Beware the Idol of Busyness at Christmas

Guard the Meaning of Christmas

It is really sad how much of our time, effort, and energies are captured by the cultural busyness of Christmastime, rather than the core of the Advent story. We allow Christmas to be more about created stuff than it is about the incarnation of the Creator. We've turned the story on its head.

The glory of this story is that the Creator himself becomes a man to rescue us from our bondage to the creation. For some, Christmas has become about bondage to the creation. This is something we should guard against.

We allow Christmas to be more about created stuff than it is about the incarnation of the Creator.

Are We Overdoing the Decorations?

Christmas can also become more about decorating and acquiring than about being rescued. We all want to decorate our lives with beautiful things that we think will satisfy us.

Maybe what we've done with the Christmas story is a metaphor for that desire. What we've done with this season is a metaphor for how we just want to decorate everything so that life is beautiful to us. But that never ends up satisfying us.

Come, Let Us Adore Him

Paul David Tripp

Thirty-one daily readings from Paul David Tripp equip us to do the one thing that matters most each December—celebrating the glory of the incarnation of God's Son.

It's not wrong to want your house to be beautiful at Christmas, but if that's what the season is about, you've missed the whole point. Christmas proclaims that nothing but Christ's redemption is ever going to give us what our hearts long for, rescuing us from things that can't satisfy.

It's not about created stuff, it's not about decorating and acquiring. It's about the incarnation of the Creator—rescuing us from all those false hopes.

Paul David Tripp (DMin, Westminster Theological Seminary) is a pastor, an award-winning author, and an international conference speaker. He has written numerous books, including Lead; Parenting; and the bestselling devotional New Morning Mercies. His not-for-profit ministry exists to connect the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Tripp lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Luella, and they have four grown children.