Catching Christmas

by Terri Blackstock

  Why on earth would she ever choose someone like me?

  After a while, the crowd begins to thin. Sydney makes her way to me.

  “Hey,” she says. “Did you eat?”

  “Not hungry,” I say. “You?”

  “Not really. Maybe later.”

  I try to keep things light. “Callie would have been thrilled with all these single men here.”

  She laughs and looks back toward the people. “Yeah, that’s kind of mortifying. Finn, I know what you did. Almost all these people came because of you. I really appreciate it.”

  I shrug. “They just needed to be told.”

  “But still. Everything you’ve done . . . I don’t know what I would have done without you. I think God sent you when both Grammy and I needed a friend.”

  “Wow,” I say. “That’s nice . . . to think of it that way.”

  “It’s true. Thank you for everything.”

  I look down at her for a moment, and I can’t escape the sense that she’s dismissing me.

  Pastor Seagrove touches her shoulder, pulling her away from me. He says something that makes her laugh.

  Callie would love the thought of her with him.

  I step away, then turn and head to the exit. I look back before I leave. Sydney’s eyes are bright, looking up into the pastor’s face as he waxes humorous about something.

  I make my way out to my cab and sit in it for a minute with the engine idling. I roll down the window, letting the cold wind whip through. This time with Callie hasn’t been wasted. My life is changed from knowing her. It’s changed for knowing Sydney. It’s changed for brushing against Jesus, who orchestrated a do-over for me, even if it wasn’t with my own mother.

  I’m awake now, after years of being asleep. I’ll find a way to stretch my life back into place. And I’ll pray for what’s best for Sydney. I’ll root for her. I’ll be her biggest fan. Maybe even her friend.

  But why is it so hard to leave this place? I put the car in reverse and back out of my space, then drive through the parking lot maze toward the exit.

  “Finn!”

  I stop when I hear my name, and I look in my rearview mirror. Sydney is running toward me, and suddenly, with certainty, I know Callie’s God is real.

  She throws open my passenger door and slides inside. “Finn . . . thank goodness you didn’t leave. I needed to tell you . . . I wanted to say . . .” She’s trying to catch her breath.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  “Yes.” She leans across the console and lays one on me. A kiss, that is. She kisses me.

  It’s as if the clouds break on a hurricane day, as if the sun comes out to dry up the floods. It’s as if there are four rainbows encircling me, as if it’s early Christmas Day.

  When she pulls back, I scramble for words. “I’m thinking of becoming a chef again.”

  She squints at me. “That’s what you were thinking about while we were kissing?”

  I realize it’s ludicrous. “I just want you to know I’m not going to keep coasting.”

  She strokes my jaw and laughs aloud. “And I’m going to coast a little more. That okay with you?”

  “Anything you do is okay with me.” I kiss her again, keenly aware that God is answering my prayer for Sydney. Maybe I really am what’s best for her. When we finally break again, I draw in a deep breath. “Do you want me to go back in with you?”

  “No,” she says. “Just drive.”

  “You don’t want to go back in there? There are bankers and ministers and business owners lurking in hopes of getting your phone number.”

  Sydney shakes her head. “Too late now. Grammy died when her work was done.”

  I couldn’t agree more. I can’t get the stupid smile off my face as I drive. That plucky lady knew exactly what she was doing.

  Author Note

  It’s often hard for me to be happy at Christmas. I always have great expectations about how happy my family will be as we come together and how much each person will love what I get them. I work myself to death, buying multiple gifts for every member of my family, decorating and wrapping, until every ounce of joy just drains right out of me.

  I’ve recently been studying the science of happiness through a course Yale University is offering to the public. It’s been fascinating and enlightening. I’ve learned that half of our happiness quotient is determined by genetics, and ten percent is determined by circumstances. But a full forty percent is made up of our thoughts and our actions, and those are completely within our control. The professor who teaches the course, Laura Santos, uses research to point out several clear paths to happiness. I’ve been most surprised to realize that, though she may not be aware of it, the actions and thoughts she suggests for “rewiring” our brains are biblical principles.

  Spending time keeping a gratitude journal—so that you can dwell on those things you’re grateful for—will help “rewire” the brain. The brain doesn’t maintain a state of delight for very long, and you get used to the things that make you happy, which fools you into thinking you’re no longer happy. Studies suggest taking time to think about what life would be like without those things or people you’re grateful for. Imagine life without them. That will bring back the brief surge of joy you experienced when you got those things. The more you think about your gratitude for specific things or people, the happier you become.

  The same is not true when you dwell on things that annoy you, because that makes you more miserable. (This is a wake-up call for those of us who listen to the news all day. It makes us dwell on our annoyances and fears instead of the things we’re grateful for.)

  It also turns out that experiences make us happier than material things, because of that frustrating feature of our brains that makes us grow bored. An experience is a onetime thing that gives us a surge of joy, and then it ends. We don’t have time to get bored with it. A new car that we love sticks around for a while, so even if it causes great joy at the beginning, that joy wanes and we don’t think we like it as much. If we realize that our brains do this, we can counteract it and reset the joy. If we don’t realize it, we will complain and be disappointed and convince ourselves that we need another new purchase to make us happy.

  This principle applies to relationships, too. We don’t stay in the honeymoon phase for long. Our brains adjust to our joy with each other, and we interpret that as boredom, even though nothing has changed except for the way our brains perceive things. How many marriages and relationships have been wrecked due to our belief that the grass is greener on the other side? That very idea is a trick our minds play on us.

