Karen, I agree with the last thought of your blog. One thing Simply Christmas has done is show how hard it is to fight the habits, the culture, and the need to fit in.
'Simply' has been good to describe the situation and draw me in a little further in seeing that there is something better but it's going to take more than 5 weeks to change.
Naaman comes to mind. After God heals him of his leprosy Elijah accommodates his wish to take back a mound of dirt from Israel to the old country. This way Naaman can worship the God of Israel on the soil of Israel. In his culture, the god of the land is only powerful within the boundaries of that land. Naaman extends the land to his backyard. Elijah pastorally takes Naaman's faith where its at.
So we too, have cultural affectations on our faith. Our faith and culture mix in places, and God graciously is patient with our mistakes.
1. I must keep from castigating myself re: not being Simply Christmas enough. This borders on legalism.
2. I'll keep it in mind as an object lesson of identifying the accommodation and making the long term adjustments needed to extricate where possible.
3. Simplifying to make room for 'Worship fully, spend less, give more, love all, reach out' is a good self reflection tool for the coming year.
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