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Merry Christmas – Hardly Normal style

Tonight is Christmas Eve. As I drove home from the homeless shelter I passed several churches letting people out from their Christmas Eve service. I thought about all the candlelight services and elaborate productions being held tonight to celebrate baby Jesus. It all seems like tradition and not any kind of an honor to a Jesus who ALWAYS puts others before himself!

Winter Shelter on Christmas Eve

In contrast tonight I saw 80 plus homeless people receive a good meal. They were given blankets, pillows, cots, and a safe place to sleep. When I walked into the bathroom several of the homeless men were taking showers. I had to stop for a second because I literally was overwhelmed in the moment. All of my life I was programmed to go to church on Christmas Eve and sing “Silent Night” with a candle in my hand and the lights dim. Although many of those services left me feeling warm and fuzzy, knowing that a few caring people provided homeless services tonight was far more powerful. I will never forgot the real compassion and unconditional love I felt tonight!

Too me, helping the homeless on Christmas Eve was much more of a celebration of Jesus and a far better use of money than any kind of church service – period!

Oops, did I just mess up your tradition?

Merry Christmas – please don’t hate me for being real!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 25th, 2008 at 12:07 am and is filed under My Big Mouth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Every year, I try to do both - the work the church tells us to do and sit in an actual church service. Some years I don't make it until midnight and I have to ask my daughter if she understands why I miss Christmas eve dinner every year.

    As I sat in the pews of Arcadia Methodist CGS, I was comforted to be surrounded by friends and my daughter who have donated time on skid row, taken a stand on world hunger, and repaired housing for the poor.

    I could not go to a church that did not do the work it preached about.
  • Hiram
    Wow! Aren't you the morally superior one? Your language is very condescending and pretentious. You are obviously as asshole. Not only that, you can't write worth beans.
  • The more we as a society actually acknowledge there is a homeless problem and open our eyes and see them the faster we can help. Thank you for all you do
  • Fran
    Why can't a real person be doing both? Why can't a real Christian celebrate the birth of a saviour in a Church service AND ALSO help feed the homeless? Why does it have to be an either/or proposition?

    And how many people who we have seen help feed the homeless on Christmas eve will only do so that one time, and not the rest of the year? For many, feeding the homeless only once a year or twice a year (thanskgiving) is a tradition that makes them feel all "warm and fuzzy"... and that's why they do it.

    As "Anonymous" said in the prior Blog entry, it is better not to judge a person by appearance, but instead, we should try and see who people really are instead of guessing what they do when we're not around.

    Just thinking out loud.
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