Tag: holidays

Have a Selfless Christmas

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Advent and Christmas, Farmville EnterpriseLeave a comment

Bobby running

I have been an avid runner now for ten years. I love the way running makes me feel. I love the way running keeps me relatively thin. I love the way running allows me to enjoy nature. I love the way running gives me opportunities to make new friends.

Do you notice a common theme here? Me, me, me, me.

I confess that I run for many selfish reasons. However, thanks to Ainsley’s Angels, an organization created to help those with physical disabilities to enjoy some of the benefits of running, my running has suddenly become more selfless. Last week, Ainsley’s Angels graciously donated a wheelchair to be used to run 5k races with Bobby Hodge, Jr. who suffers with cerebral palsy.

It is as if a little bit of time spent running with Bobby this week has nearly absolved ten years’ worth of selfishness!

The holidays are upon us. If we are honest, we would confess that we love these days for many selfish reasons. We love the way that they make us feel. We love the way they help us enjoy our families and our friends. We love the lights, the parties and the gifts.

However, the truth is that it only takes a little selflessness to absolve a whole month of selfishness. So, during this holiday season, let us spend a little bit of our time doing something for someone else. Serve a hot meal in a soup kitchen. Visit a nursing home or a hospital. Adopt a family in need. Give to a charity. Make worship a priority. Most importantly, put a little faith in a little baby lying in a little manger.

And may our selfish days be transformed into selfless days. May our holidays suddenly become holy days.

What Is Christmas All About?

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Advent and Christmas2 Comments

meaning_of_christmas

If Christmas is all about the exchanging of gifts…Then it will mean a lot of shopping which will lead to a lot of stress, debt and depression.

If Christmas is all about children…Then it will be especially painful for those who have lost children, for those who have never been able to have children, and for those whose children are estranged. Christmas will mean lost dreams which will lead to anguish, regret and depression.

If Christmas is all about family… Then it will be especially painful for those of us, including me, who have lost loved ones this past year.  Christmas will mean empty chairs at the table which will lead to grief, sorrow and depression.

No wonder Christmas is the most depressing time of the year for so many people.  No wonder suicide rates are at their highest this time of the year.

However, if Christmas is all about the Holy gift of God’s self to us through a little baby named Jesus, then Christmas will mean hope.  If Christmas is all about Emmanuel, God with us, then Christmas will mean peace.  If Christmas is all about God who came to earth to heal and forgive, then Christmas will mean love.  If Christmas is all about God, who through Jesus the Christ came to earth and died and who was resurrected, then Christmas will mean joy which will lead to abundant and eternal life.

I want to encourage all of you to avoid depression by making the worship of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ a priority this Christmas season so we can receive true life, and together, share it with others.

Christmas Born in Straw

On By Rev. Dr. Jarrett BanksIn Advent and Christmas, Farmville Enterprise, Short ArticlesLeave a comment

7352204-baby-jesus-asleep-in-the-manger

John Scott once wrote: “We are not to picture Jesus as a modern baby lying with nothing on but a diaper…but as a baby in ‘swaddling cloths,’ the long narrow strips of bandage wrapped round his limbs and body making free movement impossible…Is it not almost unbelievable that the Creator, on whose freedom and power we all depend, should allow himself to be bound, and to lie in helpless weakness in the straw?”

The true message of Christmas is that God was born into our world naked, defenseless, and vulnerable. How ironic then is our consumeristic perversion of it!

The Messiah, bound in a feeding troth—while December shopping malls exhibit a celebration of our capitalistic freedom to make and spend as much money as we desire.

The Savior of the World, born in a barn to peasants—while our homes and tables exhibit an extravagant excessiveness associated with royalty.

God, humbled, emptied and poured out—while Christians use Christmas to exert their power, control and authority, especially over others who have different faiths.

Christmas challenges us to acknowledge that God’s ways are not our ways. While we perceive Christmas as an opportunity to get our own way, through the true message of Christmas I believe God is trying to show us another way.

This is why I believe it is so important to attend and invite others to our worship services and activities during Advent and Christmas. For amid the clamor of consumerism and selfishness, in our worship we will hear a call to sacrifice and selflessness. Amid the noise of narcissism and pride, through our acts servitude we will sing carols of humility and sharing.

And may the world look at us and see not a Crusader born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a sword in his hand, but a baby whose limbs were bound and whose bed was straw.