And I still do…But there are some things about it that REALLY bug me. Tomorrow we are going to try to get the Christmas shopping totally finished. Check this out:
Every Christmas this happens; I get excited for the celebration of Jesus’ birth – that moment in history when all of scripture came to life! GOD HIMSELF actually came to Earth for us! WOW!
And then I get a little down because of:
- inundation with commercials
- credit card applications coming to my mailbox…accounts we will open and use when we shouldn’t have that will create a hole in our lives that will take some of us a whole year (or longer) to crawl out of just so we can do it all again the following year
- stories on the news telling us that fights are breaking out at Toys R Us over the last red furry guy that giggles when you squeeze his toe (ELMO!)
- trying to figure out if the cousins, aunts, uncles, etc are going to draw names, rotate each year, or buy something for everyone
- The dreaded “Christmas gift budget” and the fact that my job is to decide who can we cheat $5.00 so that everyone gets something this year?
And we miss the point. We miss the celebration of a powerful moment that changed the world because we are spending every spare moment buying meaningless gifts for so and so.
We talk about God’s greatness and even sing a little; but then we go to the mall only to become crazy shoppers. And we live in a way that screams that what matters “most” is not what matters most.
There are some pastors experimenting with this whole thing. And I love it. The experiment is called the Advent Conspiracy. The Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion rather than consumption.
According to the World Water Council, 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water; 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. 1.8 million People die every year from diarrheal diseases and 3,900 children die every day from water born diseases. The estimated cost to solve the water problem is 10-15 billion dollars. This is doable considering here in America we spend an estimated 450 Billion dollars on Christmas (The National Retail Federation forecasted that Americans would spend approximately $457.4 billion at Christmas in 2006…and they nailed it.)
If stats like that don’t hit home with your heart, I don’t know what will. 3,900 kids die every day so that uncle bob can get that ugly sweater from you…and he isn’t going to wear it anyway. 3,900 KIDS…CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT????
I want to live a counter-culture life in this area because our culture has it sooooooo wrong. Don’t get me wrong…I love giving and getting gifts. But this is STAGGERING stuff. I want to live a life that glorifies God and part of living a life like that is being open to new ideas and change.
Had you asked me about people dieing from dirty water just two years ago, I wouldn’t have known anything about it…in fact, I don’t think I would have even cared. But I am a man in process…I desire to become more Christ like each day. And I know this without a doubt: Jesus would have gladly given up a few gifts each year if it meant saving the lives of so many people.
