Last night we turned off the television and listened to music, especially and specifically Michael Card's Life CD. The songs tell the story of Christ's life. Lily told me when we lived in Wenatchee, after me and the boys were asleep, she would sit by the window and watch the falling snow as she listened to Michael Card and thought about Jesus. She said she could feel the 'presence' of God.

After a while Lily sadly talked about how difficult it is to find a Christmas movie about Jesus. For the most part we have turned Christmas into something ugly.

Three years ago some pastors got together and decided to do something about that ugliness. They began a movement they called Advent Conspiracy. The message was to worship God fully, spend less at Christmas while actually giving more and to love everyone. Portland's Rick McKinley of Imago Dei Community was one of the three main collaborators. Now Zondervan is involved and there are books and DVDs about it, and ... I just hope the focus and the motive remains the same.

Did you know that “Four out of every ten people in the world do not have access to even a simple latrine; and nearly two in ten have no source of safe drinking water” (UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation, Final report, 2005).

It is estimated that it would cost roughly twenty billion dollars a year, every year to solve this problem. Twenty billion dollars sounds like an incredible amount of money doesn't it? Now think about the money given to bail out banks.

We might say there is nothing we can do about the mayor in Baltimore who used donations for the poor to buy his own toys for Christmas, the politicians and all their private, publicly paid vacations, and certainly there is nothing we can do about the millions of people who don't have decent water. Really? 

A few days ago we had to boil water for a day because of a contaminant in our local water supply. What is that compared to people who never had decent water? Twenty billion is a lot of money you say. Is it?

The whole point of Advent Conspiracy is to bring 'presence,' not presents. It is about spending a little less each Christmas and taking a small portion of what you would have spent and putting it to a good cause. Do you know that powerful things can be done for good when a lot of people come together and do something very personal and very small? These small things are only small in how we see things, but great and grand in what really matters. When we bring 'presence' to someone else are we not walking in the steps of Jesus? I am excited that my church community is embracing this idea, except they want it to be a daily, not an annual project.

According to my Google search 450 billion is spent on Christmas. 450 billion! If each of us gave one less gift, if there was one less unwanted gift returned after Christmas, if, if, if.

We can do this. You and I can do this. Please check out Advent Conspiracy. We can do our part to bring 'presence' to Christmas.