Black Friday

I was blessed with the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving day with our extended family. The meal was a communal affair in which everyone contributed one or more dishes to the menu. We ate, drank, and were merry. Part of our tradition is to take turns around the table talking about at least one thing we count as a blessing in our lives. After dinner, the noise spread throughout the house. There was football in the living room, board games in the den, and small children running around everywhere. To put it simply, it was glorious time to be together as a family.

As we drove home, the parking lot at every big box store was full. It was another kind of feeding frenzy, the kind that sets my teeth on edge.

In 21st century America, Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving when we embark on an orgy of consumption, supposedly as part of our celebration of Christ's birth. No one guided by the Holy Spirit believes that the holiday spending spree has anything to do with Christ. It does not take much discernment to see the worst of self-centered human nature on display during this so-called season of giving.

The official kickoff to the holiday shopping season has slowly crept backwards. Every year, the doors open a few hours earlier than the year before. And this year, the crowds filled the stores by 8 on Thanksgiving evening. Thanksgiving is being consumed by consumption.

I could not help but think about the employees forced to give up time with their family so merchants could seduce shoppers into the stores in search of bargains on needless junk. Time to bond with their families is taken away in exchange for an extra 30 or 40 dollars in pay. It seems like a deal only Satan could celebrate.

All of the talk of morality and family values in our society is a farce. The people who make the most noise about family values never say a word about the undermining of family life by the ravenous wolves of materialism.

Here is a look at people stampeding like cattle for deals in a Walmart in Moultrie, Georgia. This is your brain on greed. Look at their faces. Listen to their voices. There were no major physical injuries in the melee, but the spiritual degradation was plain to see.



The only Black Friday of any significance happened two thousand years ago. A true man of God was tortured and executed for disrupting the gravy train of religious authorities. In life, death, and resurrection, this man revealed the love of God at work. I owe my faith to this itinerant preacher from Nazareth. For that I am thankful.