Ever think of it? With just the move of the letter “N” Santa becomes Satan. Mythologically they both embody the color red. Coincidence? I think not.

 And as I look over all that is Christmas this year, I see less and less of Christ. We should just go ahead and take his name out of the thing. We’ll call it Mas. In Spanish, ‘mas’ means MORE and that’s really what this season has become about. We want more! And more and more!

Here’s my idea, let’s chuck the whole idea of Christmas. It’s silly to devote only one day out of the year to think about Christ anyways. Let’s think of him every day! Think of what he’s done for us! Why can’t we feel a “joy of the season” all year long!

So when you see Santa this year and he’s saying “Ho, Ho, Ho!” Remember what Craig Gross says, “If Satan’s (or Santa) a Pimp, don’t be his Hoe, Hoe, Hoe!”

“Instead of teaching kids to allow Christ to live through them, we invite them to mimic Him. They rely on their own power, interpret their own behaviors as God-honoring and feel a sense of spiritual pride when they hit the mark.”

                                                                                              -Steve Gerali

Wow. Um. Yeah. Uh. Well.

What an amazingly succinct summary of our culture of youth ministry. NO WAIT! Not simply youth ministry… the CHURCH!

That statement sure hit my marrow. I’ve always been told that Christ is our standard, but that standard isn’t something we can comprehend, interpret or quantify. It’s only by living in and through Him do we begin to understand who He is (and that there is so much we don’t know).

As I walk more with Him, I begin to realize - it’s less of being like Him and more of me submitting myself to Him. That is the process of becoming more Christ-like. 

I’ll leave you with the words of Aaron Shust, who summarizes this thought much more eloquently that I could ever do. 

“You are my strength. You are my God. You are my King. You make me laugh. You make me dance. You make me sing. All of my plans, all of my dreams, I lay them down before your feet. All of my time, all that is mine, I submit to your design. Because you are the one, the only one, who would give it all away for me.”