Blackened Friday
29-Nov-11 (Published in The Chicago Tribune on 22-Dec-11)
_ Amongst the already chaotic post-Thanksgiving shopping of
Black Friday, a woman justified the use of pepper spray in the frenzy of a Los
Angeles Walmart. It is yet to be
determined if she did this because she actually felt threatened or to edge out
the competition to score a prized video game console. Elsewhere across the country, stampedes of
impassioned Christmas shoppers charging through the doors of various stores were
not unheard of. In the past, similar
mayhem has even lead to a fatality. I’m
going out on a limb here, but I think that our society has forsaken the true
meaning of the holidays.
Most people enjoy the festivities of Christmas – the food, lights, decorations, time off, parties, gifts, etc., but how did this all start? Years ago, did employers collectively decide to pick a set time of year merely to give their employees a day off? Is there something within us that instinctively demands an unearthly quantity of baked goods during the winter solstice? Did retailers dream up a new season just to deploy a yearend sales scheme of décor and would-be gifts? Not hardly.
If you unplug the glint and glimmer for a moment, you can see that the Christmas tradition was handed to us by our nation’s predominantly Christian heritage. But for many, they have grabbed ahold of the dazzling packaging of Christmastime, but not realized the intended gift within had been left behind. What is this forsaken gift of Christmas? The increasingly rare gift of real love. Not the gushy type, but the self-sacrificing, burdensome, others-first, no-matter-what type – something humankind consumed with self-focus has much need of remembering evidenced by the events mentioned earlier.
This sacrificial love is never better portrayed than in the Christ child. It is Christmastime that we celebrate His birth – Christ Jesus, God in the flesh, left the glories of heaven to be born to a virgin in a humble farm stable. This unselfishness marked His entire life, culminating in His cruel death by crucifixion. His life’s goal was to lovingly sacrifice Himself as punishment for mankind’s sins to offer us forgiveness – the selfless for the selfish. For those set free from judgment by believing He has wiped out their sin, there is true joy.
Season’s greetings of “joy” and “peace on Earth” did not come out of nowhere; they come from the Christ of Christmas. So I encourage you not to settle for fancy packaging without the gift. Take a moment to step back from the festive fray of this Christmas to think about others, ponder this Christ, read His story in the Bible books of Matthew and Luke, and perhaps even attend a church service.
(The Chicago Tribune "forgot" to publish the verse below that I had on the end. But hey, the message still came across!)
I leave you with this Scripture: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death –even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2.5-8)
Most people enjoy the festivities of Christmas – the food, lights, decorations, time off, parties, gifts, etc., but how did this all start? Years ago, did employers collectively decide to pick a set time of year merely to give their employees a day off? Is there something within us that instinctively demands an unearthly quantity of baked goods during the winter solstice? Did retailers dream up a new season just to deploy a yearend sales scheme of décor and would-be gifts? Not hardly.
If you unplug the glint and glimmer for a moment, you can see that the Christmas tradition was handed to us by our nation’s predominantly Christian heritage. But for many, they have grabbed ahold of the dazzling packaging of Christmastime, but not realized the intended gift within had been left behind. What is this forsaken gift of Christmas? The increasingly rare gift of real love. Not the gushy type, but the self-sacrificing, burdensome, others-first, no-matter-what type – something humankind consumed with self-focus has much need of remembering evidenced by the events mentioned earlier.
This sacrificial love is never better portrayed than in the Christ child. It is Christmastime that we celebrate His birth – Christ Jesus, God in the flesh, left the glories of heaven to be born to a virgin in a humble farm stable. This unselfishness marked His entire life, culminating in His cruel death by crucifixion. His life’s goal was to lovingly sacrifice Himself as punishment for mankind’s sins to offer us forgiveness – the selfless for the selfish. For those set free from judgment by believing He has wiped out their sin, there is true joy.
Season’s greetings of “joy” and “peace on Earth” did not come out of nowhere; they come from the Christ of Christmas. So I encourage you not to settle for fancy packaging without the gift. Take a moment to step back from the festive fray of this Christmas to think about others, ponder this Christ, read His story in the Bible books of Matthew and Luke, and perhaps even attend a church service.
(The Chicago Tribune "forgot" to publish the verse below that I had on the end. But hey, the message still came across!)
I leave you with this Scripture: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death –even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2.5-8)