My wife and I had a unique first experience just before Christmas last year: we experienced Black Friday shopping in Michigan for the first time in our lives. It was exhilarating, it was intense, it was LOUD, it was late…(we had to line up)…it was crazy…and at the same time I had so much fun. We picked up some really great deals on Christmas presents for our kids, presents for other people and a few things for us.
There were people present at WalMart that evening, however, who did not handle this shopping trip in the same light hearted nature that Mandy and I approached it with. There was swearing, pushing, light punching, diving on top of merchandise, evictions from the store by security and shopping carts EVERYWHERE.
Lets fast forward to Christmas morning: our kids got up and were amazed at the number of wrapped packages that filled the living room! We skyped with some family and then began to open presents. It went something like this: rip paper, look, set aside…rip paper, look, set aside…cry and scream because you want to play with a toy you just opened (me included)…but instead get another wrapped package placed into your lap to open.
As Mandy and I reflected on this first Christmas in our own home with our children we realized that it did not play out quite like we had wanted. We envisioned a quiet and peaceful time opening presents, making organized piles of everything and then playing with toys later in the day in an organized fashion. We were naïve…and quite wrong!
Recently I ran into the photo that I included at the beginning of the blog post. I was immediately reminded of my Black Friday shopping experience and subsequent Christmas morning chaos. There is a poignant truth conveyed by this photo that is quite impossible to relate in words. I guess a photo really is worth 1000 words.
I am not writing so as to condemn us for enjoying the blessings of life in Canada. I too enjoy a warm bed, more food than I need and many toys and gadgets that make life easier. I even enjoyed Black Friday shopping…and the 40” television in my living room that came as a result.
However…I also enjoy being a good steward of the blessings God has given me. I enjoy receiving our charitable donations receipts at the end of each year to see that with what God has given us we have been able to return a tithe and then some. I enjoy speaking with Phil and Donna Williams of Servant Heart Ministries; our church supports their medical and relief work in the Dominican Republic. I enjoy visiting the Dominican Republic and hanging out with people like Sandra Torino; though she has nothing she gives evenything back to those in her village of Auga Negra. She is a modern day Dorcas (Acts 9:36-42). I enjoyed taking Sandra out for ice cream one afternoon with our youth missions team and hearing her describe how special this was for her.
I enjoy the talk of giving a young girl in our community a baby shower to show her that we still care deeply no matter the choices she has made. I enjoy having friends over when part of their family is out of town and I enjoy hanging out with Benjamin’s friends for an evening while their family attends to a medical emergency.
These are the things that are necessary in life.
When we define necessity with greater depth than what can be found in a department store we suddenly find many more things to enjoy in this life and much more fulfillment in the way that we live.
When we become aware of the blessings that we can pass on to others we suddenly realize that in so many ways we can bring much joy and fulfillment to those that live around us.
Luke 12:48 “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
pastornathan.ca 
Well, good post, …in my opinion, even though you didn’t ask, I know …is that food and water is a necessity …thats it.
Hi there, thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to leave a comment! I see where you are coming from: food and water are necessary to nourish the body. However, there is more to humanity than simply flesh and bone…we have a spiritual component as well that needs to be nourished. The nourishment required by our spirit is much more elusive and difficult to nail down. I think some of the things that I have described are necessary to experience and to share in the nourishment of our spirit.
What do you think?
Hey, thanks for the reply, and you are correct, but, …sorry, had to but …and I’m saying this and asking these questions without really looking through your blog, so I’m coming in uninformed…
Yes, you are correct, and this is all opinion, but have you ever been to places like the one pictured on the left side? Ethiopia, certain parts of the Sahel and Sahara in Africa, even places like Afghanistan?
In my opinion, at a certain point in ones life, the spiritual side ceases to exist and the body takes over the mind creating a human being that becomes more “animalistic” in nature and purely instinctive. I can only imagine, but have spent quite a bit of time watching, what happens in some very very monetarily poor places of the world. The mind goes, food and water, thats all one needs, wants and yearns after. I don’t know, maybe it’s a good thing and a testament to the strength of the human spirit to push aside everything else but what it needs to survive …and lets face it, if the body dies, the spirit goes.
I’ll never forget the little girl who just walked miles and miles in the searing heat of northern sudan just to get somewhere where there was food and water. She didn’t want to talk, heck, she could barely talk. She wanted water. I remember the people in Afghanistan who I talked too, very few I’ll admit. Allah, they would denounce him (or her) in a second if that would mean they knew their children, wives, husbands, neighbors and relatives would be safe, finally, after decades of war.
Nigeria, 2009, and god bless those kids and people of JOS because I have a feeling a lot of them are dead at this point, …it was all about survival, on a physical scale, animalistic and instinctive…
You get my point, and I do know it is all opinion, and am not arguing at all but I uess trying to show why I think the way I do. I also think that the country and place we live in the world affords us a certain sense of “wants” that we classify as “needs”, but if that was all taken away, what would you do? Lay down and die? Maybe, maybe not, but another thing I’ve seen is that you don’t know until your thrown into the situation, and more times than not all those wants quickly turn to dust and human spirit lets your body take over.
It’s a tough argument, either way. You are right, I am right, we are both wrong and if we’re both lucky we will never know, but I would suggest, very highly, if you haven’t already, take a trip to the picture on the left, it will almost certainly enhance your feelings of the subject, maybe change them, probably not, and most certainly change the way you look at the picture on the right. I’m ashamed of that picture, both pictures actually, because if you open peoples mind and show them what it is really like outside of their little circle (and not trying to berate anyone) than those two pictures come together and neither exist anymore.
OK …again, not fighting, oh, a picture of the girl from Sudan (bad one at that):
http://www.pbase.com/happypoppeye/image/96141832
“There was swearing, pushing, light punching, diving on top of merchandise, evictions from the store by security and shopping carts EVERYWHERE.”
Nothing to do with my last response …but this is so so sad. In my opinion people who have really, really lost sight of the “big picture” of life itself. It really just amazes me, Christmas has turned into an excuse for shopping and nothing else for many many people. I would also bet that many go to church every sunday and so call themselves good christians or catholics or whatever…