I could let it bother me that some have resorted to the use of “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.”
I could let it bother me that corporations don’t automatically rush to worship the way I do or embrace the same ideals that I hold dear.

And I do understand why so many Christians are upset.
But this Christmas season there is so much more for me to be bothered by. Each Sunday I assemble with my brothers and sisters to commemorate the death, burial and resurrection of my Lord and Savior and so many in this world fail to even notice.
No, many people ignore Jesus each and every day. Why should one more day make that much of a difference?
And besides, that is their right, the benefit of being a free moral agent. They have the right to choose to follow Jesus or whomever they deem worthy of their devotion.
How would it be this Christmas (or holiday) season if, rather than boycotting Target or Wal-Mart, we as Christians embodied the reason for this season?
What if we were the incarnation of the Christ child in the hearts and lives of people?
What if we gave more and expected less?
What if we adopted families that were without this Christmas and infused them with the hope of salvation and the joy of Christmas fellowship?
What if we stopped criticizing the poor for failing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and offered them a hand?
What if we spent less time spewing rhetoric and more time whispering grace?
What if we wept over EVERY life lost in war, not just the ones who wear our uniforms?
What if reached out in love to the hungry, the poor, the homosexual, those different from us and offered them hope, peace and reconciliation?
What if WE were Jesus in America?
What if we, as Christians, lived our lives in such a way that it would be impossible for anyone to deny the importance of Christmas?
What if we gave them infinite reasons to appreciate Jesus by the way we live our lives?
What if we were known as loving, grace-filled, tolerant souls who truly care about others, willing to meet them where they are and develop relationships with them that embody the person of Jesus?

You see, Jesus came to be God with us. He came into a sin-filled world to be hope and light, salt and solace. He did not come clutching a protest sign.
He did not come to organize a boycott.
He was not incarnate in efforts to incite.
He was not born as a talk-show host but as a child, innocent, meek and mild.
He did not come to instigate.
No, He came to change lives.
And He calls us to do the same.
Not through coercion. Not through crying “persecution” anytime someone disagrees with us or fails to look at things through evangelical eyes.
He calls us to go. Love our enemies, pray for those who “persecute” us.
Let’s make the reason for the season undeniable.

Understand this, it is not the world’s responsibility to come to our point of view on matters such as this.
It is our responsibility to take to the world the hope that is bound in Christmas.
You want Christmas acknowledge and embraced?
Be as Christ.