We Are That Spoiled

Absolutely one of the funniest commentaries on consumer culture EVER.  You must watch this.  We often desire faster, and better, and more, but what is the real cost of that?  Perhaps we are the spoiled generation. (ht)

Read Full Post »

The Lie Of Stuff

The more I follow Jesus, the more I begin to really see the wisdom in leaving the “stuff” behind.  What if the lie of stuff is that it leads to a subtle form of oppression?

There’s just something about getting stuff that just makes us immediately feel better.  We’re taught to buy stuff because for some reason the act of purchasing something releases endorphins that make us feel good.  I have actually caught myself buying something stupid and then the moment I walked out the door asking, “Why did I buy this?”  This is the subtle trap in our consumeristic world. It feels good to buy even what we don’t need.

When I bought my house there was an amazing feeling to being an owner.  In some ways I had taken part in the American dream.  I could now say I wanted a certain color on the walls and I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission.  And then after about six months I began to feel the weight of something called a mortgage.  I was now beholden to paying for this “dream” for the next thirty years.  It really made me ask if this was really a dream or somehow a twisted trick.  This dream was now requiring me to make a certain amount of money every month in order to pay for it.

And then something strange happened.  The American dream changed in mid-flight.  Someone invented the term “upward mobility.”  My house that was so cool was now supposed to be just a stepping stone to a better house.  But I liked my house.  I thought…  Why do I have to move?  But I did.  And as much as we try there is this expectation to keep up and have the next best thing.  We see the really cool things that we could have, the ones that come in the mail on a regular basis, the ones our friends have and are loving.  We are consumers.  It’s what we do.

But now I’m beginning to ask a different question.  What’s the real cost of my stuff?

When I buy something, say a new car, I get to enjoy the wonderful feeling that comes from owning something new.  There’s something about a new car smell, the look on your friends faces when they see you driving it, and the joy of not having to worry about it breaking down.  There’s also the fact that I can take care of certain concerns and needs when I have a car.  The idea is good…in principle.

But then what is the cost of that stuff.  First I have to pay for that stuff.  This in some cases a natural order of things.  Stuff has to be bought.  It’s not free.  But I often can’t afford to actually buy that stuff so I purchase it on credit, which means in the case of my house I will actually pay twice as much for the pleasure of taking part in the American dream.

I then began to realize that the stuff I buy has to have a place to be stored.  I need a new shelf, another closet, and a bigger garage. I have Christmas stuff, and Easter stuff and sports stuff, and linen stuff, all taking space in my house that is an American dream.  In some cases I actually have to park my car outside the garage because I have too much stuff, or not enough space, depending on how you look at it.

Stuff also needs other stuff to go with it.  It needs it’s friends.  The duvet needs a better bed.   The shoes needs a different shirt.  That couch could never go with that carpet. And my house needs a different backyard.  Who cares if I can’t afford it?  I’ve got a 725 credit score to take care of that problem.

Stuff also has a way of hanging out when we don’t really need it.  It needs to be put up in the attic because we somehow think we’ll need it…some day.  So we set it next to the stuff that we bought twenty years ago, that we thought we would need…someday.  And all of this stuff has a way of piling up, filling the spaces in our closets.  Yes it has memories and potential but that’s for…someday, when we’ll use it.

Looking at it now I think I get what Jesus was saying when he said, “Sell all that you have.”  The more we buy the more we have to manage and take care. And what once was something to serve us becomes something to serve on a regular basis. And that is not a life I really want to live.

Read Full Post »

Watch This Now

I guess this film was inevitable.  Then watch this to get informed.

Read Full Post »

A Rising Standard Of Loving

I’ve been thinking lately, what if our parents got it wrong?  What if the American dream is not as good as the ads in InStyle or Better Home and Garden magazine suggest?  What if the perfect life is not so perfect?

Thomas Friedman said in the World Is Flat,

“I am certain that we Americans can indeed thrive in this world.  But I am also certain that it will not be as easy as it was in the last 50 years.  Each of us as an individual will have to work a little hard and run a little faster to keep our standard of living rising.”

And the assumption in this statement is that after 50 years we have come to the conclusion, or the acceptance, that we need to continue to increase our standard of living.  Are we really more happy?  I live in a world that is equal and probably greater than my parents ever attained.  And yet are we more content?  And does contentment come from a better standard of living?

