Are you too busy to pay attention to homeless veterans?

Forgive me for doing it the easy way today, but I've been really busy today with my job and running around. I'm no where near being ready for Christmas and this is one of the busiest times of the year for a church. I did mention I worked for a church right? Anyway, usually I read all the links I post, plus a ton more, but today there just isn't enough time to play catch up with a box full of emails, gifts to buy, shopping trips and Christmas parties and plays to go to.

There just isn't enough time for me to be spending on line like I normally do. See even I can come up with plenty of excuses for not doing something that is needed, yet I expect people who come into my blog to read the links I provide so that they can make a difference in the world. After all, what good can one person do? I'm only one person. I have a job that is demanding, a family, a dog and a very busy life. Surely other people have more time than I do. Normally I spend between 10 to 12 hours a day on line and that's seven days a week, except for play day with my husband when I get to just go out and enjoy life. Let someone else do it for a change. I do enough.

How many times have you thought the same way? How many times in the last month or so have you thought about your list of things to do and places to go that you took no interest in what you normally do or care about the rest of the year? We can find so many other things to fill up our time that suddenly all that matters involves "us" our lives and our own needs.

This time of year it's easy to make excuses for what we ignore because we are thinking about other people, people to shop for, people to send cards to and what to make for the holiday party we have to go to. We go to our kids Christmas plays and focus only on them instead of the little kid on the end crying or the kid in back making the weird faces. We pay little attention to the people sitting right next to us or the story being told, ignoring the message that they are trying to deliver to our ever clogging ears.

Christmas the message that was supposed to be absorbed by us has been filled with everything and anything other than the purity of love. The compassion that was born on that one day over 2,000 years ago in a tiny town called Bethlehem has been replaced by Santa and the rain deer instead of Jesus and the disciples. Elves replace the 70 sent out by Jesus to deliver the messages of love, forgiveness, mercy and redemption by a loving God "who so loved the world He gave His only son" to the rest of us. Frosty sings of being frozen water while we absent mindedly freeze our hearts to the needs of strangers seeking a safe place to give birth to a child that would change the world forever.

Some of us go to church on Christmas and Easter, the high holy days of the Christian faith, avoiding going to church the rest of the year because our lives are just too busy to bother. After all, we tell ourselves, it's not like we don't go when it really matters. We are CEO, for Christmas and Easter Only, people and that's all that God can want of us in return for what He gave to us. We are all "good people" who write a check once a year to our favorite charity for the tax write-off just in time for the deadline. I'm honest enough to admit that there were many years in my life that I felt the same way. When my mother was alive, I wouldn't dare avoid going to church if I didn't have a terrific excuse. When my daughter was born, I recommitted to going again all the time but never failed to find excuses when I was just too tired or too busy to go.

When we moved to Florida, it was easy to find excuses to not attend church because we didn't know anyone but God, having a wonderful sense of humor, filled my need for a part time job by placing me in a Presbyterian Church (even though I'm Greek Orthodox) so that I wouldn't have any excuses to not show up. Now I have to be there for two services on Sunday and the rest of the week as well. Do I feel as if I'm a better person than you? Absolutely not! Look at the confession I made in the beginning of this post. I admitted I'm too busy to read about the homeless veterans in this country. They have tugged at my heart for over half my life and I don't have time for them. I didn't want to make the time for them. I had better things to do.

Where would Jesus have been born had the inn keeper been too busy to talk to Joseph? How can any of us really call ourselves Christians and then find no time to actually practice what Jesus preached? Especially at this time of year? Think about it. Buying gifts for people who can say thank you reward you for what you did for them by returning the favor and handing you a gift. It's good to think about making other people happy but that is not the point of this time of year. We're supposed to be unselfish and give to people who have less than us, people in need of shelter, clothing or even a simple prayer. We are to give without expecting anything in return but the simple fact they will thank God for what we did for them because they cannot thank us.

Ok, so now I have to read the links I just put up because I feel too guilty to avoid doing it. I have a couple more posts to put up and then I'll read all of them. I hope you will too and I hope you will remember that while you have been too busy to pay attention to any of this, you will find time in your day to remember what this time of year is supposed to be all about.
Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com

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