…restoring christmas

i’ve been thinking a lot about christmas lately. obviously, i have my reasons; it’s my job, i have a lot of responsibility at christmas-time, figuring out how to afford christmas presents for everyone, ecstatic that i was at least able to get my wife something for christmas for the first time in our three-year (thus far) marriage, so on and so forth.

in the midst of all this, i’ve spent some (little) time wondering why i’m so worried about all these things, and not really at all thinking about what christmas is (really) all about. i am trying very hard not to type “the reason for the season,” but seeing as how i just did… oh well, it’s out there.

seriously though, all my time spent thinking about christmas is spent on all the worldly, consumer-driven aspects of it. even in regards to my job, i worry about making everything perfect for the services… not to honor god, but to try and make sure the twelve to fifteen thousand people who will attend services at cedarcreek.tv loves it.

i recently heard about this thing rick mckinley (one of my favorite pastor’s in the whole wide world) started out at his church (imago dei) and it finally got my headed in the right direction. he started a group with some other pastors and his wife called “advent conspiracy.” the basic idea of the group is restoring christmas to what it really needs to be. taking the focus off the consumerism, and putting it more into worship and loving our neighbor. now that’s something i can get behind.

i read an article yesterday on beliefnet.com (believe me, this is not normal), and the opening of the article was enough for me to get sold out on the cause:

The Christmas contradiction gives Pastor Rick McKinley a headache.

Americans will spend about $475 billion this year on gifts, decorations and parties that many won’t even remember next year. They will run themselves ragged — shopping, wrapping and celebrating. And some won’t pay off their Christmas debt until March, if they’re lucky.

“We celebrate Jesus’ birthday by giving ourselves presents,” McKinley says. “We don’t give him anything.”

…and then this from the adventconspiracy.org website:

Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion, not consumption.Christ tends to get overlooked at Christmas. Let’s be honest. December comes and you think, “OK, this is the year.” This time you’ll swear you’ll slow down and take it all in. Make the most with family. Help the needy. Zero in on what it really means to be a Christ follower during this holy season.

the bus/train has already left the station this year. there isn’t much i can do to change what’s already been set in motion, but next year… next year i anticipate a few conversations with friends, family, and co-workers about starting a “new” tradition at christmas. i mean honestly, wouldn’t christmas be that much more of an amazing time if we took all that stress that comes directly from the consumerism aspect of it, and replaced it with the things that truly matters? a saving gift from our amazing god, spending time with our family, laughing with friends, and instead of giving our finances away in the forms of presents that:

a.) nobody really needs, and
b.) a lot of times end up in the re-gift pile in a closet

instead lets give those resources to those in the world who are victims of nothing else other than a curse of longitude and latitude. give it away to those who’ve fell on some hard times in your local community. what an amazing and completely (un)original idea. i don’t think that when god had the amazing coming of christ in mind, he wanted us to celebrate it in the way we currently do.

listen, i don’t want to get all “holier than thou.” really, if it’s your thing to overspend on friends/family/grandkids/pets (please no)/whatever… then that’s fine for you. don’t get me wrong, i would hope that you’ll come around eventually… but for me, i think it’s time for a change. i hope i can talk my own family and friends into as well… but if not, well… we’ll see