So I had a blog post all written, polished and proofread about the idiocy of our autumnal tradition of debating, nay arguing, over which seasonal salutation to use and what cup you should drink your coffee from. Every year around this time we get treated to another version of the Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays showdown. Ahh, but this year our cup of contention runneth over. This year everyone’s new feeds were hijacked by refutations of the validity of complaining about a coffee cup and here I was prepared to offer mine. I mean, honestly it would have been way better than all the other similarly themed posts, brimming with sardonic wit and the kind of keen insight typically confined to classical philosophers. But after rereading what I had written, which was of course brilliant, something dawned on me. For all the posts, blogs, and memes I have seen lambasting the lunacy of this particular brouhaha, I can’t remember every actually seeing any one up in arms about the cup in question.
Let me be clear, I fancy myself quite religious and have my fair share of facebook friends of the same uber conservative/religious bent and yet for all of my news feed trawling I have yet to find someone calling for a boycott based on a red cup. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but for all the preachers, deacons, and parishioners of various denominations that I call “friends” I couldn’t find anyone who when weighing in didn’t denounce the supposed controversy as anything short of idiotic.
Which begs the question: Where are all of these people? The honest answer is I don’t know. What I do know is that we Christians fall into this trap every year. Every go round we must defend our faith from those who would slander it with their petulance. But it is a trap. And the effect is the same as the one nincompoop who complained about the cup in the first place – we’ve lost sight of what’s actually important. Yeah, it’s not about a cup but it’s also not about everyone in our friends list knowing which side of sanity we are on, endlessly defending our beliefs from a handful of people who only want to malign them. Juxtapose that with Christmas and you get irony so thick it’s unbelievable. This is supposed to be the holiday about joy, about hope, and about God’s love and yet we can’t see past ourselves to what we’re missing and that’s sad.
So here’s my suggestion, and because you’re reading it online it is infinitely wise, this holiday season put down your phone, put down your ipad and your stupid red cup and drink in what the holiday is really about. If you’re a Christian and you really want to celebrate Christmas don’t wish someone a merry Christmas give them one. Go show kindness to someone with no thought of repayment. Go pack lunches at a food pantry, go serve thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter, anonymously buy lunch for a table of police officers. Do something that takes your eyes off of yourself for just a moment and you’ll be amazed at what you see.
Let me be clear, I fancy myself quite religious and have my fair share of facebook friends of the same uber conservative/religious bent and yet for all of my news feed trawling I have yet to find someone calling for a boycott based on a red cup. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but for all the preachers, deacons, and parishioners of various denominations that I call “friends” I couldn’t find anyone who when weighing in didn’t denounce the supposed controversy as anything short of idiotic.
Which begs the question: Where are all of these people? The honest answer is I don’t know. What I do know is that we Christians fall into this trap every year. Every go round we must defend our faith from those who would slander it with their petulance. But it is a trap. And the effect is the same as the one nincompoop who complained about the cup in the first place – we’ve lost sight of what’s actually important. Yeah, it’s not about a cup but it’s also not about everyone in our friends list knowing which side of sanity we are on, endlessly defending our beliefs from a handful of people who only want to malign them. Juxtapose that with Christmas and you get irony so thick it’s unbelievable. This is supposed to be the holiday about joy, about hope, and about God’s love and yet we can’t see past ourselves to what we’re missing and that’s sad.
So here’s my suggestion, and because you’re reading it online it is infinitely wise, this holiday season put down your phone, put down your ipad and your stupid red cup and drink in what the holiday is really about. If you’re a Christian and you really want to celebrate Christmas don’t wish someone a merry Christmas give them one. Go show kindness to someone with no thought of repayment. Go pack lunches at a food pantry, go serve thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter, anonymously buy lunch for a table of police officers. Do something that takes your eyes off of yourself for just a moment and you’ll be amazed at what you see.
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