Preparing Your Heart For Christmas After Hours

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. From an entrenched barricade deep in the heart of central North Carolina, Masculine Journey After Hours. A time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast. So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here, now. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours.

We are in the middle of preparing our hearts for Christmas. And yes, it was my topic. As we discovered in the last show, if you weren't listening to that, it was apparently my topic. I thought it was Andy's, but that's just me. Andy, that wasn't yours? Nope.

Nope. Sam finally confesses. Write it down. Yeah, I'm thinking we can just cut this part out of the show and it won't ever air. Maybe I'll talk to Keith, slip him a five or something and say, hey man.

Bright ten. Anyway, we're preparing our hearts for Christmas and we're talking about the challenges when we left from the regular show and there's a lot of them. The world's all about taking our attention away from God. Right. It's been the plan for for as long as I've been alive and probably as long as all of us have been alive. Right. So it's it's been the goal.

And so, Robby, we get to your clip is going to be the first one we do. How fun. Yeah, how fun. It's so to play right now. I love, love, love Christmas movies.

I watch them all year long. And this happens to be one of my all time favorites. And it's called The Perfect Gift. And the idea that Jesus is perfect is all about this because the setup of the movie is actually quite brilliant.

It's a Christian movie. And the idea is that obviously the perfect gift is Jesus. And Jesus has come to this town to help out this young girl actually find God. And this young girl, her birthday is Christmas Day and her name is Maxine Nicole. So her middle name, I mean, her name is Maxine Noel. So her middle name is Noel. She's born on Christmas Day.

And so Jesus actually is building a nativity scene at this church when he meets Max. And Max goes into this, like, why can't anybody realize this is my birthday? You know, nobody cares that this is my birthday. And it's even funny when she says he says, well, when's your birthday? And he goes, she goes, December 25th. He goes, oh, that's about to says it's his too, you know, because it is his birthday. And she goes into why is everybody out there celebrating all sorts of other stuff?

They don't care anything about my birthday. Does that sound selfish to you? And he goes, well, yeah, I think that's kind of the definition of selfish. You know, it's just it's a classic setup as he then goes after her heart for the rest of the movie of showing her, you know, what really Christmas is about, about the Christmas story, et cetera, center around this idea of a nativity. Well, unfortunately, you know, the whatever you want to call it, Center for Law Justice or whatever is going to come in and shut down the nativity scene. And they are end up with this town council, you know, big meeting. And they're all trying to get this homeless guy who had this idea of having this nativity, you know, and what's this all about? And this guy is a rabble rouser and troublemaker. And so they finally, you know, get him to speak to why he, you know, has this nativity. And so here's his speech. Like I said, God never wanted to force his son on anyone.

It's just not the way he does things. And that's why that first Christmas was the way it was. He chose a poor girl from the village to give birth to the new king.

And her culture, she had no rights, no voice. And he chose a stable instead of a palace for the new king's birth. And shepherds, common laborers, they were chosen as the first witnesses. When God came to earth, he came to the least and the last and the lowest and the lost. And these people witnessed the birth of a king who never owned a home, never held political office, never made a grab for power.

And why is that? Not because he forced people to choose him. It's because for centuries, men and women have been seeking God. And they found him in this man. And what's remarkable is that while they were seeking God, they found that he'd been looking for them their whole lives. So that's what happened on that first Christmas 2000 years ago.

God came to earth looking for you. And he came in the form of a man who showed the whole world what God's love was like. So on that first Christmas, God's perfect gift was love. The thing that fills people's hearts usually starts to show up everywhere around them. And that's why this time of year, you see evergreens and lights and stars and nativity scenes.

Because they remind people of the love that came looking for them so long ago. So the perfect gift, fascinatingly, is a takeoff on some movies called Nicky and the Perfect Stranger. And the perfect stranger was Jesus because he's perfect. And of course, the perfect gift is Jesus, right?

He is perfect. But the clip makes a point that I think is outstanding that God showed us this idea of love and this idea that Jesus came to die, right? He came into this manger, right?

A feeding trough. The whole scene speaks to what love is. And, you know, recently, those who know me well know I love the Song of Solomon.

