So This Is Christmas

Choosing joy when you don't feel very merry

In my day job at BioLogos, I’m one of the hosts of our podcast, “Language of God”. I used to say “I’m the host”, but Colin (my traveling companion to COP29) has increasingly been sitting behind the microphone too. Sometimes he interviews other people, and sometimes the two of us interview other people and talk to each other about it. So I’m fine being “one of the hosts.”

But for the last episode of the year, which dropped today, I sat at the microphone by myself and didn’t even talk to anyone else. I talked to myself. I suppose it sounds better to say I gave a monologue.

ChatGPT’s rendition of a stylized melancholy winter scene that hints at Christmas.

The topic is Christmas, and it doesn’t take too long in this episode to hear that I’m not really feeling it this year. There have been so many challenges in my own life, in my family, at my work, in this country, and around the world. So just like I was asking at the event in the Faith Pavilion at COP29 whether it is possible to be hopeful even if you’re not optimistic, in this monologue I wonder whether you can be joyful even if you’re not very merry.

It starts off with with the first line from John Lennon’s song (that is played way too much on the Christmas radio station), “So this is Christmas.” It meanders through Habakuk 3 where the fig trees fail to blossom and no fruit is on the vine. “Yet I will rejoice” says Habakuk. Maybe we can do that too as a choice rather than a feeling? It culminates with one of my favorite characters in all of literature: Puddleglum — that melancholy marshwiggle from The Silver Chair who chooses to act as though something is true, even if he can’t show that it’s true (or even reasonable).

Here’s a link to the episode on the BioLogos website, but you can also find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts by searching for Language of God.

If you know someone this season who might be encouraged by sitting with some melancholy reflections for 15 minutes, I’d be pleased for you to share this with them. Have a merry joyful Christmas!