A Christmas Challenge

Christmas is fast approaching (only 6 days left); there are more lights going up on houses, shops are getting busier as people search for those final few presents, and there are only a few days left to post those Christmas cards, Christmas cards that are becoming less and less religious. In 2011, the Daily Mail conducted a survey and discovered that “of 6,576 cards in major supermarkets in seven locations in England and Wales … only 36 featured scenes such as Jesus in a manger or angels. Traditional nativity scenes appear on less than 0.5% of all cards available.”

And it is not just Christmas cards that show the increasing decline of Christ in Christmas. The following statistics are taken from http://www.eauk.org/culture/statistics/christmas-facts-and-quotes.cfm;

In a survey conducted by ComRes on behalf of Theos in December 2010 the following results were obtained:

·  51% agreed with the statement "The birth of Jesus is irrelevant to my Christmas" whilst 46% disagreed with the statement.

·  61% agreed "Christmas is mainly for children" whilst 38% disagreed.

·  36% said they would be attending a Christmas service. 62% said they would not be going to a service, 2% were unsure.

A survey commissioned by The Children's Society in 2010 found that only 10% of adults think that it's religious meaning is the most important thing about Christmas. Only 4% of 25-34 year olds thought the religious aspect was important whilst 20% of those over 60's years feel that it is the key aspect of Christmas. 67% of all adults said spending time with family was the most important thing about Christmas.

As well as these statistics, Norwich has also been dubbed the ‘most godless city’ in England and Wales after the census showed the city has the highest proportion of people reporting ‘no religion’.

A pretty bleak picture.

But this is the world we are called to. We are called to spread the word of God, and we have the perfect opportunity at this time of year. By explaining the true meaning of Christmas, we can share the gospel. Christmas grants us opportunities to share that are unique.

Have you spoken to anyone this year about what Christmas really means? I know I haven’t. I’ve shied away from it and not taken opportunities to share. But my challenge to you and to me is to share the meaning with at least one person who does not truly understand why we celebrate Christmas.

Maybe grab a coffee with a friend, chat through Christmas plans, and invite them to a service? There’s still time!

Or if you’re less confident, maybe post a link to a youtube video on your facebook, with explanation and something from yourself about why you celebrate Christmas? The one I plan to share with some friends is at the end of this post, and there are many more at www.thenativityfactor.com

Find what works for you. But please, spread the light of Christmas amongst those who walk in darkness. Please share any stories in the comments, on twitter (@AloveAnglia1) or on facebook (/alove.anglia1)

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas.

Becky

'Spending' Christmas

How much will you spend this Christmas?

When we see these figures and look at spending habits at Christmas, it cam be easy to dismiss this as not relating to us. We can feel that because ‘we know the meaning of Christmas’, all the excessive spending and bad habits ‘will not be down to us’.

But is this really the case? I know there have been times when amongst all the present buying and card writing and tree decorating, I sometimes forget to check my bank account, the budget I set, or even why I’m doing things. We too can be swept up in the tide of Christmas-hysteria that sweeps the land from early November. We buy presents throughout the year to ‘avoid the Christmas rush’; we stockpile Christmas cards, wrapping paper and decorations in the January sales so we’re ready for next year, and then can’t remember where we put them. We see preparing for Christmas as a chore, and not a joy; a time for worry and overspending, not a time for preparation.

Why do we buy gifts for one another? We know the traditions – it’s about remembering God’s gift to us all in Jesus and the gifts the wise men brought – but is that where our hearts are when we buy these gifts? Do we buy them from obligation?

When I was in secondary school, I remember the panic that December brought on – which of my friends do I buy presents for? Who do I write cards to? What if someone gets me a present and I haven’t got them one? How much is this all going to cost me from my pocket money? Eventually, the presents we ended up exchanging were silly, cheap, and essentially meaningless. We wouldn’t even take them home to enjoy opening on Christmas day – the classroom bins would be filled with brightly coloured paper and empty chocolate boxes (the best present for those on a budget with lots to buy) throughout the final weeks. Sound familiar?

I witnessed the same thing happening in a youth club earlier this week. When I asked them why they had opened their presents early, they said “Well I knew what it was, and I wanted to have it now”. The young people did not bother wondering what the present was – they knew it was a cheap gift bought out of obligation. They did not feel any expectation, hope or wonder about what was in the wrapping paper, and did not feel that by waiting anything extra would be gained.

As I grew up, I started to be the strange person that received the presents in school and slipped them into my bag unopened. Even though I (very often) knew what was inside, I wanted to experience a time of waiting for that gift. My friends were always surprised, and often tried to encourage me to open the presents early. I refused, explaining I wanted to truly appreciate their gift by opening it when I had the time to do so properly – not in the five minutes between lessons when I would smile politely, say thanks, and rush on. I would then message anyone who had given me a gift on Christmas day, thanking them for their gift.

