Give More

Last Sunday in worship was a glorious day of music. The Chancel Choir, with Jim Lazenby's leadership, was a blessing to us all. I know God was pleased by such an offering of praise and worship. I'm grateful to God for Jim, for Jackie Fultz, our organist/pianist, for Shalane Wesley for stepping in on the drums, for the soloists and the whole group. The choir loft was full and the sound was even more full.
This Sunday we'll continue with great music as we enjoy our children's choir leading us in worship in addition to more music from the Chancel Choir.
This week the value I want to lift up for the Advent season is Give More.
First we must understand that to give more this Christmas does not necessarily mean quantity or the amount of stuff one gives. Giving more means giving more fully of ourselves to God through worship, gift-giving, through relationships with family and friends.
In this way, we can all give more.
One of the most common struggles we human beings have is the "just enough" syndrome I'll call it. You know what I mean. We do just enough to get by. We come to worship just enough to feel like we've been. We call or write our loved one just enough or we say just enough or we give just enough to feel temporarily satisfied with our offering. We rarely empty ourselves totally for God or others.
At Christmas God gave Himself fully for us. He didn't hold back, hedge, offer just enough, He gave it all, He gave us His only Son. What would happen if we gave more this Christmas? What if we chose to write a letter to a loved one and poured ourselves out? What if we gave more by saying "thank you" and "I love you" to those who need to hear that from us? What if we gave more of our resources to the ministry of the church to close out the year right?
All of our giving is a faithful response to the God who gave us everything. What would it mean for you and me to give more this Christmas?