For Christmas my wife bought me two pair of jeans to broaden my stock of clothes that fit. She also got me a cover for my iPad to compliment my Kindle cover she bought three years ago. Both feature beautiful leatherwork by Oberon Design. The green Kindle cover shows a tree in front of a river, and the brown iPad cover a tree in front of a mountain. Trees are sacred to me. “He shall be like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season.” (Psalm 1) For pure reading I prefer the Kindle, with its handy size and easy on the eyes screen. I do most of my writing and Internet work on the iPad now. With a Kindle app I can also read books on the iPad.
In December at church we did a study on the Advent Conspiracy. It was a book and DVD with three cool looking pastors from the West Coast who showed me that I should be creative in my use of facial hair and leave my shirt untucked. Their mantra for Americans was to spend less on needless gifts for one another and more on gifts to help Africans drink clean water. A good goal. Gifts should either be missional gifts, like wells in Africa, or relational gifts given intentionally to bless someone we love and celebrate our relationship with them. The iPad cover is a relational gift; I will cherish it because I love the giver.
For relational giving shop Oberon Design, and for missional giving try the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
A wonderful reminder of what to focus on in gift giving. Thanks Chris. My mother must have “heard” you because one gift from her to my family was buying a goat in our name for the Heifer Project. And her gift to my daughter was Tom’s Shoes (for every pair bought, one is donated to those in need in in Africa and Central and South America). We also gave relational gifts. I hope the spirit of giving can stay strong.
“I hope the spirit of giving can stay strong.” …it won’t JLS…never has,never will.
For Christians, the Christmas season has devolved into a short span of opportunity for Freudian style ‘psychological atonement’….this time of year,everyone wants to ‘be the good guy’ …It serves to aleve a pesty subconscious guilt complex for not being who we claim to be the rest of the year…..
..I don’t mean to imply that there isn’t such a thing as ‘genuine giving’,but only that it’s rare.When i ‘give’ ,it’s comes from either one of two places,guilt or Love.Emotions can usually be easily manipulated to produce giving,the examples are endless,Genuine and authentic giving requires no special ‘feelings’ or emotions…it’s a spontaneous wordless inner prompting,without all the hoopla…imo
I think giving prompted by love is a good thing. For God so loved the world that He gave…
On the subject of giving I am also aware of merchants this time of year who are hoping for lots of gift giving. I like to support local merchants if possible.
JLS, my wife gave Heifer gifts for her niece and nephews one year. One nephew, apparently unhappy with his animal, demanded of her, “Where’s my goat?” We have laughed about that a lot over the years.
…I think that’s a whole different ball game,Chris. Your uncovering the darker aspects of Capitalism and it’s cleverly designed and marketed obligatory-compulsory kind of ‘giving’ scheme…For me,it’s not really giving in the truest/purest biblical sense of the meaning,just smoke and mirrors to make it appear authentic. having been in retail all my life i can unequivocally say:people are SO gullible…
…I remember watching a slick ‘preacher’ on TBN a few years ago tearfully appealing for money to dig wells in Africa, he was really good too.. But If the truth be known,there has already been enough money squeezed from the public with this clever con to literally dig up the Sahara desert and turn it into a Water Park resort..
You forgot to add IMGO
(in my grumpy opinion)
:^)
hahaha ….IM SORRY for my childish antagonistic comments everyone…this is typical of me ..I apologize,.one of these days someone is going to really let me have it!..and i will have deserved it
“The positive value of righteous indignation is theoretical – especially for alcoholics,” Bill notes in a 1954 letter. “It leaves everyone of us open to the rationalization that we may be as angry as we like provided we can claim to be righteous about it.” But, of course, for us even self-righteous anger (and, perhaps most particularly, self-righeous anger) is deadly. It has the power to make us drink, and for us (as Bill notes) “to drink is to die.”
I am amazed at how quickly legitimate anger at injustice can morph into self-righteous anger, which as you point out is deadly. This must be one reason anger is one of the Eight Deadly Thoughts in the tradition of spiritual theology.
“Spiritual Theology is a book written by Diogenes Allen, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. The book largely discusses the ancient traditions included within the “threefold way” in achieving habitual presence with God. He begins by discussing what spiritual theology is before moving into the a description of its journey and goal. Along the way, he speaks of the importance of conversion, progress in that journey, and contemplation. The Eight Deadly Thoughts of Evagrius often prevent progress during the journey. Also included is a comparison and contrasting of the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture. Finally, he ends the book by discussing mystical theology and Christian doctrine in the spiritual life.” …I was not familiar with the ‘eight deadly thoughts” so I Wikied it..:)
He was my professor at Princeton. That book is one of my favorites.