Celebrate It

             This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:14)

By the time you read this, it will be the day after Black Friday. You will have lived through three of the four major holidays of the fall: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the aforementioned Black Friday. There’s only one left. Are you already exhausted? The only parallel I can think of is that we have Memorial Day in May, Flag Day in June, and Independence Day in July, but we can decorate once for all three, and we don’t tend to give presents. I’ll grant, however, that there are still people who decorate graves for or by Memorial Day, and that can create some stress. Maybe it’s just the former corporate retail employee in me.

Of course, today’s verse is not about Christmas, but Christmas has become one of the festivals we feel obligated to celebrate. And what makes it worse is that it’s become a commercial event. And we can’t really just announce that we’re not going to give gifts – we’re going to be “spiritual,” especially with no discussion before Black Friday. And even if we’ve made plans to be spiritual, there’s the command to celebrate.

Granted, everyone has their own ideas about celebration. I’m not writing this to push anyone in any direction, especially given how little I celebrate anything. (“Woo Hoo! Back to work.”)  Looking at the etymology of the word, it came from a term meaning “Assemble to Honor.” Generally, it’s talking about people assembling to honor. That means people…sigh. That complicates things right from the start.

Here’s my suggestion. Think of something  you can do with others that would honor Christ. Just one thing to do in the next month. Then, see if you can reduce your other holiday stuff by one thing that doesn’t honor Christ per week. Or limit it to some specific number – maybe three things per week. Eliminate what is extra-stressful and focus on the Reason for the Season.