  I’ve been most surprised that the scientific research into what actually leads to happiness points to a few very clear paths. In addition to gratitude, they include kindness to others, social connections, meditation, and goal setting.

  As I’ve been watching these videos, I’ve felt a strange sense of déjà vu. I’ve heard all of this before. But where? Oh yes. I’ve read it in the Bible. The Yale University psychology department may not be aware that this research has proven very clear biblical principles, but it has. The Bible, written two thousand to four thousand years ago, doesn’t tell us the scientific reasons behind these principles. And the research doesn’t tell us the spiritual reasons behind them.

  But what scientists have concluded as they’ve reinvented the wheel—or at least sought to explain how the wheel works—are sound ways to live our lives. God’s Word links gratitude and peace in Philippians 4:6–7 and Colossians 3:15. On kindness, we’re told to put others before ourselves. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We’re told that if you’re asked for a shirt, give your coat. If you’re asked to carry something one mile, carry it two. We’re told not to keep a record of wrongs, but to consider how to stimulate one another with love and good deeds. And we’re promised that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

  Studies
suggest meditation as one of the paths to happiness. We call that prayer in Christendom. We’re told, “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2). It’s not a new concept that taking time to quietly focus on things outside ourselves is good for our souls.

  And who has better social connections than church members? We’re told not to forsake our assembling together, because God knows we gain encouragement, support, and happiness from those connections with others.

  As for goal setting, the apostle Paul tells us to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). Christians have much to look forward to, and our lives have purpose even when we’re suffering.

  I’ve known all this for years, but it took seeing a scientific approach for me to remember that God has already given us every tool we need to be happy. And now, as Christmas draws near, I’m committed to focusing on the things that truly will bring me happiness. I’m not going to lose myself in the things that can’t possibly provide sustained joy, but in the experiences that bring memories we can relive time and time again. I’m going to do that by implementing the principles I learned in the happiness studies, and those God has taught me over many years of reading his Word.

  “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

  Join me in this, and celebrate Jesus’s birthday with true joy this year.

  Merry Christmas!

  Terri

  Acknowledgments

  One day a few years ago, I had a doctor’s appointment at a local hospital. I was sitting in a huge waiting room where a couple hundred others were waiting, when I saw a man wheel an old woman in. He checked her in at the desk, where he had a significant wait to get to the front of the line. During that time, the woman said some embarrassing things very loudly and made all of us laugh. A few minutes later, the man wheeled the woman toward where I was sitting and locked her wheelchair right next to me. It was clear she had dementia, so when he handed her a business card and said, “Call me when you’re done,” I looked up at him and said, “You’re not leaving her here alone, are you?”

  The man looked at me and said, “Lady, I’m just the cab driver.”

  That planted the seed for this book, and the old woman who amused me for the next half hour or so helped it grow. My writer’s brain took over, and I couldn’t help asking myself who would send an old woman with dementia to the doctor alone with just a cab driver. Did she ever call him? Did he get stuck with her?

  I don’t know either of their names, but I want to take a moment to thank that gruff cab driver and the sweet, funny old woman he brought into my life that day. My mind has filled in the story quite nicely.

  Thanks also to my publisher, Amanda Bostic, at HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and her predecessor Daisy Hutton, who saw the humor and fun in this book idea and allowed me to go for it, even though it’s not like anything else I’ve written for them. The actual experience made for a good pitch, and they “got it” instantly. And I’m so grateful for Dave Lambert, who has edited most of my books for over twenty years, and Ellen Tarver, who has copyedited them for a decade or so. Both of these people are my crutches, and without them, I feel very insecure.

  Thanks to Jodi Hughes, who takes the book the rest of the way through the printed stage, and Kristen Ingebretson, who creates my covers. Thanks to Paul Fisher and Allison Carter who do magic with marketing and publicity to get the word out about each of my novels. There are many others I’ve forgotten or whose names I don’t know, but I’m infinitely grateful to them for all the things they do to get this book into your hands.

  Finally, I want to thank my husband, Ken, who is my constant support system and the love of my life. He lives out the concept of dying to himself every single day, even when I’m not dying to mine. He bears with me in all my neurotic weirdness, and he arranges all within his control to make it possible for me to keep writing. He’s a living illustration of how much I’m loved by God, because he models that love to me on a daily basis. I love him madly even though I don’t always demonstrate it.

  Discussion Questions

  1.Sydney sends her grandmother to the doctor in a cab. Was that the right decision? What would you have done in her position?

  2.Finn’s day—and his life—is changed when he gets stuck with Miss Callie. What do you learn about his true character from his reaction to her?

  3.Sydney is doing things she hates in order to keep her job. When is it time to cut your losses and risk what you’ve worked hard for?

  4.What does Sydney learn about herself from her encounters with Finn?

  5.What does Finn learn about himself from his encounters with Sydney?

  6.When Finn and Sydney are looking for Callie, how does their relationship change? Does losing Callie help them find themselves?

  7.What made this a merry Christmas for Finn, despite his reluctance to participate?

  8.Why are Sydney and Finn right for each other? Could they have found true love without the intervention of God . . . and Callie?

  9.How do forgiveness and redemption play into this story?

  About the Author

  PHOTO BY DERYLL STEGALL

  Terri Blackstock has sold over seven million books worldwide and is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author. She is the author of If I Run, If I’m Found, and If I Live, as well as such series as Cape Refuge, Newpointe 911, Intervention, and Restoration.

  Visit her website at TerriBlackstock.com

  Facebook: tblackstock

  Twitter: @terriblackstock