Christmas thoughts

I just found out that the president of Guinea died Monday night. I remember the missionaries that I lived with had said that if the president ever dies that things will be bad in Guinea. Right now the military has taken over. You can read more at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7796902.stm


Please be praying for Guinea and for all those who are there that they would not experience violence and that a new leader can peacefully be elected.

This news has pushed me deeper into my thoughts about life lately. This Christmas has felt different then any other Christmas before. Usually I am so excited about all the fun Christmas parties, the traditional food, the presents. I used to wake up at 6:00 am every morning. Even when I was in my twenties. (For those who know me and my love of the mornings, this is amazing that I would voluntarily wake up at 6:00!)

But this year, everything has felt different. I am not excited about any of those things. I feel weighed down with the problems that I have seen in our world. My heart feels heavy. I think it started when I first heard about water for Christmas and the crazy stats about how much money American spends on Christmas every year.

I don't usually ever watch TV and I hate shopping, but the past couple of days I have done a lot of both with my family. What I see on TV and see in the stores kind of disgusts me. I hate all the commericials that make it look like it is our right to get nice, big, expensive Christmas presents. I hate how happiness is only shown through getting more, aquiring more stuff. At Walmart, my dad was looking for a religious Christmas card and out of the rows and rows of Christmas cards, we could only find 2 or 3 that were religious. How did this happen?

How is that our economy is "suffering" yet people can still spend ridiculous amounts of money on a pair of jeans, or a brand new TV?

Why do Americans feel that it is their right to have these things? We have a sense of entitlement that we should be able to have all these nice things. Where did that come from?

And how is it that I can be sitting in a nice home, surronded by lots of food and presents, while people that I know in Guinea are fearing for their lives this Christmas?

It all seems so twisted, so wrong and it is.

The thing that really gets me is that its really easy to look at our society and to get angry at people for their attitudes of entitlement and lack of concern for the rest of the world, but I see these very same attitudes in myself.

It is so easy to not get caught up with wanting more and wanting nice Christmas presents, and feel that it is my right to have a nice Christmas.

Our society has so shaped our thoughts and our views that we don't even recongize these unhealthy attitudes that are so much a part of who we are.

So what should Christmas be to us? How can we in a healthy way still celebrate this blessed holiday?

I have had a lot of conversations lately that have given me the impression tha tmost people have lost hope, especially lost hope in Africa. Lost hope that anything will ever change there, that there will always be problems, so we should let them be. I can understand people feeling this way, there are a lot of problems in the world, and the solutions can sometimes cause bigger problems.

But... we CANNOT lose hope.

We can't lose hope. That is what Christmas is all about. HOPE. The hope that Jesus brought to this earth. If we lose hope, then we have nothing to cling to. No promise that things will be different or better. Hope that one day Jesus will make all things right.

This Christmas I can't help, but be reflective of my experiences in Sierra Leone, in Guinea, and with my refugee friends. There is a lot of hurt in the world, and yes when in America have a lot of attitudes that need to be re-adjusted. We have taken the idea of Christmas and completly Americanized it, in a non healthy way.

I keep coming back to the words of O Holy Night, which is an amazing song.
"His law is love, and his gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
And in his name all oppression shall cease."


That is what Christmas is about. Jesus coming to loose the chains of injustice and bring back hope to the world. I want to cling to that truth and that promise this Christmas.