Advent has also forced me to re-examine how I give, how I love.
The easiest aspect of giving|loving are the acts of service I want to be intentionally doing and making time for in my Advent season. Making a meal for a friend, visiting a lonely elderly friend or relative, watching someone else’s kids, handing the beggar by the road a gift card to McDonald’s, doing something special for the people who serve you everyday without acknowledgement…you don’t have to look too far to find inexpensive and practical ways to give love by serving others. The hard part is making time for it.
For me at least, the more challenging aspect of giving|loving has to do with our American tradition of gift-giving.
The truth is, I’m still figuring this one out. One day I making my what-I-want-for-Christmas list and the next day I rant about the extreme materialism that has our entire society (Christian and non) in a death grip.
Here’s where I’m at…today, at least. I want to learn how to give more for Christmas. I want the season to remind me to give more love to people, however they need it, however I can give it to them. And I want my gift-giving to be more Christ-honoring too.
We are so prone to extremes. I usually enjoy giving presents, but I am not a gift-giver. And sometimes I want to call this crazy Christmas stuff-exchange all kinds of dirty names and swear it off for good. But focusing on “not-stuff” is as materialistic as focusing on “stuff”: for me, completely abandoning Christmas giving would be a human response, not a God response.
Plus, there are people who enjoy selecting and gifting gifts; that’s how they show love. And it is un-Christlike and wrong for me to insist that what they’re doing is un-Christlike and wrong.
So Advent is teaching me to extend grace to others in the area of giving, and to examine my own giving practices instead of everyone else’s. Because as much as I grinch about this giving thing, the truth is…I enjoy giving presents. And I am every bit as guilty as participating in the “more-junk-mas” as anyone.
My goal, then, in Advent gift giving is to give love. However I can best show love — to the recipient, to the sweatshop workers around the world, to the family in Africa who didn’t eat today, to God as Creator and Redeemer of All – that’s what I want to do, that’s where I want my heart to be. Which is tricky, and I don’t think I’ll score a perfect 10 here. But that’s the goal, that’s the prayer.
And you? How do you give love during Advent? Please share ideas below!
Related posts:
Giving|Loving: some of my unoriginal, but there nonetheless, Christmas gift ideas
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