Thursday, December 19, 2013

Make Christmas special ..SPEND LESS

An extract from my Christmas Thought for the day!

                                Well I reckon the world about now basically falls into two camps. On the one hand there are the people, like my wife, who just cannot stop singing little Christmas ditties. They bounce through December with an ever increasing sense of joy and excitement, I love em. On the other hand there are those for whom the turnaround at the end of Dickens’ famous tale is a travesty… Scrooge was right all along… Bah Humbug!  Now by and large I’d like to think I don’t fall into that second category, but when they’re casting for Dickens’ tale I do get twitchy … oh no they’re offering me the lead role again.


                                It’s not that I don’t like Christmas, I do, I love all the lights coming on even the gaudy ones, I love the singing, I must admit I tire of mince pies after about 10, but what really sets the scrooge amongst my pigeons is the shopping and the advertisements.  I want to shout from the rooftops… STOP shopping CHRISTMAS IS FREE. For the truth is the things that really make Christmas are free. The chance to see family, time to go for a walk, a children’s nativity play, community carol singing and dare I say it all the church celebrations these are all free: I don’t even mind if you come along and put no money  in the collection! We are getting to the point as a society where people can’t afford Christmas, it’s ridiculous. Well think again remember the first Christmas every expense spared a night in a stable, a bed of straw, and yet I truly believe Joy to the world. So there’s my thought for Christmas, make it special again and spend a bit less and enjoy a bit more. 

Friday, December 6, 2013

Enough is Enough

Text below from my Radio Bristol thought for today:              

  I’ve simply had enough of Christmas adverts? There are certain times of year when I really notice a massive disconnect between the ways of society, of which we are all a part and the message that I proclaim as part of my calling as a Christian.  Funnily enough Christmas is one of those times.  I announce week after week the message the angels brought to the agrarian night-watchmen: “you will find this babe wrapped in cloth and lying in a feeding tough.” Yet our Christmas has become a feeding frenzy of opulence and overindulgence, which many of us simply can’t afford.  Now please don’t get me wrong, I am no scrooge puritan humbug, any excuse for a party me, I love good food and I certainly enjoy a drink or two.  However, as the old drink driving campaign said: know your limits! Enough is enough.
                
Nelson Mandela also in a very different way realised enough was enough. He knew a system where people were judged by their colour and not by their personality was a perversion of reality. When he, along with many others, made his stand he liberated many white people along with bringing dignity and grace to those who in South Africa had become the underside of society.  Every person whether black ,white or coloured is of equal value and should be afforded equal dignity and rights.  I’m personally glad that he and others had had enough, that he was courageous enough to make his stand.

                So that is my thought for today, if you’ve had enough of something, especially if it’s something that robs others or yourself of dignity, make sure you too make your stand. Mandela proved that if together we stand for what’s right, the whole world really can change.