Make This the Year You Let Him In... to Stay

It is time. I know it is only the beginning of November but I've been resisting the urge for months now to write about the lessons learned from Christmas songs.

I just want to continue the project I started last Christmas season. You can click here to see those posts.

I've been on sort of a spiritual sabbatical for the past few weeks. What I have learned has been life changing but very hard to convey in a few short blog posts. Plus, some things must be discovered on our own - spirit to spirit - and then treasured in our hearts.

This Christmas song, however, pretty much covers the number one lesson I've been taught...

Let Him In. 

Hmmm, I seem to have learned that before. I understand it on a deeper level now.

Listen to the story of the Inn Keeper as told by the great song writer and composer, Michael McLean, in "The Forgotten Carols". Although it is fictionalized, I think we have all had times in our lives (maybe more than we would like to admit) when we symbolically turned Jesus Christ away.

Let Him In
Michael McLean

I am a man forgotten
No one recalls my name
Thousands of years will fail to
Fully erase my shame
But I turned a profit
Nicely the day
That I turned the couple away
I turned them away...


I didn't sleep that evening
Though I'd sold out my place
Somehow I felt uneasy
Something about her face
Why did I wish
That I'd let them stay?
I didn't think they could pay
Or could they have paid?


Restless, I left my bedroom
I walked the streets all night
Lost in the world I lived in
Found by a heavenly light
Staring at one bright star in the sky
I heard a baby cry
And I knew where that cry
Had come from
'Cuz I'd told them where
they could go
But I didn't think I could face them
And so I walked slowly home
Missing my chance
To share in their joy
I never saw the boy


He never would condemn me
I did that all on my own
He offered His forgiveness
And ever since then, I've known
He lets us choose
Each hour of each day
If we'll let Him in to stay


Let Him in
Let Him in
Let the peace on earth begin
Let Him in
Let Him in
Let the hope and joy begin


And whether it be
In your world today
Or a crowded Bethlehem Inn,
Find a way
Make Him room
Let Him in
Let Him in
Let the hope and joy begin
Let Him in
Let Him in

Now is the time to let Him in and feel the "Christmas Spirit".  Not the day after Thanksgiving until the day after Christmas day.  Start today. I put the words Christmas Spirit in parenthesis because we have convinced ourselves that feeling of good will and peace on earth that we feel during the month of December, is the "Christmas Spirit" but it is truly just the love of our Savior and it can be felt all year round if we so desire.

The irony is that we often choose not to let Him in, but He will always let us in. "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." St. John 10:9

Begin now.

Do not delay another moment. Your life will never be the same. 
 

Find a way. 

Here is a little secret - if we pray and ask Him to help us know how to do this, He will. We just have to be willing to listen and then obey.

Make Him room.

 Whatever it is that is keeping you from truly letting the Savior have a permanent place in your heart - and only you know what that is - have the courage to do what it takes to let it go. Once again, if you ask Him, He'll help you with this as well. In fact, the ONLY way you will be able to make room in your heart for Him is with His help.

Let Him in!!

"...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" St. John 10:10

 

Make this the year you let Him in your heart - to stay!