an ancient calling to the new 25th

it's amazing, it seems to get earlier and earlier each year. christmas in the stores has arrived. about a month ago my mom and i were walking through costco, and they had christmas stuff out....playing music. everyone we were running into was talking about it, complaining under their breath. we were ticked at first. irritated to be hearing that in september. but i'll admit, as time went on, we kinda got in the mood. hear the music, see the stuff, they know what they're doing....'i must buy.' 'wouldn't it be nice to be done early with shopping this year' we think to ourselves. we barely get out without buying something.

later that day we were recounting the event to the guys (my dad and matt). my dad mentions that at church we are going to do advent conspiracy again.....i cringe. see, last year rick, our pastor, presented to us the notion that christmas is about more than consumerism. and he challenged us...spend less, give relationally, make a difference in the world. it was simple enough. choose to make your own gifts to give to others. or give them the gift of relationship (ie: invite them over for dinner, or give them a coupon to go do something together) and the money that we didn't spend would be gathered in an offering and then distributed locally and globally. after all, christmas is about Emmanuel, God with us, the ultimate relational gift.

so why the cringe? it was fine for me last year. matt and i didn't exchange gifts and we gave what we would have spent on each other in the offering. but when my dad brought it up this year i immediately thought of isaiah. the memories of christmas morning are some of the best. the anticipation, the gifts. and this will be his first christmas where he really gets it. so i said what i was thinking out loud. 'i'm not doing it this year.' they all stared at me. 'i just want isaiah to have the experience of christmas morning. it's not fair to him. i know it sounds bad to say, but i'm sorry, i just don't want to do it.' and that was the end of the conversation.

so a couple weeks later in church rick brings up advent conspiracy. last year there was 4 other churches that partnered with imago. together we brought in a half a million dollars. some of the things the money went toward was providing meals and supplies for kids in the portland school system. globally it was about building wells. giving people clean water to drink. this year there is over 1000 churches partnering together in advent conspiracy to make a difference in the world this christmas.

they then showed a video of just one of the wells that was built. people who live around a dump. they scavenge the dump everyday for things to eat and things to sell. it is their life. and the water they drink...well, you get the point. they took 9 families from the dump, took them out rurally and are teaching them how to farm, how to make and sell things. and we dug a well for them. the contrast of garbage and clean water. the look of hopelessness and the look of people thriving. the entire time my own words are echoing in my ears...'i just want isaiah to have the experience of christmas morning. it's not fair to him.'

it's not fair for my son not to get an enormous amount of toys? when these kids, isaiah's age, don't even have water? sick. really, really, sick.

needless to say, i'm all in this year. and i'm stoked. relational gifts...i've already started. cause let's face it, if you start 'making' your gift two days before christmas they're gonna suck. (in the words of my pastor). and isaiah will get presents this year, just not a disgusting amount....and he'll get to be a part of something great. he'll learn that christmas is more than presents and what he'll get. it's about putting Christ at the center. showing Christ tangibly to the world.

i used to get so irritated that all the stores now say 'happy holidays' instead of 'merry christmas'. it's about Christ. how dare they. until it was brought to my attention that it's not their story to tell. it's mine. and i want to do things differently.

p.s. if you want to join advent conspiracy or just find out more about it (put more eloquently than i ever will) you can check it out at www.adventconspiracy.com.