Archive for the ‘consumerism’ Category

1 Sep

Slimming down

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in advice, Aging, Bible, Christian, Christianity, consumerism, discipline, Freedom, Happiness, Idolatry, materialism, peace, Poverty, regrets, Religion, Simple Living, simplicity. Tagged: , , , , .

I was a three-sport athlete in high school.  In college in 1975 I joined a “health club” called the US Army and stayed strong and fit there for the next 26 years.  Through challenging “Arrrmy training” (Bill Murray fans will get it), we stayed physically and mentally ready to defend our nation.  I retired from the Army in 2001. Like so many of the Army buddies I served with, I put on a few pounds after retirement.  In fact, over the course of two decades I went from a retirement weight of 209 lbs. to a maximum of 242. About two years ago, through a combination of illness, dieting, and lifestyle changes, I lost a dramatic amount of weight. Today my weight hovers around a comfy 200 lbs.

Slimming down came with a lot of benefits.  Among these are being able to fit into clothes I hadn’t worn for years, improved sleep, increased energy levels, and all around better physical health as indicated by my vital signs and blood chemistry tests, which today look like those of a healthy twenty-something. Slimming down has many other great benefits, more than we can cover here.

There’s another type of slimming down that’s very good for you. Commonly called “downsizing,” it refers to both reducing the amount of space one lives in and the quantity of personal possessions one owns. Such reducing can be healthy both mentally and spiritually.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m not some overzealous lifestyle minimalist that believes in possessing only the bare essentials necessary for living and rejects the rest. I’m not the type of person who could live my life in a “Tiny Home” like one sees on HGTV. But my wife and I have downsized our living space four times since I retired from the army, slimming down from a 3,200 sq ft house to 2,000, to 1,500 and finally to 1,200 sq ft condo, which we have today. We both agree that downsizing is cathartic. Here are just a few potential benefits of lifestyle downsizing which, if you’re not ready for now, might become of greater interest to you as you grow older.   

Reducing Chaos. Chaos is truly the devil’s workshop. Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee by commanding, “Peace, be still.”  He can do the same for you and me. God wants us to have peace. A beautiful car, a sleek sailboat, and a humongous house and/or garage crammed with a lot of “stuff” (substitute a gigantic storage unit crammed with stuff) can contribute to a chaotic life.  Each of these comes with a price, and I’m not talking about money. Beautiful cars beg to be washed, waxed, and detailed.  A sleek boat requires a lot of time and effort to keep it safe and seaworthy. Big houses typically have big lots.  Big lots beg to be manicured until the grass looks as good or better than a putting green. A big house crammed with a lot of stuff can became a chaotic ball and chain for you and/or for your children who are trying to sort things out after their parents pass away. Oh yeah, and who is going to remove the snow from that lovely 50-yard curving driveway? Been there and done that! It’s not fun.

Avoiding Anxiety and Distractions.  Have you ever been sitting in a pew on a Sunday morning, taking a mental inventory of all the things, you need to do when you when you get home or in the week to come, instead of listening to what was being said in the sermon? There is a time to do and a time to listen. Sermon time in church is a time to listen.

You might recall this story in Luke chapter 10. Martha and Mary were the sisters of Lasarus. On one occasion that Luke describes, Martha invited Jesus into her house. While Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to him talk, Mary fluttered all about, presumably preparing a meal for Jesus.  After a while Martha became annoyed and asked Jesus to tell Mary to come and help her with the work.  Jesus’ response to Martha’s urging was a gentle rebuke, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (v. 41-42). Jesus wants to be the top priority in our lives.  Endeavor to keep Jesus at the center of your thoughts.

Avoiding Comparison. You’ve probably heard the expression “Keeping up with the Joneses.” It refers to a selfish urge or social pressure to match or exceeded the material possessions of one’s neighbors.  Colossians 3 compares covetousness to “idolatry.” When it came to material possessions, King Solomon, the presumed writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes and a man renowned for both his wisdom and his wealth, made the Joneses look like rank amateurs.  Listen to what he had to say about material wealth:

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. –Ecclesiastes 2:4-11

After much experimentation, Soloman finally figured it out! Now see what Jesus said to his disciples:

Then he (Jesus) said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” –Luke 12:15

Matthew 19:16-23

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

“Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you; it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Leaving a Christian Legacy. To those who are believers, I ask “What is your greatest regret since you became a Christian?”  I hope your response isn’t something like, “I wish I had worked more” or “I wish I had bought that 1966 Corvette when I had the chance.”

