Gifts with Love

 

Last Tuesday my wife Joanna and I delivered some coats to kids at one of the schools that Retread sponsors.  I took a picture (sorry it’s not shown, but I don’t have the permission of the kids) of Joanna with five of the first graders who received a new coat.  She tried desperately to get them to open their new gift, but they refused and gave us this reason “We want to put them under our Christmas tree at home.”  The counselor we work with said it may be the only gift they get this Christmas.

We absolutely loved delivering these gifts and wish we could have done more.  Our angel tree collected 45 coats, so there will be 45 warmer children in Dallas this winter, but what about all the rest?  How do we help more kids? How do we give more gifts with love?  We want to help them all!

What do you want for Christmas?

I decided to group gifts into two different categories this year to help me think more clearly about what I want for Christmas.

Lackluster Gifts:

New 42″ plasma screen TV, iPod Nano, iPhone, furniture, home accessories, a new car, TAG Heuer watch, and new clothing. Sony Playstation with Gutar Hero III, tickets to the big game, new landscaping in the back yard, and hardwood flooring in our house.

Reflective Gifts:

New coats for inner city elementary kids, warm sleeping bags for homeless people, back packs full of school supplies for kids in a third world country, and clean water wells for Africa. Having coffee with a friend, going to a movie with my wife, instant messaging with a long lost college buddy, and having my neighbors over for dinner. Spending time with an elderly person and hearing about their amazing life. Watching Wakeland walk through our house with no assistance and sponsoring a child from another country so they can have an education.

What do you want for Christmas? Would it be something from the lackluster gifts or one from the reflective gifts.  Will you remember next Christmas what you received for this Christmas? Have we made Christmas overrated or have we totally missed the point of Christmas all together?

Defining Church

church      [church]  Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

1.	a building for public Christian worship.

How often do we take this definition for church literal?  Is the church really just a building with four walls where we go to worship? Or should the definition for church become more of a, living, breathing, action filled definition?  This certainly seems to be a topic of discussion in many of the conversations I’ve been involved in this year.  With the rise of young people taking social justice issues to heart, the focus of the church is often being discussed.  The older more traditional way of thinking seems to focus on bringing people into our building, so they can learn about Christ.  Others, often but not always younger, believe we should go out and be among people, so they might see Christ through acts of love and service.  Which thought is correct or are they both acceptable ways of defining the church?

Saying Thanks

A friend sent me an email today and I thought it was really cool, so I wanted to share it with everyone.  Xerox is doing a really nice thing for our soliders right now.  If you go to the website listed below, you can pick a card, and Xerox will print it and send it to one of our soliders, who are away from home right now.  I followed the link and it litterally only took a couple of minutes and it’s totally free!  So, go and do it right now!  Maybe you’ll be a small part of reshaping the way someone feels, even if only for a day.  You never know what a difference you might make!

http://www.letssaythanks.com