Weird Christmas, 2012?!?

I got to thinking about a weird possibility for Christmas 2012.  Here's the deal; there's not a thing in the world that I need, materially, that I don't already have.  (Most of what I have I don't need.  It's excess.)   What would it be like if I just didn't get any gifts for Christmas this year?  I would tell the people who know and love me to just keep on loving me and everyone around them, and that would be my gift.  And most of the adults I know, with some notable exceptions, have everything they need and more as well.  What would it be like if I told all the adults close to me that they would not be receiving material gifts from me this holiday season?  I would give gifts only to the children in my life; everyone under 18 years old.

Now, what if most of the adults who worship with me weekly had the same weird idea?  Let's say 500 of us will receive material gifts this holiday season, nor will we give them to our adult loved ones.  Now, imagine that we each would have spent at least $100 on Christmas gifts for the grown-ups we know and love.  Suppose that each of us set aside the money we would have spent on holiday gifts in 2012.  Now imagine that our gift to each other would be to bring that money to one, big, celebrate-the-birth-of-Jesus Christmas Eve offering on the evening of Sunday, December 24th.

Would would it be like if the people and leaders of our church prayed in yielding, discerning petition before the living God starting now, humbly asking to align with God's own heart?   Picture this:  based on how the Holy Spirit leads us, we send a check for $50,000+ to our brothers and sisters in Mozambique to dig five more wells in order to save thousands of lives and baptize hundreds more.  Or we just fund the next Habitat for Humanity project in our community.  Or we start a Hope Center, where anybody can come with any human need or crisis and find the love of Jesus and the helping hand of the Body of Christ.  Or we go to our local food bank and say, "Here.  Feed that many more hungry children in our region."  Or we take the gift to a struggling school system and say, "Take this.  Let's work together to start a program of one-to-one mentoring for student on the edge."  Or we go to a nearby small community with a church that's struggling to stay alive and say, "We're with you.  Let's take this money and partner together to make new disciples for Jesus Christ right here in this community!"  Or maybe God will lead us in some other direction completely off our grid.

What would that be like?  Could that be a God-event that would just push us beyond the edges of our own limitations, change us, and make us more like the Body of Christ?  Or is it just weird.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.