All I Want for Christmas...

So it's only October, but for most people, Christmas shopping is at least in the back of their minds, if they aren't doing it already. Do you ever wonder why we do all this shopping? Is it to make people love us more? Is it because we feel like what we culturally need to do?



I know so many people who dread the Christmas season. It is pure stress to them. Honestly, many of the people I know who love Christmas don't even love it for the right reasons. It is all an eleborate show. The snow, the presents, the food, the music, the chestnuts roasing on an open fire, etc. Those who play it right glory in their finesse, and those who find it to be unsatisfying grit their teeth till it's over.

Advent Conspiracy is a movement of Christians who are trying to redeem this season. Their motto is to "Worship fully, spend less, give more, love all." There is a ton of information on their website (http://www.adventconspiracy.org/) but I think I'll give a little bit of my personal take on why this is so worth considering:

When was the last time you really spent the season of Christmas fully wrapped up in the miracle that God himself became human and lived among us, as a human. Can you imagine going from never having to eat to being hungry? Or during Christmas, do we find ourselves more frequently going to church for the sweeping musical emotional energy of cantatas or the time-honored family tradition of attending the Christmas eve service? We send cards that have a baby in a manger, but are our minds clear enough to actually meditate on that mystery? I think that it's easy to reflect on Christ's death and resurrection over Easter weekend or when taking communion. But do we ever really get carried away thinking about the miracle of His birth? We can't worship because we are way too busy with, well, the cult of consumerism during Christmas. Then we justify our lack of self-control in spending as "a tradition of giving gifts started by the Magi." Well, if we are so committed to biblical living, then why is Christmas one of the most godless times of the year? Why do people get trampled to death on Black Friday?

Slow down! Acually spend time with people you love! If you love cooking, then do it with friends and family. If you hate cooking, then go out to eat with people you love! don't do things just because society implies that you must. Rather, act as Christians.

My Suggestions:

One way that I am planning on focusing my worship this Christmas is to take time daily to pray over my attitude. When it gets cold outside and people are stressed running around shopping like crazy people, I pray that I will be an instrument of God's peace and that I will be an encouragement to those around me. At night I want to reflect on the ways that I pointed people to Christ, confess my actions that lead people away from Him and pray that I might do better the next day.


Also, in my focused time of worship, I want to meditate on the implications of God becoming flesh and praise God for His tremendous sacrifice. That way, my individual time of worship will feed into my understanding and praise during corporate worship, enabling me to worship fully, out of a sense of profound amazement, not just obligation.





Well, the point of this note is to encourage you to rethink Christmas. Not only that, though. I also want to release you from thinking that you need to buy me something for Christmas. I want the cycle to break and I will be the first to ask that it stop with me. That being said, I would love to spend Christmas time with you. Give Christmas "presence." So what do you do with the extra money? Give it to people who need it! Missionaries, the persecuted church, refugees, inner city ministries. I could go on, but you can probably think of one or two causes that you have been meaning to donate to, but haven't had enough money. Now you have some extra cash, so spend less, give more, love all!

People of the Basurero

A subject of particular angst for me since I began working at Amextra is the thought that there are people who are defined by their association with garbage. Garbagemen in the US might possibly incur a bit of a stigma... but they always have the opportunity to say that it is just their job, not who they are. And anyway, somebody has to do it!


Here though, the people live in the basurero (garbage dump). It is their livelihood and their life! They make their homes from the garbage. Their community is called La Ciudad Perdida, The Lost City. The buses that travel to the area proclaim that they are headed for "Tiradero," the "Rubbish Dump." Just past Ciudad Labor, the City of Work. It almost sounds like something that should be in allegory, not a real place with real people. Could you imagine if a basurero placed your life? "Oh, yeah, I live in the garbage dump, if you just head down the dirt road there past Work Town you'll see it. You might smell it first."


That thought was depressing to me, but it caused me to reflect on the Christian life. Such close contact with a community centered around refuse made Bible passages dealing with the topic press themselves on my consciousness anew in living odor.

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. ¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! ¹¹To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. ¹²We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. -1 Cor. 4:13

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I might gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. Phil. 3:8-9

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away. --Is. 64:6

Ok, that's just a brief reflection (that I've been trying to post for about a week...) :-) I hope that it made you think. Stay tuned, because I have a lot more musings that I haven't had a chance to write/post yet.