I must admit that I seem to have lost some of the joy of Christmas over the last twenty plus years of my life. Now don’t get me wrong, I still love the opportunity to get together with friends and family and take a break from the daily routine. But the overall celebration and specifically the gift buying and giving seems to have become terribly imbalanced. The stress that comes with the busyness and the pressure to get just the right gift is replacing the joy of celebrating God’s gift to the world.
Although I am still on this journey myself, here are three steps I have found helpful in regaining some of the lost joy that the celebration of the birth of our Savior should bring each year.
The first is to determine a reasonable amount that should be spent for Christmas gifts and stick to it. Another way of saying this is to set up a budget and live by it. Part of honoring Christ is being a good steward of the money He has entrusted us with and this includes our Christmas spending.
The second step is to commit to only using credit cards if the balance can be paid in full when the statement arrives. I believe that this is the most common first step to a family’s financial disaster. In a short sighted attempt to give at Christmas, we dig ourselves in a hole by putting more gifts than we can afford on our credit cards. It takes more than all of the following year to pay off the Christmas debt and then the debt snowball has begun to roll.
The third step is to give more attention to “grace” gifts than “exchange” gifts. I read a sermon by John MacArthur where he referred to a grace gift as one that is unrepayable. Exchange gifts are those gifts that we exchange with someone else. We give an exchange gift because we will get something in return. This may be a gift or even love or a service in return. As sad as it is, I think that many times Christmas is becoming a time to exchange generic gift cards with relatives and friends we are too busy to even get to know.
I recently was involved in a Bible study that covered the subject of our responsibility to the poor and less fortunate in the world. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 25:37-40:
"Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me”
There are many good charitable and nonprofit organizations that provide opportunities to meet the needs of those mentioned in Matthew 25:37-40. These gifts are truly grace gifts. Look in your church or even go into your community to look for opportunities to give grace gifts. These include the poor both in America and in other parts of the world, the unemployed, homeless, children of those in prison and the millions of people that are alone this Christmas.
Most surveys that I have read indicate that the average family will spend at least $1,000 on Christmas this year. Here is report from USA Today that says the average individual will spend $751 on “exchange” type gifts. Compare those numbers with how much we will spend on helping those in need that Christ referred to in Matthew 25.
If our Christmas giving is supposed to celebrate the Greatest Gift ever given to mankind by God the Father as the ultimate act of grace, shouldn’t we as followers of Jesus Christ dedicate more of our time and money to “grace” type giving this Christmas?
May each of you have a truly blessed Christmas as we remain focused on the birth of our Lord and Savior.
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