In the last year there has been a style of commercial replicated by many people. Recently, some of you might have seen the Starbucks vote campaign.

I had a good friend of mine record some original music so that I could replicate this myself. I’m likely a few months out from implementing it. My mother-in-law just sent me an email tipping me off to an organization using the same creative marketing style for good (Water in Sudan) with a Christmas spin to it.

The message is nothing new. You’ve likely been bombarded by something with this message nearly every year. Are you fatigued by it? I often wonder how much I might be helping to induce something we have come to call ‘compassion fatigue’ in the non-profit world. We’re all asked to give financially year ’round now to the hurricane disaster, the AIDs outbreak, Red Cross, Church tithe, war in Darfur (Sudan), Good Will, Salvation Army and then of course, us. My generation is basically built on this idea of social compassion. We’ve just elected Obama, will he ‘save’ us all? The Kenyans here seem to think so. And I know my generation is clinging to the hope that Obama will be our social savior. A Kenyan, of all people, just reminded me yesterday that when we put our hope in man, he will always fail us.

So this Christmas, lets put all of that out of our minds and do something we REALLY rarely do. That is, to listen for God’s direction.