Putting The World to Rights part III

I struggle with materialism all the time especially when I think about how we as Western Christians focus our year and train our children to do the same. Why is it that the climax of my year has always been Christmas? Is it because I share in the communal understanding of God becoming flesh or is it purely out of selfishness of, “What am I going to get?” Certainly Easter has always been a lackluster holiday, other than the fact that I get candy.

We have trained our children from a very young age that the way we focus our year is completely about materialism, not about Christ and what is so sick about it is that we put these holidays in the name of “Christ”. I almost condone our culture not using terms like “Merry Christmas” and replacing it with, “Happy Holidays” because I am not sure that it is right for us to be saying terms in the name of Christ when in reality it has nothing to do with Christ.

What is the answer? I am not sure. I don’t even think that it is as cut dry as I wish it could be. This could be something that could rule a person’s life…every time they go to the grocery store to buy cereal, “Should I buy the off brand or Kellogg’s?” It really amounts to how I know my own heart to be in light of what Scriptures teach. It can become overwhelming and I don’t think it is suppose to be. However, I also don’t think we should act as though it is not that big of a deal. The only think that I know is we need to have relationship with Christ and ask Him to lead us in decisions. If there was a formula or if all of this was cut and dry I am not sure that we would even need the relationship with Christ that helps us to make good decisions. So maybe we do need to realize that we will not reach comfortable conclusions on our own accord.

I had a professor once tell me that when we bear our cross, we are sharing with Christ in His suffering. His point was that the best of relationships are built on shared journeys, interests, pains, fears, etc. How awesome is it that we have a creator God with whom we can share our burdens?