Sigh.
Sometimes, it is the littlest things that set me off. Like today, for example, my best friend texted me: "oh my gosh walmart is open all day tomorrow. that is so wrong."
Yes. You're darn right it's wrong. What is up with the world we live in? I know I'm by no means perfect or guilt-free in this - but why are we all so selfish? It's thanksgiving! Do we even remember what the purpose of this holiday is?
No, it is not to eat a ton of food and watch football. No, it is not to go out and get all the ads for the day after (which i admit, i have indeed been guilty of). It's not about shopping. It's about family. And more important than that, it's about being thankful.
How can we claim to be so thankful for all that we have, only to start thinking about all the things we want and think we need as soon as dinner is over? We're such hypocrites!
Don't get me wrong, it's awesome to give someone a gift. The look on their face... just the sheer joy of gift-giving... it's incredible. But when the quest to get that gift becomes more about competition and/or simply getting the hottest deal, that's where we go wrong. Every year people die. They die! On Black Friday. They get stomped in a herd of people trying to run through the store. They get in fights over who got to the that toy first. They drive like maniacs and get in wrecks on the way to another store. It's just crazy. Why are we so greedy?
I mean, is it really so necessary to get tickle-me freakin elmo at 3am the day after Thanksgiving? Really?
There is nothing wrong with wanting to give someone a nice gift. Nothing. But if you have to take time away from that person or your family to go out at a ridiculous hour in the morning just to get it, I'm quite certain they'd just as much enjoy the time you could've spent with them than the actual gift itself. Sometimes the greatest gift is time. And what many people don't realize, is that it's not only their families that are losing out on time with a loved one. Every single employee that's forced to work at a ridiculous hour on Black Friday or even on Thanksgiving is taking time away from their families, just so you have the opportunity to get this season's hottest deals.
Honestly... it just makes me so mad. I'm not saying i'm never guilty of greed or selfishness... but. I don't ever want to get so caught up in the shopping (which i don't really like shopping anyway) that I forget the real meaning of the holidays. It's family. Even more so - it's JESUS.
Yeah, God, the same God who created the entire universe and loves you more than you could ever comprehend, sent His son down to this painful earth so that we would not have to be punished for our sins. That's what Christmas is all about. It's celebrating that our Savior came down to this earth in human-form to rescue us from certain eternal death. We can be thankful for this on Christmas. We can be thankful for this on Thanksgiving. We can be thankful for this every day out of the year.
But we have specific holidays when the entire purpose is to celebrate this fact and be thankful, and what do we do instead? We fight with each other. We go shopping. We stuff out faces with turkey. We say we're thankful, but are we really?
Let me ask you something. If you died tomorrow, would you have rather spent time with the people you love, or gone out and fought people for the cheapest deal for a gift for those same people? Be honest. The gifts not gonna matter too long from now.
Time is a much greater gift than anything you could ever buy at the store.
And you know what, I think that's what God is trying to tell us too. He doesn't want us to spend all our money on all kinds of Christian t-shirts and bumper stickers and all that. There's nothing wrong with that. But what God really wants from us is time. We should spend time with God. Every day we ought to be talking to Him and thanking Him for our very life and the fact that through Him we are saved from hell.
This has been kind of a ridiculous and angry rant. Could I have said some things nicer? Certainly. I just want people to see... there's a God out there who loves you more than you will ever know. Why don't you start paying attention to Him?
