Charlie
Brown voices emotions most all of us have felt at one time or another when at
the beginning of A Charlie Brown
Christmas he says, “Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I am supposed to
feel. I like Christmas, but I am still
not happy. I always end up feeling
depressed.”
The
Christmas Blues are real, powerful, painful and ironic. Several years ago, I was ministering in a
town that was highly transitory. Almost
no one was from there and very few planned to stay there. A lot of people were a long way from
home. Just after Christmas I went on a
community message board and asked people to anonymously share their experiences
with depression at Christmas time. The
response was remarkable. I received
message after message from people who were depressed at Christmas. Some were depressive by disposition and
Christmas made it worse. Others were
only depressed at Christmas. To deal
with their depression some worked through Christmas, some volunteered, some
stayed in bed all Christmas day, some drank, and some pretended everything was
fine. One woman wrote me a lengthy email
and began to mildly stalk me, even showing up at church services just to ‘check
me out’. My secretary found her
creepy.
There
is one common denominator to all the cases of Christmas Blues I have witnessed
and experienced: FOMO. If you are not
familiar with the term, FOMO stands for Fear
of Missing Out. It happens to us
when we feel that something wonderful is going to happen and we are going to
miss out. That fear of missing out on
the great experience will cause us to 1) go to great links to be a part or 2)
be depressed if we believe we have missed the opportunity.
Because
of the greatest marketing campaign in human history Christmas has become the
apex of all warm, sentiment, emotional experiences. Lucy may have been on to something when she
tells Charlie Brown that Christmas “…is run by a big Eastern syndicate”. We are told we can have a warm, heart-felt,
happy feeling that will last us all year long if we have the right experience
at Christmas. With the right combination
of sentimental images, expensive gift giving, quiet reverent meditation, or
raucous, office, Christmas parties, elegant decorations and quality family time
we can have the ultimate Christmas experience.
We are worked into such a state so that we will be susceptible to spend
money or, better yet, indulge in credit.
Already there are radio ads about how to pay off Christmas, credit card
debt. We can never live up to the
expectations that are placed on us (or we place on ourselves) for the perfect
Christmas. We live with the haunting
fear that we are missing out. When we
fear that we are missing out we predictably become depressed. Christmas Blues are upon us.
I
began by saying that the, “Christmas Blues are real, powerful, painful and
ironic.” How are the blues so
ironic? How is the fear of missing out
incongruous with Christmas? In the
passage beautifully quoted by Linus we have these words, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for,
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Let’s add some emphasis, “Fear not: for,
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” The message of Christmas is that no one need
miss out. The Fear of Missing Out is the
exact opposite of the message of Christmas.
The
difference between expectation and experience is either disappointment or
delight. If experience is less than
expectation, we will be disappointed. If
experience is greater than expectation, we have delight. Christ always exceeds our expectation; He is
always delightful. May God bless you with
the delight of Christ this Christmas.
Post
Script: There will be no blog next week.
I will be with family celebrating the
birth of the Messiah in feasting and worship.
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