| Jingle All The Way |
| “A merry heart does good, like medicine |
| but a broken spirit dries the bones.” Proverbs 17:22 |
| To the best of our knowledge, the human being is the only creature that has the capacity for humor. Humor, after all, is impossible without faith. Have you ever thought about it that way? |
| People who lack faith are easily irritated and agitated. Uptight and touchy, they are easily provoked to anger and are slow to see amusement in life’s negative experiences. Only a self-confident, self-assured person has enough faith to laugh at himself and his critics. |
| Yes, humor, joy and laughter are the most beautiful reflections of faith in a human being. In fact, experts tell us that joy is an important part of the healing process. |
| As we turn our focus to the Christmas season with all of the excitement, pressure, hope and time-crunching commitments all packaged together it is important that we have joy as a release valve to keep us sane and smiling through it all. |
| A wonderful example of this concept in our Christmas history is a man named James Pierpont. He was born in 1822 in Boston, Massachusetts while his father was serving as the pastor of Hollis Street Church. Let’s just say that James led a complicated life – one of success and failure – one of ambiguity and uncertainty. At the age of 10, he was sent to a boarding school in New Hampshire, and at the age of 14, he ran away to sea aboard a ship called “the Shark.” He bounced from job to job and from relationship to relationship. He married Millicent Cowee in the mid-1840’s and they had two children. That same year he left his wife and children with his father to open a business in San Francisco. |
| Unfortunately, his business failed after his store was burned in the San Francisco fire of 1851. In 1853 James took the post of organist and music director in his brother’s Church in Savannah, Georgia. In 1856, his wife Millicent died of tuberculosis. A year later in August 1857, James married Eliza Jane Purse, daughter of the mayor of Savannah, and they would have four children together. During the Civil War, he served as a company clerk for the Fifth Georgia Calvary. After the war he moved his family to Valdosta, Georgia, where he taught music. In 1869 James Pierpont moved to Quitman, Florida. There he was the organist in the local Presbyterian Church, gave private piano lessons and taught at the Quitman Academy, where he retired some years later as the head of the Music Department. |
| As you can see, Mr. Pierpont’s life was interesting to say the least. But it was something that he wrote at the age of 10 that makes his life stand out, today. He wrote his mother a note about riding in a sleigh through the December snow, and that thought remained with him through the years. In 1856 at the age of 34, this note which he transformed into a song was published by Oliver Ditson and Co. of Boston, under the title, “One Horse Open Sleigh.” Two years later, it was re-released as “Jingle Bells,” a song that millions of people of all ages will sing this Season with smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts. |
| What is it about James Pierpont’s life that speaks to me about the hope of Christmas? Just this: he spent all of his life working to make his life count, striving to make a difference in the midst of difficulties. Many people would say he met with failure more than success. Who can really say for sure? But in the midst of it all, he wrote a song that will be sung for generations. To me this is Christmas Hope – this is a glimpse of grace. |
| When we open ourselves up to the joy and love that comes from Jesus Christ, suddenly we move from the losing side of life to the winning side of life, we move from the shadows into eternal sunlight. |
| It is always too soon to give up – only God knows the special gifts He has waiting for you just around the corner. So, let’s not quit! Instead, may we smile and hope and believe and jingle ALL the way… to the future God has planned for you and me. |
| Stephen Lowell Swisher |
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Crosswalk Message 
