I spent a decade trying to convince my family not to give me material gifts for Christmas. Every December, I would craft an e-mail with a detailed case for buying nothing at Christmas\u2014philosophical, theological, and cultural cases for my newfound commitment and, when that didn\u2019t seem to convince them, an annotated list of alternative gift suggestions. It did not work.<\/p>\n
After years of receiving the annual e-mail plea, my grandmother finally responded with a short, firm reply: \u201cDana Beth, I love you very much. Giving gifts at Christmas is a way I show that love, and I\u2019m not going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fair enough.<\/p>\n
I gave up the proselytizing attempts after that, but I haven\u2019t given up the attempt at simplicity during the holiday season. Especially in the life of a congregation, November and December may fade into a blurry parade of parties, events, and celebrations. There are Sunday school parties and special choir concerts, a children\u2019s play and caroling. There are presents to buy, desserts to bake, gatherings to host, and visits to plan.<\/p>\n
In the rush of the season, it can feel impossible to sit still, to watch and wait, to savor the anticipation of the coming Christ.<\/p>\n
But if we look more closely at the scriptures that lead us toward Christmas, and allow ourselves to ponder the magnitude of what it is we are preparing ourselves for . . . it might be enough to make us set aside the wrapping paper and mixing bowls and take a very deep breath.<\/p>\n
During these weeks, we anticipate an earth-shattering event. A divine incarnation. A rupture in time itself. A cosmic moment of salvation. No gift buying or cookie baking will ever live up to the immense meaning contained in the birth of the Christ.<\/p>\n
What can we do to savor this season? How can we allow ourselves time to breathe deeply and live a bit more simply?<\/p>\n
Here are a few things I\u2019ve found helpful:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not suggesting extra, super-special worship services, but small, simple, contemplative times of prayer and meditation. These can be respites from the hustle and bustle, set-apart hours to be still and silent, to rest in God\u2019s presence and God\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s necessary? What\u2019s life-giving? Are there things you do out of obligation or a blind adherence to tradition? Does it bring joy? Does it contribute to the coming Kingdom of God\u2019s mercy and justice? Or is it an unnecessary drain of energy and resources?<\/p>\n
Changing your own practices around Christmas won\u2019t necessarily change the culture, the church, or even the way your own family does things. Like I (slowly) learned with my own buy-nothing evangelism, we are all called to different expressions of faithfulness, different ways of showing love.<\/p>\n
These days, instead of trying to change my family\u2019s practices, I\u2019ve started putting more time and energy into changing my own. It\u2019s not perfect. It\u2019s not easy. But it is simpler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What can we do to savor this season? How can we allow ourselves time to breathe deeply and live more simply?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[105],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dana-cassell"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}