Now What?

We listened to a Sermon entitled “Now What?” on our way to Louisville the day after our engagement. It was very timely encouragement, not just relating to the Christmas season but also for the season we were about to walk into. The message addressed the empty “now what” feeling that many people experience after Christmas. The presents are opened, the shopping is finished, the decorations are taken down… but now what?

There have been countless moments in my life where I had something I was really looking forward to: A concert, a trip, a plan to meet up with a friend, the annual Cru chili cook-off. While these things aren’t bad, they aren’t where our desires will be fulfilled. They can be live-giving, but only for the moment. It isn’t a sustaining or enduring feeling that we get. It’s just a brief high.

As I listened to the message, I thought how we (I) often spend so much preparing for the event itself that we forget to prepare for what is after.

So what do we do? The sugar crash after Christmas. The fleeting feelings. Jesus is the substance that gives Christmas its meaning. He’s the “protein”.

Christmas is about coming and seeing. Our visiting rights don’t go away after Jesus is born on Christmas day. We aren’t just invited to see the infant Jesus on that glorious night. Christmas is an invitation to keep visiting for all of our days.

This was a good reminder that the excitement from engagement won’t last and it won’t sustain us. We don’t need each other. We need Jesus to be the main thing. We need to be neon signs pointing each other to the source of all satisfaction and deepest joy. Jesus is totally different than any earthly excitement. We don’t have the feelings of emptiness or dissatisfaction after it’s over. We get to be in the presence of God, who is perfect joy, and enjoy Him forever.

No fleeting feelings. No mixed emotions knowing that it won’t last. Never ending. Now what? We look up, bow down, and worship.