I took the Christmas week off of writing so I could enjoy spending time with my family. During the break I was hearing a lot of discussion from friends and others that they felt Christ was being taken out of Christmas by main stream media and other outlets. I was a little bothered by this due to their intense feeling that Christ was really being taken out of the holiday. Some of the reasons they listed were “Well, people are saying happy holidays” or “They say Merry Xmas now” (which is an inaccurate statement, but that is not being touched on here) or “Everyone focuses on Santa more than Jesus” and the list could go on. I just couldn’t, and still can’t, bring myself to agree.
Christ can only be taken out of Christmas if we as
Christians allow Him to be. We are the people that need to celebrate the birth
and lead people toward Him so they can celebrate it with us. It is not for us
to shove our ideals or faith down other’s throats and expect them to fall in
line with us because “This is OUR SAVIOR’s DAY!” Christian’s need to celebrate
the day for what it is, the day our savior came to earth in the form of a baby
in order to live a human life and reconcile us back to our creator. Those who
do not believe, well, that’s their deal and we need to love them regardless. We
need to love, respect, and grant them freedom to celebrate the holiday the way
they want to. If we live as Christian’s should, loving God and loving our
neighbor (especially on Christmas), then Christ is present on the day of
presents.
It is hard when I hear people say happy holidays because
they are afraid of offending, but then I remember Paul saying he was all things
to all men and respected everyone wherever they were and never did anything to
cause them to look differently on him as a representative of Christ. He
probably would say “Happy Holidays” or “Happy Hanukkah” to someone out of
respect to their faith, but people also knew he was a Christian and he would
celebrate Christ’s story over the old traditions. There was no anger or
backlash on people because they chose not to acknowledge Christ, in fact, there
was even more love being shown to them by respecting them. In reality, we have
to be living a life similar to Paul’s. We need to express the message of the
Gospel throughout our life in order to protect His name on the day we celebrate
Him. If one says “Happy Holidays” to someone of a different faith as a
Christian does not negate their Christianity, quite the contrary, it
strengthens their love for their neighbor; which in turn shares the Gospel even
more.
We keep Christ in Christmas. It is not the fact that we say “Merry
Christmas” that Christ is still here, it is the Gospel saying HE IS STILL HERE
that keeps Him in the day and every day after.
1 comment:
Dude! Love this post! I think you are right on in so many ways! Keep it up, and I can't wait to read what else you got cookin!
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