The season is upon us...

This afternoon I am enjoying the last of these precious weekend hours with my hubbers in Texas amidst napping, baking, just a bit of cleaning and a lovely fall breeze that floats through open windows.

And as I begin to contemplate the changing weather that will soon bring about the hustle and bustle of the holidays with family, feasts and gifts overflowing, I can't help but reflect on a bit of conversation we ever so lightly brushed the top of this morning.

In light of the suffering world all around us, how would Christ prefer us to live out the holidays?  How would He spend his holi-days?  What would Thanksgiving look like at the dinner table of the Lord?  And what about Christmas?  Oo that's a scary thought, isn't it.  

As Mark and I have become increasingly challenged by this study that we are {sometimes reluctantly} wading through in our small group, we find ourselves looking closely at our lives, our finances, our blessings... our overflowing abundance of blessings... and wondering how Christ would have us live differently than we do now.  

What would our lives look like if we were to truly embraced the call to feed His sheep?  

Christ commands us to love the weary and the broken, to clothe the naked and feed the hungry.  If we claim to seek after His heart, and these are the desires of His heart and therefore the responsibilities we have undertaken by giving up our lives to follow him, why do we not fulfill them?  Why are these not the desires of our hearts as well?  And looking toward the season that is upon us, why do our holidays often result in weight gain and absurd overspending from our gluttonous appetites for these cultural trends of consumerism?

These are all questions we have begun asking ourselves... asking the Lord.

How will we spend our holidays this year?

We're not sure yet, but I have a feeling this may be the beginning of breaking apart from what has been the norm in our lives and how we spend this "season of giving."