boxing day.

i am not canadian.

sure, i have the t-shirt with the maple leaf on it. and i definately say "eh?" a lot; though mostly because so often in my past i've refused to take my mom's advice and wear earplugs to concerts.

but i am about as american as they come. and we americans on the whole tend to take a lot for granted and not give much back. it's a societal ill on which i could expound at length, but for now let's just say we can learn a lot from the holidays observed by our commonwealth friends.

take boxing day. the day after christmas if you're from canada, the u.k. or the land down under, you participate in a "traditional celebration dating back to the middle ages, of which the primary practice is the giving of gifts to the poor or to people in a lower social class." (thank you, wikipedia.)

i'm not sure why america never got in on the action.

this year, some friends and i decided it was high time. a day at spent at the grocery store, k-mart and the family dollar yielded thirty pairs of socks, thirty pairs of mittens, and thirty brown bags bursting with a homemade (if makeshift) christmas dinner. we could easily have created one of those never-seems-to-get-old mastercard ads. "socks for thirty: $21.75."... you know the drill.

the external thermometer on the dashboard registered 17 degrees when we pulled up at the denver rescue mission. its neon sign declaring "Jesus saves" served to illuminate the huddled mass of people doing their best to keep warm and hoping against hope to be admitted for the night. the man we met who worked on staff said that most of them would make it in that night. but already this winter one man has frozen to death.

our thirty little packages were gone in three minutes.

so, too, were the thirty mcdonald's hamburgers we bought to supplement. the people who get in will be fed tonight. but to pull away without having satiated every person lining that street corner felt callous. it reminded me of something out of james; in the second chapter where he writes, "suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. if one of you says to him, "go, i wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? in the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

we did our best. we loved sixty people tangibly. but more than that, we found ourselves forced from our habit of turning a blind eye. we're determined to plan ahead, spread the word, do more.

like most of my friends, i'm in the process of being swept up in what it means to "live as an ordinary radical" thanks to shane claiborne's "the irrestistable revolution." his indefatigable search for authentic faith delves deep into the heart of what it means to follow Jesus. (listen to me. i should work in his publicity department.) he contemplates what it would look like if we, instead of embarking on hairbrained schemes and praying that Jesus would bless them, undertook the kinds of things that we know Jesus blesses.

and blessed are the poor.

i have lots of thoughts on this. how i wish they were coherent.

one thought right now though is first and foremost.
it's snowing again.
Jesus, keep them warm tonight.