It's Beginning to Look A lot Like...

Well, hard as it is to believe, Christmas is just around the corner. I've got to confess that I'm an avid lover of Christmas music and I chomp at the bit all year long waiting until the appropriate time to be able to listen to it until I'm so sick of it that I can't stand to hear any more. For some people it's sacreligious to even consider playing it until the day after Thanksgiving. I call them the "Holiday Equality Patrol." They want to make sure that Thanksgiving gets it's due. That's all well and good but since there's no quality Turkey music I have determined that it's okay to start playing Christmas music the day after Halloween/Reformation Day. That, my friends, means that today is my lucky day. I've already begun filling my head with great Christmas music, from the old favorites to the newer tunes. It's a great time of year!

Ironically, I don't really enjoy the season. I went so far last year as to say that I "hate" the season. I'm thoroughly disgusted by what it has become in our culture. It's all about what I get and what I want. We hardly have any time for the Savior who we celebrate or seeking what it is that he wants. My wife came up with a great idea last year that really helped to change my perspective. I was a youth pastor and each year our youth group holds a Christmas Banquet. It's an excuse for our kids to dress up and come together for some fun. In general I'm not opposed to that. In fact, I think it's a pretty cool deal, however each year it seems the bar is raised on how you have to dress or the date you have to bring or the money you have to spend. It got so bad that we started calling it the "Church Prom." Anyway, like I said, my wife had the idea that we should play it down somewhat and instead of it just being a night about us we should use it as an opportunity to raise money for the One Life Revolution that exists to help AIDS orphans in Africa. I challenged our kids to take the money they would normally spend on dressing up and give it to this cause. I even challenged them to give up one or more of their gifts that they would normally get and have their parents give that money to the Revolution. I don't know how much we raised but it was somewhere around $1000, which was just incredible.

Somehow we want to translate that concept into a new pattern in our own lives. Rather than coming together and giving each other material possessions as gifts we want to just appreciate the gifts of family and friends that God has already given us. We are already so blessed. The last thing that most of us need is more stuff. What we need to do is be thankful for the stuff we've got and give out of the abundance of our blessings to those who have next to nothing. That's the Christmas spirit and it's my hope and prayer that the people of Christ will eventually live that out. I heard a Christian talk show host yesterday complaining about how non-Christians have distorted Christmas and it's true meaning. I think that is untrue and completely irrelevent. As I contend time and time again..."lost" people are going to live and act like "lost" people. Why do we expect them to do anything different? I think that it is Christians who have distorted Christmas and it's true meaning. We're the ones who are supposed to understand it's sacredness and it's holiness and we totally blow past all that for the pageants, presents, and gluttony. I'd like to say that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but I'm not really sure that I've ever truly seen what Christmas looks like.