I have always been rather frank about the fact that Christmas is not one of
my favorite holidays. I love the reason
of Christmas, but all the pomp of it makes me rather …well…grinchy. I have always been a “rather have the cake
without the icing” type of guy.
Exciting,
right?
One of
my favorite (oh, if there were only a sarcasm font) festivities is dragging out
all of the decorations. There are so
many organizers out there now that most things can be pretty easy to get in
order and hung without too much effort.
Then there are the lights.
Whether the outdoor or the tree
lights, they never stay as organized as you put them away. Some methods work better than others, but the
point is that Christmas lights are notoriously tangled. It is an odd phenomenon. You put them away organized, you come back
and it is a tangled mess. Just one year
ago (roughly, if you take them down in a timely fashion…but that’s for another
time) you painstakingly organized them and put them away in a fashion that they
should easily come unstrung and easily hung.
I find so many things in my life
are the same way. I get something taken
care of and believe that it should be ok now, only to find out that a short
time (in my estimation) later it is a tangled mess again. I have found this to be true in leadership,
relationships, work, and so on. I am not
saying it is the fault of someone else (unlike with Christmas lights, because I
think we all would agree there has to be tree light gremlins tangling the
lights in the attic!) it is just what happens when a matter is neglected.
Think about it physically, just
because I exercise for a day doesn’t make me healthy. In fact, if I exercise myself to health but
do not continue, I will become unhealthy…a tangled mess, indeed.
We would readily admit, I think,
that the same is true spiritually. You
don’t stay on top of the proverbial mountaintop without consistent connection
to God.
Now, think of this when leading
your family. How often do we take time
to invest in our family? I am not
necessarily talking about all the “stuff” we do for our family. I am talking about the quality time. Do we begin our time with our spouse in
marriage and everything is wonderful, only to not spend time with them and
wonder why everything seems…tangled? Do
we start off well with our children, but find ourselves several years down the
road…tangled?
What about how some of us who are
leaders lead? Do we lead and not pay
attention to some aspect of how we run an organization, church, business for
quite some time and when it become tangled begin to blame others instead of
saying to ourselves, “How much time have I really invested here?”
We always seem to come back to the place where we believe we have left something organized a while ago and wonder, “How did this get so tangled up?”
Christmas light leadership will
lead us to a place of tangled messes in our marriages, parenting, leadership,
and a whole host of other things. It basically
comes down to this, neglect leads to disorder.
Think about it…
Neglect leads to disorder.
Don’t let those vital areas of your
life (spiritually or physically), responsibility, and concern become neglected.
We may not like it, but it is true.
Are you confused? Seek God.
Don’t forget we have an enemy that wants to terrorize and kill us (I
Peter 5:8). Do you feel disconnected
from someone? Maybe there is someone you
need to invest more time in. Is there an
area at work that isn’t going well? Find
the place that has been neglected and channel some energy in that
direction.
Don’t get caught off guard like I
do on the day after Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) when I open the lid to
the tote with Christmas lights wondering how this mess got here.
“Do not neglect the spiritual gift within
you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on
of hands by the presbytery. 15 Take pains
with these things; be absorbed
in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.” I
Timothy 4:14-15
