The Joy of Giving

What is Christmas? What has it become? 

Everyone seems to agree that Christmas is the season of giving. Christians give gifts to commemorate the gift of Jesus, who entered into humanity to give us all the gift of salvation. 

But in reality, Christmas often turns into a frenzy of shopping and pressure as we focus on presents … especially presents for ourselves. We hunt desperately for gifts for others that will reflect well on us for the least possible expenditure, even as our anticipation revolves mostly on the stuff we’ll be getting. We make lists. We drop hints. We overextend. As we shop for others, we buy something for ourselves. Our giving seems buried in our getting. 

Our appetite to satisfy our desires is teased prodded by endless messages from the retail industry. It’s a frenzy of buying all this stuff, half of which we don’t need or even want. This things of modern life accumulates in our homes, only to be broken or forgotten until eventually, we send it to a landfill. 

Jesus came, and He gave. He gave his time, His love, His wisdom, His healing power, and His life. He gave attention to the marginalized. He was kind to the scorned, the undesirables, the second-class citizens of His day. And the celebrities. And the politicians. And the children. And the women. And the leaders. And the sick. And the soldiers. And the criminals. He touched the untouchable, conversed with the scorned, healed the sick, raised the dead, and taught the simple. 

That's giving. 

Jesus Himself told us that it is better to give than to receive. So this year, my family is going to experience the joy of giving by taking the focus off ourselves and putting it on others. 

"This year, we're going to experience the joy of giving by taking the focus off ourselves and putting it on others."

We’ll be filling an Advent Calendar with daily inspirations for our “Giving Christmas.” Each day, from December 1 until December 25, we’ll open a giving challenge. We’ll pray over it, asking God to show us who needs our gift of time, service, encouragement, or a small token. We may be able to perform the act of giving on the day we receive the challenge. Or we may have to do it some time in the coming week. 

We’ll do a lot of our giving anonymously.

By Christmas Day, we will have had 25 opportunities to give in a meaningful way to lots of people, and we will have discovered the joy of giving. We’ll draw names and give a small gift to one person in the family. We’ll scale back the spending on gifts for extended family. 

On Christmas Day, we’ll each open a gift and then share our memories of "The Giving Christmas." After that, we'll climb into the car and do our final act of kindness for this Christmas. 

I believe that this will be the Christmas that our children remember long after that stuff that they wanted so badly this year would have been in the landfill. This will be the one they'll tell their friends about for years. This will be the one they'll want to replicate with their spouses and children years from now. This might even become a tradition if we can't bear to give it up and go back to the rat race next year. 

I'll share with you the giving challenges we are using this year. There are many more that your family can use. Perhaps readers will share even more ideas, which I would welcome. 

Join us on our journey as we find out what happens ...