Yesterday’s post had a few acronyms so I felt I’d continue in that vein today.

I was flicking through a book the other day which mentioned on the back cover ‘The ABCs of sharing your faith’.

ABC that sounds good, I thought. Then I opened it up and discovered it listed these three elements as:

A is for Admit, B is for Believe and C is for Come to Jesus.

Admit that you are a sinner. Believe that Jesus came to save you. Come to him in prayer asking for forgiveness.

I thought that sounded good and helpful.

Then I turned the page and discovered there was a D. D for Detail.

Personally I was all for the ABC acronym (Easy as 1 2 3) but they do have a point that you need a few more details other than that.

I also think it’s worth having an E.

E for Emotion.

Not emotional, but emotion.

Yes, I get emotional at Christmas time, mostly because it’s December and I’m exhausted and Amy Grant gets played on the radio.

Although I’m happy to report that her Christmas to Remember has no harmful side effects on me.

But Bob Geldof did tip me over the edge one year in Kmart… fortunately that was just a one off.

That might have something to do with the time I explained to my mother that the song was about children in Africa not knowing it was Christmas so they couldn’t celebrate it.

“They don’t celebrate it because they’re mostly Muslims” said the former missionary kid from Nigeria. Whilst she did have a point, it really did put a dampener on the song from then on after.

I’m not suggesting you have to start crying about Jesus and what he’s done in coming to earth. Nor do you have to start crying about children in poverty.

But what I am saying is, that if the message of the Bible hasn’t impacted your heart and your emotions in some way, I’m not sure it’s impacted you properly at all.

This is not anti-intellectualism. I’m all for wit and passion co-existing. I’m just saying that if it’s all in your head, it’s a cold, cold faith.

Love came down at Christmas Time so another song says and it’s true.

In high school, I was the geography girl. I didn’t talk about it that much but I was rather focused on making poverty history and how we could feed those living in famine.

I know I was because I still have a book that my mother gave me around the middle of high school. It’s called “How to Make the World Less Hungry”.

One of the pages quotes the Scripture that Jesus quoted when he began his ministry to identify who he was, as God come into the world.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

We have enough food on this planet to feed everyone. We just stuff ourselves in the developed world with more than we need.

Ask anyone who fasts. They know it’s true.

Maybe Bob Geldof was onto something.

Maybe Christmas, when Jesus arrives is more connected to the poor being released from poverty than we usually acknowledge. Yes, what Jesus has done is so much more but let’s not remove part of the package deal under the guise of intellectualism.

Yours with a world outside her window,

Alison