Christmas Oxymoron

Joy! That first Christmas Day there was exceeding, great JOY! Jesus came to us, sacrificed His kingly rights in a crazy, wonderful way! Mary and Joseph, sacrificed so much, changed up their lives radically to bring Jesus into this world. The wiseman made huge sacrifices to bring gifts to the Christmas Savior. The Shepherds, people who worked so hard, daily sacrificed much to care for their sheep, were led from their fields to Jesus by the beautiful glorious angels and the heavenly star. Do you notice how self-sacrifice was so connected to JOY? We all seek purpose, joy, peace, friendship and sadly the pursuit of these things over God, tend to twist up our human nature, and some of us, we sometimes stress out so much to get them, kindling our own fires, walking by the light of a man-made fire, that it leaves us with a temporary happiness that fades out into total darkness. Happiness is fleeting externally, where JOY lasts and comes from deep within our inner spiritual core. The Christmas Story models true JOY and the way to it is by serving others and serving with others. Isn’t that an ironic oxymoron? The way to JOY and peace is through serving! The way to purpose is by giving. The way to lasting friendships is by servant leading together. My best friend in this world came from a season of us serving people together. When you serve with others, you develop the deepest friendships. Isn’t that amazing how God does that?! A common goal, a vision worked towards, and deep friendships are made though sacrifices of serving. The Christmas Story was intermingled with sacrificial service to people. People serving people. Jesus serving us all. Out of this serving came the blessing of life, friendship, purpose, joy, peace and everything people had waited for. It is the same today, the more you serve others, with others, the better life is. Serving brings JOY deep within your inner spiritual core, it brings purpose, which we all are seeking, it brings amazing friendships, as we serve together. The best gift of serving is the inner peace being a person who gives receives, it is more than you could hope for or imagine. Giving, self-sacrificing, is the way to JOY, purpose, friendship and peace. The very things we seek in life are found in giving away our life to others, just like we see in the Christmas Story. The way to a Merry Christmas, is a miraculous-merrily-so oxymoron. The more you give of yourself, the more joy you have. JOY= Jesus-Others-You. Got JOY? Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/missionary-prayer-journey-7/