“Addiction” might be the best word to explain the lostness that so deeply permeates society. Our addiction make us cling to what the world proclaims as the keys to self-fulfillment: accumulation of wealth and power; attainment of status and admiration; lavish consumption of food and drink, and sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love. These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs. As long as we live within the world’s delusions, our addictions condemn us to futile quests in “the distant country,” leaving us to face an endless series of disillusionments while our sense of self remains unfulfilled. In these days of increasing addictions, we have wandered far away from our Father’s home. The addicted life can aptly be designated a life lived in “a distant country.” It is from there that our cry for deliverance rises up.” Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
Is it possible to really understand the significance of Christmas without understanding a world without it? There is that old saying, “familiarity breeds contempt,” and I believe we really don’t understand the significance of Christmas as much as we think we do. Is it possible that as American’s we’ve grown so accustomed to our prosperity, our freedoms and our entertainment that we’ve not deluded ourselves into believing they hold the keys to happiness and fulfillment? Each year we keep upping the anti for bigger more expensive gifts and fall deeper and deeper into debt and despair. There is rising up a cry for deliverance and hope? But it cannot come from the culture but must be beyond it and even higher than where we are now.
“I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free.” Acts 7:34
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