I end up recording a lot of my favorite Christmas shows since I work in the evening, so today my dad and I sat down to watch the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It's his favorite.
This year, I saw the cartoon in a new light. The Grinch has a lot to teach us, if you look hard enough.
Time for a secret: He reminds me a little of myself, sometimes.
That's not to say I'm a grump or pessimist, because I'm not really either. But we do have one big thing in common. Other people's faith, peace and joy — the brightness that seems to radiate from their pores — makes us both squeamishly uncomfortable.
On good days, I admire the strength of those qualities. It amazes me and inspires me to try to emulate those things in my own life.
But on other days, these "sunshiny" people make me bitter. They irritate me and, yes, even sometimes provoke a terrible envy in my heart.
It's because I don't understand them. I can't relate. That's not what my faith has made me.
The gifts and traits I've received from God are different, but just as beautiful. I lose sight of that too often.
But over the past few years, as my life has been blessed with a few very special "sunshiny" people, my attitude is beginning to change.
They are my Whos. They have taught me that life is about much more than what we achieve or how happy we are. Faith in God isn't just a response to the good in our lives. Joy isn't just a reaction to the things that make us feel warm and fuzzy.
Those things are undercurrents. They're what teach us that there is good in everyone if we look hard enough and positive lessons to be learned from our failures. They're what lead us to affirm that God is good even when it seems like the bottom's falling out.
And like the Grinch's experience of the steadfast joy in Whoville, that light is contagious. It can change hearts.
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