I can almost guarantee that most everyone will be in a good mood on the following four days: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and New Year's Day. There's just a natural (supernatural!) ebullience in the people that you encounter on those days. This is natural and the joy felt is absolutely contagious.
I can also say that the first Monday of the New Year (today) brings with it a lot of less than joyous moods, as people go back to work and school. This is much less fun than opening presents, eating cookies and drinking egg nog around a beautiful fire in the living room.
I believe that we too often forget that Jesus' birth in Bethlehem of Judea renewed and reinvigorated humanity. Nothing would ever be the same after the Word took on human flesh. This includes us. Jesus came to save us from our sins, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, but rather the brothers and sisters of the Lord, God's children by adoption.
I know that we believe that this is wonderful stuff... but maybe we stumble thinking how this applies to us as individuals?
It applies to each one of us through our faith, hope and dreams. The coming of Jesus the Christ anticipated the downfall of sin and death. His death and resurrection redeemed us. So we are a redeemed people, a people who have been "purchased back" from slavery to sin and death. This is cause for rejoicing.
But this joy sometimes only lasts until Christmas is over or the tree gets taken to the road. We can't allow fear to take away our hope; we can't let trepidation rust away our joy. We were created for very special things, so let's match our talents up with God's call. I doubt that God would give us a joyful idea if he didn't want us to follow up on it.
This is a new year. Just like the Magi risked everything by following the star to find the Christ, so too may we take appropriate risks in finding the Lord in new and different ways in 2011.
-Joseph