Christmas lights - a distraction or a reminder

​A friend lamented to me this weekend that after driving through local neighborhoods and seeing "an explosion of lights" - she felt behind in her Christmas decorating.

Then she added, "I love it though."

I think most of us do this time of the year, even people who aren't exactly Christmas believers. I think we all find something lovely in the lights.

For many of us, even in the most ordinary of years - let alone a year that's come to not so affectionately be known as simply 2020 - the lights can signal hope.

For Christmas believers, it's always a good time, and maybe this year more than ever for some, to ask ourselves if that hope comes in the form of a distraction at the end of a long year of life, or a beautiful reminder that there is much more to life.

It's a good time to ask ourselves if the explosion of lights draws our attention outward, or begs us to take a moment and look inward. Look inward and examine our own personal role in the explosion.

I was reading something from the book We Make the Road by Walking - Brian McLaren. McLaren says:

"Christianity began as a movement to put people above profit, and made the audacious claim that the Earth belonged not to rich tycoons or powerful politicians, but to the Creator who loves every sparrow in the trees and every wildflower in the field. It was a peace movement, a love movement, a joy movement, a justice movement, an integrity movement, an aliveness movement."

The lights signal the arrival of a baby in a manger. They signal the beginning of a movement.

I feel challenged to not be distracted by the lights this year.
I feel challenged to take inventory.

I feel challenged to ask myself:

What am I doing to move the world toward peace?
What am I doing to love more people who need to feel loved?
What am I doing to feel and share God's joy?
What am I doing to ensure justice and integrity?

Because the truth is, the lights can explode and make us feel alive for a season, but the real aliveness movement comes when we personally come alive in the name of peace and love and joy and justice and integrity.

For many of us the lights are a symbol or our faith. They can also be a beautiful reminder of where and why that faith began.