Will you leave a Christian legacy? What might that look like? Will those who come after you even know you were a Christian given the way that you lived? This is worth thinking about.    

Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be.  –Psalm 39:6

“‘And I (a wealthy man) will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’”—Luke 12:18-20

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. —1 Timothy 6:6-8

“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” —Matthew 5:16

Legacy isn’t measured by wealth, titles, or accolades—it’s measured by the impact your faith has on others. A Christian legacy is built day by day, through quiet obedience, generous love, and intentional discipleship. When we live with integrity, invest in relationships, and give freely of what God has entrusted to us, we leave behind more than memories—we leave behind a testimony.

A Christian legacy doesn’t end with you or me. It multiplies through the lives we touch, the prayers we pray, and the truths we pass on. And the goal isn’t to be remembered—it’s to make Christ known.  May our respective legacies draw others closer to Jesus Christ.

Leaving Things Behind. Back to lifestyle downsizing, there is nothing bad about wealth in and of itself.  I’ve known many Christians who were wealthy and unselfishly used their wealth for the furtherment of God’s kingdom.  A problem with wealth begins when we forget that everything we possess belongs to God and we are merely stewards of what he has given us. 

 We are born naked and penniless and in death our physical bodies return to dust. Don’t let accumulating “stuff” become a goal in your life. Even though many have tried and failed (Egyptian Pharaohs and Viking Chieftains come to mind), you just can’t take it with you. I hope you enjoy the short poem below by Judy Dykstra-Brown

Relocation Dreams

I’ve so many things that there’s no place to stack them in.
No drawers to hold them, no cupboards to pack them in.
So many things stowed away from detection.
My fireplace houses its own art collection.

My wardrobe suffers from costumes aplenty.
I’ve boxes of sizes from nine up to twenty.
My jewelry box is stuffed to the gills,
my medicine drawer is spilling out pills.

When I try to cull them, they all want to stay.
The only solution’s to just move away
to find a small island with palm trees and sky
where there is simply nothing to buy!

I’ll live in a hut with floors of swept dirt.
One pair of flip flops, a simple grass skirt.
I won’t feel that shopping should be my main duty.
I’ll look out the window if I require beauty.

No buying new paintings whenever I please.
No little nicknacks and no DVD’s.
No drawers of makeup or tea towels or spoons.
No tarot cards, horoscopes, Ouija boards, runes.

I will not need things to determine my fate,
that day I walk out, simply locking my gate,
taking one suitcase, computer and cables,
and scanner and backup drives, printers and tables,

an internet router and energy backup—
just these few items to locate and pack up.
Then I’m off to a life that’s simpler by far
if these bare necessities fit in my car.

*All Bible quotations are NIV

5 Feb

Debt relief

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in Adversity, advice, Christian, Christianity, consumerism, Grace, Jesus, materialism, Poverty, Salvation, Self-discipline, Simple Living, simplicity. Tagged: , , , , , .

The United States is a debtor nation. The US Congress regularly borrows money to keep the government running.  The national debt is the grand total of money the government owes, either to investors or to itself (source: USAfacts.org). The current national debt is approaching $35 trillion. That’s 35 followed by 12 zeros! 

There is an intriguing concept of debt forgiveness in Jewish law that relates to the Shemitah year, which occurs every seven years. According to the Torah, in the Shemitah year, all personal loans between Jews are canceled, and lenders must release their debtors from their obligations. This is known as Shemitat Kesafim, or “release of money.” The purpose of this law is to foster generosity, faith, and social justice among the Jewish people, and to remind them that everything ultimately belongs to God. Imagine how different our lives would be if this form of debt relief were practiced in America today.

Average American citizens are debtors. Per the website Statista.com, the average American had $21,800 in non-mortgage debt in 2023. Much of this amount was accrued on credit cards used to fund consumer spending…I just had to have that new iPhone!  Unlike older generations, younger consumers today often buy on credit those things that older generations would have saved up for and purchased in cash, like a new car…Why wait, you can have it now.  You deserve it!

Today, the idea of saving enough money to buy a new car is as outdated as the idea of working one’s way through college.  While not impossible, the skyrocketing cost of new cars and attending a four-year college make paying cash as one goes out of reach for most people.

According to a July 2023 article on Forbes.com (https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/average-student-loan-debt-statistics/), total student loan debt was $1.75 trillion.  Around 55% of students from public four-year institutions had student loans. The average student loan debt for students coming out of public four-year institutions was $28,950.   

