GET IT, GOT IT, GOOD
It is amazing how much people engage in consumer driven holiday seasons. I understand how it’s easy to get caught up in the hype with a great excuse to escape the everyday “normal” scenery of life. There are so many options that release creativity like costumes and décor at Halloween, gifts and extravagance at Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day (colored beer), Easter bunny foo-foo stuff, 4th of July patriotic stuff, naming a street in every city Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, birthdays, weddings… etc.
There are a lot of people that are amazingly gifted in our society and they are just looking for a great excuse to release their gifts, energies and other resources. I’ve seen people (including myself) spend countless hours designing special projects, purchasing just the right gifts, investing in the adventure of the moment, spending whatever it takes to complete the task, engaging others to participate…etc. Some people go to the extremes in efforts to keep up with the Joneses and some just have a desire to break through barriers of “better than last time”. Either way, we naturally have an inclination for certain things that interest us to bring our “A” game when it comes to competition or just being goal driven.
Many of these people are Christians and I wonder why many of them aren’t compelled to utilize their gifts, energies and other resources in a Kingdom oriented way that is productive in reaching those that don’t know Christ so they too can partake in the gift of everlasting life. This doesn’t necessarily have to be in a church setting or during some special program but even just in everyday life. Better yet even using these “holidays” as an opportunity to minister during the hype and commercialism that often completely misses the point of most holidays anyways.
I challenge you next time you; dress up in your favorite homemade costume, create the most amazing haunted house, extravagantly landscape with Christmas lights and tree décor, invest money and time into the most awesome gifts, paint two million eggs and stuff plastic ones with whatever didn’t make it in the basket or whatever is your vice, to ask yourself if you have made the effort to invest at least an equivalent amount of resources in the God who created you. You don’t have to stop having fun, just incorporate it in your ministry!
“Whatever you do, work at it with your whole heart, as working for the Lord and not for men, know that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24