In Search of A Better December
Given the official launch into the holiday season this week,
I offer interview with Steven Estes, Author of A
Better December
In A Better December: Proverbs to Brighten
Christmas (New Growth Press/October
2013/ISBN 978-1-936768-67-7 /$12.99), pastor and author Steven Estes offers gems
of Solomon’s proverbial wisdom to help readers find the joy and celebration we
all desire for the Christmas season. Even though Solomon lived long before
Christ, and three thousand years prior to our modern observance of Christmas,
his wisdom is timeless and remarkably applicable to those who long to find
themselves refreshed and renewed instead of depleted and cranky in December.
Estes deftly combines the wisdom of Proverbs with humor and touching stories,
drawing heavily on traditional holiday themes.
Q: Who is the
intended audience for A Better December?
What
started as a book primarily for sad, stressed Christians evolved into an
outreach book to give to unbelievers as well.
·
People
sad at Christmas (singles, widows, elderly, those who have lost loved
ones, students or soldiers far from home, people who long for the holidays of
their yesteryears)
·
People
stressed at Christmas (those dreading the shopping malls, visits to the
in-laws, boring office parties)
·
People
wanting a spiritual read at Christmas (without being “preachy”)
·
Non-Christian
friends and neighbors. The book is a back‑door introduction to the gospel that
starts lightly with humor, moves to poignant stories, and by the end, introduces
folks to Jesus.
Q: Christmas is
supposed to be a time of family, joy and celebration. Why is it so often a time
of stress and anxiety?
Perfection.
Unrealistic expectations. Trying to shake a snow-globe Christmas out of every
holiday. For others, it’s the obligation to visit relatives who make you
bristle. For some, the financial pressure of needing to appear generous. Plus,
Christmas intensifies almost every sorrow of life. People out of work,
divorced, never‑married, widowed, bereaved, far from home, estranged from
family, or bereft of romance can find the season unbearable. That’s because
it’s a time they are supposed to be doubly happy. The carols and bells that
delight one person depress and embitter another. Plus, Christmas comes in the year's
most sun‑deprived week.
Q: Obviously, the
Proverbs were written long before Christmas was ever celebrated. How did you
make the connection between Solomon’s wisdom and the holiday season?
The
connection between Solomon and Christmas is tongue-in-cheek. People know about
his vaunted wisdom, but do they know about his savvy market research where he
predicted a major future trend: the Christmas holidays? Solomon wrote his
blockbuster Proverbs to help future readers navigate December.
As a
pastor, I preach on Christmas themes each year, but the New Testament
narratives about Jesus’ birth are few. So for a change, one year I scoured
Proverbs for any counsel it might offer on how to face December’s typical
challenges: materialism, stress, loneliness, etc. The resulting sermon was the
basis for A Better December. But when morphing that sermon into book
form, this thought loomed clearer and clearer: Solomon offers good advice—but
good advice (even divine advice) is never enough. What we need most is a Person
to help us with stress and sadness, and to change the selfishness in us that
Christmas often provokes.
So A
Better December was written to: 1) give Solomon's good advice about
Christmas; 2) disappoint us with that advice because, ultimately, it is still a
self‑help project; and 3) make us hunger for someone better than Solomon. This
leads us to Jesus, who said of himself, "Someone greater than Solomon is
here."
Q: Could you give us
a couple of your favorite examples of Solomon’s wisdom, and how they apply to
Christmas?
There
are so many to choose from:
·
Solomon
likes winter, noting that “the coolness of snow . . . refreshes the spirit”
(25:13).
·
He
has an eye for “an ornament of fine gold” on a tree (25:12), and for the “fool
full of food” at the holiday office party (30:22). But don’t assume that
everyone smiling in the room is happy, he cautions, for “even in laughter the
heart may ache” (14:13).
·
He
feels for tired parents whose kids come bouncing from their rooms before dawn
on the big day: “If you shout a pleasant greeting to your neighbor too early in
the morning, it will be counted as a curse!” (27:14).
·
He
counsels us that dazzling gifts won’t dazzle for long: “Death and destruction
and never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man” (27:20).
·
To
shopping addicts, he urges: ‘Better a little with the fear of the Lord than
great wealth with turmoil” (15:16).
·
To
those overly lenient with rowdy kids over the holidays, he warns: “If a man
pampers his servant from youth, he will bring grief in the end” (29:21).
·
Get
yourself some joy when passing those sidewalk bell-ringers with their red
kettles, because “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will
reward him for what he has done” (19:17).
·
Write
a letter to a soldier overseas this time of year, he prods, for “Like cold
water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land” (25:25).
And
the above is Solomon just getting warmed up.
Q:
What do you hope each reader will walk away with
from reading A Better December?
Solomon
is good, but Jesus is better. The former can lead you to the latter.
Steven Estes pastors an
Evangelical Free Church in Elverson, PA, teaches a preaching class at
Westminster Seminary (Philadelphia), and is on the board of the Christian
Counseling & Educational Foundation. He is the author of Called to Die
(the story of slain missionary Chet Bitterman), and co-author (with Joni
Eareckson Tada) of When God Weeps and A Step Further. He and his wife have eight
children. Learn more about Estes and his books at www.steveestes.net.
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