With Jesus, You Always Have Enough to Start Over

It has been a year of loss for so many people. Some of those losses were necessary; I believe God invited us to divest ourselves of idols in the year 2020. An idol is anything that receives more honor, allegiance, and devotion in your life than Jesus Christ. Those things need to go, and if you don’t do it yourself, God will allow them to topple—but don’t wait that long!

Then there are the losses that crept across the land in 2020, leaving some families in deep pain this Christmas season. I’m reminded of the words of a wise friend: If you have Jesus, you always have enough to start over.

If these words don’t resonate with you, may I suggest that you examine the idols in your life? Is there anything before your eyes or in your heart that stands in the way of simple gratitude for Jesus Christ? In Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Given these words of truth from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians, there is no question where our focus should be.

Christmas marks the advent of hope, the point in time when God birthed his plan to redeem humanity through Jesus Christ. With this in mind, I’d like to share some beautiful Christmas music you’ve probably never heard before—from a French composer named Michel Corrette. The words have been lost to his “Noël Symphonies,” but each of the seven short movements below is an arrangement of a Christmas carol that would have been familiar to Corrette’s contemporaries in 18^th-century France.

The performance of these carols is an act of devotion itself—from five Wheaton College Conservatory of Music students (including my son, Conor Lyons) who got together virtually from five far-flung locations to record their parts of this beautiful, intimate music from the Baroque Era. They stitched together their parts to craft a single performance. That’s a whole lot harder than it looks…out of view, each musician wears an earpiece so they can hear the first violinist’s part. You can read more about this music and its making here.

This is their gift to the newborn King, and to you. (And watch for the Wisconsin deer that wander outside the harpsichordist’s window in Movement 4.) I hope it brings gratitude to your heart for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as it did to me.