It was 80 degrees in the afternoon on Dec. 24 in south central Oklahoma — so I put on the Santa hat to make it feel a little more like Christmas Eve as we headed to Texas.
After sunset, I was grateful to attend the Christmas Eve Candlelight & Communion Service at Whaley UMC with Gene, Mom & a lot of our family, plus the extended church family.
I’ve struggled some this Christmas season to feel grateful & joyful. It’s a reminder to me that spiritual warfare is real. Nothing else can account for how I can know on every level that I am blessed — and still I daily battle negativity & despair.
Even on Christmas Eve.
I’m grateful that the truth of God’s great gift of love doesn’t rely on my feeling it. And I’m grateful for God’s promise that He is with me always, even when I’m not feeling it.
Even so, I pray to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit & to let His love & joy flow through me. And even so, not my will but Yours be done, I pray, gracious Lord.
(I wrote the less upbeat part of that earlier in the day & am grateful to report that God has, indeed, restored a sense of inner joy that departed briefly after the warmth & beauty of the candlelight service. And the present joy is accompanied by peace. I pray that all may experience the love & joy & hope & peace of Christmas, knowing it is real even in those fleeting moments we may not feel it.)
#christmaseve
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