There’s an old adage that says, “The borrower is slave to the lender.” There’s a lot of truth in this. The Bible describes our sins as debts to God. Sin debt to God is a concept describing the moral obligation that humans have to obey God’s law and the penalty that they incur when they fail to obey. Sin is disobedience to God’s will and commands. King David acknowledges in Psalm 51:3-4, that his sins are offenses against God, not man:

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.

Sin separates humans from God’s presence and favor. The consequence of sin is death, both physical and spiritual, which means eternal separation from God.

The Bible teaches that God is merciful and gracious, and He has provided a way for humans to be forgiven and reconciled to Him. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross as a substitute for sinners, paying the debt that they could not pay themselves. By trusting in Christ’s death and resurrection, sinners can receive God’s forgiveness and eternal life. This is the Good News (Gospel), of God’s salvation for sinners. God cancels the sin debt of those who believe in His Son and restores them to a right relationship with Him. While you may not receive government relief from your student loans or other debts, thanks be to God that forgiveness for our sin debt against Him is available.

Ephesians 2:1-10   As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

*All Bible quotes are NIV

21 Nov

Give Thanks to God

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in advice, Bible, Christianity, Christmas, consumerism, Faith, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Gifts, Religion, Simple Living, simplicity, Thanksgiving. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Thanksgiving Turkey.jpg

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.

May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.

May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.

May all life’s passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!

                                                                             An Irish Blessing

Father Desmond O’Donnell, a Roman Catholic Priest in Northern Ireland, recently told the Belfast Telegraph newspaper that Christians should abandon the word “Christmas,” noting that the name has been “hijacked by Santa and reindeer” and commercialized to the point that it is virtually meaningless.  “We’ve lost Christmas, just like we lost Easter, and should abandon the word completely,” O’Donnell said.  

Just go to a mall today and see what he means.  You’ll find Christmas on display everywhere, even though we’ve yet to celebrate Thanksgiving. Check your mailbox today and you’re apt to find a pile of Christmas sale catalogs and flyers.  The Christmas theme is clear—buy, buy, buy!

Sadly, we can say the same thing about losing Thanksgiving.   What was originally a day set aside for Americans to thank God for our many blessings is now often referred to as “Turkey Day,” a time to overeat, over indulge in alcohol, and watch football on television. Indeed, a number of Thanksgiving Day football matches across the country are referred to as the “Turkey Bowl.” Thanksgiving has become irreversibly connected with Black Friday, the day Christmas buyers literally battle one another in malls and big box stores to get super bargain prices on anything and everything.  Some stores have even resorted to open at midnight on Thanksgiving to maximize the Black Friday “spend fest.”    

For many Americans, it might appear that there isn’t too much to be thankful for.  We see reports of multiple mass shootings; police officers are gunned down in our streets; there are dozens of reports of sexual misconduct by politicians and Hollywood celebrities; natural disasters hammer the land; and we have a government run by two feckless political parties that seemingly can’t even agree on when to hold the next meeting.  Sometimes it seems as if our whole system, our entire way of life, could be swept away in an instant (and it can, but that’s the Book of Revelation, which I won’t go into today).

So what does America have to be thankful for?  The answer is truly simple, although not necessarily obvious.  What a pity more Americans don’t travel abroad to Third World countries and countries with oppressive regimes like Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea.  In such places it takes very little time to recognize how truly blessed we are.  I was blessed that my military career allowed me to see so much of the world. It changed me forever.

America isn’t perfect, but it is great enough that many people around the globe dream of coming here.  If you take time to thank God this coming Thursday, thank Him for these simple blessings:

  • We can go to the faucet and fill a glass with clear, clean water. In Somalia I watched people drink water drawn straight from the muddy Jubba River, where it was not uncommon to see the carcass of a hippopotamus or other large animal floating down the river. Diarrheic disease kills Somalis and other Third World citizens by the score.
  • Our country is relatively free of deadly infectious diseases like plague, cholera, and malaria that devastate many other countries.
  • We light our homes with the flip of a switch. Following the long civil war in the Former Yugoslavia, I was deployed to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Most of the city was without electricity when I arrived, and much of it was still without when I returned home 13 months later.
  • We are well-fed compared with much of the world. Even many people living below the poverty level in America are better fed than people in some Third World countries.
  • One can travel freely in America. Oppressive regimes around the world control movement of the population. They use checkpoints with armed officials to prevent unrestricted movement about the country.
  • Americans can speak freely without fear of reprisal by the government. Sure, sometimes there are bad consequences for speaking freely, such as libel suites, but we aren’t silenced by the government.
  • While there is a problem with homelessness in America, most of us have a roof over our heads nevertheless. In Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia and Bosnia I saw thousands of people who had been violently forced from their homes or had their homes destroyed by war.
  • We have the freedom to worship God in the way we choose. While many Christians grumble about losing religious freedom (and some rightfully so), we enjoy more religious liberty than most of the world.