We think about the endless drive in the American dream and wonder if it has become a trap.  It is likely that my children will not ever be able to exceed my standard of living, which throws a wrench into the whole concept.  And even if they do, the standard always increases enough to make you think it is just around the corner…just.

My wife and I have been steadily asking what a lower standard of living looks like.  Not because we want a lesser life, but because we’re rapidly coming to the conclusion that lots of stuff takes lots of time and more money to manage.  The more we have the more we have to worry about it.  We’ve begun to ask what experience we would like to have rather than what thing.  And God keeps drawing us towards people, towards investing in their lives.

The flattening of the world, as Friedman speaks, is radically and rapidly changing our expectations for the future.  I’m convinced that in the next twenty to thirty years the American dream will shift from a rising standard of living to a rising standard of relationships or loving.  I think people are becoming tired of the chase.  Yet as any system that is filled with potential and promise but inherently doesn’t work, we still have to discover it doesn’t work.  We have to prove out its obsolescence. And it likely will take an entire generation, or about 80 years to prove that.

My gut tells them that people are beginning to see the value in relationships as opposed to things, the latter being more valuable in the long run.  Yes we are a consumeristic society, but this is a natural consequence of the original chase.   This relational value will require a new way of operating that begins with our own humanity and dealing with our brokenness.  If Facebook, MySpace, and social networking sites have proven anything it is that the emerging generations are wired towards relationship, and each is feeding that desire.

And it is love that people desire because it is love that builds and fosters relationships.  Stuff can’t do that.  And it is always the church that has been the entity to bring love to the world.  If we listen, and listen carefully to this shift, we can be positioned to answer one of the fundamental problems in every emerging generation, across borders, and across the world.  We can be the ones to create a rising standard of loving.

What if the American dream truly was to love your neighbor?  I can hope can’t I?

BTW: You can listen to the World Is Flat for Free.

Read Full Post »

Lamentations 20:08

In 2003 just before the war, gas prices were $1.40 and climbing.  Ugh.

Read Full Post »

My Stuff Is Broken

My stuff is broken and I don’t like it.

About two years ago I was enjoying a wonderful glass of Cabernet as my wife and I planned our first major RV trip. And I can still remember that second when the glass was falling over. My computer’s life flashed before my eyes. A half-full glass of fine wine landed smack into my computer. I let out what felt like a scream and turned the computer over. Wine poured out in ridiculous red raindrops. It was now toast.

The only cool part of that was that I got to get new stuff. Within a week my brand new MacBook Pro (I’ve been a user for 25 years) sat comfortably in my lap. It was awesome. And to be honest, it wasn’t really a better computer in a light-years kind of way. It had a few better features like the built in camera and the remote that I never used. But what it came down to is that it looked newer.

Well flash forward to today. I’m sitting here listening to some music and the screen portion of my “new” laptop keep falling just enough backwards that it’s not the right angle. The hinge in the laptop is no longer sticking the way it should. It’s a little thing but it keeps bugging me. I know it’s not working the way its supposed to. I actually use my laptop all day for work so its not really a little thing, even though it is.

And this is the thing. My stuff is broken. And I want to go out today and buy a new one. And as I thought about this temptation I realized began to ask why I needed a new computer. Why the urge to go out and buy something I really didn’t need. I wanted it.

Something is fueling the tension within consumerism. Something is driving it. The issue is deeper than just being spoiled. It’s deeper than the media’s constant saturation. Advertising works.  I should know.  I was in it for a long time.  But something else has to be at play to make all these forces come together.

And then I realized that my computer reminds me of my own brokenness. I don’t like that. My stuff is broken and I want stuff that isn’t broken. I want stuff that works.

Thank You Father for loving me in spite of my brokenness.

Listening to: Fix You by Coldplay

Read Full Post »

Straight From The Horses Mouth

“About 10 years ago, David Brooks (a well known author and columnist) wrote a book called “Bobos in Paradise” that introduced a new word into the English language: bobo. A bobo is a bourgeois bohemian. Bobos are yuppies with hippy values. They love the idea of the just, holistic, earthy life, but think they can buy it. We live in a bobo culture where people pay ten bucks for soap with chunks in it, where folks spend fifty bucks for hemp purses, where everyone cares about genocide and poverty and global warming. But the counter-cultural ethic has been co-opted by consumerism. This means that more people want social justice and peace, but they’ve bought into the lie that they can buy it.”

