A Christmas challenge

By Barbara Miller
RR Ministerial

Have you finished all your Thanksgiving leftovers yet?
I am sure that many of you took the time, at some point over Thanksgiving, to think of all the things that you are thankful for - family, friends, good health (if you have it) and a good health care system (if you don’t), a safe community in which to live, a community that tries, as best as it is able, to be there for one another in the good times and in the bad.
We are so very fortunate to live where we do. Does that mean that life here is perfect - absolutely not; but I was at an event recently where we talked about income on a global scale. Apparently, there is a website that will take your annual income and place it on a scale according to the annual income for people around the world. Now, a minister’s salary is a modest one by the North American standard, but my salary - including my housing allowance - puts me in the top 3.3% of income earned globally. In other words, only 3.2% of all people earn a higher salary than I do. Hard to imagine isn’t it? And unfortunately, we are so conditioned by the consumeristic society in which we live that even the abundance that we have doesn’t seem like enough.
Perhaps it seems a little early to be thinking about Christmas, but I would like to challenge you to rethink your Christmas habits this year. As my salary level shows, in comparison to the rest of the world, we are blessed abundantly here in Canada - does that mean we are without hardship - absolutely not. There are kids living on Canadian streets, there are children and families that don’t have enough to eat, there are people in our country that have to choose whether to buy food or pay a hydro or heat bill - in startling regularity. So my challenge to you is: whether you choose to support projects within Canada or in Third World Countries, I challenge you to spend less on presents for people who have so much that you don’t know what to get them anyway and give donations in their name as gifts for people who truly need them. October 14 begins the “Week To End Poverty” Campaign; October 17th is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty as declared by the United Nations. For more information on “Week to End Poverty” or other justice issues feel free to check out Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, at their online website at: www.kairoscanada.org. As Christian we are called “to do justice, and to love kindness and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6.8).

I know that you have given thanks for your many blessing, I now invite you to live out your thanksgiving for the blessings that you have received by sharing them with others; whether through gifts of money, talent, time or prayers offered, remember those less fortunate.
May God be your helper and your guide.