Truly America has its problems, but our country is blessed in many ways.  Despite its faults, it is still a place where many oppressed people dream of coming to.  Take time to pause and thank God for blessing America. May he continue to do so in the coming year!

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free

‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.*

*Lyrics from “Simple Gifts,” a traditional Quaker Tune

30 Sep

Recalling Some Life Lessons

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in advice, Christianity, consumerism, family, Freedom, Hope, joy, learning, materialism, peace, Poor, Poverty, Religion, Simple Living, Unemployment, work. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Traffic Jam

Normal is getting dressed in clothes you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.   ―Ellen Goodman

Time has been called “a great healer” because it helps ease the pain of physical and emotional wounds.  Unfortunately, time also sometimes causes us to forget some of the best lessons life teaches—lessons we ought to have held on to.

Such was the case for a life lesson I recently recalled—something I originally learned while serving as a Civil-Military Operations Officer in southern Somalia some 20 years ago.

In 1993, Somalia was engulfed in civil war, much like today.  One day I visited a refugee camp run by the United Nations. Hundreds of Bantu people were housed there in small, igloo-like huts made from long bent sticks covered with plastic sheeting.

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The Bantus were brought to Somalia as slaves in the 19th century and remain so to this day. They are a small people of very different ethnicity and appearance than the Somalis.

The Bantus I saw that day were living in absolute squalor. Yet despite their situation they seemed remarkably happy.  When I asked a UN worker about the reason for the Bantus’ apparent joy, he provided a life lesson.  “These people were once slaves,” he said, “but now they’re free, well fed and together.”  The things they held dearest were freedom, family and a full belly.  They enjoyed all of these in the squalid camp where they were living.

Over the course of my time in Somalia and several other deployments during my Army career, I learned other lessons about how little we humans truly need.  For months at a time I lived with no possessions beyond what would fit in my rucksack and duffel bag.

With no car to wash, no lawn to mow, no gutters to clean, no leaves to rake, no Internet, no TV and no long commute to work, one has freedom to discover the gift of time.  Personal productivity can increase significantly in such situations, as can relaxation and renewal.

My unscientific observations suggest that as possessions increase, freedom decreases. A multitude of possessions tend to chip away at the gift of time. While I am not a practicing minimalist, I do believe it would behoove most Americans to consider reducing their material possessions.  Garages were designed for cars, not unopened moving boxes. The primary purpose of an attic is to allow proper ventilation of a house, not to store a lot of stuff.   According to the Wall Street Journal, only about 20 percent of the clothes in a person’s closet are regularly worn. You get the picture.

Relearning Some Past Life Lessons

After each long military deployment, I returned home with renewed enthusiasm for life and a deeper appreciation for my freedom, family and the many blessings God had given us. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm and appreciation always slowly faded as I became increasingly re-engaged in the daily, mundane distractions of life and work. After awhile, many life lessons just seem to vanish.  Some of us are fortunate enough to be have an opportunity to relearn some of them.

About a year ago, two major changes in my life occurred.  First, my wife and I moved from a house in Johnstown into a condo near Pittsburgh. Then, only four weeks later, I lost my job.

I had wanted more free time and I got it.  Sometimes God has a real sense of humor!

Laughing Jesus

Two of the main reasons we moved into a condo were to reduce our material possessions and to escape the workload that accompanies owning and maintaining a house. We simply wanted more freedom to do the things we enjoy.  Losing my job wasn’t part of the plan.

However, over the course of the past year I’ve relearned some valuable life lessons, ones I should never have forgotten.

First of all, I remembered that I really don’t need a lot to make me happy.  We have a lot less space and a lot fewer possessions than a year ago, but we also have more time and more freedom to enjoy life.  It has been a great tradeoff—so much, in fact, that my wife and I are already discussing another major downsizing.

Living without abundance makes one more aware of God’s daily provisions.  Instead of asking Him for specific blessings, I’ve learned to pray each day that God will provide my family and me just enough to satisfy our needs and that His perfect will may be done in our lives.

