So how’s the journey to enter into the Christmas story going? Still caught up in the season of excess? Holiday sales and “best deals of the year” continue to beckon us to join the masses. It is difficult to walk against the crowd that seems to want nothing more than to “eat, drink, shop, and be merry.”
Jesus is the reason for the season. Later in his ministry, Jesus said, “People try to serve both God and money – but you can’t. You must choose one or the other.” So how do we turn the tables? We may be face to face with a newborn Jesus who brings us to our knees in worship, but spending less at Christmas still seems like an impossibly difficult challenge.
Spending less requires us to plan, research, give of our time and energy, and cultivate relationships. These pursuits are more taxing than flipping through the latest catalog or bingeing at the mall. However, as we choose to go against the cultural flow, it is important to remember that spending less on Christmas presents doesn’t mean we love our friends and family any less. In fact, we will often find that those to whom we give creative, personal gifts will see our love – and perhaps God’s – more clearly than ever before.
Together we can strive to thoughtfully evaluate what we support with our spending and allow our spending to support products, people, and causes that are worthy of being supported. Our giving should be more about giving what is needed rather than what is wanted. At the end of the day I hope that your celebration of the birth of the Liberating King is focusing less on what you are spending and more on what you are giving from a place of true worship.
I encourage you to take a minute to share with others some ideas about how you are trying to be faithful to the reason for the season! Thanks for joining me on this mission and may you connect back to the beautiful story of Christmas.
I plan to include some homemade gifts in my giving this year.
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