{"id":1342,"date":"2012-11-27T10:14:16","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T17:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billintheblank\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2012-11-27T10:14:16","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T17:14:16","slug":"christmas-shopping-how-much-is-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithwalkers\/2012\/11\/christmas-shopping-how-much-is-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Shopping: How Much Is Too Much ?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The recent rush of Christmas shopping has left me wondering how much is too much? It also reminded me of a story from Tolstoy that I\u00a0read as a young boy. Yes, I was the nerdy kid reading War and Peace at the video arcade. But that\u2019s not the point.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Flashback to 1971 photo via http:\/\/pleasantfamilyshopping.blogspot.com\/2008\/09\/zayre-family-album-1971.html<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tolstoy told the tragic tale of Pahom<\/span><\/span> in the short story \u201cHow Much Land Does a Man Need<\/a>.\u201d Pahom<\/span><\/span>\u00a0discovered a place where he could have all the land he wanted \u2014 if only he could walk around it all in one day. \u201cAs much as you can go round on your feet in a day is yours,\u201d he was told. And so he set his heart on getting the biggest piece of land he could with one significant condition:<\/p>\n

Pahom<\/span><\/span> was surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in a day you can get round a large tract of land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Chief laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will all be yours!\u201d\u00a0 said he.\u00a0 \u201cBut there is one condition: If you don\u2019t return on the same day to the spot whence you started, your money is lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut how am I to mark the way that I have gone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, we shall go to any spot you like, and stay there.\u00a0 You must start from that spot and make your round, taking a spade with you. Wherever you think necessary, make a mark. At every turning, dig a hole and pile up the turf; then afterwards we will go round with a plough from hole to hole.\u00a0 You may make as large a circuit as you please, but before the sun sets you must return to the place you started from.\u00a0 All the land you cover will be yours.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After spending a grueling day grasping for just a little bit more land at every turn, Pahom<\/span><\/span> finally finished his brutal journey and flopped at the feet of the local chief.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cAh, what a fine fellow!\u201d\u00a0 exclaimed the Chief.\u00a0 \u201cHe has gained much land!\u201d<\/p>\n

Pahom<\/span><\/span>\u2018s servant came running up and tried to raise him, but he saw that blood was flowing from his mouth.\u00a0 Pahom<\/span><\/span> was dead!<\/p>\n

The Bashkirs<\/span><\/span> clicked their tongues to show their pity.<\/p>\n

His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave long enough for Pahom<\/span><\/span> to lie in, and buried him in it.\u00a0 Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just because we can<\/em> do a lot of Christmas shopping, does that mean that we should? And how much is too much? How much Christmas shopping do we truly need?<\/p>\n

Record Shopping vs. Record Food Stamps<\/h4>\n

How many plastic presents does one country need, especially in light of the fact that more than 46 million Americans are on food stamps these days. In today\u2019s FaithWalkers<\/span><\/span> Daily<\/a>, I noted the jarring disparity between record retail sales for Black Friday, record Cyber<\/span><\/span> Monday sales, and record movie box office receipts last weekend on the one hand and record food stamps doled out on the other.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s stats like this that give capitalism a bad name. Of course, food stamps and such government programs are more evidence of socialist creep than of capitalism generously applied, but the problem of greed remains. And always will.<\/p>\n

Lessons in Capitalism from George Bailey?<\/h4>\n

In one of my favorite classic holiday flicks It\u2019s A Wonderful Life<\/em> (which ironically wasn\u2019t even released as a holiday film), we see the joys and perils of a capitalistic system on display. The conniving and greedy Potter represents capitalistic greed run amok without concern for others. It\u2019s that kind of amoral approach that powered the baby-boomers but\u00a0has turned off so many of the millenial<\/span><\/span> generation to the wisdom of capitalism.<\/p>\n

George Bailey represents a more generous,\u00a0people-first approach to the same system. That\u2019s not to say the film disdains capitalism rightly applied. Recall that it was the risk-taking entrepreneur Sam Wainwrigth<\/span><\/span> who came through with the cash advance\u00a0to seal George\u2019s salvation. (Imagine what George could have done for Bedford<\/span><\/span> Falls had he invested in plastics when he had the chance.)<\/p>\n

The free market gives people the freedom to act responsibly, but not the moral compass or courage to do so. That\u2019s where our faith, our moral code, if you will, becomes critical to the continued functioning of a free society. It is in our exercising restraint that we pay an oft-overlooked price to preserve our freedom. It always comes back to the individual to choose according to his or her conscience, a conscience that in the US is becoming increasingly free of its faith-based moorings.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not calling for a guilt spree in place of the spending binge. Just some moderation. A return to focus on what we truly need instead of what we want. I fail to see how we can have 46 million Americans who \u201cneed\u201d food stamps while nearly every single adult American went shopping one way or another over Thanksgiving weekend. (I confess\u00a0I went to the grocery store for a routine purchase. But my wife didn\u2019t. So there\u2019s at least one abstaining.)<\/p>\n

A Different Approach to Christmas<\/h4>\n

Maybe it\u2019s our own faith journey this year that has shifted my attention this Christmas. There\u2019s no question I\u2019ve got plenty to be thankful for<\/a>. Maybe this Christmas we should\u00a0all consider taking a more responsible approach.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t doubt for a moment that a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet here in the US. They should feel no shame in simply celebrating the needs that God has supplied. Trust me. It will do most children here great good to get their focus off the toy catalog and onto being grateful for God\u2019s simple gifts of family, food, and shelter.<\/p>\n

Still others are taking a more active approach to being generous to avoid the Biblical conseqences of not doing so<\/a>. Generous Tuesday is one such grass-roots movement to push back against the excess of holiday shopping. Watch the video<\/span> and explore more here via Mary DeMuth<\/span><\/span>:<\/a><\/p>\n

The good people of faith at RethinkChurch<\/span><\/span>.org <\/a>call for us to spend less and give more. Not a bad idea, if I may say so, especially when we consider that as a nation, we\u2019re flat broke and careening full speed ahead toward a whole series of fiscal cliffs.<\/p>\n

Could\u00a0we be spending ourselves into oblivion as we chase a whole lot of stuff we don\u2019t really need? And are government programs helping to fund\u00a0our greed to do so?<\/p>\n

Are you rethinking Christmas shopping this year? Share your own thoughts on how much Christmas shopping is too much with a comment below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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