Black Friday

DateLine (11/23/05 – Green Pond, SC)

Black Friday, also known as the Day After Thanksgiving, is generally acknowledged as the heaviest shopping day of the year, the start of the Christmas shopping season. The name is an homage to some retailers who toll all year in the red only to have this one day push them into the black for the first time. Stores prepare for the crush of shoppers by adding extra staff and even encourage the onslaught of bargain crazed people by opening as early 4-5 AM and offering such inducements as free breakfast or special discounts.

Shoppers can tap special websites (bf2005.com, blackfriday.gottadeal.com, etc.) that assist them in developing a strategy for exploiting special offerings by the retailers. Motivated shoppers scan the newspapers and store flyers for the slightest hint by anxious retailers who reveal their discounts and special offerings before the appointed day. Flyers are quickly scanned and posted to the websites.

All of this adds up to an orgy of consumerism. And to “soften” the shopper, soundtracks of seasonal music blare throughout the stores. How can the poor shopper resist? And this is how our contemporary Christmas season begins. Frankly it makes me want to barf. Ok, I’m am a male and there is something in our genes that causes physical illness at the thought of such events.

This is the season that Southern Baptist collect the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for the sole purpose of supporting international missions. In a way this is Black Friday for our missions effort. All collected funds go directly to the mission field for special projects and needs.. The 2005 offering goal is $150 million. This year the promotional focus is South Asia. More than 1400 people groups live in the seven countries of this region, including the giant countries of China and India.

Years ago I had a pastor who challenged us to make our Christmas gift to Jesus at least as valuable as the largest gift given to anyone else. To be honest my initial response was to blow him off. After all, we had small children at the time and our meager Christmas budget was dominated by our desire to make Christmas special for them. Years later I recalled that challenge from the pastor and Harriett and I decided to take it for our own. We chose to make the Lottie Moon Christmas offering our gift to Jesus. I cannot explain to you the added dimension that this has given to our Christmas season. Would you consider making Lottie Moon your Christmas gift to Jesus?