Mark VanSteenwyk, in Church Marketing Sucks

Read Full Post »

Interesting Stuff 13

In The Know: Are America’s Rich Falling Behind The Super-Rich? Absolutely one of the funniest videos I’ve seen in so long. The epitome of satire. Thanks Eliacin.

—————————————————————————————

My Global Footprint (ht) Don’t go here if you still want to hold onto your American consumer lifestyle.

—————————————————————————————

Steve Knight provides a nice summary of Scot McKnight’s breakdown of Roger Olson’s book. I know it’s a lot of references. It’s a nice summary of post-conservative (read: emerging) thinking.

—————————————————————————————

John Shore provides a really cool background on Bob Marley’s life.

Read Full Post »

Interesting Stuff 9

Kathy Escobar provides a brilliant observation about the use of prepositions in relationship. She shares the difference between “to” “for” and “with”. It’s a must read.

——————————————————————————————–

Mark Van Steenwyk asks some really good questions about population mix and how we do ministry when the mix is really changing.

——————————————————————————————–

Brant Hansen shares a story of Kumar and what happens when we don’t try and get in the way. Raising money and all the stuff can sometimes get in the way of what God wants to do. This is one of the best stories you will read this year.

——————————————————————————————–

You’ve probably already seen both but there is such a contrast between the two. Will.i.am vs John.he.is.

——————————————————————————————–

Geez Magazine is having a contest.

Words – 30 Sermons You’d Never Hear in Church
Images – Holy Moly Photo Contest

Should be interesting.

——————————————————————————————–

What consumes us?  (ht) This is fascinating.  Could you go a week without email, cell phone and internet?  One man couldn’t.

Read Full Post »

Give What You Want

I recently had a very provocative conversation with some friends about what we want. And the conversation inevitably turned to the reality that to really get what we want, we must first give. Friendship is a perfect example. If we want friends, the best way to have a lot of them is to be a great friend. If we want love from other people, first give love.

And then I began thinking about money and Jesus’ command to give to the poor.

Matthew 19:21 – “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor.”

I used to think this was really harsh. But then I began to wonder if there was something deeper in the request to give our stuff away. Because our money isn’t just our dollars. It’s our investments, our house, our cars, our even our social capital. What if God wants us to give so that we can be channels for him to give stuff to…to give away. And if we hold on to the stuff, he can’t give us any more because our hands are full.

You see the interesting thing is that Jesus never really complains about not having stuff or money. He just seems to go about his business and it fair to assume that money was present. If he gave absolutely everything to the poor he’d never have anything. So he had to have something.

What if perfection is not just the giving away of stuff but the trust that informs the giving of the stuff. And when we trust God with everything, he realizes that nothing stands in the way of relationship. If we’re willing to give at any time, he can give at any time when we really need it because we won’t hoard it.

And once we have become stewards, aren’t we then no longer “possessing” anything?

Your thoughts.

Read Full Post »

Perspective On My Stuff

Anne Jackson has a great story about a friend of hers who needed a chair and found one on the side of the road. And this story got me thinking about certain times in my life when I didn’t have anything and even the simplest things looked good. And these ruminations put me in a serious state of wonder about my own perspective on my stuff.

When I was in high school I participated in Outward Bound’s 22 day wilderness program for youth. It was an awesome discovery in self discipline and denial. At the beginning of the trip I couldn’t walk fifty yards with a 50 pounds backpack. At the end I could walk 50 miles with one. Part of the program required me to eat simple foods that I could carry, like G.O.R.P. and dried fruits and grains. We also had little packages of Sardines packed in flavored oils. At the beginning of this trip I wouldn’t even think of eating the sardines. But after ten days of basically starving the sardines started to look pretty good. In fact, they tasted really good during my solo when I had almost nothing else to eat.

And this type of thing didn’t just happen once. It happened all the time to me. When I was in college, there was a period of about one six months that I didn’t have a car. I lived on campus so it wasn’t an insurmountable problem but it kind of sucked when I had a date, having to ask the girl to drive. But a friend of mine offered to sell me his beater Chevy Nova for a thousand bucks. It was an ugly car but it worked and looked pretty nice as an alternative to not driving. And the moment I took that car home, I was a new man. I had a car.

