An End to the World's Broken Christmas.....

This afternoon we were at Walmart returning a movie.  Now I don't know if you happened to get out and about this afternoon, but if you did and you live in the Sioux Falls area, it was a beautiful December afternoon.  The sun was shining and it wasn't too cold.  Mix this with it being the holiday season and it should make for some amazingly cheery people.  However, I witnessed something today that made my heart ache.  You see as I was walking up to the door, I heard someone very forcefully laying on their horn.  I quite frantically looked in all directions to see where it happened to be coming from.  Was there an accident about to happen? Was a child in the road where they shouldn't be? But much to my surprise nothing like that was happening.  Instead I saw a very grumpy older man (70ish) getting out of his vehicle *which was parked in the middle of the aisle btw) and heading up to a SUV that had just parked in a front row parking spot....

Now I can imagine that you are thinking the same thing as me....The man in the SUV 'stole' the other man's parking pot.  And that's just what the man said as he quite forcefully tapped on the SUV's window.  He proceeded to say "You WILL back out." I quite frankly wasn't sure if I should continue to watch just in case 911 needed to be called or not.  But I decided to run in, return my movie and then see how the situation was when I came back out.  Not much had changed to be honest.  The gentleman was still talking to the person in the SUV, and within a few more seconds he was back in his car driving off.  As I walked by the SUV I noticed the man was an elderly man and it made my heart break a little.  Because frankly I don't think this man was intentionally trying to 'steal' the man's spot.  I honestly doubt he even saw where he was waiting for that prime spot.  A few minutes later, Trav and I drove by that spot and I then noticed a handicap sticker in the man's windshield.  As you can imagine, it's holiday shopping season and therefore handicap parking is hard to come by.  So in my mind I imagine this elderly man trying frantically to get to that front row parking spot (that wasn't handicap parking).  And when he parked, he probably felt so thankful he didn't have to park near the back......and what happened? A quite capable to walk man confronted him with the notion that how dare HE take his spot.  As if he was entitled to it way more than him...even if he didn't see him waiting.....

As we drove home I couldn't stop thinking about it.  The Christmas season is supposed to be filled with joy, gratitude, and kindness.  And what do we see the most of when we are out and about? Shoppers frantically trying to check off their to do lists and if we are honest...not much holiday cheer.  We as a society have started to make it quite clear that we feel entitled to what we want...when we want it.  And if things don't go our exact way (whether it be the parking spot we want, an item we 'need' to buy, or how someone else treats us), we lose our holiday magic quite fast.

I know for a fact, I can easily 100% fall into this trap.  Christmas time can so easily get stressful.  All the events we need to go to, all the people we need to shop for, all the chaos that seems to be happening at stores all over the country.  On the flip side there are also many that are hurting this holiday season.  Whether it be grief, finances, or what seems like a very broken Christmas.....

Therefore as we are out and about, we encounter all types of people that fall into all kinds of categories during this time.  And we are left with a very hard decision.  I say hard because it isn't an easy thing to just do.  We need to be intentional about this decision and constantly make the choice by the minute sometimes even.....

We are left with the choice to either let our entitlements and emotions get the best of us and turn into a scrooge and quite frankly a crab....or we can choose to let what the Christmas season is really all about to seep into every nook and cranny of ourselves.  And choose that no matter what may happen, no matter how someone else treats us, no matter what we think we need.....choose to be the joy of the season.  Choose to let the hurting world around us see Jesus in us like never before.....

It is something we should be doing all year and yet it also seems to be that this time of year is the hardest to do it.  Let us as Christians shine a beckon of light into what sometimes can turn into a very broken season for the world.  Where society seems to dictate that our selfish wants are more important than being kind to others.  A time where the world seems to push more of the attention on what kind of good deals we can get rather than the love of a Savior....but the world is so desperately searching for that love during this season, even if they don't want to admit it.

So will you join me in being even more conscious of how we are treating people? I thought I do pretty good most of the time but I know deep down in my heart that I don't do as good as I should.  I don't have to be happy and smiling all the time, but it could be something as simple as not getting so irritated when the check out line is taking longer than I want.  Letting someone who only has an item or two go in front of me.  Holding open a door as someone is running to get into the warmth.  Perhaps buying coffee for the person behind me and handing them a note saying "Merry Christmas! Jesus loves you!" Not snapping at the cashier even if they are being beyond rude.  Or simply letting someone else have the closer parking spot......

Christmas should be about the love and warmth of our Savior being born into this world.  It should be about spreading that love to celebrate His birth.  This isn't an easy choice to make when our worlds seems to get so chaotic during this time but it's one I think we need to be reminded to make daily.....  

If we want how broken the world seems sometimes during Christmas to come to an end....it starts with us.....