Ep. 1105: What is the True Spirit of Christimas?

When we talk about the “spirit” of something, we are trying to describe what that something was intended to look like or result in.  Let’s take the spirit of a law.  Whatever that law may be interpreted as meaning, or however it might be applied, needs to be checked against what the law was actually intended to allow. It is far too easy to have a personal agenda and take the words of that law, rationalizing them into fitting what we want them to mean.  This is an unfortunate result of selfish thinking.  The same is true with Christmas.  The lights, the movies, the decorations, gifts, fanfare and food all tend to take away from the simplicity of the true spirit of Christmas.  So, what is the true intention of the Christmas holiday, and how do we pay our highest respect to it?