Story of the Day for Friday November 29, 2013
Black Friday
You covet but cannot get it, so you fight and quarrel.
James 4:2
The Falkland Islands: mostly desolate, windswept chunks of rock, became the prize of war in 1982, when the British fought Argentina for possession of them. Argentine Nobel Prize winner Jorge Luis Borges thought the two warring parties were “like two bald men fighting over a comb.”
But we start young, and no one has to teach us to act this way. How many times have you watched little kids squabble over a toy, and once the “winner” gets the prize, he doesn’t want it? The “loser” has found another toy, and now the fight begins over the new toy they both want.
The busiest shopping day of the year is called Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season.
The shoppers were already lining up for Black Friday on the evening of Thanksgiving Day. The parking lot at a Wal-Mart on Long Island was crammed with about 2000 shoppers waiting for the doors to open at 5 a.m.
The shoppers couldn’t wait. A chant broke out, “Push the doors in!” and then about 200 shoppers jumped the barricades and smashed the doors off the hinges as they rushed into the store.
Store employees tried to form a human chain to slow down the rush, but they were trampled. Several people were injured, and one employee, JdimytaiDamour, was stampeded to death.
A voice blared over the intercom announcing that the store was closing – that a man had just been killed. Many greeted the announcement with scorn and continued shopping.
They were looking for bargains.
For some reason, I desperately want to think of greed as “other people’s” problem. In a sick sort of way, this story of the Black Friday Stampede comforts me with the notion that, at least, I’m not so greedy as to trample somebody to find a bargain.
Or am I? Did I ever squabble with another toddler for ownership of a toy – only to neglect it as soon as I saw that my rival was interested in another toy? You can civilize greed through good manners, but you’re only mowing dandelions. The roots still thrive.
When I reflect on Jesus, suspended by spikes to the wood beam, I am renewed in two ways. First, I find the cleansing of this One who hates greed, yet loves greedy people enough to pay the price himself for their avarice. He’s not out to get, but to give.
And, in this, he also shows me that my manners only mask my greedy heart, but his sacrificial generosity is showing a higher way.
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
(copyright 2012 by climbinghigher.org and by Marty Kaarre)
(image: http://blog.vtheaterboxoffice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Black_Friday_Shopping_lines.jpg)
Story of the Day--climbinghigher 
