This isn’t the ususal yuletide greetings and jolly fat wishes for a happy and merry Christmas. This is what I had to learn yet again because my head is harder than that fruit cake you’lll probably get from FedEx, courtesty of Aunt Marge.

You can’t make anyone like you or be interested in you. You can only be who God has called you to be and run as hard as you can after Jesus. If God has someone for you, you’ll find them running just as hard as you in the same direction.

You can’t make anyone return your friendship. You can only be a friend for your part and keep being a friend, whether the kindly gesture is returned or not.

In fact, the truest love gives without expecting anything back. Love seeks the best for the other, no matter what it costs the giver, and never seeks what’s best for self over the other person.

Jesus loved like that. He came and gave all His love to a world that either rejected it, or –much worse than that– ignored it. Jesus died for ungrateful people who have yet to acknowledge His gift, much less receive it.

So maybe this is a kind of Christmas blog. It comes with a Yuletide Challenge: Find one person to give a gift to who you know won’t repay the favor. Seek out those who are unloveable and love them. Seek out those who are unwanted, and show them Christ wants them. Give not just presents or money or time, but you– your life, your aspirations and goals and dreams, everything you are. Give yourself away this Christmas.

I will probably need to re-learn these lessons again, but hopefully not for a while. They’re not the kind that are easy to learn. But every now and then, we need to be reminded.

I love what I heard someone say when explaining why we sing to God every week. It’s not that He needs to be reminded, but we do. We’re the ones who forget who we are and how much we need God and how faithful God has been, is, and will ever be toward those who trust in Him.

Now go drink some wassail.