And as much as I've studied, I'd never noticed this. But in the third chapter, the bride of Christ, essentially, which is what the book's about, the Shulamite bride, she says, you know, my beloved is mine and I am his. He grazes among the lilies. So who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't want Jesus to be theirs? Well, when you get to the sixth chapter, she says it again, but this time it's a little different. She says, my beloved, I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine.

He grazes among the lilies. You see, she graduated from having herself first to having him first. But then when you get to the seventh chapter, she truly graduates to a new level that I think is remarkable. She says, I am my beloved's and his desire is for me.

In other words, you note that she is now not in the equation. What's in the equation is, you know, what's his desire? And I think, as I've thought about, you know, preparing my heart for Christmas, what I really, really, really want is what Andy said. I want to be present for him.

I want to be present for my family. I want to be a reflection of the love that he showed us at Christmas. But in order to do that, somehow or another, I have to totally get myself out of the way and realize that this is not about, like Jim said, and I think we've all said, it's not about my desires. As you know, it's so funny to me that if your birthday falls on Christmas, how can it not be about me?

You know, what a wild thing, and I have a granddaughter whose birthday is three days away and Jim's is close and, you know, you can't help but think about, wow, you know, how could Christmas not be about me? But, you know, the fascinating thing about it is, when we were kids, it was all about us. And that's some of the most miserable times I can remember.

And that happens as an adult as well, when everything's about me is when I'm miserable. When I'm putting others first, putting Jesus first, others second, myself last is when I feel the peace of God. So, you know, it's an interesting, but again, if you do all that without Jesus present, as Andy would say, then, you know, it just wouldn't be as present as presently, you know? Presently with us. In the present tense. Right, Andy? In the past tense. I could have said it better myself. You couldn't have presented it, anybody. Rodney, you have a clip.

Wow, I got to follow that. Well, first of all, before that, we want to say that we definitely miss Wayne. We haven't seen Wayne in a few weeks. We'd love to have Wayne come back, and we actually kind of miss David a little bit, too.

And so it'd be nice. It's their presence that we miss. He said it on the air, David.

We missed their presence. I said we, not me. Okay.

I was speaking collectively, not individually. Take what you get, David. Yeah, that's what we got. So we do miss him, and hopefully he'll be back with us next week, and we'll have a full house with Harold and David and Wayne and Andy, who says he'll be back, but we'll see. If we let him.

If we let him, yeah. All right, so on to your clip. On to the clip. I really was struggling with, well, what am I going to even do here with Prepare, because there were so many places I could go and different thoughts. I started looking some things up, and I just kind of ran across this song that I know I've heard it before, but it's been a while, but it's called Prepare Him Room, and I just kind of listened to it.

I just kind of wanted to keep listening to it, because it kind of really spoke to where I was at. It's like, I know what I need to do. I do need to prepare room in my heart for Jesus, and that's where I need to be focused, but it's just so easy to be pulled away that you find yourself, wow, Christmas is coming. It's closer and closer, and where is my mind?

Where is my heart? And it's not always on him, and when you have difficulties or things going on where you just have to get other things done in life, it's just so easy to get distracted and pulled away from the main thing. And that, for me, is when I get the joy robbed out of Christmas, I found, and that's where, in the years when I do a really good job of being focused on God and putting him first and what he's done for me, I can have joy and peace in that time.

When I look away from that and just focus on me, it's just a joy kill. But let's go ahead and listen to the song. O behold, the mystery now unfolds. See the star shine on the virgin foretold. Angels sing and light up the sky. Hope rings out in a newborn's cry. Swing wide, you ancient gates, for Christ is born today.

Preparing, preparing. Let the King of Glory enter in. So I have to figure out how to be intentional about letting the King of Glory just enter in because it's so easy for me to put up barricades and blockades and just focus on today as far as just getting through it instead of living in it. And where I want to really kind of always go is I love going back and reading the different Christmas stories, and we're going to get to Andy's clip later, which is one of my favorites. It's just a time where if I can always remind myself that I have this precious gift of salvation, I've got God with me and He's in me, and reading through that and just getting that whole remembrance of who I am in Him and not just who I am with who I think I am and my old self and who I always was and, you know, act it out as and say, oh, no, I'm not going to be that person this year. I'm going to be the new creature that He made me.

It's one of those things that just you can't help but be in God's Word and be uplifted and go from any negativity to some positivity in that mode. Yeah, that's good. Thank you. Andy, you know, it's presently time for your present of the clip. And looking forward to hearing this clip. We just heard a little bit ago, but you never get tired of this one. This is the classic Christmas clip.