But over time these things lost their value or capacity to make me feel good about having them. The moment I got home, I never even touched a can of sardines. After two weeks of driving the Nova I couldn’t sell the sucker fast enough. It was ugly.

And when I look back on these experiences, of which there are so many, I am reminded that what changed was not my stuff but my perspective. And my ego somehow seems to change my perspective on so much stuff. Because a chair is simply a chair isn’t it? But when I don’t have a chair and I need one, everything looks good. But when I have several chairs, only the cherry stained one’s from Pottery Barn will do.

Why? Do tell my friends.

Read Full Post »

The Story of Stuff

The story of stuff is a short 20 minutes infomercial on the consumer model that is trashing our planet. (ht) It’s very provocative and I would highly recommend watching it. It really made me think of how I can begin participating in a sustainable way of living. The thing with the pillow really scared me (you have to watch it).

Read Full Post »

The New Conspirators – Excerpt 2

The following is a question from Tom Sine’s book, The New Conspirators.

“Really tough question: Is it possible we got our eschatology wrong? Is it possible we have embraced an eschatology that has very little connection to the urgent issues that fill our world or to the important decisions of our daily lives? Is it possible that many of us have subscribed to an eschatology that has very little influence in defining our sense of what constitutes the good life and better future?”

What do you think?

Read Full Post »

The New Conspirators – Part 3

This is a book review of Tom Sine’s book, The New Conspirators, by IVP. Part 3 is a review of Conversation II: Taking the Culture Seriously.

In this second conversation, Tom provides insight into a Post 9/11, consumeristic, global economy and the Global Mall. He provides deep insight into some of the more underlying global conversations facing New Conspirators, things such as borderless youth, global consumerism, universal economies and their effects on each other. The conversation is broken up into two sections.

The first conversation was about global politics. To a great extent this section felt like a deviation from the previous conversation, almost a non-sequitur. The conversation is very specific to current world events and he relies on a presentation he gave to Lebanon to shape his views. His concern is that religious views have been sharply influenced by Western McReligion, one that focuses on excess and consumerism.

This first section sets the stage for the second, which begins to look at the affects of that global economy, which he calls the global mall on the Christian story and a meta-theme of coming home. He questions its affect on our eschatology. He asks:

“to what extent have we allowed modern culture, as magnified through the global mall, to define our notion of what constitutes the good life and better future”

It’s a very important question. As the global mall becomes pervasive we as a body find ourselves in direct tension with the story it creates. At what point does the story of the global mall eclipse our ancient stories? He begins to create the very intriguing point that the global mall is deeply influencing our story by creating an alternative, western, secular salvation that uses God’s provision simply as a means to the here and now, a prosperity gospel, mostly defined in economic terms.

He also said one thing that really caught my attention.

“A number of missional church scholars offer thoughtful intellectual critiques of modern culture and the ways that economic globalization influences the values of believers everywhere. However, very few churches that fly under the missional church banner seem to feature discipleship resources any different from those used by either traditional or megachurches”

That’s troubling to me.

Read Full Post »

Interesting Stuff 7

Mark Van Steenwyk has a great (old) post about Generica and the cost of living in the suburbs. Hey that’s me. People driving up to their manicured houses and closing the garage behind them. Thanks for the reminder Mark.

———————————————————————————————

Bill Kinnon throwing down with an interesting post on Willow Creek’s Christmas service. Nicely said. (I BTW love Willow Creek but he has a great point).

———————————————————————————————

Still the best version of Little Drummer Boy…ever. Josh Groban also does a great version as well.

———————————————————————————————

My friend Jeromy added a good bit to my dream for a missional discipleship community called tribe.

———————————————————————————————

Check out this conference in Feb-Mar called The New Conspirators. It looks very interesting. Who’s going and who wants to go? I’m in.

Read Full Post »

What People Want This Christmas

As Christmas season approaches, there may be a few of you who still haven’t finished all of your Christmas shopping. I get that. I used to wait until Christmas Eve at closing time because I could do it in two hours.  That feeling of expediency pervaded Christmas for me to a great extent.  There was really no love in the giving, more of an obligation really.  But this video, which is not new but will never really grow old for me, got me thinking about what people really want for Christmas.

