Merry Christmas to you all, but don’t do things as world coming to an end

This is the last but one entry this year. Oh! I’m making this statement on the presumption that God will be gracious and keep me alive and strong enough to be able to write again before the close of 2018. It is my prayer that He who has been so gracious to me and family during the past 12 months will continue to grant me the desires of my heart and meet me in my point of need.

So, what would be the best message to all of you my followers in this last but one article in the year? I’ve just remembered that there is Christmas in between today and the end of 2018. I think it will be in order to start by wishing you all a merry Christmas!!

A few warning tips would be in order, though. With the merry-making that goes with Christmas—drinking and driving—as if the world will end tomorrow, watch out for accidents that may happen because of other people’s recklessness. Don’t get too excited with the happenings of the season. You have been here before. Plan well, for the security of your property—mobile or stationary—and dependents. Keep travelling to distant places to a minimum—if you can, as this would tend to leave your premises and other property at home unattended but also expose you to the mayhem on the country’s roads which are death traps in the last five years alone over 8 000 people died on the roads of Malawi. That means 1 600 souls per year! That is too much.

Also ensure your home is well lit. If you live in town and depend on electricity for your cooking and lighting, ensure you have backup lighting system for your premises this season. Escom and Egenco claim they have increased generation and distribution, respectively. But don’t trust them. Above everything else, don’t do things as if the world is coming to an end tomorrow.

I don’t intend to be patronising on you, or to moralise, but if you are a Christian and believe that Jesus Christ is your Saviour—slow down, and clear out some internal junk to make room for him. Open the doors of your soul and say, “Yes, Lord, I have room for you.” Look him in the eyes and roll out the red carpet—the VIP treatment—for him. Make him the preferred guest in your heart and home. You are wise to create room for the greatest gift of Christmas to be delivered. You are wise to make sure you don’t say, “Jesus, I don’t have room for you.”

You can reflect on 2018. A lot happened on many fronts: political—parties holding conventions and primaries, talk about electoral alliances, et cetera, the Malawi Electoral Commission holding the voter registration exercise, the heated debate about the loss and recovery of the biometric voter registration kit found in Mozambique—and on the economic front—the electricity tariffs and fuel prices going up, inflation hitting the double digits again. Think of how they affected you and how you can make 2019 better, as it promises to be busier and not less chaotic than 2018. What with the elections of course.

But all that should not crowd out your mind from what you ought to be doing during this Christmas period. Many will be busy chasing everything in their sight, ‘making merry’ of course, ati kudzipepesa but they will just be spending and spending without reflecting on how their bank accounts will be replenished. Think about your sources of income and what will remain out of it when the Christmas bustle is gone and the long and slow month of January with all its demands, if you are like me, school fees and the like—sets in.

But all said, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Glad to have been together in 2018

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