During the past year I also remembered how little it takes to make me truly happy.  We have adjusted to living on my military pension, something that seemed nearly impossible a year ago.  I also have remembered that it doesn’t take much more than my freedom, family and a full belly to make me happy–just like the joyful Bantu people I observed in Somalia many years ago,

Well, there is one other thing. The gift of time has allowed me to dig deeper into the Scriptures than ever before, bringing me closer to the only true source of joy. As the Rev. Dr. Sam Storms so clearly explains, “Joy is not necessarily the absence of suffering, it is the presence of God.”

May you find true joy and peace in your pilgrim’s journey!

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.”  —Matthew 6:19-21 (ASV)

3 Dec

The Trouble With Stuff

Posted by Zachary P. Hubbard in advice, Christmas, consumerism, materialism, Simple Living.

“A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.”  –George Carlin  

The final casualty reports are in:  one dead and over 40 seriously injured by a combination of hostile fire, chemical irritants and hand to hand combat.  In case you’re wondering, this isn’t a report from Afghanistan. It’s the end results of America’s obsession for stuff that was so graphically acted out on Black Friday last week.  The casualties occurred in malls and big box stores across the country as American consumers, driven into a greedy frenzy by the mere thought of cheap stuff, attacked each other with guns, pepper spray and fisticuffs, all in the name of shopping.

From the women’s intimate apparel section to the aisle with the XBox 360’s, tempers were boiling over and fists were flying.  Things were so bad that the media broadcast images of  American greed  around the globe.  My barber, an immigrant from Italy, even received a phone call from his brother-in-law in Sicily who asked him, “are you Americans crazy?”

That’s a great question, because by all indications our overly materialistic society is slowly slipping into some sort of psychotic consumer abyss.  We just can’t seem to get enough stuff. Like the late comedian George Carlin, who is quoted at the beginning of this post, I have lots of stuff.  I bet you do too.  I used to have more stuff, but I got rid of a lot of it before I moved back to Pennsylvania. I used to have a two-car garage, but I could only fit one car into it because I had too much stuff.

I didn’t want to get rid of any of my stuff, because deep inside me there was a small voice whispering that I might need some of that stuff someday.  Most of my neighbors had two-car garages too. Many of them couldn’t fit even one car into their garage because of their stuff.  After I had accumulated enough stuff, I realized that weekends were made for taking care of my stuff.  But most weekends weren’t long enough to take care of all of my stuff, so I had to take care of some of it in the evenings when I got home from work. I even took an occasional vacation day so I could take care of my stuff.

Unfortunately, our society tends to measure success by the amount of stuff one possesses–big boats, fancy cars, gigantic homes, and corner offices. Truth is you can have all of these and still be the most miserable person on Earth. The Scottish theologian Oswald Chambers said, “The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it actually is. We will set up success in Christian work as the aim; the aim is to manifest the glory of God in human life, to live the life hid with Christ in God in human conditions. Our human relationships are the actual conditions in which the ideal life of God is to be exhibited.” 

I challenge you to avoid buying a bunch of stuff for friends and family this Christmas season. Sure, go ahead and get those special toys for the kids, but don’t buy “stuff” for the adults on your list.  Who hasn’t struggled with buying a gift for a friend or loved one who has almost everything he or she needs?  Here’s a suggestion.

Alternative Gifts International (AGI) was begun in 1980 by Harriet Prichard, director of a Presbyterian children’s ministry in Pasadena, California.  AGI began as a small market where shares of goods and livestock for needy people in the Third World were sold.  The idea was to give gifts that could make a real difference to an individual, family, or village.  For instance, a gift of a milk cow or a means to purify water can truly change lives for impoverished people living in remote areas of Africa.  Ms. Prichard’s idea was so popular that five Pasadena area churches held markets the next year.  By 2004 there were over 325 Alternative Gifts markets in the United States. The movement has now spread to England, the Netherlands, Japan and Korea.

Here is how AGI works.  Instead of buying that symbolic gift (scarf, gloves, socks, tie etc. ) that might soon be put away or discarded, consider making a donation to AGI on behalf of your friend or loved one. Instructions on how to donate are on the “projects” section of AGI’s web site at www.alternativegifts.org. When you make a donation through the web site you can write a short message to the individual you want to remember.  AGI will send that person a card announcing your alternative gift. Gifting in this fashion will significantly simplify your Christmas shopping and will provide gifts that truly impact the lives of the recipients.

May you and yours enjoy the true spirit of Christmas this year.