11.24.2008

A Christmas Thought... prepare the soapbox

Hey there~

I know that I don't share the same beliefs with you all, but I think this can SO go beyond a belief system. Given the state of our economy, what if we gave differently this holiday season?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

Instead of worrying about how big the gift is or how much we spent, we could give relational gifts. Time to talk,
eat, sled, climb a tree, hike, and play. Maybe bake something or create your unique gift. Offer to clean someone's house or babysit for a night or two.

The kicker? Use the money you were going to spend (or some of it at least) to help others in dire need. Could we make a difference?

FACT_
Americans alone spent $450 billion on Christmas in 2007.
It would cost $10 billion (2.2%) to get clean drinking water to everyone in the world. We absolutely CAN make a difference.

Ok, I'll get off my soap box. Please check out www.adventconspiracy.org when you get a chance. Great information, videos, etc.

Thanks for listening/reading!

4 comments:

Beth said...

HA! I was totally going to post this today! Caitlin showed it to me a few days ago, and I LOVE it! I'll do it in a few days! Thanks!

Kurt said...

Yeah, our church has been all about it last year and this year and I'm just now getting around to posting something about it. I love the video that they did and I absolutely love the idea.

Thanks for spreading the word!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this Kurt. It is very convicting and so much more inspiring than the traditional method of spending to impress rather than spending to help the less fortunate. We can always find people with greater needs than our own. Bless you!

Kari said...

I LOVE this, Kurt and Kim! Thanks so much for posting it! Completely inspiring, and such a blessing for this time of year :-)