Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

A Festive Message

It’s Christmas again. The in-laws have arrived, we have put out the same dysfunctional lights and the tree fell over again – just as it did last Christmas. Most of us will have consumed pretty much the same food and drink as last year and received the same glittering array of socks and pants. Just as we have in the past three years, my family started our festive season by sitting for hours in the cinema enjoying a Lord of the Rings film. (I only cried twice which is something of an achievement, as I have been known to blub at emotional moments in Neighbours.)

We all tend to do return to well worn paths at this time of year, and there is something reassuring about tradition. Long may it last!

But does that mean that nothing has changed out there in this hurly-burly world of ours?
Hardly. This year has seen momentous changes: the toppling of a dictator; great rifts in the International consensus and significant political change in our own nation. We have even witnessed a tremendous world cup victory by England! Many families will have experienced change, maybe through new birth or sadly through illness, another kind of life-shock or even the death of a loved one. Change is swirling all around us everyday, sometimes knocking on our door at the most unexpected time.

So maybe, in the midst of our traditional festive patterns, it is a good time to think about what changes we would like to make to our own lives. I just drove past a road sign proclaiming “Changed Priorities Ahead” – maybe that is not such a bad slogan for us to ponder as we pick through the turkey carcass. Someone once calculated that we all spend most of our time focussing on the urgent rather than the important; responding to events, rather than shaping them. So young or old, single or married, let me throw you a festive challenge:

What would you like to change about your life next year? What are you going to do about it?
After all, the whole point of the Christmas story is that God intervened and introduced into human existence a baby who was to change the world forever. Love him, hate him, believe in him or ignore him, you cannot deny the impact that the baby born in a smelly stable has had on the entire world.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

posted by Nigel on Monday, January 05, 2004