What Have We Become?

Tonight my heart is heavy with sadness.

Last night families large and small gathered around tables to feast together celebrating a day of thanks. Then this morning in the wee hours, or perhaps only merely hours after this family meal ended, began the shopping frenzy of Black Friday.

Black Friday in theory is a wonderful thing....special deals for people willing to shop at crazy hours, giving retailers a boost in sales before end of year and buyers a chance to get things they might not otherwise be able to afford and a jump on their holiday shopping. And in the beginning that is what it was. Then slowly but surely it began to evolve, as the hours got earlier, the deals got bigger and the shoppers more aggressive.

Black Friday has gotten beyond out of hand and from what I can see it points to a much, much bigger problem.....a change in behavior and attitude as humans that is so much less than we can be.

All day today I was inundated with Black Friday news, from emails about deals, to news reports, to videos from within the stores themselves. Those videos c-r-u-s-h-e-d me. Do a quick google or YouTube search and you will see what I mean. People pushing fighting, grabbing, getting hurt, hurting others, disrespecting employees and police officers (police officers needed for shopping? apparently so...) all in the name of....stuff. Sure these were great deals and maybe they will be gifts, but ultimately it is about....getting stuff.

Is getting stuff bad? No.
Is getting stuff for a good deal bad? No.
Is liking having, giving and receiving stuff bad? No, no and no.

But at some point a line was crossed where we as people have justified the negative of greed with the warm fuzzy of giving. Is it really ok to knock someone down or mouth off to a hard working employee because that DVD player will perfect for Grandpa Joe? In my opinion, no. And I would like to think Grandpa Joe would be appalled to know what you did that to get that special gift, but we have also become a people who live off the high of drama and more than likely it is a great gift with the bonus of an awesome story..."You should of seen how I dove in and got that for you! It was crazy! But I wasn't gonna let anyone get it before ME!"

What have we done? What have we let ourselves become? What have we let this beautiful season turn into?

Now please DO NOT get me wrong. I love presents. I love shopping. I love a good deal. I love a good drama filled story and even experience...sheesh I am human after all, but there is a point where too much is too much.

Maybe I am taking this all too a much deeper level than I need to worry about, but it seems to me that more and more as I look around what I see is negative. Is it because there is a way to see so much more thanks to the Internet? Perhaps. But then again perhaps there has been a change, or lots of little changes over time...till we are here; where people hurt one another for a television or video game.

Either way tonight I have decided enough is enough for me.

I took a moment to show my children a few of the clips of the Black Friday chaos and I told them we are NOT allowing this to happen to our family. not just at Christmas, but in general. I want us to remember how blessed we are and that it is ok to like things and presents, but not to the point of letting them be the source of our happiness. Our happiness is bigger than stuff because it comes from God who loves and blesses our lives daily.