Have a Merry Xmas or Christmas

My whole life I was taught never to write Merry Xmas, that it was taking Christ out of Christmas. Then just yesterday I was reading an Advent devotional book that gave the reason for Xmas. So here is the jest of what I read.  The word “Christmas” comes from the English “Cristes maesse” meaning Christ’s mass.  Xmas is sometimes used instead of Christmas.  This tradition traces its use to the fact that X is the first letter of the name of Christ in Greek and, as a result, X was frequently used as a “holy” symbol.  Who knew that the X was holy?  Not that I will go around signing my Christmas cards Merry Xmas, but now I won’t feel so bad when I see  Xmas.  Thought some of you might like to know this little tidbit of information!

I am a very lucky man

I am a very lucky man.  I have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas season.  I have a beautiful wife, two healthy boys. I have a home, a vehicle, & nice clothes. I am not in need.  Yet, I like everyone else in the United States, feel the need to buy more this time of year. I buy more toys on top of the ones my boys already have, because if I don’t I feel am doing them an injustices.  I buy my wife clothes in which she already has plenty of and my wife buys me electronics, which, frankly, I really don’t need (but don’t tell her that). 

All this spending, all this hustle and bustle that we do for one day in December, makes me wonder WHY ARE WE DOING ALL THIS?  Now don’t get me wrong, I love buying things for people, I admit I am part of the problem.  But have you ever stopped and wondered how far we have gotten away from what Christmas is suppose to be all about, the birth of are Savior.  Since when did we start buying presents for everyone else other than the person having the birthday?  When it’s my wife’s birthday, I don’t go out and buy my boys and myself a gift. That would be ridiculous, but we do it on our Savior’s birthday.

I think if we were to put the focus back on Him and less on ourselves, Christ still would not want any presents.  Rather knowing Christ’s nature, I believe He would want to help his sheep that are less fortunate than we are.

I stated early what I was thankful for but I left out key things that I take for granted everyday, like water.  Did you know there are people all over this world that do not have clean drinking water.  Food is something else I take for granted.  I go to the pantry anytime I want and grab something to eat.  There are millions of people that will go without food tonight; most of them are children.  Nevertheless, as not to make others and myself feel too bad this Christmas season, I’ll stop.  On the other hand, maybe we need to hear more of this very thing to take the focus off our greed and more on the hurting and needy people of this world.   

Adventconspiracy.org that talks about this very thing, spending less on ourselves and using that money to help others.  It is a site worth checking out, but be warned it may change the way you view Christmas.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Trying to be like Christ for a week

I evaluated my thinking recently and was amazed just how fair away I am from God.  Here is what I was thinking.  I started my day by getting gas and I was standing at the end of the line waiting to pay, while I hear the cashier speaking to the person at the head of line.  The cashier, obviously not from this country, had a hard time speaking English and I thought to myself, “Man, I wish they hire someone who was from this country, who could speak English better”. 

Then once I got back in my vehicle, I mapped out all that I had to do that day.  But once I arrived at work I was bombarded with a list of things that had to be done, none of them was what I had in mind.  So I thought to myself; “that’s typical, now I can not accomplish anything I wanted to get done, now I will be playing catch up all week”.

Now here’s the kicker, I’m done with work driving to a friends house to help him do something, when I am stopped at a red light and there to my left is a dirty man holding a cardboard sign that reads “out of work, will work for food”.  I look away as not to make eye contact with him and think that there’s work for him, he just isn’t looking hard enough or he is probably just a drunk wanting a hand out. 

These experiences from one day are typical of the thoughts that inhabit my mind time after time and you know what?  I am sick of them.  I want to be more like my Savior, I want to think more like Him.  What I lack is the heart of Jesus.  And here is the scary thing, it is scary to begin to see the truth about our own thoughts and its need to be cleansed. 

I imagine having a mind more like Christ, freed from all the derby that blocks my best intentions. What would it be like if the first time I saw a person I  started to pray for them?  What if instead of getting upset at how my day turned out I thanked God for the ability to work and thanked Him that I still have a job in this economy?  What if I looked at that man standing on the street corner and did not pass judgment on him, but offered to take him to MacDonald’s? 

That’s what it would look like to have the mind of Christ.  That’s what it would look like to be immersed in the scriptures.  The Bible teaches us how to live the kingdom in the here and now.  I have never known someone who was truly spiritual in the truest sense who had not been deeply immersed in the word.

So this week I am trying to be more like Christ, by being more in the word of God, by trying to have more of the thoughts of Christ and less of my own.  This week begins the second week of the Advent Season, where we start thinking of the birth of our Savior and what He has done for us.  What better way to start this Advent Season than to think more like Him.