THIS WEEK is the time to focus on Christmas.  It’s an interesting and conflicted time for modern Christians, because our society is telling to focus on buying, giving, rushing, and generally going crazy.

If you have a retail business, this is impossible to escape.  You’re going nuts with promotions, employee shifts, maybe bad weather … just holding on for dear life until things return to “normal” in 2014.

But for our salvation, this should be simple.  We want to focus on re-connecting with God bringing his presence into our world, interacting with us directly in human form, and bringing us to eternal life with Him.

Everything else is stuff we’ve layered on top.  Not for evil purposes, mind you, but it ends up taking us away from the essence.

As we move from Advent season into Christmas season, let us take time to be with our loved ones because it helps bring us all to salvation.  Let’s give because it reminds us of what we’re called to do every day of the year.

And let us resolve to grow compassion, joy, and holiness.

If it’s a part of our businesses, explicitly or implicitly, let’s resolve to also bring that to everyone we touch: employees, partners, and customers.