Holding on to Christmas

by Peter Greer

A couple weeks after Christmas in 2002, a volcano erupted in Congo. Working for a development agency in neighboring Rwanda, I went to help.

Up on a platform, I handed out blankets to refugees. The orchestration was almost perfect—we had roped off lines like an amusement park—and I got to be the main attraction.

Here I was, on the front lines, personally handing out blankets and helping families that had lost almost everything. Noble cause. Noble mission. Noble actions of a twenty-five-year-old relief worker. A photographer snapped pictures. And I smiled wide for the camera as I did “God’s work.”

But I wasn’t thinking about the refugees. Instead I was thinking, I can’t wait until the people back home see these photos of me.

I saw the photos a few weeks later.

I trashed them. Captured on film, I recognized myself as playacting for people far away, not thinking about loving the people in front of me.

I had wanted to look like the good guy, the person my parents could brag about to their friends—the do-gooder, a masculine Mother Teresa who served the poor.

All my life I thought I had been on the right road; I had maintained a clean record and was the “good pastor’s kid.” But there was a disconnect between my heart and my outward appearance.

Doing good had slowly become about my reputation, my image, and my ego.

Even though I had just celebrated Christmas in Rwanda, where the carols bounced off the hills and the churches were full, I had failed to understand the core story of Christmas. I had missed the scandalous story of a Savior who thought nothing of his reputation.

A pregnant teenager. A shotgun wedding. A feeding trough as a crib. The birth announcement delivered first to societal outcasts. And the God of the Universe as a crying baby.

Clearly, Jesus had an entirely different agenda than trying to project some shining reputation. At its core, Christmas is a story of dirty, scandalous, and extravagant love. From his birth to his death, we see a God who came in humility as a servant so that we might experience God’s lavish grace.

Within the captivating story of the Nativity, we discover the antidote to our preoccupation with our reputation and our image. We give ourselves permission to stop comparing ourselves to the smiling Christmas cards that fill our mailbox. We free ourselves from the chains of people-pleasing and personal appearance shining. We discover the most beautiful picture of selfless love.

So in these days after Christmas—as we move away from the sacred birth story and into the new year—let us continue to remember to come and adore him. And then from a position of adoration, may our entire lives be caught up in following our Savior’s example of extravagant self-giving love to others.

Peter Greer is president and CEO of Hope International,, a global nonprofit focused on Christ-centered job creation, savings mobilization and financial training. Peter blogs at PeterKGreer.com. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook (www.facebook.com/peterkgreer).

Editor’s note: This post is part of a partnership with Hope International.

Image by Amanda T

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