Antidote to the Christmas Treadmill #3

Here are some words from Dr. Charles Stanley's In Touch devotional that brought my treadmill to a screeching stop for a few minutes today:

"We cannot allow ourselves to drift into a materialistic view of Christmas along with the rest of the world. In a month of colored lights and glowing candles, we should be burning brighter than ever as His lights to the world."

Hmmm...What can I do to shine as His light during this season already overcrowded with distracting, blinking little lights? There are a couple verses in Philippians that come immediately to mind--verses that show us how to shine like stars this Christmas. They're not what you would expect; they're not specifically about turkey drives, shoeboxes, caroling at nursing homes or sending out Christmas cards with manger scenes. They're not about shopping, cooking a feast or running to the post office for the 15th time in two weeks. Instead these verses tell us how we should go about doing all those Christmas things we need to do. I suspect, if we did as these verses suggest, our lights would shine very bright, dimming all the other lights of the season by comparison. Actually, all these verses tell us to do this Christmas is to do everything without complaining and arguing.

Did you ever notice that Christmas is a season of complaining and arguing? It is--perhaps more than any other time of the year. We complain that lines are too long, parking lots are too full, prices too high and we have too many obligations. We may argue with our spouses about spending and with extended family members about who is visiting whom and when they will be arriving. What if we made a decision not to complain this Christmas and not to argue about anything it became our responsibility to do? I have a feeling that the Christmas treadmill would become a lot more fun. It might disappear altogether. And we would certainly shine like stars among our fellow shoppers at the mall. As you feel the treadmill ramp up over the next few days, think about these verses:

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life." Philippians 2:14-16.