break out your ladders and hammers and take down your Nativity sets.
Get that dainty mouse-squeak out of your voice.
You can stop pondering how nice you should be to people during this "season".
Stop acting.
You don't have to do this for ten and a half more months. It's okay, you can stop. No one's looking anymore.
Oh, wait. You still carry this through two more days, so you can put that same ridiculous, cheery expression on your face to express some nonsense about the flip of the calendar.
(If you think this is harsh, answer this question: why do people mindlessly do and say what society, and church, tell them to?)
What are you going to do? Wish people their "best year ever" in 2007? Are you going to pseudo-spiritualize it and tell people that is your prayer for them? Oh, that is so sweet...
How come no one wishes others that God puts them through the ringer in the coming year?
How come no one wishes hardship, difficulty and pain, which are God's fingerprints upon people that they are real and not bastardized children of His? (Hebrews 12:5-11)
Are you wishing and praying blessing for people in '07?
Good. Praying for blessing means you are praying they will be broken and poor (Matthew 5:3), that they might truly cling to F/S/HS for their every breath.
Good. That means you are praying people will mourn (Matthew 5:4), for through that comes the comfort of the Holy Spirit, rather than the comfort of air conditioning, cable tv and a lounge couch.
Good. That means you are praying people get screwed (Matthew 5:6), so that they might passionately cling to God for mercy and life, instead of living as if they are entitled to pothole-free living, and/or being treated fairly and nicely (and, of course, abundantly) as "children of God".
Your wishes mean people might actually begin to grow up some this next year (James 1).
Oh. You didn't mean it like that...
You mean it in a "God, make life a fluffy cream puff" kind of way.
Boy, have you got a lot to learn.
It's going to take a good bit of deprogramming and detoxing from the Kool Aid you have unknowingly ingested, fed to you by American Churchdom and American culture.
2 comments:
Hey John,
Thanks for dropping by my blog!
So... a heavy way to start the New Year. Yes, Christmas is a time of great hypocrisy and few people stop to think about spiritual matters. The Nintendo Wii seems to have had more success than Jesus.
And yet, social conventions mean that if somebody wishes you a Happy New Year you have to reciprocate or you are thought to be a curmudgeon.
Why do we have to have Christmas spirit (i.e. generosity and kindness) only at Christmas? Why can't it be all year round?
yeah, turning it on and off like a faucet is quite pathetic.
Funny how so many embrace Jesus' scalding actors and pretenders, and yet put on the soupy sappy pretending for a month and a half.
Post a Comment