In the next eight weeks Americans will have more special gatherings than the rest of the year put together I think. We will meet at the Thanksgiving table. We will then find each other at the Christmas party at the office and the Christmas open house at the neighbors'. Before you know it we will be at the table again for Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day. Next up is New Year's Eve. Some of us will be toasting with others of us. January 1 is football and football and nachos and nachos. More cavorting.
In all of these situations there will be someone who is lonely, someone who is not in the inner circle, someone who drinks too much, someone who overstressed, someone with a daughter who is struggling, someone with a parent with dementia, someone who is labelled the black sheep of the family, someone who dislikes his brother, someone going through a divorce, someone who's dating a member of the family, someone invited because they're a "stray," ....
The world is divided up into guests and hosts. Christ-followers are hosts. They go into the above situations not trying to be saviors but asking of themselves to be servants. They go into the avove situations asking God for less judgmentalism inside themselves and a lot of, lot of mercy. They go into the above situations knowing that they will pull themselves away from their natural cliches and build a bridge to someone outside their circle. They go into the above situations with prayer, "God, help me to be sensitive to your Spirit, to speak when you would have me speak, to not speak when you would have me not speak." They go into the above situations being willing to say to someone, "I'll pray for you about that."
You are the light of the world. Let that light shine.
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