In Canada, where I’m from, the day after Christmas is an official holiday called Boxing Day. The holiday is so named because it is the day when, presumably, people who have it more together than I do box up the wrapping and presents and decorations and put everything away. Typically the day feels like a bit of a letdown. The huge build-up and anticipation leading to Christmas is over and now a long, cold winter stretches ahead with nothing much to look forward to except those last few Hallmark movies and finishing up all the boxes of chocolates you opened on the big day.
So much in life feels like that. We wait anxiously for nine months for the birth of a baby, but shortly after the blessed event we’re knee deep in dirty diapers and can’t remember the last time we slept or had a conversation with another adult. Or we work hard for a promotion but soon find ourselves bowing under mounds of extra responsibility with little time left for family or fun.
Our current situation is a bit like that, only instead of an event we had been anticipating, something shocking and unforeseen has happened in the world. After the initial panic and confusion, we have, for the most part, settled into this new normal. Now we are taking it one day at a time, trying to keep ourselves and our families safe while seeking to understand what God would have us do for Him and others during this time of isolation.
These times and so many others can be Boxing Days in our spiritual journey. We experience God’s goodness and faithfulness and are filled with joy and hope and awe at who He is and all He has done. But attacks from Satan, our own human weaknesses and desires, the evil in the world, grief, financial hardships, illnesses, or broken relationships soon drag us down. We long to serve God effectively and to see the fruit of our labors, but so often we don’t and we become discouraged.
The Holy Spirit, who inspired these words, knows how easy it is for us to become discouraged when we can’t see how anything we are doing can possibly be accomplishing anything of worth for the Kingdom of God. He doesn’t always comfort us by showing us the effect our work might be having but encourages us to simply focus on Jesus when we are discouraged.
In this strange and unprecedented time, when we have little or no interaction with other people, including our brothers and sisters in Christ, it is harder than ever to feel we are doing anything of worth, but that’s okay. Instead of trying to feel like we are doing anything meaningful, we must shift our focus to the work of Jesus on the cross and the meaning that his life, death, and resurrection gives to everything we do in His name.-@sarajdavison Share on X Only then can we overcome those spiritual Boxing Days and persevere to the end with joy and hope.
Sara Davison is the author of three romantic suspense series, The Seven Trilogy, The Night Guardians Series, and The Rose Tattoo Trilogy. She has been a finalist for nine national writing awards, including Best New Canadian Christian Author, a Carol, a Selah, and two Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. She has won a Word Award and a Cascade Award. She resides in Ontario, Canada with her husband Michael and their three children, all of whom she (literally) looks up to.
She must choose between the man who represents the law and the one who may have taken it into his own hands.
Neglected by her parents for most of her life, Nicole Hunter keeps everyone, especially men, at arms’ length. So when attorney Gage Kelly walks into the diner where she is waiting tables one evening, she fights her attraction to him with everything she has.
Gage and his brother Holden grew up in an abusive home, and Gage has baggage of his own. But the connection between him and Nicole is too strong to ignore, and Gage manages to convince them both that their relationship is worth the risk.
Then children begin disappearing in the night.
When Detective Daniel Grey starts to close in on the child snatcher, and enlists Nicole’s help, she faces her deepest fear. Everything and everyone she has clung to so tightly could be ripped from her, leaving her completely alone.
