Tomorrow is December 1, and in America the Christmas season has been underway for over a week. The commercialism surrounding the holiday is enough to make me sick. I thought holidays were a time of rest, spiritual reflection, and family reunion. We tend to get so busy caring for our family and friends (by way of shopping for gifts, preparing food, etc.) that sometimes we fail to slow down enough to ask why we do the things we do this time of year.

The other night, I happened to turn on the television to see "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on ABC. This simple children's film provides a powerful social commentary. In telling the story of Charlie Brown's search for true meaning amid the contemporary over-comercialized, over-produced interpretation of the holiday, it speaks volumes. The climax involves Charlie shouting "Can't someone tell me what Christmas is all about?" Then Linus, security blanket in hand, trots to the microphone in the school auditorium and recites verbatim the story of Christ's birth from Luke.

That brilliant understatement shouts the truth to a world deaf with materialism. Christmas is a time when we should pause and reflect on the magnitude of what happened in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. That should motivate us to prayer, discipleship and a renewed commitment to the truth, not to a harried few weeks of indulgence.