Advent Conspiracy

Since its getting closer to Christmas, I have been thinking about the website (AdventConspiracy.org) I read about last year. Its basically about how Christmas celebrations have gotten pretty skewed over the years. We should be celebrating the life of Jesus and the amazing story of how God was born into squalor and genocide to rescue his lost loves. I like the ideas they have there about celebrating differently...
Our small group is reading Jesus For President so I skipped ahead to the part about holidays and was re-reading... The thing about it that gets me thinking is, we give presents because the Magi gave presents to Jesus. So, of course we want to give our loved ones gifts. As a church, we generally look beyond ourselves and give to an Angel Tree kid, or take the inner-city kids to North Boulevard for their huge giveaway. We find a way to extend the love to others. That's what we should do, right??
After I read about the water crisis going on in most of the world, and how little (relatively) money it would take to fix it, I wasn't so sure. Most of the world drinks dirty water, and wastes huge amounts of time to get it. David says his team in Tanzania walked with one of the girls carrying water one day and they were exhausted at the end! And women do most of the work to bring water to their homes. A lot of that water isn't even clean. According to the research on the website, millions are sick, dying, and unable to go to school- all because they lack clean water. And its there in the ground!
I know giving presents to a kid whose father is in jail is noble. I know it is kind and good hearted. But I, personally, think I will be sick if I buy a kid another X-Box game, when I could provide water for 4 kids for LIFE with the same money. While I don't want to discourage people from doing programs like the Angel Tree, I feel like God's people need to step it up, here! If we could provide water to these millions of kids, we would make their health, education, and therefore, life so much better! Honestly, I don't think buying Tickle Me Elmo for a little girl is going to do that much for her...
I want to live in a way that is not of the world, but of the Kingdom. I want Christmas to look different for my family than it does for other people. I want to celebrate the life of Jesus and the life he came to bring to us. I can't think of a much better way than to help people build wells so they can provide their families with clean water! Jesus even called himself the Living Water.
So I'm not sure exactly how we are doing Christmas this year... I would love to see my church family get in on this with me and really change some lives! Praying that God will show us how to serve him in all that we do! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!