By KABS KANU :
JINGLE BELLS, JANGLED NERVES
Christmas has come and gone, showing that nothing lasts forever . However sweet or sour, all things ultimately come to an end. All the sweetness , joy, ecstasy and materialism of Christmas have passed .
What is left now are the jangled nerves —-how to face the heavy bills incurred through the wild Christmas binge . That is why January is the most difficult month in the calendar.Christmas leaves big holes in the pocket , and January is a very long month.
But it is all a cycle—A time of merriment and a time for tough times .That is what life is all about.
Moderation is advised during Christmas.
However , as I was telling somebody this morning, we need Christmas. Firstly, we need to celebrate the birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whether he was born on December 25 or not. Jesus Christ deserves to be celebrated, though not the way we see it being done during Christmas. We must never forget that Christmas is about Jesus Christ and he does not endorse the materialism, mercantilism, mindless revelry and licentiousness that often go with the festive season.
Secondly, due to the stress in this world and the nastiness of the attitudes of people, we need a time of goodwill like the Christmas Season when people have a break from these problems and bask in the love, goodwill, sweet feelings, sweet attitudes of others and the ecstasy provided by delicious Christmas carols, wholesome Christmas festivities and sharing of gifts.
Christmas demonstrates the goodness that is inherent in man . Christmas shows that the being God created with dust and breathed in his nostrills is inherently good. It was the fall of man at the Garden of Eden when the nature of the Devil entered man that evil came into the world.
Let us strive to maintain the goodwill and love of Christmas throughout the year through the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who can plant these virtues in our hearts if we accept him as Lord and Saviour . The world would be an enjoyable place if men and women carried over the goodwill of Christmas into ordinary life throughout the year. Then, there would be nothing of the malice, envy and jealousy that is virtually eating up some of our people and even Americans.
The other reality we must face is that after all the jingle bells comes jangled nerves, especially if we went overboard in our celebrations. Those who overspent must now face the consequences . Telephone calls to the diaspora for economic bail outs will definitely become an unavoidable feature of January. For those who lost their powers of restraint during the celebrations and overindulged in sex, the time for regret will come with unwanted pregnancies .
Lives were lost in road accidents and other mishaps caused by drunkenness and lack of caution and dropping of guard through alcoholism.
Christmas comes but once a year but if only the message of moderation was heeded and if only people did not remove Jesus Christ from the celebrations , there would have been no cause for jangled nerves after the festivities . But that is life too. There are consequences. Whatever we sow, that we shall reap.
May God help you surmount your difficulties in 2017.
