I’m about to make some people mad.

But I can’t take it anymore.

Black Friday. Let’s talk about it.

Last year, I wrote a brief post here on the blog about this but never posted it. I thought, maybe this is too much. It’s actually still sitting in my Drafts folder. But anyway…

Cue the violin. Yes, I want some cheese with my whine. Yadda yadda yadda.

I understand that people want to save money. I GET IT. Saving money is important. It’s essential for people like me. I understand the theory behind Black Friday. That is NOT what this post is about. I know many people who stood in lines on Thursday night to get good deals. If you did, I hope you got some great bargains and racked up on deals. That is, again, NOT what I’m talking about here. It’s about when this behavior becomes unhealthy, and actually dangerous.

Let me propose something to you. Let’s say, hypothetically, that a bunch of people go out (millions of them, at that), the very night following a day full of thanksgiving for the things and people in their lives. Their stomachs are full, but their desires for more – more stuff, more material possessions – are insatiable. These aren’t the casual shoppers who just want to get a good deal. These are the people who are willing to do ANYTHING to buy.

So they stand in lines at stores. They stand. They stand some more. They map out a plan of where they’re going first – what they’re BUYING first. They plot. They size up the competition. If you’ve ever been in one of these lines, you’ve seen these people.

Side note – at this point, we’ve got millions of people standing in line to see who can give their hard-earned money away to a company first and the fastest.

The doors open. Literally, all hell breaks loose. Innocent store employees who have been standing there nervously for hours are actually trampled. Pepper spray is used BY one shopper ON other shoppers – all entirely in an effort to spend money. To buy things. Things that will mean absolutely nothing to anyone in the near future. The people who just came to pick up one or two things are beaten into submission by the savage predators who wouldn’t even consider sparing your life for that USB flash drive for 99 cents.

Gunshots are fired. Seriously.

People are trampled. To death.

Lives are lost so that people can throw their money down the proverbial toilet.

As a Christian, this bothers me even more. Especially when I know that many of these people (dare I hazard to imply “the majority”) would profess to being followers of Jesus. To see people who treat the blessing God has given them so selfishly that they can have no regard for the very lives of others, literally makes me sick.

I’ve never been a person to judge. I don’t believe I have that right or that responsibility. Frankly, I’m thankful for that. What I do have is a sickening feeling in my stomach, because as I have been sitting here at my kitchen table typing this post, I have heard three separate reports of incredible violence on Black Friday in retail establishments on the nearby television. Even the news stations seem to be treating it as “sport.”

I pray that one day, we would all realize that all of this “stuff,” all of these material possessions that culture shoves down our throat every Black Friday, will eventually be nothing more than a pile of useless crap somewhere. Maybe then we’d hold the lives of others in higher regard.

Black Friday has become one of the biggest “black” eyes to our culture as we know it. All because of the appetites, and willingness to do whatever it takes to feed them, of some people.

I’m sure I’ll be out with my wife, standing in Black Friday lines for years to come. One last time, this isn’t what I’m talking about. Please hear my heart on this. My heart is for people. How do you explain to a child that their mom or dad isn’t around anymore because they got trampled by people wanting to buy 60″ LED TVs? I wouldn’t even be able to watch that 60″ LED TV with that on my conscience.