Keeping X in Christmas

Been wrestling again… This time with the whole Xmas versus Christmas and Happy Holidays versus Merry Christmas deal… I think once again we, as Christ followers, are fighting the wrong battle…

Walk with me here for a bit… "X" is the Greek letter "Chi" which is short for Cristos meaning Christ… So in reality Xmas is Christmas.

Happy Holidays tells me the person sending the greeting is possibly not a follower of Jesus, so it opens the door for me to bless them with a smile and a sincere "Merry Christmas".

The wrestling for me comes when Christ followers get all up in arms about these relatively insignificant issues while succumbing to the consumerist mentality that secular society has forced on this holy holiday and are so concerned with Black Friday and Cyber Monday that they forget about JESUS humble, awe inspiring, wondrous birth.  I mean GOD coming to this earth as one of us… one of His own creation… so that we can be saved from the mess we've made for ourselves!!  And we are so focused on the best deal or the fact that someone replaces the English spelling of Christ with the Greek abbreviation that we totally forget about the baby.

AND if someone is unknowingly or even intentionally wishing "happy holidays!" or writing "Merry Xmas!" in an anti-Christ manner, don't you think we should be should be more concerned about their souls than the way they are celebrating the holiday…. hmmm? Just something to think about… It's deeper than this surface issue… It's a matter of the heart.

I hope your holiday is happy and you are truly able to focus on X this Christmas… The baby born as a man for the salvation of the multitudes… the GREATEST gift of all!

Giving Thankfully

Been wrestling with the word thanksgiving this week.  When I think of thanksgiving I think of this time of year, when we give thanks for all we are blessed with.  I have a roof over my head. I am thankful. I have food on my table. I am thankful. I have clothes on my back. I am thankful. I have family and friends. I am thankful. Paul tells us to "give thanks in all circumstances." So... this time of year we pause to give thanks...

Here's my struggle... When we take out special time that is designated to do something we make sure we do that thing really well during that time.... BUT, it takes the emphasis off the fact that we should ALWAYS be doing that thing whether it's during that special time or not.  Make sense? It's spirit day at school... we go all out painting our faces and dressing up. Shouldn't we always have school spirit though? Not just on spirit day?  It's Mother's Day. We honor our mothers.... Shouldn't we always honor our mothers?  Valentine's Day... We share love with those that we love. Shouldn't we always show them love?  It's Thanksgiving day... We give thanks for all that we are blessed with... Shouldn't we always be giving thanks?  Give thanks in all circumstances!

Makes me wonder if we are really grateful in the first place?  If we were really grateful, wouldn't we show it on a regular basis.  And if we were really grateful for all that we have wouldn't we notice how little others around us have? And if we really noticed how much we have in view of how little those around us have don't you think we would do something about it? You see? If we were really grateful for how blessed we are we would be anxious to bless others... 

So... Maybe Thanksgiving's focus shouldn't be so much about sitting around a table gorging ourselves on turkey and mashed potatoes while we thank God that we aren't in the same boat as those less fortunate than us... feeling bad for then... kind of... not bad enough to really do anything about it though... or else we WOULD do something about it. 

We do good... kind of... at giving thanks... But if we were really good at giving thanks, maybe we would start GIVING THANKFULLY... Thankful that we are blessed enough to be able to give. And I am not talking about just giving out of the leftovers... You know what I mean? Someone comes to the door on a can drive... so we go to the back of the pantry and find the dusty can of chicken broth that expired last year and give it away so we don't feel guilty for not giving anything... because a dusty, expired can of chicken broth makes such a good meal.  Or we donate the old pair of jeans or the coat with holes in it and stains up the front... We give our leftovers... What if God would had that attitude with us? They're not worth me sending my best.  They don't need my only beloved.  They ought to be grateful for this old nasty can of chicken broth from the back of my pantry.... Hmmmm?

This holiday season... I want to focus on GIVING THANKFULLY rather than just giving thanks... Because the Father gave thankfully to me.