Relational Giving

This year at our church, we went through a series called The Advent Conspiracy. The whole idea is to replace consumption at Christmas for compassion. They divide the Advent Conspiracy's purpose into the 4 points of Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, & Love All. It was really good stuff.

This last week at Life Journey we had some time to talk about the Advent Conspiracy. It was so cool to hear about the ways each family had been impacted during our time doing the Advent Conspiracy. There really are some cool stories within our church body of how Christmas has been done or at least looked at differently. For me, I have loved looking at Christmas with purposeful eyes ... and it amazed me to see how much emptiness is tied into the commercial side of Christmas. It gets to me how they try to make us believe in Santa like he's God. You just need to believe................ Bleh. The actual story of St. Nick is pretty cool and an encouragement to us all to be givers.

But this Christmas, it was the Advent Conspiracy that really impacted the way we thought about giving- both what motivated us to give and what made for meaningful giving. We were able to think of our families in particular and what might actually add to that persons life or bring them joy. And I have to say, this was really fun. It truly is better to give than to receive... and it's not just for Christmas. I love this quote that Monte shared when he spoke a few weeks back:

"It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you . . . yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother/sister and offer him your hand." -- Mother Theresa

This is so true! The story that happens at Christmas is just the begining and not a separate story from the Easter story. I have decided to embrace Christmas all year round (and my decorations for just a few weeks more!). And all of this has softened the urgency to squeeze all this giving in before December 25th. (Did you know most believe that Jesus wasn't even born near December 25th? Scholars believe he was probably born in the summer.) So much of how we celebrate is cultural-- and it's so interesting to take a step back to look.

Relational Gifts I've been given in the last few months:

Someone taught me how to prune rose bushes
Someone offered to take Zoe for a random afternoon and really blessed Matt & I
Someone looking me in the eye and asked how I am
Someone encouraged me in my worship leading
Someone helped me learn what true forgiveness is
Many sent cards to let us know we were thought of
Someone invited us to celebrate Christmas with them
Someone checked on our kitty while we were away
Several came over on our invite to hang out

(I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones on the top of my head.)

Keep on giving relationally!! It really is the best giving. Thank you to all for the gifts you've given and continue giving...