Thank you so much for that thing I will never wear…

Around the holidays, I like to think about the idea of gift giving and how God gave us the greatest gift ever in the history of everything and anything.  Yet at the same time, we can fall into the pattern of looking at that gift like the ugly sweater you probably got from a well-meaning relative.  And even though every fiber in your being wants to say something like, “who in their right mind would ever wear this in public?”, you smile, say thank you, and immediately put it on. Then you turn to another family member for the much needed support that only family can give in a time like this; and they completely let you down with a sudden outburst of laughter, accompanied by a fast retreat into a room far away from the one who gave you “the gift.”  Ah, the joy of Christmas.  The bad part isn’t that you got the gift, it is that you know that you will be obligated to wear it at some point in public in order to “bless” the one who gave it to you.  So the gift is not the source of any kind of joy, but becomes a burden.

Too often I have met professing Christians who treat their faith like an ugly sweater.  They are happy around the One who gave them their everlasting life; hands raised in worship and Bible in hand every Sunday.  But given the choice, they would rather not show those outside the church their wonderful gift.  What if they think it looks weird?  What if they poke fun at me for it?  What if I get embarrassed?  As my father used to say to me, “if you like it, then what’s the problem?”  I guess that’s the real question: do you like it? If you like it then what’s the problem?  What does your faith mean to you, and does it mean as much as it should?  I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people poke fun at my faith only to discover that I am not going to budge.  Then they recant and ask me to tell them about what I believe and how it has changed my life forever. Sometimes I even get a chance to change their lives forever with the truth of Christ; and who knows?  Maybe you can even give them that ugly sweater you got this year…