Steve Massey: Modern busyness may crowd out Jesus from our lives

Your life was probably busier this past week as you got ready for Christmas. You were in good company.

Most of us had similar to-do lists: go to office party, drive to mall, wait for parking spot, shop for last-minute gifts, stand in line, finish putting up decorations, wrap last-minute gifts, call relatives, bake cookies, fret over bills incurred from last-minute shopping.

Oh, and can anyone tell me, when is it too late to send Christmas cards?

Perhaps today, some of us still have not stepped off the holiday treadmill.

It’s a lot of work getting ready for Christmas.

Our hearts tell us this is not really what it’s all about. Yet the urge to “do Christmas” – to be really busy “doing Christmas” – drives us to distraction, if not exhaustion.

But look closely. The calendar holds hope for us. There is still time.

There’s time for us to set aside the bustle of Christmas busyness and replace our doing with simply being. There’s still time for us to do nothing more than be those whose hearts have room for Immanuel, God with us.

The gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus, God’s son, was born into a world awash in busyness. Bethlehem, like other towns under the arm of the Roman Empire, was bustling with people as the government took its infrequent but thorough census.

Luke 2:7 says that the Christ child was born to Mary and Joseph, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and placed in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn.”

That’s not a deep spiritual statement but a simple fact; Bethlehem was crowded, and God used that crowd to ensure the most humble context for Jesus’ incarnation.

It’s quite a metaphor for us to today, though, don’t you think? I mean, is there room in our hearts and minds for Jesus? What crowds him out of our lives now?

I sometimes wonder what it would be like if Jesus were born in our time, if he had delayed his incarnation.

If there was no room found for him in the sleepy town of ancient Bethlehem, would there be room for him in our world today? Would today’s world slow down enough to worship this baby whose common birth and humble, selfless life displayed the power, love and perfection of God himself?

That question can never be answered in a global sense. It’s too personal.

Only you and I and God himself know whether we’ve crowded Christ out of our lives.

Truth is, this preoccupation with worldly things that clutters our relationship with Christ is like an ocean tide. It ebbs and flows with circumstances, feelings and even the actions and expectations of others.

Like a tide, spiritual distraction it is not seasonal, really. Christmastime just gets us thinking about it.

Lately I have been rejoicing in the benefits of yielding my heart to Christ, accepting him as my savior. The reality of Jesus’ birth – and subsequent death on Calvary’s cross – means that my sin-stained relationship with God has been restored.

By faith in Christ, I am no longer God’s enemy but his dear child. I belong to a kingdom that one day will be ruled by Jesus in its fullest expression.

This literal, tangible kingdom will never end.

The gift of Christmas is not a warm, fuzzy feeling or happy thoughts, but Christ himself. Through faith in him, making room for him in our hearts, we receive eternal salvation and a new life that begins right now.

Every day we can enjoy the divine gifts of peace, joy, assurance – soul rest – that only come from him. No man-made replicas last; the busyness of Christmastime merely proves that point.

Jesus is the real thing. He is the gift of Christmas.

Let us make room for him.