If you read this blog a lot you know I like to approach topics from odd angles to stimulate thought. This post will be one those.

On Sunday, the first worship service after Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, guess what I heard at church? This:

"Christmas is too commercialized! The reason behind the season has been lost."

And I was just bored out of my mind! How many times do we have to hear that tired old formulation, "Christmas is too commercialized"? It's getting a bit stale.

So, for a different take, let me take a moment to praise the commercialization of Christmas. I want to defend why all that shopping is a good thing.

Don't get me wrong. I think American consumerism and materialism is a great evil. And lot's of what goes on at Christmas fits this mold and should be rejected. But too many churches paint with too broad a brush when they denounce the crowded stores during the holiday season. Those crowed malls have a lot of spirituality flowing through them. And I think we should pause and recognize that fact.

Thus, before we denounce the commercialization of Christmas, let's pause to note that all those shoppers are SHOPPING FOR SOMEONE ELSE! And that is a very deep spiritual realization. All those shoppers are not thinking of themselves, they are thinking of someone else. When during the year do we spend this much time thinking about the needs and wants of the people in our lives? All that "consumerism" looks awfully unselfish to me. It warms my heart to see those crowded parking lots at the mall.

I know I'm going to venture off to the malls to shop for my wife. I'll be a part of the "consumeristic" mob. But you know what? I love, for spiritual reasons, joining that crowd. My wife will be traveling to India this Christmas season to bring encouragement, food, and medical aid to children in an orphanage. And on her Christmas list Jana has a journal and some pens to record her trip. So I'm excited about shopping for a really good journal with some good pens for her Christmas present. If that's consumeristic then feel free to denounce me from your pulpits. But I'm going shopping this Christmas!

On Black Friday my mother and father-in-law stood in line at 5:00 am in the freezing cold waiting for a store to open. Why? Because they were looking for a toy (one in limited supply) for their grandsons. True, the shopping scene on Black Friday isn't very, well, "merry", but in those crazed throngs two grandparents woke up early and stood in the cold to buy a gift for two little boys. Consumeristic? Perhaps. But that shopping is also an expression of love.

Here's my point. Don't you love giving gifts to people? Further, don't you love giving extravagant gifts to people? I do. I know we have to worry about living within our means and to think about the poor, but do we have to ALWAYS play the Scrooge and denounce the "consumerism" of Christmas? Why can't we get a sermon once in awhile about the joys of giving gifts?

Because, if I have this right, all that shopping IS the reason for the season. God gave us a gift. So we give gifts in kind. Isn't that the point? Maybe people don't explicitly connect the gift-giving with the Original Gift, but they do get the big point about Christmas: Take a moment to step outside of yourself and THINK about what someone else needs or wants.

I don't know about you, but that seems to be a very, very spiritual thing to do.

See you at the mall!