I mean, if you had to pick one that we all probably heard in our childhood, regardless of our age, except maybe Harold. Yeah. Child-ish-hood, whatever.

No, that'd be wrong. Childhood-ish. Yeah. He was 40. He was 40. Yeah, well, that's probably true.

40 hundred. Yeah, yeah. Good point. So, Andy, why don't we talk, well, you talk and let me not talk and you can talk about your clip. You were doing a presently great job. Thank you.

Setting up my clip. Thank you. They're referencing my, if you listen to the first show, I really did overdo the use of the word presence, but we find ourselves, I'm horrible at being a multitasker, having my mind on other things and stuff. And so that is my intent for Christmas.

I just found myself being distracted again a few minutes ago. And I just, it's a culture that kind of goes with my work and stuff that I've been probably making an agreement there. But anyway, the point is, is if we can't be present at a holiday season where we've desired all the years, all year to have some downtime, have time with family, have time obviously of focusing on the gospel and all, how can we not, I mean, we have that opportunity.

We need to take advantage of it. I tend to try to do that more, you know, put a common message all through the years, be just be more present with who you're around. But anyway, I think I found it presented itself right to you.

I got it at the end of the year. That's cool. But no, this clip is from the Peanuts Christmas. Charlie Brown is, you know, complaining to Linus about, you know, what all's going on.

You hear the word drats and darn and stuff like that. And he's just, his focus, his heart is not prepared for Christmas. And Linus gives him some perspective here. You're hopeless, Charlie Brown, completely hopeless. You've been done before, Charlie Brown, but this time you really did it. I guess you were right, Linus. I shouldn't have picked this little tree.

Everything I do turns into a disaster. I guess I really don't know what Christmas is all about. Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about? Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.

Linus, please. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them. And the glory of the Lord showed round about them. And they were sore afraid, and the angel said unto them, Fear not. For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. Go ahead, Andy, follow up on that. Yeah, so, you know, just listening to that, you know, the key to that statement by the angel of bringing tidings of great joy, and how is it that we just, to Robby's point, how do we miss it so much by not maintaining that tidings of great joy by all the stuff? Here it is.

It's here. But we're distracted. And, you know, we hear year over year that we've commercialized Christmas and we've taken the real meaning of it. But we as believers who seek Him, I mean, I feel like we're with a group of believers who seek God on a continual basis. How much more during this Christmas season should we be doing that?

And I think we are. I think challenging ourselves to remember, though, of the time that we're in and the need to stay connected and to really celebrate and to enjoy those good tidings is the point of it. That, I believe, brings Him joy, is for us to really enter into those glad tidings of great joy and not to be burdened down with all the other junk. Fun fact. I learned this last year when we were on this clip that it's the only scene in all the Charlie Brown series where Linus doesn't have his blanket. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Around the tree. Right. He loses the blanket right before he goes into the spiel, right? And that he didn't need security when he had Christ cover him. Oh, that's good.

That's really, really cool. And I'm pretty certain in the beginning of that clip I heard Michael Landon laugh. Yeah, it sounded like that. I thought it was Michael. Wasn't he in there? I'm pretty sure. That was Snoopy.

I think he played Snoopy, just basically the way Danny recorded it. Yeah. Anyway, if you want to know what that's about. There's no safe place around here. Just email Danny. Danny at masculinejourney.org. Again, that's Danny at masculinejourney.org. You got something to say, Danny? Evidently I do.

Robby's giving me the microphone. I think so. Yeah, he played the voice of Snoopy. He did. Yeah.

Michael Landon. Y'all make fun of my fans no matter what I do. You know what? That's not true. Just join them.

You can't beat them. Yeah. He didn't play Snoopy.

How do you know? I think Barney Fife played Snoopy. He was present when Snoopy was cast.

It might have been. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, he's in his presence. Anyway, so Christmas is coming, not too long. And so we have to prepare our hearts for it. So we went through several different things.

And so we got a few more minutes. What do you have left to do between now and then to prepare your heart? We're beginning the process. But to your point, I think somebody said earlier, it's not prepared yet.

