To Regift, Or Not To Regift?

One of the "buzz-topics" that are floating around right now is "regifting". Over a recent three day period, I watched CNN Headline News, NBC's Today Show and FOX News Morning do stories about this apparently culture-shaping and newsworthy subject.

There are websites dedicated to the subject of regifting. The MSN Money, CBS and USNews websites have stories on regifting. Books and magazines are written about it. Help!

Has our culture become so materialistic that we need rules and etiquette to tell us what to do with the glut of gifts that we receive and give?

I am sure that you have heard this before: We give things we can't afford to people who don't need them, paid for with money we don't have.

So here's a creative thought for this time of year: How about giving things that matter to people who really need them? (Food, clothing and shelter to the hungry, poor and homeless.) Now that's regifting.

Nothing Fails Like Prayer

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that read "Nothing Fails Like Prayer". The message was pasted to the back of a new, foreign, well-appointed sports car being driven by a 50-ish man who from what I could tell appeared very successful (car, haircut, clothes, etc. - we were stopped in traffic and I was behind him, then beside him).

I wondered what would have prompted him to display such a message on his car. Had he been faced with a crisis and God didn't come through? Did he lose a child to an illness? Was he a war vet who spent time under torture?

What I concluded (without support - mere speculation) was that he was a self-made man who didn't need to call out to a "higher being" and who was able to solve all of his problems and meet all of his needs by himself.

At this point I began to feel sorry for the man because being in the self-assured position of "the top of the food chain" with no one to go to for help put him in a precarious position. Once a person gets to the point of complete independence from the need for a higher power, they set themselves up for a fall. If not in this life, then as they cross over to the next.

I am glad that I have the need for, and the confidence in the One to whom I pray. There's great security there. There's hope, as well as fulfillment, knowing that if I am seeking from One greater than me, He is in turn ready to respond to my needs. That's pretty cool.

You know, maybe the guy in the sports car simply had a scratch on his bumper and all he could find to cover it was the bumper sticker in question. Who knows?