People are looking for little expressions that remind them they are valuable and loved. And what better time to do that than Christmas. But it’s not in the present but in the giving that reminds them they are loved. It is in the thoughtful expression of remembering that someone still loves them that transforms the season.  And as Johnny shows, it is not hard to do, but it is often hard to do.

Love is like that.  It’s simple but hard.  It’s not expensive but it costs everything sometimes.  It means taking our eyes off of our selves for a while and trusting that we are loved.  It means really embracing His grace in our lives and letting go of our brokenness.  And when we love, we become part of the solution, part of His kingdom, and partakers in his glorious mission.

So this Christmas, remember to give love in some way. Remember to find that special way to remind someone else they are worth it.

Read Full Post »

The Obligation of Christmas

Some time ago, and I can’t really ever recall the moment, someone gave me the obligation to keep up the traditional Christmas tradition. Today I’m letting it go. And in the words of Sara Groves, I simply realized that “I can’t afford it.”

Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas and will celebrate it this year. But I won’t be taking part in the flow that simply does it because were supposed to. I’m doing it because I want to. And there’s a big difference between the two.

I want to celebrate Jesus and engage what it means to live with a sense of expectancy rather than wait until the last moment and wonder, “Is it Christmas…again?” I want to discover what it means to give this year without expectation of anything in return, rather than mindlessly buy something for someone who doesn’t really need it anyway. I want to tell stories to my children about what the traditions mean, rather than just stick an ornament on the tree. I want to wake up on the 25th and realize that I’m celebrating the birth of Jesus, not the arrival of Santa Claus. I want to feast as a recognition of God’s blessing, not because it…because it…well it’s just what we’ve always done.

I think I know when I broke. I think it was standing in line at Starbucks and as I waited for my Chai tea latte, I overheard a woman talking about how she was just getting everyone gift cards this year because everyone complained about what they didn’t get last year. Or it might have been the girl at Chipotle complaining about how many people she had to buy for and how she simply couldn’t afford it this year. She didn’t know what to do. Or it may have been the moment I drove past Valley Fair on the freeway and the line to get into the shopping center was TWO MILES long. Or maybe it was hearing that we spend 45 billion on cosmetics in the U.S. and it would cost ten billion to SOLVE the clean water problem in the world. (I’m not picking on cosmetics. It just happened to be the stat I heard). And as I began to really listen to the people around me I realized that Christmas has become a burden, a thing, an obligation that has lost it’s true meaning. And the weight of that was evident everywhere around me.

Skye Jethani posted this excerpt at Our of Ur blog regarding his Christmas experience,

“Last week my wife and I got all of our Christmas shopping done—in one day. This blitzkrieg approach has become a tradition for us. It’s like pulling a tooth; better to have the whole thing out at once. In the evening we treated ourselves to a victory dinner at a restaurant. While savoring my accomplishment and my meal, I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas on the television above the bar. Ah, Christmas in America—spend all day battling the crowds at the mall and have Luke chapter 2 recited to you by a cartoon character at night.”

I listen to Skye’s experience and I know what that feels like. Somewhere along the way, it just somehow got screwed up. And the cost of that is a really bad credit card bill and a season that no longer is fulfilling. And I can’t afford that anymore.

I don’t really want to tell anyone how they should celebrate Christmas. I only know that how I don’t want to celebrate Christmas the way I used to. I want to abandon it so I can redeem the season. The church seems to be worried so much about how the world now calls the Christmas season “holiday”. And part of me is asking why are we surprised. They don’t know Jesus. And silly us. We’ve followed right along and captured the spirit of consumerism. I’m not throwing stones. I’m first in line of the guilty.

But I recognize that it must always be the church that leads the way to redemption. It must be His children that redeems the season, not the world. I don’t need other people to tell me the it’s okay to abandon so much of the traditions that we hold sacred yet have now become anchors to debt and confusion. I must first take that step on my own.

So I invite you this Christmas to abandon the obligation of Christmas, the vapid spending that provides an instant thrill but eventually leaves us with an empty heart as well as a pocketbook. I invite you to help lead the way to redeeming the season in such a way that the world begins to take notice. For those interested, you may want to check out Advent Conspiracy.

