Christmas All Year

"We should remember to show the spirit of Christmas every day."

That's not an unusual or rare sentiment. Many people, I'd imagine, wish we as a collective human race would treat people with the kindness and friendliness that we reserve for the Holiday Season(TM) year-round instead. And everyone usually agrees with the thought: Peace on Earth, every day. But nobody seems willing to follow up on that.

Why?

No, seriously, why? Is it apathy? Is it an eventual lack of interest in doing good deeds?

I find myself at this time of year thinking in more charitable terms: wanting to do more, to help people more, to - for example - donate to things that will help people have a "Merry Christmas" when they otherwise would not.

Why don't I do this year-round? Why should one day matter? Wouldn't I be doing more good if I was willing to give of myself at all times?

The thing is, for many of us, the Holidays remind us that there's more to this life than just living, and we try and balance our spiritual checkbooks (for lack of a better term). I'm guilty of this too... since we associate this time of year with good feelings and (for Christians) the birth of the Savior of mankind, we think we should go out of our way at this time of year to show love to our fellow man.

I say we're wrong.

I say it shouldn't matter what time of year it is; we should constantly go out of our way each and every chance we get to show love to our fellow man, regardless of his or her's beliefs, race, sexuality, whatever. We don't have to agree with them; we just have to love them.

This is something I feel Christians are failing to notice, and is a reason why some don't feel comfortable choosing to believe. After all, Jesus didn't only do good works on His birthday (which Christmas may or may not be, but that's when we choose to celebrate it, so drop the issue). He did them non-stop, and ordered His followers to do so... can you imagine what people would accomplish if the Church (not buildings or organizations, but the entire group of believers) would actually do that?

So this Christmas, I challenge you to, indeed, live as if every day is Christmas. Because if we can do so, if we can show love and peace to everyone else every day, who knows what may happen?

Maybe through such actions we can convince others that He whom we believe in really is who He says He is. Maybe they'll see that He really can change lives, and that He is real... because the best way to tell if something's real is to see what it does, not hear about what it says it can do. And maybe believer and non-believer alike can find a common ground, so each doesn't have to worry about what to say around the other without fear of being misunderstood or judged.

Peace on Earth? Maybe not too crazy a concept after all.