Don't Mess with my Christmas

Is it really better to give…..????

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” There is not a one of us who has not heard these words. Usually the guy who quotes this is wanting something from us revealing the fact that he actually believes that it is more blessed to receive. Otherwise, why is he not giving to me – if indeed it is so blessed to give?

And at Christmas time we quote these words to our Children when they get the "greedies". And our Children watch us. Do Mom and Dad really believe this?

I dare you to go find this verse in the Bible. Why? It is scary. That is why. When Paul quotes Jesus it doesn’t have anything to do with giving money or presents. Paul is walking into what will be chains, imprisonment, and possible death. Every one is crying and begging him not to go. “It is more blessed to give,” he says. “It is more blessed to give.”

Give up your comfort? Give up your safety? Give up your life????? And back comes Paul’s answer using Jesus words, “It is more blessed to give.”

So it is Christmas time. How are we applying these words during the season we most often hear them quoted? It just seems completely inappropriate to apply them to the buying of gifts for family and friends so we will in turn have to build additions onto our house or have to go to rent some storage space to fit it all. So how are we…Wait…let me rephrase that … how am “I” giving up my comfort this Christmas? How am I giving up my safety? And why would I want to do that anyway? After all Christmas is all about family, right? About cookies and food and fun games together? About eggnog, apple cider, hot chocolate and biscotti in front of the fire in the pure and uninterrupted bliss of my own family’s comfort and safety? Please say it is so. It’s about beauty…right – Christmas trees, lights, pretty packages, gorgeous table settings - all which declare the glory of God…right?...right?

And yet if we open our ears and listen, we hear the words from of Paul.

"In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Help the weak? What has that to do with anything at Christmas? Oh yeah I throw in a few dimes at the Fred Meyer Bell ringing Santa lady...I help the weak. Sort of.

But I know helping the weak means leaving the safety and comfort and the beauty and warmth of my own home – it’s about stepping into the cold and scary world and into lives racked with loneliness, pain, and other things I prefer not to think about at Christmas.

Do I believe it or not? Is it really more blessed to step into the cold, uncertainly, and pain of someone who is weak and hurting – someone who I might not even know? Is that more blessed?

There is only one way to know for sure. Try it.

Last Christmas my family made a small and feeble attempt at taking the Lord at his words. We put these words to the test by a grand experiment. “Kids. It is Christmas Eve. The night we all like to stay at home and bask in the glow and comfort of this place. So we are stepping out. Let’s go.”

Just a mile away there is a retirement home. With my guitar in hand, we go from room to room visiting those who have no family, no home, no decorated cookies, no warm fire. SO many all alone on Christmas Eve with nothing but the company of the TV glow in their room. We turn down the TV and start to sing. We sing a story about another who gave up the comfort of his home. Of one who stepped into a cold and hostile world racked with pain and suffering.
The tears begin to fill the eyes of this dear old woman – left alone here on Christmas Eve.
Pure joy fill the face of the young boy too severely brain damaged to function in this world as he claps along.


The Christmas songs suddenly made sense in a way they never had before.

What a privilege. What an indescribably joy. But we were sad for we could not get to every room. There were just too many sick. And our small family – we were the only ones there singing on this Holy night. Where were the others? Where had I been the last 42 Christmases?

I cannot explain it. To leave the warmth of our own home, to step into the lives of those so alone and in so much pain. We had nothing to offer but a hand to hold and a song. I can’t explain it, but this was Christmas.

So I dare you. See if it is true. Step out of the comfort and into the pain – and then taste and see if indeed it is truly better to give than to receive.

You can only know if it is true – if you try.