Our Blog

By: Pastor Schlicht

Suleika Jaouad was diagnosed with leukemia in her early twenties. The doctors gave her a 35 percent chance of living. The diagnosis felt like hitting a brick wall, shattering her ambitions, dreams, and even her relationship with her boyfriend. But she found something in the hospital that she hadn’t had before. She found meaning. She followed the doctor’s orders, she worked hard on physical therapy, she endured her chemo treatments, and she had a clarity of purpose: the will to survive.

By God’s grace, Suleika did survive but she soon realized that she had a new problem. As she stepped back into her apartment for the first time, she realized that this was the day she had been looking forward to for so long. But now that it had come, now that she was ready to start living, she didn’t know where to start. She may have been ok physically, but she didn’t feel well. She even found herself fantasizing about getting sick again so that she could return to the hospital and the life she had found so meaningful.

Suleika eventually found ways to move on and now thrives as a writer. But her experience with cancer and life in the hospital taught her a lesson she will never forget. As she so beautifully states: “Meaning is what’s left when everything else is stripped away.” 

This Christmas season many things will be stripped away. Due to varying conditions and restrictions, much of our usual Christmas celebration will be different. Families may not get together in the same way as in years past. Perhaps your family will have an empty seat around the table this year. Maybe you won’t feel comfortable coming to church on Christmas Eve. Maybe you are tempted to think that this Christmas will be the worst day of the year. 

But remember that meaning is what’s left when everything else is stripped away. Thanks be to God that nothing can strip away his love for us. Thanks be to God that he has given us the one gift which will never be canceled or restricted. Thanks be to God that he sent his only begotten Son to be our Savior. In Jesus’ birth, the true meaning of Christmas is guaranteed for us this year and every year. 

Suleika’s story teaches us not to make such a clear distinction between what it means to be sick or well, happy or sad, at peace and longing for more. Often we have all these opposites in us at the same time. I imagine that will certainly be true for you this December. Every single one of us will have our life interrupted at some point whether it’s by the ripcord of a diagnosis, a lingering pandemic, or some other kind of heartbreak or trauma. There is never going to be a perfect state or situation for us on this side of heaven. We can’t afford to remain in a state of constant dissatisfaction until we reach it. Take the joy of each day as given by God.

In Christ, you don’t have to wait to start living a meaningful life. Instead, pick up your cross and follow him. You will find meaning in both the joy and the pain as you focus on your heavenly King. The King who set aside his crown to be born into our world for you. The King who died to forgive your sins and lives to call you his own forever. May you find your fullest meaning in Christ because you mean that much to him. And may the true meaning of Christmas shine the brightest in your heart this year when many things are stripped away.