The season of Christmas, the way we celebrate it in the modern era, has now past. Presents have been purchased opened and some presents returned for new ones. Now the Christmas hangover is occurring. What is the Christmas hangover you ask? It is when the bills for all of our purchases come due. We all had good intentions to give our children, family and friends, all those whom we love the dearest, everything they wanted. Or at least give them close to everything they wanted. We wanted to make sure they weren’t going to be ‘left behind’ the other children and members of society, by lacking the latest and greatest technological gadgets, toys or designer clothing.
People feel as though they have no choice but to spend money. They feel the need or have to spend more money than they should, so they can ‘be the life of the party.’ That is, give everybody everything they want. If they don’t buy what their children, spouses and friends want, they have feelings of inadequacy, or fear that their children, spouses and others will not love them. Far worse than those feelings is the fear that when their children are asked by others “what did you get for Christmas,” the presents they gave would not compare to their children’s friends’ presents. That would lead to a fear that others may think any of the above or worse yet, that they are financially poor.
I realize that we live in a society where being poor is a matter of perspective. We compare our-selves and our lives with others. We are however selective on whom we compare ourselves with. We dare not compare ourselves with those who we consider poor, because if we did, then we would not feel as though we already have everything we need. Instead, we compare our-self and our possessions to the lives and possessions of others we feel are ‘more successful’ than us.
Most of us want more. More of what? More money. Bigger and/or better houses. Expensive ‘designer’ clothes to wear so others know we have money. Different and a more attractive body and looks so people will look at us with envy. More expensive cars so people see we have ‘made it’ in society. We feel we need to keep up with the latest technology advances to keep informed about all the things everyone else has acquired. If we didn’t keep up with all the other stuff people were getting, we may not get that stuff and someone may think that we are poor. Or worse, we will think our-self poor. All of this comparing and fear causes us to use Christmas and other times such as birthdays to spend more money than we have.
Realizing this cycle and stopping the continuation of this cycle is a big whoa for me. A super huge whoa! Pull back on the horse’s reins kind of whoa. What if we stopped comparing what we don’t have compared to others and look at what we do have. We have a home. Our home is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. We have electricity. We have an almost unlimited supply of water that is clean to drink, cook and bathe in. Our children play on numerous sports teams. Our children are all able to go to school without discrimination of income. We all have more than a seven-day supply of clothes to wear. We have a multitude of shoes to wear. We do not lack for food. Most of us have two cars that we are able to afford to put gas into. And for the most part not only are our basics needs meet, but most of what we desire in luxury items we already have. Now I ask, is that being poor?
Maybe we should have a new definition of poor. Poor could mean we are so despondent in what is right and true that we are poor. If we cannot see the life and the insurmountable gifts we are given to us on a daily basis from God then I will say WE ARE POOR. Christmas came and went and the greatest love and gift was given for us all. That was the birth of a savior; his name is Jesus, the Christ. But we have become so self-absorbed by our own desires and wants, so focused on the material things we do not have, that we are blind. We are poor in spirit. We are poor in faith and poor in belief. I think this is worse than financially poor.
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