The supply chain has become the Grinch that stole Christmas, if you believe the marketing moguls of our consumeristic infused culture. Mass media has issued warnings that Christmas is all but ruined as our expectations and desires are captured in shipping containers at seaports along our nation’s coastlines or in the trailers of eighteen wheelers motoring down our nation’s highways. Media like the New York Times issued the warning, “Those Gifts You Want for the Holidays? Don’t Wait Too Long.” Another piece boldly announces, “Christmas 2021 is already ruined.” The author suggests five possible factors contributing to this “holiday hysteria” surrounding people’s lives (msn.com/en-us/news) including supply-chain problems, President Biden, vaccine mandates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and climate change. Perhaps you would declare other candidates! Incidentally, if these things could ruin your Christmas, then perhaps it is time to develop a better perspective about this holiday.
Perspectives impact the way one views and responds to life. On November 3, 1992, I left the USA for Zaporozhe, Ukraine, via Moscow and Kiev. That day somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean President Bill Clinton of Arkansas defeated incumbent President George H. W. Bush. My traveling partner and I had voted, boarded our flight, and left behind us our very divided, grumbling nation. We landed to discover we had a new president back home. In Moscow we encountered the vestiges of the USSR and a people that had a multitude of legitimate gripes. The situation in this shattered region after the dissolution of the USSR on December 8, 1991, was even more chaotic politically, socially, and economically than we could have imagined. Additionally, Ukraine had also become an independent state at this time. We were traveling to a Baptist church in Zaporozhe, Ukraine, with whom we had developed a sister church relationship earlier in 1991. When our church became aware of the desperate conditions in our sister church and their city, tractor trailers of humanitarian aid was gathered and shipped from our church to provide for some of their basic human necessities. Our two 12-hour train trips from Moscow and Kiev began the process of perspective adjustment as we saw firsthand the collapse of a nation and the chaos that ensued.
Issues we had thought so horrible in the
USA began to pale in comparison to what we saw and experienced. A socialistic
communistic empire was in ruins. Much of the infrastructure was broken. Rolling
blackouts were the norm in the city of Moscow. Transportation was both obsolete
and inadequate. People were selling their personal possessions on the street corners
hoping to acquire a few rubles or to barter for necessities. Conditions were
worse as we went further east. In newly established Ukraine the chaos was
amplified. In Zaporozhe, Ukraine, the shortages were extreme as food, fuel, and
medicine were in short supply. Bartering was the norm as currency was all but
worthless. One evening I walked in the darkened city where streetlights were
inoperable. Our only illumination were the trash fires around which people huddled
begging for their survival. Tears came to my eyes. I began to process the
ingratitude lodged in my heart that had numbed me to the needs of this corner
of the world once viewed by me as the evil empire. Blessed by God beyond
measure back home, yet I grumbled about politics, complained about the cost of
things, and moaned and lusted over possessions I craved. Perspective was
adjusted in those moments as tears and melted snow ran down my face and my
heart was convicted of my ungrateful spirit. A new attitude prodded me to do more
to actively address the inhumanity I saw in the world.
I returned to the USA just a few days before
Thanksgiving. I worshiped freely on Thanksgiving Eve with fellow Christians. This
privilege of gathering had been restricted for seventy years in the former
USSR. The Ukrainians cherished and enjoyed the privilege they now had to worship.
On Thanksgiving Day, I sat in a warm house. I feasted at a banquet-like table
laden with an abundance of foods that would literally take days to eat – and likely
the leftovers would become a source of grumbling days later. In Ukraine people
may have some thin borsch soup and plain dark bread if they were fortunate. My perspective
again was altered. My thanks was now heart-felt and not programed gratitude. My
eyes saw beyond my immediate world, and I recalled the world of others. My
perspective was being translated into action. Genuine empathy is only productive
when that emotion is transformed into action. In the Bible the Apostle John summarizes
that thought this way, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid
down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and
sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in
need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear
children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth”
(1 John 3:16-18).
I had an attitude adjustment that November
1992. Do I need another one? It does not require a trip to some needy area of
the world. It requires a heart adjusted to see the needs of the world, both in
this nation and the nations around us. This Thanksgiving may we take time to consider
the many needs of others and reach out to meet them.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with genuine
gratitude and generosity toward others.
