It’s quite sad how the commercialization of Christmas has changed this time of “peace on earth” and “good will to me” to “stress in my life” and “grumpiness to one another.”
Instead of being a time of “rest” it has become a time of stress!

I began listing some of the things that bring stress into our lives at this time of year.
They include:
Shopping for gifts
Putting up the decorations
Cooking the big meal
Wrapping the gifts
Having enough money to buy gifts
All the stores are out of the gift you’re looking for
Three frightening words – Some assembly required
Untangling the strands of lights
Hearing Boney M’s “Mary’s Boy Child” for the 1000th time at the Mall
Cleaning the house
Thinking that maybe you’ll spend Christmas alone
Being a part of a family that celebrates separately because of a divorce
Christmas lights that won’t work
Missing loved ones who have passed away
Paying off the credit cards
Weeding through crowded stores
and many others… (I actually only included about 1/2 my original list!)

So what happened?
Why did this time of year become so stressed filled and chaotic?
Now it is easy to blame marketers and advertisers for telling us newer, bigger and more are better, but where does our own personal responsibility come into play here?

In Luke 10, we have the story of Mary and Martha:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.
Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Martha was stressed.
In her eyes she was busy doing all the things that needed to be done only to see her sister sitting at Jesus’ feet doing “nothing.”
All the responsibility of getting the house ready, the meal ready, everything was falling on her to do it.
We often feel stressed when we feel alone doing everything.

Stress can be caused by anything that:
Stress can result from anything that:
Annoys you
Threatens you
Excites you
Scares you
Worries you
Hurries you
Angers you
Frustrates you
Challenges you
Criticizes you

So how do we deal with it?
Verse 40 says, ““Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.”
Doesn’t that sound like us sometime?
Like Martha, we can get so distracted by all the seemingly necessary things that we miss the point.
Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive says for most of us the problem is not “priorities” as much as it is “posteriorities.”
By this he means what we choose to “leave out.”
Isn’t that the real problem? Some of the things that we make priorities aren’t really the priorities.
By focusing on these things of lesser importance we miss what’s most important.

The answer is to be like Mary.
Look at what Jesus said to Martha in verse 42: “Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better…”
She realized spending time with Jesus was more important than external preparations.

Martha’s choice had not been bad.
The things she was working on were all good – it simply wasn’t the wisest choice at the moment.
Why?
Jesus was there!

All the Christmas preparations are good, but there is “only one thing” that is “needed.”
And that thing that is needed this Christmas is spending time with Jesus in a personal, intimate love relationship.
We must never get so busy with the outward things that we neglect the quiet and peaceful worship of our Lord.

We might start by crossing out everything that takes away from the real meaning of Christmas.

It might be simpler by making a list of what really matters?
Do whatever it takes to relieve the stress and make the season what it was intended to be.