To Read Other Posts in this synchroblog, see below:

• Recapturing the Spirit of Christmas at Adam Gonnerman’s Igneous Quill
• Swords into Plowshares at Sonja Andrew’s Calacirian
• Fanning the Flickering Flame of Advent at Paul Walker’s Out of the Cocoon
• Lainie Petersen at Headspace
• Sam Norton at Elizaphanian
• Brian Riley at at Charis Shalom
• Secularizing Christmas at JohnSmulo.com
• There’s Something About Mary at Hello Said Jenelle
• Geocentric Versus Anthropocentric Holydays at Phil Wyman’s Square No More
• Celebrating Christmas in a Pluralistic Society at Erin Word’s Decompressing Faith
• Redeeming the season — season of redemption by Steve Hayes
• Remembering the Incarnation at Alan Knox’ The Assembling of the Church
• A Biblical Response to a Secular Christmas by Glenn Ansley’s Bad Theology
• Happy Life Day at The Agent B Files

Read Full Post »

A Balance Social System: Capunism

As human beings we live in social systems. Over history the predominant forms include feudalism, socialism, communism, pacifism, capitalism, The list of isms is actually extremely long and categorized alphabetically in wikipedia. As a follower of Jesus I’ve always been intrigued by two: communism and capitalism.

No, I’m not a communist in the Marxist sense but the idea of a shared social system where people are constantly engaged in community and a shared living is eerily reminiscent of the early Acts church.

Acts 4:32-35 – 32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

There’s even a category within communism called Christian communism that expresses the idea that I am talking about. The problem within communism is that is has stifled creativity and usually ends up having a ruling party that exploits the system anyway. Cuba under Fidel Castro is an example of this.

But the reality of my life is that I’m bent towards capitalism. I grew up in Silicon Valley with is widely considered a breeding ground for capitalism. When I was young my stepfather, who owned his own construction business, would ask my sister and I questions about how to innovate things and make stuff better. I literally grew up thinking about entrepreneurial activities and by the time I graduated from college I had started my own business. I grew it into a very successful marketing firm. I had clients that included IBM, Sony, and even HP. I saw the rise and fall of the Internet boom and bust in my own backyard. I got to experience first hand a young Internet start-up go from 2.3 millions to bust in six months.

Capitalism has one defining quality that makes it stick. It rewards those who work hard and are diligent with resources, which even Jesus talked about in the parable of the talents. (Matthew 25:14-30) There’s something good about capitalism that is still being defined.

In capitalism, money essentially (but not always) gravitates towards ideas that work and with the constant stream of engineering students exiting the best schools in the 70’s and the rise of the semiconductor, capitalism took off over the last thirty years. With the advent of the consultant and the business book, it learned how to constantly innovate.

Now I realize that capitalism also has it’s flaws. To a certain extent, it needs consumerism to flourish. It needs customers. But this is not necessarily always the case and a great argument could be made for the good outweighing the bad. In fact in the recent Catalyst podcast, Tim Sanders describes brilliantly how the emerging generations will put a serious clamp on business that aren’t socially responsible.

Recently I read an intriguing quote from M. Scott Peck from The Road Less Traveled. He said,

“Pure communism, for instance, expresses a philosophy…that the purpose and function of the individual is to serve the relationship, the group, the collective, the society. Only the destiny of the state is considered; the destiny of the individual is believed to be of no consequence. Pure capitalism, on the other hand, espouses the destiny of the individual even when it is at the expense the destiny of the individual even when it is at the expense of the relationship, the group, the collective, the society.”

He continues a page later,

“It should be obvious to any discerning mind that neither of these pure solutions to the problem of separateness within relationships will be successful. The individual’s health depends upon the health of the society; the health of a society depends upon the health of its individual.”

Peck’s words made me ask if in this postmodern world we are anywhere near creating a system that is balanced between communism and the capitalism, between love and growth. Something like, “capunism”.

What do you think?

 

 

Read Full Post »

Black Friday – A Prelude To Christmas

Today is Black Friday. It’s kind of an ironically appropriate name to the god of consumerism. Black Friday is a reference to today, which is the day after Thanksgiving and one of the biggest shopping days of the year. The term was coined by the press after the stress it causes people and was named after the Black Tuesday stock market crass of 1929. Niiice.

