This Christmas is going to be my best.
It’s true that many people romanticize the Christmas season and hope they’ll have the best one ever. Perhaps we think everyone in the family will behave and get along this year or that the gift we’ve always wanted will be under the tree. But so often, we are disappointed when Christmas finally comes around.
This year, I can say with absolute certainty that regardless of what anyone does or doesn’t do, and regardless of what will be under the tree, this will be my best Christmas ever. The reason is simple: I’m alive.
WHAT A LESSER-KNOWN CHARLES DICKENS CHRISTMAS STORY TEACHES ABOUT LOSS
The past year will go down in my personal history as the scariest yet. Thankfully, my wife and children came out of the COVID-19 years unscathed, and my nonprofit organization, the Los Angeles Dream Center, welcomed thousands of homeless and underserved people and helped them find hope, housing, jobs, and mended relationships. In all respects, 2022 actually seemed like a fantastic year for my family and colleagues.
But then, in an instant, three strokes hit my brain and almost took my life this spring. The miracle that I’m alive will mark 2022 as a turning point for me. I now realize what people mean when they say they feel like they’re living on “borrowed time,” and I want to make sure that I use the time that’s been given to me to turn my miracle into a miracle for someone else.
Take, for example, Marie, a young woman who came to the Los Angeles Dream Center looking for help and hope. She had lived in fear throughout her childhood because of an abusive father. The trauma from her past consumed her, and she turned to drugs to cope. She came to us broken and full of the fear that had led her into 18 years of addiction, crime, and brokenness. It was her husband who encouraged her to get help.
Long story short, Marie faced her demons. She spent weeks and months rebuilding a healthy lifestyle and avoiding destructive behaviors, and she is now mentally and spiritually stronger because of it.
But even after moving back home, Marie never cut ties with us when she got back on her feet. Instead, she and her family come back to the center every year, don the hairnets of food servers, and help serve the more than 20,000 people who will come through our doors this Christmas season.
Marie’s miracle shows me that I, too, can turn my gratitude for being alive into acts of service that become little miracles for thousands of other people.
In the Christmas story, I often stumble through the cringe-worthy part, when the innkeeper refused to give a room to the expectant couple. Little did he know that he was missing an opportunity to bless someone who would change history, and millions of people would know about it. That’s not how I want to be remembered.
This Christmas won’t be the best because of what others do or what we receive. Christmas becomes the best ever when we turn our own miracles into a miracle for someone else, just like Marie and her family do every holiday season.
This is the perfect season to look back on all the good things that have happened to us. We all have the power to make someone’s miracle happen. We just have to be willing.
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Matthew Barnett is the co-founder of the Los Angeles Dream Center and the senior pastor of Angelus Temple. The Los Angeles Dream Center is a faith-based nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the lives of individual people and families in Los Angeles through residential and outreach programs.
