"Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.” John Wayne
December 24, 2014
By Linda Case Gibbons
They’re wrong. The critics who say Christmas is nothing but a great day for shopkeepers.
It is about the presents, it’s true, and the food. It’s how people show their love. But Christmas is also about role models.
It’s tough to be a good one, but Jesus Christ hit the ball out of the park.
On his birthday, if we listen, he shows us how to do it better and not to feel bad if we messed up.
Only 33 when he died, he left the world a powerful legacy. His message was Love.
He showed us how to do it right. He handled the difficult tasks that came his way despite the fact that he knew how it would end for him.
He listened -- even when on the Cross.
He put himself in the other person’s place.
When people were hungry, he fed them.
When people doubted, he showed them who he was and who they could be.
He showed there were miracles. He raised Lazarus from the dead, cured the lame, caused the blind to see and calmed stormy seas.
Sadly, even then his own disciples doubted him. Some abandoned him. One betrayed him and handed him over to his enemies.
He never preached violence or to conquer foreign lands. He never assembled an army to further his cause, but he also showed us we should not be meek, that there was a time to fight.
He did not hesitate to drive the money changers from the temple, but made no effort to defend himself from his accusers at the mockery that was his trial.
In the end he conquered the accusers and the detractors and death by rising from the dead.
The embodiment of grace under pressure, he remained loyal to his mission even though he was afraid of what lay ahead.
Christmas Day is the birthday of a remarkable man who chose to walk among us, a happy day. But for many of us, it is a day when the past is revisited in our minds and memories of loved ones lost come to mind and make us reflect.
You might be as he was, cast out by those who ought not to cast you out, tried by those who ought not to judge you. And after a life of devotion, fighting for good and opposing evil, there may be no reward for your right actions.
Great souls such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jesus Christ both lost their lives to those who feared their power. It is not easy to be patient, loyal and faithful.
But the Wise Men always knew who he was and what he was destined to be. They travelled from afar and found him by following his star.
The animals that knelt beside his humble crib knew who they were kneeling before and the shepherds who stood beside them.
And Herod certainly did.
But what are the rewards for a life well lived, with dignity and courage and love, giving up one’s lives for one’s brothers? One’s family?
It might not be riches or high political office or acclaim. But in these days of rioting in our streets, lies and deception from disappointing leaders, the poem "One Solitary Life” gives us hope for a life well lived.
"Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today, Jesus is the central figure of the human race.
And the leader of mankind’s progress.
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on Earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life.”
Merry Christmas.
Hold the line, America.