UNMET EXPECTATIONS AND THE SEARCH FOR TRUE HOPE THIS CHRISTMAS

Our family has a slate of movies we try to watch every Christmas — White Christmas, Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, Elf, Home Alone, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and A Christmas Story. It’s a Christmas tradition I absolutely love (for the record, we’re 5 for 6 right now, so I'm feeling good about our odds to watch them all).

In Home Alone and The Grinch, the main characters struggle not necessarily with Christmas, but with unmet expectations in their relationships. Kevin is treated like a nuisance by his family and the Grinch has childhood trauma from a grade-school shaving mishap gone wrong. Christmas just happens to be the time of year in which the stories take place.

Yet when Kevin finally realizes he loves his family despite their imperfections and the Grinch realizes joy isn’t found in presents or revenge, our hearts grow too (just like the Grinch’s) from these beautiful Christmas movies we want to watch over and over again. (Well, at least our family does!)

The holiday season seems to amplify both our joys and our pains. Thankfully a baby born in Bethlehem grew to be a Man who tenderly comforts us in our pains and because of His death on the cross, offers us joy that never ends, regardless of life’s unmet expectations.

It is this message of hope that each Man Up team member, volunteer, and donor carries throughout the year to those with unmet expectations of their own. Jesus truly is the reason for the season!

So as we participate in all of our favorite holiday traditions we also remember those looking for joy and hope during Christmastime. At Man Up we thank you in advance for your end-of-year gift that will bring this joy and hope, a gift that will keep giving well into the new year and eternity.

May God continue to bless you and yours richly,

 Jeff Ford