{"id":6562,"date":"2013-12-29T17:29:47","date_gmt":"2013-12-29T22:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=6562"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:40","slug":"christmas-letdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/christmas-letdown\/","title":{"rendered":"AFTER CHRISTMAS LETDOWN"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calvin<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When the Christmas activity is over, what then?\u00a0 When the carols have faded away, the gift wrapping paper has been burned, and families have returned, what then?\u00a0 When the star of Bethlehem has faded into the starless heavens of human activity, what then?\u00a0 Is there a letdown in your life when the most exciting season of the year has ended?\u00a0 Do you search diligently for something to replace the emotional high of Christmas festivities?\u00a0 Yes, it happens to all of us to some degree. but it should not be that way.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Depression after Christmas may indicate that we missed the real meaning of His birth.\u00a0 Christmas is not an end.\u00a0 It is a beginning.\u00a0 It is not the only joyous time of the year, but a symbol of the joy we may have every day in Christ.\u00a0 To be sad after Christmas may be a natural response to the absence of loved ones and family activities.\u00a0 However, there can be a lingering joy of\u00a0memories and meaningful times of worship.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From a spiritual perspective Christmas should be a revival of our zest for living.\u00a0 It should renew our capacity to trust God and one another for a happiness that is not seasonal.\u00a0 It should revitalize our perception of the gift of forgiveness, love and grace, which is really what that manger birth was all about.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To be sad after Christmas is to forget that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.\u00a0 The new year comes to remind us that old things have passed away and that in Christ we find a place to begin again.\u00a0 Every day is brighter because of that Christmas star.\u00a0 Every song is sweeter because the angels sang.\u00a0 Here is where a merry Christmas gives rise to a happy New Year.<\/span><\/div>\n
May it be so for you.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

     When the Christmas activity is over, what then?  When the carols have faded away, the gift wrapping paper has been burned, and families have returned, what then?  When the star of Bethlehem has faded into the starless heavens of human activity, what then?  Is there a letdown in your life when the most exciting … Continue reading “AFTER CHRISTMAS LETDOWN”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-6562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19143,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6562\/revisions\/19143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}