By Mark A. Taylor
Some readers will say we”ve saved our best “Get Your Hands Dirty” article for last.
The feature appearing this week, “Season of Love,” makes more than 30 “Get Your Hands Dirty” articles we”ve published in 2009. The good deeds these pieces have reported are a thrilling overview of outreach and service performed by members of our fellowship: everything from overseas sacrifice to inner-city outreach. Browse through the items listed under this heading in our index, and you”ll be reminded how churches everywhere are serving the oppressed and helpless.
But the Christmas stories in this final feature are especially touching. Here you”ll see large churches and small churches and new church plants, churches from coast to coast, involved in a creative assortment of methods to show the love of Christ as they celebrate the birth of Christ.
The level of their generosity amazes us. Some examples: 5,000 sleeping bags for the homeless in Charlotte, North Carolina; 700 homeless children fed in Las Vegas; tens of thousands of dollars from one congregation in Lexington, Kentucky; 100 families helped in Newburgh, Indiana. We”re struck not only by the size of the gifts, but also by the magnitude of the needs. The stories prod us to wonder how many desperate people are waiting to be helped close to where we live.
If we can”t get the answers to that question before Christmas, that”s OK. The needs will still exist in January.
Ethan Magness speaks of our culture”s December “moment of generosity” this week (in “The Ironic Opportunity of Christmas”) and comments that some holiday charity may be little more than an effort to “appease a guilty conscience with a few righteous acts.”
His challenge is to do more. When Christians perform good deeds in the name of Christ as a reflection of his love, we get close to demonstrating the incarnation itself. We can put flesh on the message of Christ”s gift by being that gift to those around us.
And, even though Ethan is focusing on incarnation opportunities at Christmas, we can help and heal whenever we encounter the helpless and hopeless.
Christian churches everywhere are discovering how to do that. We know our “Get Your Hands Dirty” features this year are only examples of the service and sacrifice that”s happening in many places. We pray they have encouraged you to “be Christ” among folks around you who may never know him until they see him in you.
A REMINDER: THIS WEEK”S SPECIAL ISSUE is our final issue, and our final double issue, of the year. We”re planning many helpful and challenging features for you, starting with our next issue, dated January 3.
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