It's Christmas!

0:06 Hi, hi, hi, hi. Merry Christmas.

0:11 Of course, I have to start with that.

0:14 Merry Christmas. Like yay, Jesus was born, glory

0:19 to God, Hallelujah. First off, I know normally I

0:24 read this episode on Fridays, but then I have to make an

0:27 exception like today's Thursday is Christmas.

0:30 So let me just read this episode today and of course Tips is

0:33 about Christmas, but it begs to ask the question what is

0:38 Christmas about? So I did this thing where I went

0:43 to my status and asked people just give me the first 3 words

0:47 or things that they associate with Christmas.

0:50 Like when you think of Christmas, what are the first

0:53 three things that come to your mind essentially.

0:56 And I had a myriad of different opinions or things that people

1:01 are to say. Some, some people said Christ,

1:04 some people said Jesus, some said God, which is nice,

1:07 expected, good, you know, that's good.

1:09 So we will say someone said, where's the chicken?

1:13 And that person was like, oh, there's joy, there's hope and

1:15 the food and the loving families.

1:17 And that person said workload, family, food.

1:20 And that person was like Jesus gathering, feasting.

1:24 Someone said Hallmark movies I could release because some days

1:27 back I watched Home Alone 1 and it was just love like UAE.

1:31 The nostalgia was off the roof. Took me back to the kudo days,

1:36 not like today. These days are bad but I hope

1:39 you get it. Someone said cooking work stress

1:42 and I really sympathize with this person.

1:46 I figured a lot of people who are probably first borns will

1:50 probably be able to relate to a certain amount of stress in this

1:52 period anyway, depending on the household that you come from or

1:55 how things are done or whatever traditions you have during

1:59 Christmas or festive seasons. So someone else has chicken,

2:04 that kind of thing. I'm surprised what he said.

2:06 Father Christmas, maybe it's 'cause there's no really young

2:08 person or it's not as common anymore, but I don't know.

2:13 But the point is there are so many things that we associate

2:16 Christmas with so many things. Rice and oil.

2:19 I literally workplaces and my workplace, I collected my rice

2:23 and oil and it was very, very stressful getting at home ball

2:26 Anyway. So a lot of people of course

2:28 think of Christmas and they think oh, rice and oil.

2:31 A lot of people think of Christmas season and they think

2:34 couples in matching P GS. I am part of those people that

2:37 think about it like I will not even lie.

2:39 I love the idea. I love it.

2:41 Something I probably want to do my partner one day, God willing.

2:45 Anyway, I'll talk about a friend of mine who is like, oh, Jesus

2:49 will come for that time isn't bother about that, but I'll be

2:51 petty even though I already talked about it.

2:55 Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that there are so

2:58 many things that are associated with Christmas and because that

3:02 it's so easy to forget the actual reason for Christmas.

3:07 Now some people will say Oh well a Pagan holiday was this was it

3:11 that honestly speaking, I don't care and you shouldn't too.

3:16 It's not one of the core tenets of the Christian faith.

3:19 It does not affect the data of Christ.

3:21 It does not affect the data of the Spirit, does not affect the

3:25 Trinity. He does not contradict Jesus

3:28 physical birth, him coming down to I don't know, I don't like

3:32 this. I don't I don't see, I think

3:34 some people just want to just most of people that usually say

3:36 this is they probably have an issue or a bone to pick.

3:40 I don't know if that's the right term, if that's the right idiom.

3:45 I can't remember, but they basically have an agenda.

3:48 I hope you understand that one that they want to push forward

3:50 and stuff like that. They're not saying that or maybe

3:52 genuine concern or things like that.

3:55 So I really don't or some people say, oh, the Christmas tree was

3:59 something that was used in cults of idolism.

4:03 Honestly speaking, again, I don't care.

4:04 I think it's even a wonderful thing how we can take some of

4:07 these things that were used to glorify God knows words and

4:12 symbolize it or bring it to a Christian town.

4:17 But the point is, Christmas is supposed to be about celebrating

4:21 the birth of Jesus. And we see so many times, maybe

4:24 on a person's birthday they can't have their birthday

4:27 celebration that day. They decide OK maybe two days

4:30 later or a week after when all of my friends and family can

4:33 gather together, we'll have my birthday celebration.

4:35 Or maybe a family gives birth to two kids and their birthdays are

4:38 close inside to just celebrate their birthday.

4:41 Have a birthday party on one day, not on 2 separate days.

4:46 So I don't think all celebrating on the 25th really does always

4:50 such a bad thing. The idea is just we pick a day

4:52 to celebrate and honour the birth of our Lord and serious, I

4:57 think that's such a beautiful thing.

4:59 And so there's this thing, I think it's common to Nigerian

5:03 parties or Nigerian birthdays. I don't know if it's a worldwide

5:06 thing. You can let me know how it goes

5:08 from your side or from your own end.

5:11 So there's this thing where it's the person's birthday and then

5:15 you walk up to the person, so many good, best, oh, happy

5:18 birthday. What do you have for us?

