The Christmas Status Symbol
Have you ever had one thought lead to another - like a chain reaction in your mind?
Last night was one of those nights for me. I began with thinking about how stressful Christmas is for many people because they feel they have to "keep up." They have to spend hundreds of dollars on new Christmas lights and thousands of dollars on the most up-to-date gifts like smart phones and diamond rings and name-brand clothes. They have to keep up with the neighbors and relatives and anyone else that may be watching. This mindset makes Christmas a status symbol, which is anything but what it should be.
This thought led to another - that we we often celebrate Christmas as a status symbol because our lives have become a status symbol. We want the best house and the best car and the latest technology. Why? Because that is what we have been taught success is all about. (It really goes back to the ideas of Puritanism and social Darwinism as I have written about in previous entries).
Then I began thinking about what would happen if we were asked to give that up. What if we had to downgrade on cars or houses or cell phones? What if we had to scale back on Christmas?
Jesus once asked someone to downgrade his life. Unfortunately, the person he asked couldn't do it.
"Jesus said to him, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me'" (Matthew 19:21, NKJV).
Who could do it today? Honestly?
How hard do we hang on to what we have, what we want, our status symbols? We feel we're entitled to them. We feel we have worked for them. We may even feel God blessed us with them. But what if God said, "Give it up"?
The Bible addresses this very issue in several places.
Luke 12:16-21 is a Parable in which Jesus told of a rich man who worked hard and stored his riches so that he would have retirement when he had finished his time of work. "But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
Matthew 6:21: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Just a few Verses down in Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Matthew 13:22: "Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful."
Proverbs 11:28: "He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage."
I Timothy 6:17-19: "Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may hold on eternal life."
I could go on and on.
This Christmas season, I believe we must ask ourselves if we would be willing to sell everything. Would we be willing to give up everything that we have worked for, everything that we treasure?
"For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed in the presence of many witnesses" (I Timothy 6:10-12).
Don't fall into the lie that diamonds are a girl's best friend or the lie that clothes make the man or any other analogy that we live today. Toys and jewels and houses and gadgets and status symbols are not what Christmas, or life, are about.
Last night was one of those nights for me. I began with thinking about how stressful Christmas is for many people because they feel they have to "keep up." They have to spend hundreds of dollars on new Christmas lights and thousands of dollars on the most up-to-date gifts like smart phones and diamond rings and name-brand clothes. They have to keep up with the neighbors and relatives and anyone else that may be watching. This mindset makes Christmas a status symbol, which is anything but what it should be.
This thought led to another - that we we often celebrate Christmas as a status symbol because our lives have become a status symbol. We want the best house and the best car and the latest technology. Why? Because that is what we have been taught success is all about. (It really goes back to the ideas of Puritanism and social Darwinism as I have written about in previous entries).
Then I began thinking about what would happen if we were asked to give that up. What if we had to downgrade on cars or houses or cell phones? What if we had to scale back on Christmas?
Jesus once asked someone to downgrade his life. Unfortunately, the person he asked couldn't do it.
"Jesus said to him, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me'" (Matthew 19:21, NKJV).
Who could do it today? Honestly?
How hard do we hang on to what we have, what we want, our status symbols? We feel we're entitled to them. We feel we have worked for them. We may even feel God blessed us with them. But what if God said, "Give it up"?
The Bible addresses this very issue in several places.
Luke 12:16-21 is a Parable in which Jesus told of a rich man who worked hard and stored his riches so that he would have retirement when he had finished his time of work. "But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
Matthew 6:21: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Just a few Verses down in Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Matthew 13:22: "Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful."
Proverbs 11:28: "He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage."
I Timothy 6:17-19: "Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may hold on eternal life."
I could go on and on.
This Christmas season, I believe we must ask ourselves if we would be willing to sell everything. Would we be willing to give up everything that we have worked for, everything that we treasure?
"For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed in the presence of many witnesses" (I Timothy 6:10-12).
Don't fall into the lie that diamonds are a girl's best friend or the lie that clothes make the man or any other analogy that we live today. Toys and jewels and houses and gadgets and status symbols are not what Christmas, or life, are about.
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