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Kindness Korner


Have Fun at Christmas!!

It is the fashion about this time each year to begin Christmas shopping.  We may load our pockets with cash, and our hearts with guilt.  Some folks have been brought up on warnings and admonitions every time there is a time of fun. Some Christians don’t know how to have fun, unless it is sprinkled and spiced with guilt.  It is as if they must be more serious, thrifty, concerned about others.  As the Christmas season opens, writers and speakers in the Christian community say, in one way or another, like our parents did when we went out for an evening of fun, “Now be careful!”  So now it is  “Have a Merry Christmas, but not too merry, not too joyous, not too much fun.” 

Again we will hear about over-commercializing Christmas, putting Christ back into Christmas, the paganism of the Christmas tree, tinsel as the symbol of superficiality, cash registers as the symbol of what Christmas has become.  Necessary correctives perhaps, but we need more of the opposite. We need encouragement to have fun, let our joy bloom, even be foolishly full of fun, or extravagant.  Isn’t that what the heart of Christmas is, namely, “joy to the world”.

I will never forget an incident from our first year of marriage.  Linda and I were living in Ann Arbor and our lives became intertwined with a family of desperately poor people.  A mother, and four children all of school age.  They lived in abject poverty.  They had broken windows, very little money, a sickly mother, and a house that was hardly livable.  But when Christmas came the children had through odd jobs accumulated a little money and they invited us to come over on Christmas Day to see the gift they had bought for their mother.  They were very excited about it.

  So we went to their house, carrying in our minds some vague expectations of what kind of a gift they had bought for her.  Perhaps a warm coat, a new purse, or maybe an electric frying pan, or a toaster.  Instead we were knocked over with surprise and chagrin.  They had us close our eyes as they went into the next room to get the gift.  Then they brought from behind the curtain the gift.  It was a huge stuffed donkey about five feet tall!  It must have cost them $25 or $35 (1962).  They were thrilled.  We were stunned but acted like we were pleased.  In fact we thought it was a very “stupid” gift.  Of all the things she needed, that was the least.

Still, as we thought about it, there may have been something right in that kind of gift..  Here they were in their poverty hardly anything they could have bought of a practical nature would have changed their status significantly.  So why not buy something totally enjoyable just for the fun and excitement of giving it?

A little of that that has to go into the Christmas season. Instead of hand-wringing and furrowed brows about the fun we’re having when there are poor people dying on the other side of town, maybe a little reckless happiness is called for. Christians must be thoughtful and give to those other kind of concerns, but there is something bottomless about that pit.  There is a time for unrestrained Christmas foolishness, impractical fun.  Forget, the shaking fingers and historical surveys about the paganism of the Christmas tree.  Enjoy Christmas and have fun.  Christ lives! Relax and enjoy Christmas freely and fully, uncluttered by guilt.





Advent

The season of Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas.  It is the time we get ready for Jesus' birth.  A beautiful old hymn describes the ages-old sense of anticipation people embraced:

O come, O come Immanuel                                   
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice.  Rejoice.  Immanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

One of the most beautiful traditions of Advent is the lighting of the Advent Wreath.
The Advent Wreath is a continuous ciecle of evergreens representing the ceaseless flow of time and our unending hope.  The evergreens are a symbol of Christ who became man that we might have Everlasting Life, and of God who loves us endlessly.

The four candles spaced around the wreath designate the four eras during which the world waited for Christ.  Three purple candles symbolize humility.  The rose candle represents joy and hapiness.  All four symbolize hope whic fills the Advent season.  The pure white candle is the center of the wreath and symbolizes the Christ Child.
It is Sunday but Monday is aComin'

That is a very important line.  It describes what going to church is really about.  It isn't about getting things right with God, or once again focusing on our sins to get forgiveness.  Forgiveness is there.  It may help to go to church to get that reassurance but it isn't a way of earning credits with God so that he is sure to forgive us.  Jesus said on the cross as he came to the end of his suffering "It is finished."  The debt is totally paid.  No more sacrifices, rituals seeking forgiveness, crying out in desperation.  That kind of religion is finished.  Our sins, past, present, and future are forgiven. 

Going to church is mostly about getting re-directed for the week ahead.  The loving Jesus lives in every one of us.  The weekly assignment is to find ways to let the love of Jesus out of ourselves into the lives of those around us and into our work as well. It happens through friendliness, encouragement, appreciative words, compliments, showing interest, caring touches, smiles, helping hands, "showing up".   Even if our work is not centered on people we can organize, systematize, improve and strengthen things, and the use of processes, all of which are basically here to make life better for the human race.  In doing that we are indeed making the world a better place.  That is what we are here for.

These processes and helps are what Sunday and church are about----refocusing, recovering, restoring, rethinking, being refreshed and healed.  Then it is Monday and we are back renewed in order to be  brightening the world.  Everyone can do it.  And everyone needs it.  "Brighten the world where you are."

Thanksgiving Means Gratitude

Thanksgiving Means Gratitude

After many months of silence it is time to talk again.  This is a new beginning for which I am very grateful..Speaking of being grateful, I have learned in the last couple of years that gratitude (remember it is Thanksgiving time) is not a religious activity in the old fashioned sense.  Gratitude is more like exercise, eating properly, getting enough sleep.  That is, it is a health benefit.

When we realize that steady, consistent, grateful thoughts and remembrances are like taking vitamins, or maybe even antibiotics, we then know the idea is a gift of God.  Thankfulness is a central Christian theme.  But it is not something we do to please a stern and watchful God.  No, we please God with thankfulness because God is pleased when we take care of ourselves.

The primary research about gratitude has been done at a State University, not a Christian College or University.  Dr. Robert Emmons at California State University -Davis has written a book entitle Thanks  .  It is based on the research his graduate students have engaged in measuring the effects of grateful activities.  To put it briefly the results are basically--the more you are grateful the better you will be in your daily life.

Thanks equals Gratitude