5:19 What do you have for us? What are we going to get and

5:22 things like that. And I don't know, I think it's a

5:24 bad habit or a bad mindset that we have.

5:27 If you're someone that's like this, I promise I'm not trying

5:29 to make you feel judged or put you on the spot, but I just

5:32 think it's not the best. Like you probably want to think,

5:35 OK, what can I do for this person?

5:36 How can I make this person's birthday nice?

5:39 What can I do to honour them or to make them happy?

5:42 Well, then most times it's like, oh, what can we get?

5:44 What are you sharing? What do you have for us?

5:47 And stuff like, and I'm just like, I don't know, it's a bit,

5:50 it's a bit off. It's a bit off.

5:53 And so with Jesus birthday or with Christmas, it's like, OK,

5:57 in a bit to celebrate Jesus birthday.

5:59 They share stuff with people, you know, like Jesus Christ was

6:02 born. It's a cause to celebrate.

6:04 And so we also celebrate, which is not a bad thing.

6:06 I think where it's now a bit off is when people now begin to

6:11 leverage and OK, like this is a season where we can get a lot of

6:13 free stuff. And then you just forget about

6:15 the actual reason for the season.

6:16 So they are going around, they are collecting the rice, the

6:18 oil. Again, not a bad thing.

6:21 I definitely will not tell you that food is a bad thing.

6:23 Sometimes I eat food and I'm like, glory to God, God most

6:25 exists. This did not happen by mistake.

6:28 But you know, so many people get so many things go here, oh, are

6:31 you not going to do Christmas for me and stuff like that.

6:34 And then they forget the actual reason for the season.

6:37 And then there's the other end of the people who are actually

6:39 doing the good things. You know, there's a story of

6:41 Miriam, Martha in the Bible. Martha is walking so much that

6:44 she forgets to sit at the feet of Jesus and say, it's so

6:47 possible that you do so many things for so many people in

6:49 this Christmas season, but you don't actually talk to the

6:52 birthday celebrants. The actual birthday celebrants

6:58 is that country where you could go for a birthday party.

7:01 Maybe it's a one year old. It's you too because the one

7:03 year old cannot do much after a while when they start playing

7:06 games. Like the one year old is just

7:08 sitting down in one place, maybe watching from a comfortable

7:10 place because you don't want to have to get injured or things

7:13 like that. You know what, maybe it's even a

7:15 bigger party. Maybe it's even for someone

7:16 that's even older. But simply because it's such a

7:19 big party, so many things are going at the same time.

7:21 It's so possible for you to even be at the party and not have

7:24 contact with the baby celebrant or not talk to the baby

7:26 celebrant. And some people actually go or

7:28 such a birthday party, they will call it their pack or whatever

7:31 food that should and not even think, OK, what can I give the

7:34 birthday celebrants? And so it's very, very possible

7:38 that this happens with Christmas like so many times with us.

7:41 I saw someone post something about Christmas like plan for

7:43 Christmas was simply to sleep eats, sleep eats, I think watch

7:49 a movie or something like that. That's another thing that a lot

7:50 of people symbolize with Christmas like room comes.

7:53 I won't even lie, like I love some of them as well.

7:56 Christmas room comes, you know, like Christmas miracle with that

7:59 kind of thing. And so there are so many things

8:02 that we will do that we forget to actually celebrate and honor

8:05 the birthday celebrant. And maybe you've not forgotten

8:08 or you don't forget. I think that's lovely.

8:09 I think that's great. I think you should keep it up.

8:11 The message I basically want to pass to you is this, Don't

8:14 forget to celebrate the birthday celebrant throughout the day.

8:18 Maybe you want to be very, very intentional about this or pick

8:21 out a time. Pick out something that you can

8:23 do to actually let the birthday celebrant know that you are

8:26 happy he was born. You are happy that He came here

8:29 in flesh to dwell with us. He came here to do such a

8:33 wonderful work that set us free. What I means setting out time to

8:38 intentionally worship him. What I means praying.

8:40 Whatever it is that you want to do, just ensure that you do

8:44 something. Just ensure that you celebrate

8:46 him. You don't just celebrate the

8:48 season. You don't just celebrate with

8:50 family. Celebrate the actual celebrants.

8:53 So I think that's pretty much it's, again, it's not a long

8:57 episode. I didn't think I was going to

8:58 say much. I think I just wanted to just

9:00 say something as regards the whole Christmas topic.

9:05 I hope you like the episode and it was short, but I hope you

9:07 enjoyed it. But more than that, I hope you

9:10 enjoy Christmas. Like I really hope that you

9:12 enjoy Christmas. I'm currently not even at home.

9:14 I'm at my cousin's place with his wonderful family.

9:16 So I think it's going to be a world of good being away from

9:20 the house or mostly a week from work to God for that.

9:25 Well, yeah, take care of yourself.

9:28 Merry Christmas once again, stay with it.

9:31 Bye.