{"id":1920,"date":"2015-12-20T17:55:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T17:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1920"},"modified":"2015-12-14T18:07:47","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T18:07:47","slug":"chronic-illness-the-prize-is-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/chronic-illness-the-prize-is-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness: The Prize Is Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Second<\/a>I have to laugh at the competitions that take place around this time of year – the homeowners’ associations’ lawn decorating contests, the holiday cookie bake-offs. I even attended a mass at a church that had a competition for the “best” Christmas card design by a grade schooler. When did Christmas become so cut-throat? When was it written into the holiday lexicon to\u00a0“award” people for Christmas activities, especially in churches or other faith-based insitutions.<\/p>\n

Isn’t the “prize” of Christmas, well, Christmas?<\/p>\n

All the other “stuff” – the one-upmanship, the jockeying for a prize position – isn’t really Christmas, is it?<\/p>\n

Our Lord would never have won the award for lawn decoration. He didn’t have a lawn, and a manger is hardly what we think of as stunning artistry.<\/p>\n

The shepherds did not look up to the angels singing of Christmas and pick out the one that they deemed “best” at vocalizing.<\/p>\n

Mary and Joseph did not inspect the gifts from the magi and pick and choose which one was most worthy of the baby Jesus.<\/p>\n

I completely understand wanting all that we do at Christmas to be the best possible. Even for those of us who are ill, the holidays is a time to shine more brightly, be more practiced and perfect in our celebrations and worship.<\/p>\n

But, competition? Hmm… Instead of striving to “beat” one another, isn’t it more fitting to sit together, humbly, before Our Lord? To be thankful for the gift, not envious of a prize (small “p”), but rather in awe of the Prize – the Prize that is Christmas.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to laugh at the competitions that take place around this time of year – the homeowners’ associations’ lawn decorating contests, the holiday cookie bake-offs. I even attended a mass at a church that had a competition for the “best” Christmas card design by a grade schooler. When did Christmas become so cut-throat? When…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1981,1982,1980],"class_list":["post-1920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas-and-competition","tag-competing-at-christmas","tag-competition-at-christmas"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Illness: The Prize Is Christmas - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Take the Competition out of Christmas and We Have Christmas!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/chronic-illness-the-prize-is-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Illness: The Prize Is Christmas - 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}