good tidings of great joy to those who aren’t feeling it

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If you’re at all familiar with the sitcom Friends, you know Chandler. The likable character, played by Matthew Perry, captured fans’ hearts through his youthful innocence and memorable lines. But his celebrity cost him dearly. Opioids and alcohol have very nearly done him in. In the opening lines of his memoir he writes, “I should be dead.”

The price tag on his trying to get sober has topped $9 million. Tragically, he has yet to find salvation in either drugs or their prevention.

In his recently-released memoir, 53-year old Perry confides to the reader:

That beatific moment is something I still seek. . . . I want that connection to something bigger than me because I’m convinced it’s the only thing that will truly save my life. I don’t want to die. I’m scared to die.

Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir

The “big terrible thing” in Matthew Perry‘s life might be substance abuse, but his heart-twisting confession reveals an even more terrible thing. How awful it must be to be so close to the door of salvation and not be able to find the door knob.

Not Chandler Bing, I thought. God, send a gospel preacher to him! Who has his ear? Who could tell him about the healing love of Jesus? But then: maybe he has heard it and didn’t choose Door Jesus. If so, well that’s a whole other “big terrible thing.”

What is needed here is a Christmas miracle.

The Christmas story is set against the background of night. Joseph was visited by an angel in the night. The shepherds watched their flocks by night. Mary and Joseph welcomed their little bundle into the world in the middle of the night.

But, suddenly, like the opening verses of our Bibles, there was light. And it was good.

Recently, I discovered that the tiny book of Haggai casts some of that light. Looking at it in a certain way, one might catch a glint of Christmas cheer.

Let’s take a look.

Haggai preached three short sermons to the people of God over three months, but he was given yet a fourth — really a sermonette — for a single individual. At the beginning of what is now our traditional Christmas week, Haggai gave Zerubbabel a gift-wrapped message from heaven.

I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations…On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.

Haggai 2:21-23

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“Your ministry isn’t finished quite yet, Haggai. I have one more sermon for you to preach. It’s a sermon for a specific person. Go to him and let him hear the gospel of grace.”

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That guy’s name is Zerubbabel, meaning “birthed in Babylon.”

What a beautiful story of grace. Like Zerubbabel, we each come into the world, citizens of ‘Babylon,’ steeped in sin. God’s mercy finds us there and gives us a new story, a new identity, a new home.

God called a man, whose name means “festival,” to go and cheer up a man who’s wearing all the weight of Babylon on his soul.

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In this Christmas season, is the Lord perhaps sending you to someone who needs some good news? Could you possibly be their own personal angel at Christmas?

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Sandy and I have a friend on social media. I’ll call her Cindy. Cindy has been our prayer warrior for years. Recently she entered a contest online hoping to win an expensive winter sweater. Turns out, she won the sweater. She shared the good news with us immediately.

I’ll be honest the last week or so have really been difficult! I can feel the black cloud of deep, dark depression settling in like it does every year at the holidays!! I’ve been praying & pleading that this year it not happen! That this year the holidays would be different! I’m trying so hard to be joyful & happy!! To believe they will be different!! To not let the depression settle in again! This win really helped!! I wanted that sweater so badly!! I hope that doesn’t sound crazy! It was like a hug from Jesus! Telling me it’s going to be alright!!

I shot off a message to her right away:

This doesn’t sound the least bit crazy! Anything that comes into your life that we can turn into praise to our Father is a gift from heaven. You know that “every good and perfect gift is from above, from the Father of lights” — even sweaters! This beautiful sweater delights your heavenly Father even more than it brings happiness to you. The Father knows how much you needed this win! He is for you, he is for you, he is FOR you!

Someone you might know is secretly afraid of dying. The stink of Babylon is on them and they need to hear it’s not their destiny. He or she needs to hear that God wants to shake their world in a good way.

In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Matthew Perry self-diagnosed his soul’s great wound:

I have a never-ending need for attention, but it’s never the right kind of attention. It didn’t work. It didn’t fix that hole in me…

Do you have an incurable wound on your soul? Do you know someone who thinks — or you think — they are beyond salvation?

If Christmas tells us anything, it says GOD IS LOVE. He’s in a festive spirit and is eager to give you himself. People may fail you but he’s a true “Friend.” If you’re crying while everyone else is caroling, the Savior is sitting in that corner with you and whispering,

I’ve chosen you. You are a jeweled ring on my finger. I’ll never pawn you or throw you away. You are mine. Just watch and see what I’ll do. It’ll be epic.

Selah, beloved of God. I hope this has been a welcome message to you in this season of Advent. If I can pray for you, don’t hesitate to email me.