It's preparing it. So what's left to prepare? Wow. Silence, everybody. Yeah. I think for me, it's just I've got to forget about just anything that's just superficial in my life and be thankful for all the wonderful things I've got, you know, in my life and just kind of be able to praise God for all the things that are going on and just, you know, the Band of Brothers, the family, the church family and so many other things that are just that he's blessed me with over the years.

And, you know, there's so much more to come that I don't know what's out there. But just, you know, rest in that and be joyful. And all your favorite podcasts? Well, the favorite podcasts are a wonderful joy, aren't they?

Yeah, they are. Robby, what about you? I love the line in the 119 Psalm says, order my steps in your word, right? That not any iniquity would have dominion over me. And so as I go into those times, I hopefully will be a lot more frequently, as everybody's talked about, try to be more intentional. You know, I tried to do it today, like try to take him along on the ride.

And like, what can I do this time of year? And interestingly, he put about six different people on my heart that I hadn't really not talked to in a while that just had been missing from different groups that I attend and all that. And as I called those people today, like they were on my list and it was like, this, you think you have a job to do, here's your job, call all these people. And oh my goodness.

I could not believe how brokenhearted these people were when I got them on the phone. Like, there was a reason that they had been absent from my presence and they were really going through some stuff. And so I'm hoping that I can, to Andy's point, be more present with, you know, because that's something actually you can do at any moment.

Say, Jesus, what are we doing right now? And just like that, he'll give you stuff and it will be a huge blessing. And you have to recognize it's him giving it. I mean, did God say, here is the list of people you are to call right this minute?

Or was it these people came on your heart? Exactly. Exactly. Right. It wasn't, here's the list.

It's real easy. And like I said, God doesn't force his way into our lives, but he invites us in. And if we are listening, he'll give us that list. And you probably got more out of supporting those people in their difficult times and maybe than they did. But it's always very rewarding to be helpful to others. And everybody listening to this, everybody in this room has a unique set of circumstances that make it difficult to open up.

But we all have exactly the same answer to what's bothering us. And that's Jesus. If we're focused on him and listening to him, we'll get through this season with joy and peace. You know, right before what Linus recites in that clip, it talks about she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end. And it struck me as we were listening to that clip that, you know, from the beginning of Christ's dinner in the world, nobody had room for him. And that's kind of the thing that, you know, whatever it is and probably have to do some meditation and go, okay, God, what is it I need to get out of the way to make room for you?

Because that's the real deal. And we've talked about it all night is that, you know, there are people that are starting that may want to hear from us or, you know, there'll be people that may want to email me about my Michael Landon clip. But those kind of things that, you know, that is Christmas all year long because to make room for him because, you know, he will speak to us. He does care.

But is there room for him? One of the things I was going to throw out there, and it's a totally different perspective, I think, is I'm looking forward to taking Jesus with me as I shop for my family members. Because I think it's pretty cool to say, God, how can I speak to their heart? I don't want to buy him something.

I don't want to buy him stuff. You know their heart. You know what really motivates them. And it becomes a mission. It becomes a quest, you know, to go out and try to not get the perfect gift but to get...and it's not about money. It's about what speaks to their heart.

Whether that's something that's homemade or that's something that's bought, whatever that is. And it's part of the adventure that I've learned to really enjoy doing with him, saying, okay, let me think of my daughters and let me think of my sons and my grandson and what... God, you know them much better than I ever will. You know, where can we go? You know, and trying to find something that will speak to their heart because that's more important than anything else is just letting them know that, you know, they're loved.

And that's what I hope to do. Brilliant. I like that. Because two of my least favorite things during the Christmas season is hearing last Christmas, I gave you my heart, which was immediate, turn the radio off. The other one is having people ask me, what do you want for Christmas? I said, ask Jesus.

I don't know. There you go. Right? And so maybe you just take Jesus with you shopping. That'd be something new. Right? And maybe it'll get some of the traffic out of the way. He's needed a Walmart.

He's needed a Walmart and Target and all those other places. I'm telling you. But we're going to continue to talk about Christmas over the next few weeks. And then the last week of this year, we're going to talk about our word of the year. So you got that to look forward to. But in the meantime, be thinking about purchasing a boot camp for somebody.

And we'll get that posted on our website and let you know. And we will talk with you next week. Enjoy your week and prepare your heart for Christmas. Spend some time alone with God this week and just say, God, I'm digging into you first and foremost into this season. This is the Truth Network.