Originally, I feel this habit was bred out of a desire to have the most presents to open on Christmas morning, but as I continued to do this, I began to change my attitude to the gifts I had received. Although many of the gifts were bought from obligation

and didn’t cost much, I really began to appreciate that this person had stopped to think of me during the busyness of Christmas shopping, even if it wasn’t really from the best motive.

In the past few years, I have tried to make my Christmas behaviour more meaningful. I buy presents for those I care about, not who I feel obligated to buy for. I try and buy things they want, like or need, not buying into cheap ‘3 for 2’ deals (although if this happens to occur, it is a bonus). Whenever I buy a gift, I try to remember why I am doing it (whatever time of year it is).

The one thing I most want you to take away from this blog post is that however we prepare for Christmas, whatever we spend, that we should have a heart of worship, during a time of hope and preparation, and that all we do should be as part of a celebration of God’s love for us.

Advent

It’s December! That means decorations can go up, advent calendars can be opened, and the crazy shoppers can be released. Life gets busy with writing Christmas cards, buying presents, visiting friends and family, getting all the food in, attending carol services, etc. This has resulted in the office getting quiet as everyone is busy, and I’m sitting and preparing for the events in the year ahead.

While Christmas is exciting, we should be focussing on Advent itself. Just as I am using this month to prepare for the year ahead, Advent is about preparing ourselves for Jesus’ birth and for his return. Advent is a time of waiting and expecting, and preparing our hearts and minds for Christmas, so we are ready and can meditate on the real meaning.

Throughout this month and time of preparation, I hope to update this blog regularly with short thoughts that will help us all prepare for Christmas and remember the true meaning of welcoming Christ into the world.

Guarding Our Keyboards

Social networking is on the rise. There is no denying it. But is it a fad or is it here to stay?

This video shows us that social media is becoming a tool utilised by businesses to increase their advertising, but it is also becoming the way we become known amongst our peers, colleagues and family. Everything we put on social media sites, such as facebook and twitter, can be accessed by everyone on our friends list, and unless you’re very tech-savvy, the friends list of your friends list. Personal information can be distributed and shared across a wide ranging network that often we can not see the end of.

I’m not writing this to cast doom and gloom over social media – I do use it and find it useful for communicating with friends and family, but there is a responsibility that comes with using these kinds of communication tools.

Have you ever posted a status you regretted? Have you ever become annoyed and frustrated with someone or something, and immediately vented that anger online? Have you ever sent something to the wrong person? Or posted a comment on someone’s wall that was supposed to be kept private?

The problem we can face with social media is that it is very difficult to take back what we have said. Tens and hundreds (possibly thousands) of people have seen our personal thoughts that were posted online before we stopped to think about them.

The internet depersonalises what we do. Things we may never say in person can easily slip out online. This may not only be detrimental to us, but those the comments were directed at, and our faith. How Christian would we appear if people viewed our facebook statuses and tweets alone?

Proverbs 21:23 says “Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity”. It was wise advice then – maybe we should remember this next time we go to our keyboards, with a few adjustments –

“Those who guard their keyboards and their updates keep themselves from calamity”

Seasons of Life

The days are growing shorter and darker. Temperatures are falling and the final warm, sunny days seem to have disappeared forever. Leaves are turning from lush summer green to reds and browns before falling to cover the ground. We have definitely arrived at autumn.

I love the seasons. Whenever I’m asked which my favourite season is, I can never decide. There are things I love about each season, but there are also the negatives. Autumn brings a beautiful diversity of colour to the trees, and the satisfying crunch of leaves beneath your feet as you walk; but it also brings the darker, colder days I have already mentioned. When winter comes, we get the beauty that a white world of snow can bring, but also the cold, the danger of driving in snow, and more darkness than light. Spring then arrives, and we are greeted by the new life in the fields, the beautiful spring flowers, and the days growing longer; but we also face the regular rain. And then summer, with the long, occasionally hot, summer days; but then you get sunburn, especially if you are as pale as me!

 

There is a tree outside DHQ that I have the perfect view of from my desk, and I have been enjoying watching the changes that autumn is bringing to it. It reminds me that we all go through seasons in our own lives. These may not be cyclical, like the seasons of our world, but we will experience them all at some point in our lives.

The autumns of our life are those times when things come to an end; leaving school or university, the end of a job, moving home, etc. and we begin to prepare for the change. It can be a time of beauty, just like the changing colours of the leaves, but it can also be a time of uncertainty, and the days can seem to be growing darker around us. But we need to remember that God is there with us and supporting us through this.

The winters are the times of hardship, pain, and loss, when we feel that all the pleasure of life has drained away. We can become cold and lifeless to those around us, but these times can be when God makes us fresh for a new start. Just like the snow can make everything look pure and fresh, God does the same through us.

Spring brings new growth in our lives, and we find ourselves starting new things. God gives us the opportunities to grow and start along new pathways with him. It is a time of new discoveries, and full of excitement.

And finally, the summers of our lives are those ‘times of plenty’, those moments when we feel God especially close to us, and know him in a deeper way.

What season of life are you in? How is God working with you in those moments?

