Howard Thurman’s After Christmas Poem.
In my faith background, Christmas is a big deal. The day your Savior is born tends to be the ultimate beginning. Nothing that follows, including his death, could happen without that first day.
Also, in my faith, we follow a calendar almost to a flaw. As if we can better preserve the magic of that day by rarely mentioning it. Our unvarying scripture timeline is one example of the many ways we keep a big God in a tiny box. We would do well to remember that our North Star is forever constant, and the work God showed us to do when he took human form is unceasing.
For that reason, the words of theologian and preacher Howard Thurman are the first in most of my journals because they are a reminder that whether it is December 25 or March 11, or three Wednesdays from now, our assigned work has not changed for one minute of one day.
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.
Today, no matter whose “guy” wins, this already was and continues to be your work as a believer.
So what happens tomorrow? Let these words guide your next steps.
And if you do not have your own North Star, borrow mine in these words. Because that voice inside of you is your moral compass, and you will notice an inexplicable lightness when you let it guide you.