Skip to main content

Holiday Blues

 


I admit that the “Most Wonderful Time of Year,” feels less wonderful with each year. Part of this is the corporate Christmas creep that doesn’t let Holloween happen before busting out the tinsel and trees. It use to be stores did not prepare for Xmas till after Thanksgiving, beginning with Black Friday sales, well I can testify my department store already has black friday sales… 


I feel like Cindy Lou Who, singing “Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you

Why have you gone away

Where is the laughter

You used to bring me

Why can't I hear music play

My world is changing

I'm rearranging

Does that mean Christmas changes too

Where are you Christmas

Do you remember

The one you used to know

I'm not the same one

See what the time's done

Is that why you have let me go, oh.” (How The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Ron Howard Film, 2000). The song does not end on that melancholic and depressing note, nor does the Grinch story, but I find myself stuck in those lines more and more each year, unable to get to Scrooge’s “Merry Christmas!” epiphany at the end of A Christmas Carol. I sometimes wonder if its just me.. but if the song of Cindy Lou was written, then somebody somewhere has felt as I do. 


I do not hate Christmas. As a Christian that is not even feasible. But I feel that the holiday and myself are not in line as we once were. Perhaps its age, as children Christmas is magical, like a genie mixed with candy and toys, and snowflakes and pretty lights! Then as you get older, the chill of the season is more bitterly felt, you watch as sales not The Savior are what matters. I am sure in some small towns Xmas has that old timey feel and they all gather to go wassailing and preform Parranda, knocking on doors and leading the neighborhood in carols to the Portican hall to have a grand potluck (buffet of food, each family brings a dish) and dance! If I was part of those traditions, I probably would have the Christmas Spirit. Instead I feel like a Polar Bear, standing in a grove of dead trees, holding icicle wondering if I am cursed to feel this way every Xmas! 


I do not want to bum anyone out for the Season. I just want to be honest that I have holiday blues, and please pray for me. My once close family is dispersed for the first Christmas ever, and I am sure that is part of it, that we all are far away living new separate lives. But I did feel this way last year and the year before, when this was not the case. 


If you feel joy about this season, ignore this post. But for those willing to mourn with me, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn,” (Romans 12:15), please comment in the comment section or pray for me, I may post & preach, but I am not beyond need. Amen. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Israel’s Conquest of Canaan: The Nephilim and Giants

  Christianity Today asserts that the conquest of Canaan can be a “stumbling block” for believers. This probably is because of a foolish idea of comparing it to a modern conquest happening in our world. The truth is that God had Israel conquer Canaan because it was ruled by evil giants, “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:33). These are Anakim or Nephilim, the children of angels and human women, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (angels) saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These w

Dispensationalism

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was a man who did two things, he took 70th week of the Book of Daniel and stretched out to the End Times, and he was the father of  Dispensationalism , a belief system that God dispenses different peoples with separate blessings and covenants. According to Darb'ys doctrine of Dispensationalism, God dispenses different covenants. There are total of seven dispensations that divide the history of man: I. Dispensation of Innocence (prior to the Fall, "Do not east of the Fruit of Good and Eve, Eden), II. Dispensation of Conscience ( You must assuage guilt and sin with blood sacrifices.) III. Dispensation of Human Government (Multiply and Subdue the world, example the Tower of Babel Gen 11:1-9, and Genesis 1:28). IV. Dispensation of the Promise (Dwell in Canaan, Jerusalem) V. Dispensation of the Law ("Obey the Law of Moses and the Prophets"). VI. Dispensation of Grace (The Church, Jesus Christ has come and died for our sins an

Jesus’ Name in Aramaic

There has been a trend to render Jesus’ name Hebrew, יֵשׁוּעַ , Yeshua. The problem is neither Christ nor his apostles, nor the Jews in 30-33 A.D. spoke Hebrew, they spoke Aramaic. A ramaic is the oldest language on earth and was the language Jesus spoke. In fact, the oldest Old Testament is the Septuagint a Greco translation around 132 B.C.E. (165 Years Before Christ)that was translated from Aramaic. The Masoretic Text, The Hebrew Old Testament most Bibles use, dates from 7th to 10th Century A.D. (Medieval Times).  This translation does not cross reference with the words of Christ in the New Testament which are Aramaic and Koine Greek.  If the Aramaic was what Jesus spoke, then by what name would have been called? Jesus’ name in Aramaic is Isho or Eesho, spelled ܝܫܘܥ . That is the name of our Lord in Aramaic! He would have heard his name in this dialect, “Hail Isho or Eesho!” as well as the Greek, Ἰ ησο ῦ ς , Iesous.  Aramaic is disappearing, only a few people are endeavo