Imagine it's Christmas Day in 2025. Or 2030, 2040, or even the year 2099. It's snowing outside, or it's blazing hot, depending on where you are in the world. You wake up, yawning while you're trying to open your eyes. You're trying to figure out what day it is, and then you realize... it's Christmas Day!
Two scenarios play through your head.
It's a jolly day ahead. Depending on where you live and what cultural group you belong to, you are either going to spend the day inside with family because it's snowing or you're going to spend it outside behind the grill and by the poolside. This day will be filled with laughter or irritation because of family or friends who just don't want to be jolly but make it difficult for everyone. But you bite your lower lip to keep your mouth shut, smile, and try to enjoy the day with the others who are jolly with you.
Still in bed, thinking about the day ahead, your face lights up and a smile is forming on the lower part of your face. Presents! Parents! Party! The three "P's" are coming to town and it's going to be a wonderful day!
The other scenario is a bit gloomy.
Today is a normal working day for you. You either work in retail, the restaurant industry, or the medical or emergency field. This year you were either asked to work because you got to have Christmas Day off last year, or you never get Christmas Day off because your boss in the retail or restaurant industry never closes on Christmas Day. This is what a family member and I encountered on Boxing Day when we visited a restaurant.
My family and I have the privilege of not working on Christmas Day, and we thus make a decision to stay at home and not visit any store or restaurant on Christmas Day because then we make sure that there's no business from our side. But as we visited a restaurant on Boxing Day, the waitress told us that they had to work the full day on Christmas Day and on said day. She told us how she longs to be with family on Christmas Day or even Boxing Day, having a BBQ with family and relaxing. My heart sank. I was immensely sad for her.
The word of God says that we will either serve the god Mammon or we will serve God (Matthew 6:24). Businesses that are not medical or emergency-related, open on a day like Christmas or even a Sunday, are serving Mammon. I know that many malls or shopping centers have rules these days, that businesses should be open on Christmas Day and Sundays, but if your God is God the Father who made heaven and earth, then this should not worry you. Because then God is your Provider, and you should not worry about money. He will provide.
But these days money is far more important to people than compassion for others. You might be someone who doesn't care to work on Christmas Day, but there are others who would love to spend it with their family or even just by themselves with a hot cup of chocolate or at the poolside. What happened to compassion or love rather than money? Money makes your heart hard, and love flies out of the window. Compassion, on the other hand, for others, makes that heart thump-thump again like the Grinch who felt it for the very first time.
Your people will work harder for you if you show some compassion. There will be those who don't appreciate your compassion and love as a boss, but there will be those few, and if you can make a difference by closing on Christmas Day, then you have won. Be different.
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