doldrums

You ever just have the "doldrums"? Wikipedia defines this condition as "to be listless, despondent, inactive, stagnant, in a slump". Well, I am not "despondent", or "inactive"--but, perhaps, a bit "listless", somewhat "stagnant", and, for the moment, "in a slump".

I would expect you to react to that with some appropriate astonishment. "Come on, Pastor Dale, it's the Christmas season. This is our reason to be happy and joyous. After all, isn't this the resounding message of 'good news' for all men?"

You have a right to be incredulous. It is the season. It is the reason. It is the message.

But it happens. Commercialism shreiks its highest decibels. Christmas parties crowd the calendar. Fatigue reluctantly creeps in. Family we love seems too far away. CNN and Fox News remind us all is not well in the world.

And I get the doldrums.

So here is what I did earlier this afternoon to escape the "blahs". I Francis Chan's latest book, FORGOTTEN GOD. He quotes A.W. Tozer at the front of chapter one.

"We may as well face it; the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher pleasures in the things of the Spirit is all but gone...(We) have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost."

There it is, at least for me. I have allowed myself to get caught up--wrongly focused--on the world and its rituals and celebrations, and I have lost sight of the central thing--"the joy of the Lord" and "the power of the Holy Ghost"...significant components of the true message of Christmas.

I am between this transitional moment and a Board meeting. The doldrums are, for the moment, behind me, and I am looking intently at the focal point so easily forgotten--the core message of the gospel revealed in the One who came, died and rose again...for me.

Board meetings can be necessarily ponderous and even perfunctory. But not tonight. I am re-focused.

And the doldrums are gone...for the moment. If they return--and I am sure they will seek to haunt me again--I'll remember what I have forgotten.