Religion: A Pastor Ponders

The Children's Christmas Tree.
Photo By Marilyn Clark,
League City Area News Online

The Christmas dash

By Pastor William Jenkins

November 24, 2006

Okay, the Thanksgiving leftovers are safely stored in the freezer and your indigestion is beginning to subside. What now? Well, it’s time for the Christmas dash!

The Friday after Thanksgiving is like a starter’s gun that signals a mad dash to go shopping. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day the whole world seems to be in a hurry.

We began to see signs of Christmas before the hobgoblins of Halloween had disappeared from the scene; after that the Pilgrims were bumping into Santa trying to be noticed. Christmas is such a big event that the days left till Christmas are counted down, which increases our anxiety about the looming deadline.

During the Christmas season we become gripped by the tyranny of the urgent. There are parties to plan and attend, shopping to get done, presents to wrap, mailing deadlines to beat, travel arrangements to make, preparations for guests, decorations to get up, meals to prepare; so many things making demands on our time, so little time in which to do them.

So we overload our nervous systems, exhaust our physical energies, and throw ourselves upon the altar of the urgent as a sacrifice to the god of “Got To”, Got To do this…Got To do that… Got To go there… Got To be here. It is a shame that we get so stressed at Christmas time.

For those who are in the loop on what the season is all about, the journey to Christmas can be more of a leisurely stroll than a mad dash. I’m sure Jesus would not mind if we all slowed down a bit and savored the reason for the season. After all, it is His birthday celebration. Sometime during the preparations for your Christmas celebration, whenever you are bombarded by the god of “Got To”, I hope you can hear the true Guest of Honor whisper, “Come aside with Me and rest a while.” (Mark 6:31)

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org