25
2011
Rest as Worship: The Irony of Black Friday
An article by 
It has always seemed ironic to me how Black Friday works. Hours after our yearly pause to remember how fortunate we are, the mob scene starts at retailers across the nation. The lines begin while the left over turkey is still cooling in the refrigerator, and the crowds begin the rush for stuff before they have fully recovered from the Thanksgiving tryptofan coma.
A while back I was listening to one of Andy Stanley’s sermons where he was speaking about being discontent with what we have… and how our constant awareness of what we lack drives that discontent. This awareness drives us to do something that was foreign to the generations that preceded us: upgrade. My father-in-laws generation kept everything until it could no longer work… our generation upgrades when a newer shinier model comes out.
Yesterday we celebrated everything we are grateful for.
Today we are encouraged to celebrate the stuff we don’t have.
I am having a hard time reconciling the two. My prayer, as I return from vacation and get back into the grind of the day to day is that I might be satisfied with all that I have, that I will be thankful for what has been entrusted to me, and that I will not let the shininess of new stuff distract me from that which is truly important.
About the Author: Matt Steen
Over the last fifteen years I have been a Church Planter, Youth Pastor, Executive Pastor, and now I serve as a Church Concierge with churchsimple.net. I love Jesus, my wife, the Redskins and Capitals and am currently living on Long Island striving to properly pronounce the word G'island.
