Accepting: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Every time I hear Vince Guaraldi's music from A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), specifically "Linus and Lucy," I begin to do the dance. Sometimes the dance is just in my head, but sometimes other get to "enjoy" it. It is joyful and reminds you of the good and simple things of life. Disgusted with the materialism and consumerism he sees, Charlie Brown tries different ways to figure out the true meaning of Christmas. Spoiler alert: he finds it. At the time it was ground breaking for an animated special: it did not use a laugh track, real children voiced the characters, it had a blatant message, and executives did not want the Bible quoted. Charlie Brown is now a Christmas staple for many. If you have never seen this 25 minutes of greatness, go and rent it or find it online. The music is brilliant, and the story is poignant.

I identify with Charlie Brown in so many ways. I am busy trying to do so much that I feel as though I do nothing meaningful. I want more, and I feel that more is demanded of me. As Christmas nears, I often feel drained. I suspect that I am not alone. We get so caught up in the season that we often forget the real meaning and true joy it is supposed to bring. We forget to accept what we have and who we have. We forget what contentment is. We forget grace. Why is it that one of the best seasons of the year often brings out the worst in us as individuals? We forget what Christmas is all about. Fortunately, Linus steps up and reminds Charlie Brown, and us, of the true meaning of Christmas:
"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 shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good 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; Ye 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, good will toward men.'"
That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
That's what Christmas is all about.


Honorable Mention
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966), narrated by Boris Karloff, cannot be topped (sorry Ron Howard). Simple, sassy, and packing the punch about what Christmas really means. Another life is changed when accepting occurs. Some of my favorite moments from this short are mentioned here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Memorial of Genocide

Background: In 1975 Pol Pot and the communist party Khmer Rouge came to power. The face they put on for the world was one of an ideal communist society, but the truth behind the mask was one of terror, mistrust, and murder. For four years, Cambodia endured and struggled for survival. Help came in the form of an invasion by the Vietnamese army, and the world was made aware of the millions of deaths that had been ignored, denied, or unheard. It is estimated that approximately 2 million people died directly from the genocide and another million died from the forced famine. The world had seen genocide before but not one committed against a group's own people group. This is thirty years later.... On Tuesday, my second day here, we visited Tuol Sleng or S-21. This was a high school that the Khmer Rouge used as a torture center where people accused of committing crimes against the party would be taken before they were executed. Only 7 out of 17,000-20,000 people survived. The compound is ...
Read more

Week One

We have been in the country a little over a week, returned to normal sleep patterns after jet lag, and already experienced some different ministries. It was a very hard first week. I experienced some culture stress as Cambodia is nothing like I imagined or expected. I will record more of my cultural observations and struggles on this blog in the next few days as I journal about them. I also had a hard week physically. Not with stomach problems as many might suppose, although my stomach is adjusting as well, but with a really bad heat rash that was all over my back, arms, and thighs. It has taken a few days but is now starting to clear up. Two main things I learned from this week are 1.) God is the only Sustainer and 2.) this trip is not going to be anything like my trip to Japan. Week 2 has begun and everything looks brighter. Monday we started teaching summer school at Logos International School. I thought I was going to be teaching art for two weeks, but after a visit to the school l...
Read more

Language of Remembering

Image
In my post "Ebensee" I mentioned that I have been reading for my PhD while travelling to different places in Austria. As I was on the train to Ebensee, I was reading Dirk Lange's Trauma Recalled: Liturgy, Disruption, and Theology . The focus of this book is how. How do you put a traumatic event into words? How do you describe it? How do you recall it? How do you remember it and bring it about in repetition? He writes, "What does it mean to witness or remember an event when the truth of the event cannot be represented?" (69). This reading set me up for what I was about to experience in at the former concentration camp location in Ebensee. Not much remains of the camp. There is the main entrance, the now cemetery which was and is the location of mass graves, and the tunnels in the mountains about a 5 minute walk away. The town has built up and on the camp. As I was walking around I thought back on Lange. How does one remember, continue to remember, when living amo...
Read more