'Tis the Season

Thanksgiving has gone. The Christmas season is, in my book, officially here. The other day, I was reading commentary on why the Christmas season seems to begin earlier each year. Obviously, it's a heavy shopping season, and stores want to open up consumers' wallets as soon as possible. But why do we buy into it? The author's conclusion was that Christmas, obviously enough, makes us happy. It reminds us of happy memories from our childhoods, and awakes in us a sense of happiness about the state of the world. We really do want peace on earth and good will towards men, carriage rides to grandmother's house in the snow, joy, happiness, and an attitude of giving and sharing. So when the season comes, we're excited by the ideals it encompasses.

And I suspect we want to agree with the song in the Muppet Christmas Carol, that:

It's in the singing of a street corner choir
It's going home and getting warm by the fire
In all the places you find love, it feels like Christmas...

It is a season of the heart
A special time of caring
The ways of love made clear
It is a season of the spirit
The message if we hear it
Is "Make it last all year."

And yet, we don't. As a rule, we don't make it last all year. Come December 26, we are settling back into our routines, by January 2 we're out of the holiday mindset, and by January 26 all we can think about is the debt we accrued over the holidays. It's as though we binge on giving during Christmas, and starve ourself of that attitude the rest of the year. If we did that with food, it would be called an eating disorder. Is it any less true to say that we have a giving disorder?

This disorder is serious, because it reflects the fact that, without a special occasion to remind us otherwise, we live for ourselves. For our own benefit, our own sustenance, our own ends. To assuage our guilt, we overcompensate at Christmas and go on a spree that leaves us hungover come December 26.

If we want to be giving people, servants of all, who regard others as better than ourselves, there's a couple of tests we have to pass:
1) It has to be true of our whole lives, not one month out of the year.
2) It has to extend beyond our friends and acquaintances.

Jesus told us "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men."

This season, do you have enemies, or people that hate you? People that are just plain disagreeable? Do good to them. Love them. Give to them. Even if they are ungrateful. Because that's what God's like - so doing this is one way to be like God.