My wife and are deeply wrestling with Christmas this year. To be honest we don’t really want to participate. It has almost completely lost any semblance of meaning for us and we’re looking for alternatives. A friend of mine talked about taking a van load of gifts to a Mexican orphanage this year and my heart leaped. The trip would have meant missing any Christmas with extended family but I really didn’t care. And when my sister told me that we weren’t doing Christmas with the them this year, I had nothing standing in my way. Unfortunately the trip didn’t materialize so I was bummed.

Rick McKinley’s Imago Dei Community church created Advent Conspiracy, as an alternative to the typical consumer oriented Christmas of buying a million gift. I really like the idea and we’re looking into it as an alternative. AC is about giving, not presents. It’s about capturing the spirit of what Christmas is really about by making Christmas gifts and then giving the rest of the “Xmas budget” to a clean water project.

“Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion, not consumption”

There it is, that word: consumption. Christmas is a big deal in this country. Shoppers are expected to purchase 454 billion dollars in November and December. Consumption is critical to keeping our economy humming. But is all of that consumption producing what we expected? It consumption making us bloated at the expense of something else? It is completely fair to say that I don’t need a single thing I would ever get from UNDER the Christmas tree.

I wrestle with letting go of the Christmas “traditions” because I know some of my favorite memories are of my childhood Christmas experiences. I don’t want to take the value of the holiday away from my three kids. But even those memories, with closer inspection, I realize are more about family that the gifts. The only gifts I can really truly remember as special were a G.I Joe and a bike.

The memories that really stick out to me have nothing to do with the presents. The best ones were hanging out with family. I remember the long drives on Christmas Eve morning to Los Angeles to my grandparents house. I remember hanging out with all my cousins and playing endless hours with people. The presents were fun but it was the people that I remember the most. Even later in life, I remember the 27 person dinner table conversations filled with laughter. One thing my family knew how to do was laugh.

And two things really sticks out to me. The first was that my mom always invited someone to Christmas Eve, which was the big night in my family. And she was so good about making them feel so special and part of our family. When I was young this felt awkward, but as I grew older I began to see that she got what Christmas was really about, the deep need for connection. The second was that the “gift” really didn’t do much for me. Yes it was cool to get the latest shirt all my friends had or the Star Wars collectible set with 367 pieces, but to a great extent the newness wore off very quickly and that thing that I got ceased to become the center of my attention withing days. I see this same process happen in my children.

The more I look at Christmas, and Black Friday, the more I wonder if Christmas has taken on a new meaning. In the endless drive to fill the tree with presents, has it become a way to compensate for our lack of connection as human beings? Do we give the endless stream of gifts as a way of saying sorry for the lack of connection throughout the year? Has it become the only way we know how to connect, through the process of giving gifts. Has it become a forced ritual that leaves us wanting? And in the end, do all of the gifts leave us as sick as when we started?

If you have a really good alternative idea for Christmas, I’d really like to hear it. My family and my soul would really be interested.

Read Full Post »

What Would Jesus Buy

You can find the website here.

You can find where it’s playing here.

From Fandango – Bill Talen is a New York-based activist and performance artist who since the late 1990’s has won notoriety for his character Rev. Billy. Rev. Billy is a wildly charismatic street preacher and self-appointed leader of the Church of Stop Shopping who began his career speaking out against the gentrification of New York City, the forced renovation of 42nd Street and his favorite symbol of the evils of international marketing, the Disney Store. Since then, Rev. Billy has expanded his targets to include a number of firms (including Starbucks Coffee and several fast food chains) who engage in unfair labor practices and exploit Third World resources for profit; he also performs with a full gospel choir and a four piece band as they spread the message of overcoming the consumer culture, speaking with your dollars and questioning what advertising and corporate spokespeople have to say. While Talen’s routines started out as comic street theater, he’s become recognized as an effective (if deliberately eccentric) advocate for economic justice, and filmmaker Rob VanAlkemade offers an in-depth look at the phenomenon of Rev. Billy in his documentary What Would Jesus Buy? Produced in part by Morgan Spurlock, What Would Jesus Buy? received its world premiere at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Read Full Post »