keep the Christ.

    I have stumbled across something the last few days that really bothered me. Now before I tell you what it was, I feel I need to give you a little background about myself.

   I am a Christian, I was raised a Catholic until something happened (not exactly sure what) with my parents and the church. Some kind of misunderstanding. My mother stopped going to church when I was seven years old. I was no longer required to go as well.  Yay!!! For a seven year old kid that was cool right? I had a choice!
    I stayed away from any churches until I was thirteen and was living in Sicily, (Navy Brat). While there I used to go to the church services in the community center in the housing area where we lived. I even became an altar boy.  When we moved from the housing area and lived "In Town" I stopped going to services but would often find myself sitting in the small cathedral (more of an ornate church) embracing the silence. Sitting in the comfort of God's house, no words necessary to reflect, to heal, to cry and release. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved where I lived and all the amazing people surrounding me, I just felt a little lost. It was one of the happiest times of my life but it also ended up being the most sheltered time of my life. The point I think I am trying to make is although I wasn't attending a church I never lost my faith in Jesus, just in the church.
  It took more than twenty years for me to cross the threshold of a church for the purpose of worship again and I'm happy to have found a place where my family and I can share our faith. We can grow together.
   That being said, I still tend to think of myself as a new christian. I have a lot to learn and a long way to go. I still have a few of those old catholic chains to break, One day I will be comfortable praying out loud, (Shhhh...you're in a church..) and one day I will be able to belt out a prayer that has not been preprinted and memorized without stammering and stuttering or thinking I sound silly. Where I was once Catholic I have learned to let go of the guilt and become a Christian. I will happily give up doing the "God Calisthenics" ( sit..stand...kneel...pray...sit...stand...kneel), but I must admit it will take me some time to get used to the "PDA for Jesus" (Public Display of Affection). I may tear up, and bow my head but bear with me if I don't raise up my hands or sing out loudly, still breaking those chains.
    Which brings me to my my little peeve. I feel like the best way to learn something is through observation of others who have been doing something longer than I myself have been doing it. I have always had a problem with the use of  "X"  in the place where "Christ" should be in the word Christmas (X-Mas). Throughout my childhood  "X-mas" would pop up during the holiday season and I would just brush it off  knowing it was just a person with a different belief system and lets face it the world was a little less politically correct back then. Now they just say Happy Holidays. I thought the politically correct world we currently live in was finally going to be the death of the "X" but then came the cyber realm. Texting , Twitter, and other social networks with their limited number of characters have brought the "X" back out to replace Christ once again. Leaving a whole new generation behind to remove "Christ"  (from Christian) and casually replace it with "X" ( Xian). I'm sorry, as far as I know Xian is the area in China where they found all of the terra cotta Warriors, and although I'm sure Jesus can be found in a remote province in China I don't think it is an adequate replacement for the word Christian. The saddest part to me is that it is Christians who are taking this shortcut in the hopes of saving their character spaces so they get their full message out in 140 characters or less. The question I have is are they REALLY getting the message out or are they sending another message by so casually omitting "Christ"?
     I look up to all of my friends, and as a newer christian I will learn from you by following your example.  I love you all, but this is one example I can not follow. I totally understand why it is being done, and I am not judging you but rather expressing concern. It seems to me there are plenty of other words that can be shortened  to get your message out with out undermining the message itself.

   All I ask is that we keep the Christ in Christian.