We are pretty humorous people. You do have to wonder what parts of our culture would look like to an outside observer. Our Christmas shopping is a classic example. We start the madness early (and it is really early) on the Friday morning following Thanksgiving. The stories begin to be reported later that day about the ridiculously long lines beginning ridiculously early in the morning with people fighting for ridiculous bargains often resulting in ridiculous behavior. The intrepid survivors of the mayhem recount the stories of their experiences as veterans of this annual battle of militaristic merchandising. Even though things begin to ease up for the next couple of weeks, as Christmas Eve inches into view, the trips to any shopping district become more and more infuriating.
Eventually we come to this day–the day after Christmas. While the malls, etc. were not as crazy as they were a week ago they were still not very much fun–but we go through some headaches to save money, don’t we?–so while some of us are still out shopping, the others are returning the gifts that their friends and family so thoughtfully searched for and presented so lovingly to them. Even though there are many types of gifts that get returned and there are many reasons for them being returned, the returns are massive–in December of 2008 Kohl’s department store reported that of all the people that received gifts of clothing 74% of them would be making returns–and that is just clothing. A gift card sounds more brilliant all the time. A lot of other people must think the same thing–according to the National Retail Federation approximately 24.9 billion dollars will be spent be spent on gift cards during the Christmas shopping season.
Isn’t it fascinating that the most wonderfully anticipated day of gift giving on the calendar is accompanied by such an exercise of discontent? Why is there such discontent? Why is contentment so rare? Would you (or I) consider ourselves contented people? If not, why not? Is there a secret to contentment? We know that being contented will never be satisfied by “stuff”–because there will never be enough. So where does it come from? The Bible makes it so clear that contentment is based on knowing who God is and in knowing who I am in relation to Him. It is never about what–it is always about who. So after we have opened the gifts, thrown out the wrappings, and put the tree on the curb will we know a deep, soul-level satisfaction that comes from within? By the way, we won’t find it at the return counter.
Pastor Jeff
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