This Christmas season in particular has made me think about its true meaning.
No, I’m not talking about “putting the Christ back in Christmas” or “the true meaning of Christmas.” Save that for the Crazy Evangelical Christian’s blog.
I’m talking about the sense of giving and kindness that society seems to experience after Black Friday passes. Notice how I say AFTER Black Friday. All it takes is one early morning Christmas shopping trip on this particular day for a person to realize that people aren’t exactly in the giving mood quite yet. Hmm… funny how that is, considering this shopping frenzy occurs only a few hours after they’ve cleared the ThanksGIVING dinner table. But I digress.
As the 14th Great Dalai Lama once said, “only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.”
So, what does this mean? It means that you can’t truly be happy until you’ve showed compassion toward others. I would LOVE for a Christian to explain to me how one season of giving and kindness makes us all happy.
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the happiest season of all.” That’s how the Christmas song goes, right?
There’s a key word here. Development.
A person needs to develop their understanding of others to truly be happy. Kindness and compassion do not happen overnight. You cannot be a kind person in one day, just like that. Even more so, you cannot be a kind person FOR one day.
This is a problem I see in most Christians. Those who are the loudest in proclaiming their religion are also the rudest ones on most occasions. But, again, I digress. Let’s not get TOO off-topic here.
Moral of the story? Regardless of your religion, kindness should be incorporated into your everyday life. That goes along with patience – something I see less and less of in people each day, no matter where I go.
Sounds a lot like the key principles of Christianity, doesn’t it? Hmm. Intriguing.
As my friend Rob always says… “Jesus was a great Buddhist.”
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