward paradigm? And if so, what was there to be learned from it? I believe a great deal.
Our goal this year is to steward Christmas and this little booklet is our way of inviting you into that journey. My walking partner is my daughter Lindsay. This will be her first Christmas as a mother, which will add a new degree of challenge and stress to an already busy season. But Lindsay has been a champion of simple living and creation care. So she and I together are going to share with you what the journey might look like once the last Tupperware container of Thanksgiving stuffing has been consumed and thoughts turn to the Yuletide season.
Our prayer for you, and for us, is that this Christmas season might be different, even radically different than what we have experienced for a long time. This journey involves both a change of heart and a change of hands. We will propose a new attitude, a new view of this entire Christmas season that we pray will result in both freedom and joy. And we will share some ideas on how you can employ your hands in creating for yourself and, if appropriate, for your family a richer, deeper and more meaningful Christmas season.”
You can also download a FREE COPY of the ebook on Kingdom Life Publishing at:
https://kingdomlifepublishing.com/product/stewarding-christmas-ebook/
Lindsay and I pray it will bless you and your family this Christmas!
