Celebration is fun when you want to but what if you don’t feel like it? What if you are having one of those days when the clouds are hanging over your head and your heart is numb? What if you feel lousy in body and soul and what you would really like to do is cry? One of the things I have learned over the years is that my emotions are a lousy authority. How I feel about things is not necessarily the best indication of how things really are. Sometimes I have felt relatively good about matters that weren’t really that great and I have felt awful on days when things were quite good. There are a lot of variables in this matter of emotion. True celebration is not rooted in feelings but in reality. I can celebrate, rejoice and give thanks even when I don’t feel like it because the things that matter most in life are not rooted in how I feel but in what God has said. I’ll be talking about the celebration of the shepherds this week (Lord willing), from Luke 2. When you really study the life of the shepherd, it wasn’t that great. And, once the announcement was made to them, their circumstances didn’t change. But, they praised and glorified God for what they had heard and seen. In other words, their celebration was based on truth; the reality that God was fulfilling His promises and they were participants in this part of His plan. So, you may not feel much like celebrating today but it is still possible because of the reality of God’s promises and plans. Go ahead, give a try; it is not hypocritical to celebrate even when you are struggling…it might be the best thing for you.