Today at lunch, a lady was ranting about how horrible Christmas was going to be this year, because everyone in her family had decided to cut back on how much they're spending on gifts. "My parents are giving me 50 cents!" she said, which I assume was an exaggeration. She went on and on about how people are choosing to be cheap for the sake of being cheap, not because they don't have the money.
Oh, how she doesn't get it.
While I hope people are making wiser financial decisions in today's troubled economy, that really shouldn't impact Christmas - because Christmas is not about the gifts we exchange. It's about the Gift God gave us for Christmas so many years ago. Beyond that, it's about what you can give, not what you can get.
Which leads me to the book I'm reading during lunch, "Ordering Your Private World" by Gordon MacDonald. It's been teaching me quite a bit about the importance of having Christ first in your life, even going so far as to schedule on your calendar the time that you're going to have listening to what God has to say to you (not just talking to Him). The part I read today discussed that General George Patton would frequently stop his soldiers to ask if they knew what their mission was - that the mission was the most important thing they could know.
So I started thinking about it - what is my mission? What is my mission today? What is my mission for this week? For this season? For the year? For my life? I must be a bit off track, because I'm having trouble answering these questions. I have goals, things I want to (or need to) accomplish. But are they my mission? Probably not.
The context of this discussion is the importance of Sabbath rest. Not just "taking time off" to relax, but really spending a day enjoying God's presence (and presents). Looking at the past, the present and the future, in terms of what God has in mind for you. It's been a long time since I've done that.
How about you? What's your mission? Are you spending time in Sabbath rest? Can you answer these questions quickly, or, like me, do they make you pause?
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