As Thanksgiving is upon us and the Christmas season is quickly approaching, I can’t help but take a look at the world around us.

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to spend time with my family and friends this holiday season, but there is so much brokenness in the world, I can’t help but feel a sharp pain. Syria is in shambles, Eastern Europe has become a battleground, Western Europe sits in terror after a slew of attacks this year, and even in our own country ideological divides rip apart bonds. Yet here I sit, my biggest problem being my college-prep school exams. So how do I balance awareness and activism? How do I make a difference, without being cliché?

To take a rabbit trail for an instant, my family has the incredible tradition of including those outside of our immediate family, in our Thanksgiving and even Christmas Day get-togethers. Not as a form of charity, a way to ease our materialistic consciousness’s, or promote our own sainthood, but merely because we love these people. We have deep relationships and bonds, so why not include them? So how does this connect to a bigger world picture?

I believe the number one solution to being a “social-activist” during the holiday season is not to be one. Our love for people should extend far past the bounds of a soup kitchen, Operation Christmas Child box, or Salvation Army donation. Let’s build relationships with those hurting around us. Christ died on the cross not only that our sins would be forgiven, but also that we would enter into relationship with the Father God. So as sons and daughters of the King, shouldn’t we desire the same? Yes, those small acts of kindness or volunteer service do make a HUGE difference, and cannot be neglected, but we cannot sacrifice the value of relationships at the hand of “social activism”.

Balancing volunteer work and relationship building, seems difficult on the surface, but when we fully realize the beauty in the love of the Father God, we can’t help but be relationship-builders. So this holiday season, let’s challenge ourselves and others to build relationships and we will change the world, one connection at a time.