Yesterday's Fleeting Thought: Boycotting Christmas!

It was the night after Thanksgiving, and we were flopped out on the couch asking, "Why are we so exhausted?"  I hadn't even put away all the serving dishes from Thanksgiving dinner, but we had already bought pine garland and replacement bulbs at Home Depot. That's when I had an fleeting thought, maybe an epiphany . . . we could boycott Christmas. Not the good, parts, the REAL parts, just the drag-out-all-the-mass-of-Christmas-stuff part.

How did we ever reconcile that all the energy and money we put into decorating and shopping has anything to do with Christ's Nativity? My Muslim friends have asked me the same thing. Even the original St. Nicholas, whom I've loyally supported for years, was leaving gifts for the POOR, identifying with Christ's humble incarnation. Yeah. Boycott the fake parts. I liked the idea more and more.

No Christmas cards this year? Check. No lights on the shrubs? Check. Well . . . I bought those replacement bulbs and the garland for the front door, and a $9.99 photosensor to save energy. No Christmas tree?  Aww, but I bought a cute little motorized Thomas the Train set to run around the tree for my grandson. So I suppose the (skinny, artificial, pre-lighted) tree must be dragged out. Yes, and I already bought a little bag of Evergreen mix at Yarrow Acres to make it SMELL real.  So only the most meaningful ornaments (can't go there yet) and my Potting Shed Nativity (minus a broken shepherd from last year) . . . and the gumdrop tree, a 50-year family tradition (sigh). But . . . no stockings hanging over the fireplace? Mmm, not sure my adult children could handle not finding them stuffed full of cash and gift cards on Christmas morning. Could I? It was a fleeting thought: boycotting Christmas. At least I will simplify and work harder to sift out the fake from the real.  Does that make me a Grinch?

Kolkata Bound New Year

“Preparing our mind for action means coming to grips with the true nature of the world into which Christ has cast us, His disciples. It means coming to grips with how the Fall is playing itself out around the world in the present day.” Gary Haugen, Good News About Injustice

(Lord willing) seven weeks from Sunday, I hope to be on my way to Kolkata, India, to work for two weeks alongside some of our dearest friends who are serving with an organization called Word Made Flesh (http://www.wordmadeflesh.org/). I met M. in 1994, when we simultaneously joined the same pediatric rehabilitation team and church, beginning our kindred friendship. A friendship also includes walking together through many inevitable struggles (Acts 14:22).

After multiple visits to India, M. fought great disillusionment and despair over the idolatry and injustice they witnessed. A small group of us began reading Good News About Injustice and prayed about our responsibility for others; finally M. imagined “one good thing” she could do to empower women to leave the slavery of prostitution and find true freedom through the gospel . . . and from the U.S. she became instrumental in the development of Sari Bari, a Word Made Flesh community of Christ-followers called to be in relationship with sexually exploited women in the red-light districts of Kolkata (http://www.saribari.com/). Sari Bari is a business initiative that seeks the freedom and restoration of Kolkata’s red-light areas through dignity-giving employment opportunities for women affected by the sex trade.

My Opportunity to Join In as a “Goer”

My first and only overseas trip was ten years ago to Thailand. For the last five years, I’ve worked with East African refugees, so I’m excited about working among a new, unfamiliar group. A long-time friend and teaching partner will join me to support Word Made Flesh and Sari Bari. We will also use our TESL training (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) to prepare a basic curriculum for weekly English instruction . . . and train our friends in “best practices.”

Thank you for the ways you already love God and your neighbor every day, and for prayerfully supporting this and other causes that point people to the love and transformational freedom found in Christ. I’d also like to challenge you to read at least one of these books during the next three months: Good News About Injustice (Gary Haugen), The City of Joy (Dominique LaPierre), or Ministries of Mercy (Tim Keller).

“ . . . and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. . . Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of the street. On either side of the river was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Revelation 21:3, 4; 22:1, 2

Straighten Up and Fly . . . er, PARK Right!

I appreciate the policeman who ran off the road chasing drug dealers just before we drove up Wednesday night . . . and the ones who responded when there was a shooting outside my ESL classroom a few weeks ago. So why am I still mad about the ticket on my house guest's car for parking next to our curb in the WRONG DIRECTION?! It's not like the police haven't been to my house in the eleven years we've lived here . . . when I reported a former neighbor for suspected (confirmed) child abuse . . . when one of my kids failed to stop for the neighborhood school bus . . . when another one failed to stop for the policeman trying to give him ticket . . . when our three teenagers and their friends parked their cars on the street EVERY day in EVERY direction for at least four years--you understand my indignation. Well, this time, I wasn't going to take it sitting down. I marched myself upstairs to get construction paper, Sharpies and a couple of sheet protectors, and boy do I feel good about the warning sign I put alongside my curb . . . that is, until the "neighborhood nazis" send a citation for having an unauthorized sign in the front yard. I'll just tell them they're my Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations.