Santa. Rudolph. Angels. Christmas carols almost give us permission to expect a little more wonder. A little magic. Even grown ups can suspend disbelief a little for Christmas. We’re told songs have been a part of Christmas since the first one. Of course, if all the magic promised in those songs came true, it would really be something. JOY that never goes away? HOPE that feels like certainty? What about this whopper? This baby was supposed to being PEACE! But it’s hard to ignore that, while we’re celebrating Christmas, sadness, oppression, and violence are still realities in our world today. Nice song, but we’ll have to suspend disbelief to sing it. Or, maybe there’s something more to what we’re celebrating than we realize.

Every family has it’s quirks. Your family might have silly traditions. Another family might be a little overboard with how much they love football. Your wife’s family might be too political. One of the results of following Jesus is a different kind of family—one that has plenty of quirks. In this talk, we uncover the oddest feature of them all.

The family we were born into probably had some diversity, but was largely homogenous. One of the greatest opportunities we have in life is to build a family around us that expands on this—that creates even more diversity than we were born into. In the talk, we’ll find out that creating a community of diversity isn’t just a fashionable thing to do, but the most logical thing to do if we’re going to pay any attention to Jesus.

We all need a few people we can be complete ourselves around. People who don’t laugh at the way we laugh or take advantage or our weaknesses or mock our dreams. But “vulnerable" can mean something scary, right? “Susceptible to harm, unprotected, unsafe.” But great families enjoy unfiltered transparency and unstoppable love. Where can you find it?

Have you ever really needed a few people to be there for you only to discover the people who were closest weren’t really committed? For many of us, that story was told early when a parent couldn’t stick around or a partner betrayed or left us when we weren’t suitable for them any longer. The kind of community we need requires more commitment than some are willing to offer. Let’s create something better.

The phrase “one another” appears about 100 times in the earliest Christian writings. “Be devoted to one another”, “honor one another”, “encourage one another”. It’s like one of the results Jesus produced in their lives was connection with other people—like a family. There’s the family you born into and family that you choose along the way. Maybe “family”, maybe “one another” is one of the most interesting things Jesus offers.

When the challenges and puzzles of life are loaded with a layer of responsibility, we get stressed. There’s a deadline, there’s a mouth to feed, there’s too any people counting on you. But the challenges of life don’t have to give us stress. The way to get past it isn’t by avoiding ad white-knuckling, it’s by making one, critical change to what you believe about stress.

Whether you’re a person of faith or not, endings can disrupt us and shake us to our core—maybe even shatter us. Whether we choose to stop or the ending happens for us, the change deserves our attention more than we might want to give it. The past has so much to offer our future, but we have to know how to mine it. Some of the resources we need for the future are waiting where we just were.

Change is hard, but we still experience it all the time. In fact, the only reason we resist change isn’t because we lack the strength to endure it, it’s usually because we don’t really care enough for the difference it would make. We COULD start that diet or we COULD break up with him, but is the potential really worth the pain of getting there? As you face this next chapter of your life, don’t ask yourself how hard it will be to change, ask yourself if you have a vision big enough to justify it.

Have you ever found yourself waiting for a sign that you should keep going or make a change? Maybe it’s a routine you’ve been trying that isn’t yielding results. Maybe it’s a dream that’s just not fulfilling you the way it should. Maybe it’s a relationship facing challenges! How do you know when it’s best to stick with it or cut your losses and make a change? Knowing when to stay and when to go is actually quite simple—it’s not often EASY—but it’s simple.