Too much stuff...

Here we are again nearing another Christmas! Wow. Where does time go?

Well, I am sooo thankful for our new experience this Thanksgiving. We, as a family went to a school cafeteria along with some wonderful church family members, formed huge lines to make 1800 meal trays, filled boxes, stuffed those bad boys in sedans, suvs, trucks, MONSTER suvs, mini vans, compact cars, vans, and armed with addresses and love, drove food to families all around our communities! Awesomeness!

 I could have never been prepared for the faces we would see next. These are faces of our brothers and sisters right in our own back yard who are struggling. Struggling to find their next meal. Struggling to find a job. Struggling to keep warm. Struggling to keep their children warm. Struggling to hide their fear and tears from their children as they worry about these things.

 We got to pray, and quite frankly almost cry with these people. I almost feel inadequate to pray with them when I sit here so overly blessed! It really opened our eyes to the lack of real problems in our lives. How dare I complain about a thing. What was awesome is that one of the families wants to join us for church Sunday morning. They have no vehicle. Yes, a family of eight (actually two families in one household) without a vehicle. Our transmission just bit the dust....but Praise God we still one running vehicle! So, we may not know just yet how we will get them there, but we will get them there. And God will provide for us to get our transmission fixed....maybe not right away, and that's okay.

 My main point is this...Here we are at yet another Christmas. What are we doing running around finding things to overflow our homes? Stuff. Stuff. More stuff. I personally am being convicted. I have been simplifying my life. More of Him and less of me....and  less stuff. 
 Do we even remember Christmas is truely about? If it is truely about Christ, then we should be out there being His hands and feet. Not getting into fist fights on aisle 9 at Target on black Friday over a Cabbage Patch doll. For a world dripping with stuff, and then always wanting more, we are very empty inside.

This verse hit me hard...... I refuse to sugar coat the Word, and take it for what it says....

  They will give back everything they worked for.
      Their wealth will bring them no joy.
  For they oppressed the poor and left them destitute.
      They foreclosed on their homes.
  They were always greedy and never satisfied.
      Nothing remains of all the things they dreamed about.
 Nothing is left after they finish gorging themselves.
      Therefore, their prosperity will not endure.
  “In the midst of plenty, they will run into trouble
      and be overcome by misery.
~ Job 20:18-22