Whatever situation or season we are in, God’s love remains with us, and he will always be there to help and support us. Pray that you find God in your situation, and that you will know his presence with you, whatever season you find yourself in.

There is a time for everything, and everything on earth has its special season.
There is a time to be born and a time to die. 

There is a time to plant and a time to pull up plants.
There is a time to kill and a time to heal.
There is a time to destroy and a time to build.
There is a time to cry and a time to laugh.
There is a time to be sad and a time to dance.
There is a time to throw away stones and a time to gather them.
There is a time to hug and a time not to hug.
There is a time to look for something and a time to stop looking for it.
There is a time to keep things and a time to throw things away.
There is a time to tear apart and a time to sew together.
There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.
There is a time to love and a time to hate.
There is a time for war and a time for peace.

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, NCV)

The Big Picture

Last week I went to Territorial Head Quarters for my induction as DYO. The two days were filled with meeting the ALOVE team and getting to know the bigger picture of youth work in The Salvation Army in the UK. We got to know the vision and strategy for the next five years, and it is very exciting! We were also able to share our own vision of the work in our own divisions; and discovered that these fitted into the bigger picture of work across the country.

Visiting THQ for this purpose really helped me find my place within the structure of The Salvation Army, and understand my role and purpose here. While I knew about ALOVE and some of the support they could offer, I did not know or understand how I fitted into that or where to start. Now, I have developed a deeper understanding and feel fired up for the future of work with young people in Anglia and across the rest of the UK.

Often in life, we focus on those tasks in front of us. We forget to spend time looking at the big picture and taking action, instead reacting to the immediate, small concerns of our lives. This can lead us to feel like we are constantly fighting fires, without knowing or understanding the cause. As well as fighting the fires, we need to step back to find the cause and do something about that.

In our spiritual lives, we can find ourselves thinking only of the here and now, and what is directly affecting us. We can become disheartened, as we lack the knowledge of what God is doing on a wider scale. We can fail to see the opportunities he is sending us as we are too focused on the small things. The other danger is that we can see our part as being too small, or too insignificant, and withdraw ourselves.

Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honour just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything.

(1 Corinthians 12:12 – 27, The Message)

I challenge you to pray that God will reveal the ‘big picture’ to you, that you will understand how you fit into the ‘body of Christ’, and that you will see and grab hold of the opportunities he gives you to get involved. If you have any stories of times you have done this, please share them in the comments. It would be wonderful to hear them!

Preparation

Over the past week, I have spent a lot of my time looking ahead to events and activities coming up in the next few months. I have been looking at a youth worship event in November, Youth councils in March, and even EMASS 2013! With so much to look forward to, it can be very easy to rush ahead without taking the time to stop, reflect, and plan, which is what I have been doing this week.

As well as getting excited about these events, I have had to spend time thinking about how to get to these goals. Attending events like these, we can often not realise the logistics of organising them; the months spent preparing and planning, looking at what needs doing, planning for it, solving problems that occur, etc. and before all this having to plan how you prepare for the event! Without taking time to do these often boring and time consuming activities, events like those I mentioned would not run. Resources would be forgotten, the team would not be complete or understand the roles, vital information would be lost or mislaid, few people would attend, and the event would be a resounding failure. The ‘big visions’ of fantastic events with top notch worship, speakers, and activities that was first envisaged would not be achieved, as the steps needed to reach these goals would never have been put in place.

How often do we do this in our own lives?

Everyone has dreams of where they want to be in life. There are the big dreams; to be rich and famous, or make a breakthrough discovery, or climb mountains, travel the world, etc. and there are the small dreams; to find love, get married, have a few children, earn enough money, have a job you love, etc. But often, the dream and excitement of the future leads us to forget about the hard work needed to make those dreams a reality, leaving our ‘heads in the clouds’ and never achieving anything. We can get sidetracked by the ideas, looking at the beauty of the mountain but never making any attempt to climb it, expecting to somehow be transported to the summit.

Another thing we can do is rush ahead and begin the climb without preparing. Then, we hit problems and we can give up, finding the journey too hard, and praying that God will make the way smooth and just waiting for his response instead of following where he is leading or just accepting his support.

As I said, we all have dreams, but we don’t all plan and prepare. If you were going to climb a mountain, you would spend time looking at a map of the area to identify the best route, you would buy any equipment you needed, you would prepare a bag of items you may need on the journey (at least, I hope you would!). To reach our dreams, we need to prepare for them, planning our route, preparing ourselves as necessary for the challenges that may come our way. We also need to remember to pray that God will guide our steps and be with us as we journey.

While doing these things will not prevent things going wrong, or make the way easy, spending time preparing can give us the best chance of achieving our dreams. And when we do it with God, we will have continual support along the way, and he will help our dreams become a reality.

 

Trust in the Lord and do good;

    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

    trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

    your vindication like the noonday sun.

Be still before the Lord

    and wait patiently for him;

do not fret when people succeed in their ways,

    when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;

    do not fret—it leads only to evil.

For those who are evil will be destroyed,

    but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

(Psalm 37: 3 – 9, NIV)