Give More

Up to this point, Advent Conspiracy has been challenging, but not so challenging.  Worship fully.  Spend less.  Check (mostly).  Sure, I could worship more fully in my life, finding ways to let my life be an act of praise for God.  Sure, I could spend less on stuff that really isn't important and instead buy things that are meaningful for both the recipient and their makers.

We live in the midst of a torn economic culture.  While we talk about consumerism, we also talk about extreme thrift, reusing, and coupon-cutting.  Spending less isn't exactly foreign to most of us.  But giving more: now here is where I feel especially challenged.  If I am not redirecting toward others the fruits of spending less, am I really worshiping Jesus as fully as I can?  Or, am I just hoarding for a time when I feel we can afford spending more?

I read a reader-testimonial in a recent issue of Redbook that got me thinking about this.  Without any reference to God, Jesus, or the church, a family shared about their experience during the recent economic downturn.  The woman wrote about how her family was as poor as its ever been, but that they're actually happier.  They've participated in spending less on a fairly extreme scale.  They're making things themselves that they normally bought and they've cut many non-essentials from their budgets.  But in the midst of this cutting, she wrote that they'd given more money away than ever before.  They gave to help others who needed clean drinking water, and those who needed medical care after natural disasters.

That Redbook woman, and Advent Conspiracy (and Jesus, really) have challenged me.  The conspiracy, the effort to celebrate the fact that God came to dwell among us as a human, isn't just that we play at being counter-cultural and stick it to the retailers who aren't locals.  The conspiracy is taking hold of the old maxim that it's truly better to give than to receive, and then to blow the doors off of giving - to give with a fervor and love that can only be outdone by the love God showed the world by taking on flesh in Jesus.

Advent Conspiracy: Spend Less

This week's theme challenges our financial practices during the big gift-buying season. "Spend less," they say. The obvious questions might be, "Less than who?" and "Less than when?" I have no prescriptions, but I think they're probably right: worshipping Jesus during Advent might just require us to seriously examine and possibly change our spending habits.

We need to do this, not because buying gifts for loved ones is wrong, or that the amount is biblically prescribed. We need to examine our spending as an antidote to the powerful spend-happy culture we live in.

Here's what convinced me of this: I was driving by the church with our three-year-old the past week. He pointed to the outdoor nativity and said, "Baby Jesus."

I told him, "No, not yet. We put Baby Jesus out on Christmas Eve."

"Why?" he says, in the way toddlers do.

"Because that's what Christmas is for: we celebrate the birth of Jesus."

"Why?" he says again.

Not having a good answer, I threw it back at him, "What do you think we celebrate at Christmas?"

Without missing a beat, he says, "Toys!" and "Santa!"

This was surprising because we haven't made a big deal of gift-giving at Christmas (especially toys - we're a book and PJs house) and Santa doesn't even come to our house. We don't have TV so there aren't any commercials and he only goes to pre-school for two mornings a week.

Where did he get the message that Christmas was about toys and Santa? Our culture is much stronger than I realized.

And one way I hope to counteract this in my own home is by spending less. We're planning to make some cinnamon/applesauce ornaments as gifts, now. We'll examine what we buy, who we buy it from, and who made it (and we'll do so in a way that we can engage our kids in) - because relationships through purchases matter too.

I know this spending and gift-giving thing is a matter of personal preference and cultural habits, but I've begun to question for myself if I can say I worship Jesus and then spend money without thinking. It gets harder and harder. But we haven't felt any less full of Christmas cheer (and in fact are less stressed). And, our families haven't been upset that we didn't buy them some piece of mostly junk they didn't need. And we can spend more money on gifts that have relationships built in, like fair trade items and local crafts.

"That which we desire becomes that which we worship" (Advent Conspiracy). May we worship the one born in stable well.