Both Beyond & Within

Published December 24, 2025

 

It struck me at the last minute that this final article for 2025 would also be released for Christmas day. My planned topic will need to wait until next year. It’s cool stuff, but lacks the soul I feel is now appropriate.

I’m honored to share my observations with you this year. The pattern is hopefully clear. There are lots of important things to ponder about our present and future – both near and distant. Some things we currently think will be important probably won’t be. Other things of grand significance will have slipped by us. Hopefully such misses will not be lethal. But it also works the other direction. We must not miss keys from the past.

When something is right there in front of us and we think we have embraced it – or maybe intentionally ignored it – it’s easy to just label that topic or decision as settled! In some ways, we practically render such topics as dead; functionally inanimate. With all of this column’s warnings and “heads up” comments in 2025, I’d hate to miss the biggest one of all.

Christ! 

How did that become an expletive? It’s a desperate grab for verbal power; our poor attempt to give our words weight. Sad, but true. Here’s another true statement. Historians across the board agree Jesus of Nazareth lived. To deny His existence is the intellectual equivalent of claiming the earth is flat.

So, where does that leave you? Regardless of your position, the issue is how that decision shapes our lives. This applies equally to the atheist and the nostalgic believer. Let me be clear: if you treat Christ as a ‘case closed’ or a box you checked years ago, I suggest you may have misunderstood the significance of Jesus. 

Transformation can be a moment in time, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. But transformation can also be an ongoing struggle. Either Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or exactly who He claimed to be: Lord of all. If your conclusion is that He was only a good man worth celebrating, I encourage another look. 

Some are uncomfortable with how fast the world is changing. Others don’t like the political climate and feel helpless to do anything about it. There are so many things that can overwhelm us, but going numb, burying our head in the sand, or blindly checking a box regarding this baby in a manger is a bad idea.

Fact: The human soul carries a deep, inherent ache. It’s the feeling that something is off, much like Neo suspected in The Matrix. While politicians, teleevangelists, and marketers have spent centuries exploiting this void for profit, our Creator understands it perfectly. He knows the origin of the ache, and He offers the only true way home.  Ultimately, the only thing that can fully satisfy this need is the One who created it, and we often remain unaware of the depth of our need until we encounter Him.

Adopting a religious life or spirituality is not the answer – even if you slap the name of Jesus on it. Also, calling Christmas a social construct – for a list of understandable reasons – is not going to fix a fundamental problem either. Adopting a “we’re all just good people” live-and-let-live approach sure seems nice enough, but how’s that workin’ out for ya? 

The reason for the season is uncomfortable. And yet, everything about His story is love-based, starting with vulnerability and humility in the manger – even if society has layered myths over the actual details. The voluntary sacrifice that punctuates the end of Christ’s time on earth is not just an example to follow, but a rescue operation for us. The transformation from death to life into eternity screams of the hope we crave, even when we deny it. While these details are central, our individual experience with Christ has always been intended to be a vibrant struggle towards real love. The muting of that is the problem.  

If your life experiences provide a long list of reasons to put Christ aside or into some sort of sociological box, consider whether your rejection of Him is somehow masking something core. It will likely feel uncomfortable once you ignore all of that other stuff and seriously consider Christ alone; just focus on the things He said and did. 

Similarly, if your life is full of Christian everything, notice whether your faith is regularly making you uncomfortable. People who encountered God in the Bible were never left in complacency. God brings both reconciliation and transformation involving struggle and death to our own preferences, but leads to true life in the midst of hard things.

Life is amazing. Technological, economic, and societal shifts will remain fascinating. We’ll continue to highlight new things coming our way, and we can celebrate how clever we think we are or how change can be scary. Time will tell if any of that is true. But we’re wired for relationships – the stuff that makes the rest of it matter. We cannot let all of the hoopla and gizmos we’re going to create distract us. 

Christmas is here. It’s a powerful time. Some will grieve at new levels, missing loved ones. Others will find misery as beliefs or chosen communities clash with blood families. Some will have a wonderful time with loved ones, while others treat it strictly as a financial opportunity. All of this happens at the same time.

However you engage with Christmas, I wish you well. I look forward to sharing more with you as we watch the future unfold. But be careful not to miss the reality before you. Christ is not a decision to be checked off and filed away. The Creator of the universe was born into this world to offer you a chance to struggle, grow, discover, create, cry, sing, push, ponder, and live in a love that only comes from Him. 

Ultimately, we cannot figure any of this out until we ask for His help, yet we often do not realize we need to ask until the Truth breaks through our blindness. Ask for that. May the mystery of faith through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bless you in new and fresh ways.  

And beyond this, let’s see what’s next!

 

J Matt Wallace