Filed under: Holidays
In the early centuries of the church, the focus of the Advent season was on the disciplines of fasting and prayer. It was a time to rightly align your heart with the passions of Jesus – to identify with his love for the world, his connection to the poor and suffering, and his commitment to justice. The Christmas feast was never intended to be a time of self-focus gluttony but a self-sacrificing commitment to God’s redemptive mission in the world.
The earliest traditions of St. Nicholas (the predecessor to Santa Claus) were about giving gifts to the poor – not the receiving of gifts for the self.
Where did Christmas become a time of simply memorializing the ‘infant baby Jesus’ through songs, pageants, and candlelight rituals? As followers of Christ, lets call for this season of Advent to be a time where we commit to prayer and fasting. Lets challenge each other to have a more simple Christmas.
Lets:
- fast from unnecessary spending
- give gifts that we personally make
- give an equal amount to a cause that Jesus is invested in that would equal to the amount that we spend on a family member
- serve this holiday season. The greatest gift we can give our children is the gift of servanthood
- adopt a Christmas family that would have little, if any, Christmas without your help
My prayer for all of us at The Well this Advent season is that we discover the incredible gift of Jesus’ miracle birth and how through our desire to reach out to others – we are reminded and overwhelmed with the reality that God is with us.
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