Christmas in the heart

Humans are fickle . . .

It is funny when you think about how fickle we are.  We just spent the last few weeks building up to a day in which we exchange presents and our feelings of love with friends and family.  The Christmas music we listened to spoke about that warm feeling we get when we draw near to the ones we love.  We got festive with lights and TV specials and making cookies - all designed to get in the Christmas spirit (as varied as that may be).

So much energy devoted to such an intangible.  We love the 'feeling' of Christmas.  I heard many people saying that it didn't 'feel' like Christmas because of the weather.  Funny how important a feeling is.

And that is precisely where we have it mixed up.  For the most important things in life we are content to pursue a feeling.  Most would agree that life is not so much about the nice cars or the big houses or fat bank accounts as much as it is about having someone who loves you.  In essence, the point of life comes down to something you feel.  We are creatures of experience - we want to feel more than we want to have or to know.

But then we talk about God and it needs to be something external - beyond our experience.  We need evidence.  Interesting how the weight of experience is not as important when we consider a life of putting God first in our lives.  Wouldn't that be an area that experience would make all the difference?  As if because you felt a connection to God this was not as good as seeing demonstrable proof of it.  We have it backwards, we should pursue the experience of a dialogue with God BEFORE we need the proof of His presence.  Our belief can be fueled by the sense of that experience - not diminished by the proof of its existence.