Christmas Angel

I just completed teaching 3 seminars yesterday on various topics such as Drug and Alcohol, Sleep Disorder and Holiday Blues. One young employee came up after class to share that the last six months of her life have been the most difficult since she was diagnosed with Lupus. However, her attitude was stunning.

She shared with the class that before she worked at her new employer she was a special education teacher. She taught a class of six students. It was a separate class of behavioral disorders, bright children but troubled. That year after struggling to get through the first half of the year she came close to leaving. She felt that she was not getting through to the children and the parents showed her no support. Now Johnny was a very smart boy but he never listened and he was spending his second year in her K-2 classroom. She suspected that he was being abused but the evidence was circumstantial. After 3 months of constant struggles with him she was ready to send him away for vacation and enjoy her time off. Before he left he gave her a used coffee mug as a gift with an angel on the front. She asked him why he choose an angel. He put his hand on her shoulder and simply said, "Miss Smith, you are my angel and I love you." All this time she thought that she was not getting through to him, but deep down she learned that she was his only stability. This one statement made the struggles worth all the hassle of the year.

Now she has a new struggle with Lupus. But she has chosen to fill her "angel cup" not with fear or complaints about her physical condition. Instead, she fills the cup with kind words and encouragement to help others like her cell phone customers solve their problems with their baffling phones.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that you bring them an angel with a message of "good news’ that offers courage to their baffling struggles and profound peace to their hearts. A Blessed Christmas to all my Sonshine Friends.

A Season of Hope

“We are never as tall as when we are on our knees.” My friend had just reached a milestone in his life. He had sixty days of sobriety. He shared this remark about feeling tall when he realized that after a lifetime of drinking his sobriety was the result of letting go. There are times he goes off into the “wilderness” meaning he reverts back to the cranky, negative patterns that make his loved ones want to hide. But he catches himself by calling his sponsor or better yet he has a good person he met in group who has been sober for twenty-three years and they talk about how he is feeling and redirect his thoughts in a more hopeful manner.

Remember Ebenezer on his knees, shivering with fright on Christmas morning after his visits from the three spirits. Ebenezer on his knees woke up from his nightmare, threw open the windows and shouted out into the street: “What day is this? Is it Christmas Day? Have I missed it? O, Thank God, it is Christmas Day, and there is time for me to visit the Crotchet’s and bring them the biggest turkey in town and hold Tiny Tim.”

I want you to realize that there was no Christmas morning ..... without the night before Christmas ..... without the ghosts of Christmas that confront us and cleanse us from our sin which is deep within. It is only as we are freed from that sin which is deep within that we experience the joy of Christmas morning.

For Catholics, Vatican II has restored the meaning of Advent from a season of penance and conversion into its original purpose: a time of hope. This is a time we can invite Jesus into our inner pain and pray that he dispose us to make the conversion into a person of peace and responsibility. However, like my sober friend realized, we all need conversion, of course, but we need especially hope. To deepen that hope, we have to learn to see the signs that this hope is already present among us. Let our Lord open our eyes to these signs.

I emailed a holiday message to all my patients this morning that included 12 Free Holiday Gifts. One suggestion was the “Gift of Gratitude.” It is our opportunity to thank the people who helped us throughout the year. In the past weeks my computer was “corrupted” or as a Sonshine Friend shouted: “You have what we call ‘the blue screen from hell.’” It took over 30 hours and four learned technicians to get Sonshine back online. But I am very grateful to Stan and Louis and Dave and Georgia for all their help. When you are “corrupted,” who comes to your rescue to get you back online. That’s the person you might want to thank.

Pray and reflect: “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing. (Psalm 126:1-6).

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that you give them the courage to go off into the wilderness and look deep within. We are grateful for Your mercy that breathes new life into our souls which have been “corrupted” by injustice, impatience, or anger. May Advent be our season of Hope as we prepare to meet You on Christmas morning.