Photo by jeffweese

By Melanie Mar Chow

As the calendar page is turned and we find ourselves into the month of December, it is very easy to be caught off guard and miss the meaning and reason for the season.  Though it might be redundant to mention that the reason is Jesus, it is a whole different thing to make Jesus the center of your season by choice.

One aspect of my job is event planning and organization.  I have weathered many a demanding holiday season with minimal challenges and only a few meltdowns (you can ask my husband about those!).   So I share some insights on how to survive the upcoming holiday rush.  I’ve shared five tips, one for each finger on your hand, so that when you are putting your hand to your head in frustration, thinking you can’t take any more, the pressure on your heard from those five fingers will remind you of these tips on how to keep Jesus the center of your holiday.

1.  Pray. If the season is all about Jesus, make time to ask Him what it should be about.  Spending reflective time to take a time-out, to breathe,  and to remember the true meaning of Christmas enables us to refocus on Jesus.  Prayer is paramount (I Th. 5:17), most especially amidst the holiday rush.

2.  Plan. I have been intentional in my resistance of the temptation to begin celebrating Christmas immediately after Thanksgiving, actively choosing the days between Thanksgiving and Dec. 1st as a moratorium on all things Christmas.  I realize it is an enormous temptation to give in to the holiday madness — but need I remind us that we will not be tempted beyond what we can bear (I Co. 10:13)?  When the rush does begin after Dec. 1st, I use planning and lists to help mitigate the madness, but also I have learned not to rely too heavily on lists and plans, but to be open and flexible to change when it comes.  Jesus was one to embrace unexpected blessings and He wants to make them available to us, so look for His back-up plans.  In the long run if we see that Jesus wants us to surrender to His desires for us, then sometimes a change of plan is a God-thing.

3.  Punt. (In the spirit of recent college games, I’ve borrowed football language for this tip.)   Sometimes we have to give in and not try so hard.  Especially for women leaders, we need to find simpler methods to evoke the same experience —  gift bags instead of gift wrap, gift cards instead of gifts, commercial gifts versus homemade gifts, which leads to…

4. People. Jesus was all about community, and sometimes hanging out with others is better than relying on ourselves.  People are why we do what we do at Christmas, and we should be thankful for and accept help from friends who offer recipes when we’ve exhausted the recesses of our ever-shrinking memories and talk about their latest bargain finds.

5.  Praise. Finally, a heart full of praise and thanksgiving is much better than hearts full of anything else (bitterness, anger, etc.).  At the end of each day — whether it included shopping trips, other activities, or even a meltdown —  find time to give praise to Jesus.

And remember, whatever we do, allow Jesus to be the reason for this season!

Rev. Melanie Mar Chow serves God through Asian American Christian Fellowship, the campus ministry division of the Japanese Evangelical Missionary Society (JEMS). She has been an ordained American Baptist minister since 2004. A Pacific Northwest native, she currently lives with her husband and daughter in Southern California. To contact Melanie, please send your inquiry to aawolsisters@gmail.com.